From Zac:
As many of you may know, the Teachers and Priests of the Chapel Hills ward recently went on our Super Activity High Adventure trip. With our three main activities, a mountain bike ride, white water rafting, and horseback riding, I realized that there are certain gospel principles that are demonstrated very well by our experiences.
We left for the bike ride on the first day, just after we arrived at our campsite. It was just before three o'clock, and we had figured that the twelve mile trip would take about three hours to ride, so we’d be back for dinner. Spoiler alert, that was not the case. No less than ten minutes into the ride, the skies condensed over us and it began to rain- slash- hail. Our horizons looked bleak, considering we just had started the ride…. It was all downhill from there. Or actually, in this case, I wish to amend this cliche, to say that it was all uphill from there. Which, on a bike, is an absolute pain. If anyone here has hiked up the Barr trail on Pikes Peak, this trail reminded me a lot of it. It was a very steep uphill, with rocks and roots making trucking up the sandy hills very impossible for our mostly inexperienced group of scouts. We spent our three expected hours on the trail with about fifteen minutes of riding time, and the rest struggling up the mountain, dragging our bikes behind us. The thought that plagued us all was this: “That’s the top. Just a little bit further, then it’s all easy downhill,” only to crest the ridge and find that there was another, even taller than the last, that we had to climb. Morale was low. Everybody’s legs were burning, and we had run out of snacks early on, we hadn’t brought much food in the first place because we were expecting to be back before dinner time. Finally, we reached the top, and began to coast down the hill. We were starving and sore and tired, and a good majority of the group did not reach the end point until well after dark. We loaded all the bikes into the truck and crammed ourselves into the trailer. It was ten thirty, and we still had a half hour drive back to camp, and even then, dinner would need to be cooked. After eating a quick but delicious dinner, we finally stumbled into bed exhausted and wondering what the rest of the week will hold. Our first adventure showed me a very real application of a powerful gospel principle. I don’t know what the other boys took out of the trip, for a lot it was their first, and I’m worried that it might be their last, mountain biking experience. But what I took from it is the principle that hard work merits great rewards. As soon as we crested the final peak, I was able to fly down the mountain faster than I’d ever thought I could. When my smaller group reached the rendezvous point, we were giddy with adrenaline. It felt so great to be biking through such a beautiful forest, feeling the wind on my face and the burn in my legs. Even though I crashed several times, went over my handlebars for the first time, and almost plowed through Jake at a high speed, I had a great time, and the bike ride was actually my favorite part of the trip because of it. The hard work at the beginning of the trail only made the end so much more worth it. I can apply that principle to the plan of salvation. As we work hard in this life to be the best person we can be, we will find that heaven will be much better than we could even imagine it could be.
The next morning we woke up much earlier than I had wanted to. The sun wasn’t even peeking over the mountains around us yet. But we headed off to our next adventure, the white water rafting portion of our Super Activity. That morning was chilly. I was shivering before we even got in the boat. I sat in the very front, which turned out to be a mistake, as one of the first swells we went over ended up cascading over my head and soaking me head to toe. The water was freezing, and I didn’t realize at the time that I’d be spending a lot of time being wet for the next few hours. But I had confidence in the boys in my boat. I knew that we were strong and capable, and that each would give their very best. Our guide was energetic, and seemed like he knew what he was doing, so I wasn’t worried in the slightest. But as we approached the first class four rapids, I can personally guarantee that our guide’s -surprisingly intense- command to paddle “FORWARD HARD” was burned into each of our minds as our raft high sided on the rock in the middle of the river. The water was moving so fast around us that it pinned it sideways against the boulder. Our boat began to slowly fill up with water as it tipped farther and farther. Now, later, I realized that the water can represent sins. Little sins build up over time until they eventually overwhelm you and there’s a point where you just get swept away into a huge swirling vortex of terror. As I was standing up in our boat that was starting to capsize, I could feel the water tugging at my legs, and as soon as it reached my knees, it was like a thousand hands grabbed my legs and yanked me downriver. The water only needed to reach my knees, and it was strong enough to sweep me away. Sin is a lot like that, as you start to allow it into your life, it’ll begin to stack up on itself, and before you know it, you’ve been sucked underwater. As I was pulled away from the boat, the water was so cold that I barely registered what was happening. I was spun and flipped underwater, crashing into three submerged rocks, and finally resurfacing twenty yards downriver. I was at the mercy of the water, the current was so strong that nothing I did to fight it yielded any results. It wasn’t until I saw the end of an oar reaching out towards me that I realized that one of the other guide’s boats had caught up to me and were offering out the rescue paddle. It might as well have been a divine hand from heaven, pulling me up into the boat and out of the freezing waters. This rescue paddle is analogous to repentance. If we choose to accept the hand that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are putting out towards us, we can be saved from the ice cold waters of sin. They are able to see the distress we are in and I know that they are very capable of pulling us out.
Our third big activity was horseback riding. Given the crazy adventures we’d had the previous two days, I was almost dreading what would go wrong this time. A bear could pop out of the woods and spook the horses, causing them to gallop away. Or we could get lost, or a horse could throw its rider and we’d have a boy with a broken arm. Any number of things could happen. It turns out that the exact opposite happened. The trip went perfectly fine. Our horses followed each other at a slow walk along the two hour long course, with three wranglers keeping close eye on both us inexperienced riders and the horses. My problem with it is something that may not have bothered everyone else. But given the excitement of the past two days, and the level of intensity that I preferred almost all things I do to be at, this horse trip was very hard to endure for me. It was hot, and the horses walked along at such a casual pace, I’m sure that I could have hiked faster than them. If I had a table to bang my head onto, I probably would have. But I learned a lesson about that day. As I sat there daydreaming about galloping away and keeping perfect control of my horse, I had failed to see the whole picture. The ranch that we did our horse ride through never allows their horses to go faster than a walk for a reason. The insurance they have on their horses didn’t cover injuries from running. So if they were trotting along the path, and one stepped into a hole and broke its leg, the insurance wouldn’t cover it. Not to mention the rider potentially getting hurt. If a rider had brought their horse to a gallop and it injured itself, likely injuring the rider consecutively, the medical bills would be very expensive, and the rider would likely be held liable. As the big picture was explained to me after the ride, it suddenly made much more sense, and I began to see the activity in a different light. I realized that it is symbolic of receiving a blessing in a way we don’t expect. It was a blessing to ride the horses, and though it wasn’t necessarily the way that I wanted it to be, God had his reasons to bless us in this manner. If I had had my way, I could have potentially caused a huge mess, but the blessing was given as God saw it best.
While on this trip, I think the other young men and I made some really great memories together, and I’m sure that we’ll remember this trip for a long time. And I hope that they too can see the hand of God in everything that we did, because he was definitely there, teaching and protecting us over the whole trip.
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