Earlier this month we attended an LDS week of Boy Scout training at Philmont in Cimarron, New Mexico. Several of the general Young Men leaders of the church from Salt Lake conducted the various sessions.
Philmont has 129,000 acres and is the largest youth camp in the world. They send out about 32,000 scouts each summer to 750 camping areas located in the vast area. There is a base camp for the boys with a mess hall and trading post. Across the road is the Training area for leaders and their families--which is where we stayed along with about 500 other people, including two families who are friends from Maryland.
We were met as we pulled up in our van (after 30+ hours of driving) by Brother Burgess, the 1st Counselor in the General Young Men's Presidency. We were assigned our tents--which are on concrete and have cots. Dave and I had a tent, and Julia and Andrea had one next to us.
Daniel left almost immediately for his backpacking trip with his crew of guys.
Daniel near our tent in South Tent City before leaving on his trip.
He was pretty loaded down with his gear as well as group items like pots and food.
I had been asked (by a phone call from the Young Men's Presidency), to be the Relief Society President for the week. I met my two counselors that day; Marsha from Utah and Annette from Arizona and we coordinated for our Sunday meeting.
Sunday morning we greeted about 100 women, and we each taught part of a scriptural lesson. The husbands in training are 'stake' leaders in our church and responsible for a large group of young men and scouts. Each of these women also seemed accomplished. Also in our group were some of the women general leaders or wives of general leaders in our church. It was an interesting experience for me to conduct that meeting.
Dave and I also got up at 6:30am most mornings for Choir practice and we performed at church later that day. The rest of Sunday was leisurely and we enjoyed the time as a family.
The church leaders, including Brother Dahlquist, General Young Men's President, then went up on the mountain to conduct church services with those away from base camp, including Daniel. Bro. Dahlquist asked for volunteers to speak and sing at their meeting. Daniel sang in a small group and --jumping ahead--when they came back Bro. Dahlquist told us that Daniel had a great tenor voice. (And he's right.)
Daniel, just off the mountain after 5 days of backpacking, gets a compliment from Bro. Dahlquist.
Philmont has 129,000 acres and is the largest youth camp in the world. They send out about 32,000 scouts each summer to 750 camping areas located in the vast area. There is a base camp for the boys with a mess hall and trading post. Across the road is the Training area for leaders and their families--which is where we stayed along with about 500 other people, including two families who are friends from Maryland.
We were met as we pulled up in our van (after 30+ hours of driving) by Brother Burgess, the 1st Counselor in the General Young Men's Presidency. We were assigned our tents--which are on concrete and have cots. Dave and I had a tent, and Julia and Andrea had one next to us.
Daniel left almost immediately for his backpacking trip with his crew of guys.
Daniel near our tent in South Tent City before leaving on his trip.He was pretty loaded down with his gear as well as group items like pots and food.
I had been asked (by a phone call from the Young Men's Presidency), to be the Relief Society President for the week. I met my two counselors that day; Marsha from Utah and Annette from Arizona and we coordinated for our Sunday meeting.
Sunday morning we greeted about 100 women, and we each taught part of a scriptural lesson. The husbands in training are 'stake' leaders in our church and responsible for a large group of young men and scouts. Each of these women also seemed accomplished. Also in our group were some of the women general leaders or wives of general leaders in our church. It was an interesting experience for me to conduct that meeting.
Dave and I also got up at 6:30am most mornings for Choir practice and we performed at church later that day. The rest of Sunday was leisurely and we enjoyed the time as a family.
The church leaders, including Brother Dahlquist, General Young Men's President, then went up on the mountain to conduct church services with those away from base camp, including Daniel. Bro. Dahlquist asked for volunteers to speak and sing at their meeting. Daniel sang in a small group and --jumping ahead--when they came back Bro. Dahlquist told us that Daniel had a great tenor voice. (And he's right.)
Daniel, just off the mountain after 5 days of backpacking, gets a compliment from Bro. Dahlquist.
3 comments:
Cool! My brother went to Philmont and really liked it. It looks really fun in an un-fun sort of way. :)
What an experience. How neat
Very, very cool. I may have to look up the Kit Carson museum next time I'm in New Mexico...
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