Priest’s camp

 Oh hi Bakey!

I want to start this letter with the following instead of ending with it. I love you and I miss you. Also, I am always proud of the efforts that you are giving to the Lord right now.

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So this was a pretty busy week for me and Joey, and I’m sure that you will have absolutely no pangs to envy when hear about our adventures.

Monday morning I got a text from bishop Snarr that he was in the hospital wit a slipped disk. The wee devil on my left shoulder suggested a tiny hope that camp would be canceled and I could hang out with mom for three days. The wee angel on my right shoulder told me to pray for bishop and double down on my willingness to help him. 

I went to the office on Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon I texted bishop and he was out of the hospital and planning on going. My tiny devil felt disappointment, not for bishop’s recovery (he’s only a tiny devil after all, not actually satan). The tiny angel told me to keep praying for bishop and double down on being willing to help. I even told Joey that our only purpose in going was to support bishop Snarr. 

When I got home we had to change for the temple. We went with your cousin Max as he went through for his endowment. It was nice and everyone on your mom’s side was there. It was nice, I don’t think we’ve been as good at going through the Temple as often as in years past. I’d like to make it a more regular thing than it is now. After, uncle Tim got all excited about going to Leatherby’s. Literally, like the way a little kid gets excited. I’m sure everyone did because they’d expect grandma to pay. I gave mom the side-eye and she said she wanted to get home to Joey. Poor Joe, he’s always the excuse to get us out of awkward family stuff.

Wednesday morning mom went shopping with me to get my share of the food for the Priest’s Quorum campout. Let’s face it. She was grandma and I was uncle Tim in this scenario. She picked it, prepared it, and just told what to do with it. All I did was pack, transported it, and warmed it, then dished it up. I got the 4Runner loaded, then I showered and we met at the church at 1:30. Bishop Snarr had this ginormous open trailer full of 1000 pounds (seemingly) of camping gear, holy smokes, he does not camp lite. We had nine boys come, and we had three to four leaders there. Bishop, myself, brother Binks, and brother Blake came up later. It was fun to get to know brother Binks. He’s super nice, and pretty funny. Bishop was pretty intense the whole time. I’m not sure if he was in pain or just trying to do the best he could, probably both. And his best was awesome. Mom’s meals were delicious and filling, his were gourmet and super involved and time consuming. I’m pretty sure the self centered teens were completely clueless as to the efforts in which they were being served, but those efforts were great.

That evening we arrived we set up camp. Joe and I took the orange tent. That tent always brings back memories of the trip where we drowned the Jeep. As bad as that was, chatting with you boys all night because we couldn’t sleep is one of the best memories of my life. Anyway, the first official activity of ca was the old Iron Rod activity. Keep in mind that it was a church camp, mostly used as a girls camp so it was freaking nice and staffed with the sweetest old missionaries that Cache Valley has to offer. So that activity was pretty well done. After, we sat around and had one of those superficial youth testimony meetings. Until I finally couldn’t take it and had to give one of my dad lectures about learning to talk and listen to God and going on a mission. I think it may have been overly bold because nobody said much after that. For dinner we had foil meals we all brought up. Moms was breaded pork chops, mashed potatoes, and corn she cut off the cob. Wow was it a fine meal.

Thursday morning I woke up at six and got ready. If I sleep too long In my cot my body gets all sore and cranky. It was nice to have time to myself. It was really peaceful reading scriptures outside in the woods. For scripture study I’ve been doing Come Follow Me, then a conference talk. Last week during our chat I realized that I was neglecting the Book of Mormon. I decided to replace my Audible Book on my morning walks by listening to the audio of the Book of Mormon, we’ll see how that goes. I usually don’t retain scriptures as well if I can’t go back and mark them, but I think it will fill a void regardless. I finally got Joey up at seven. We got the food for the first breakfast up and cooking. Mom precooked for us breakfast burrito filling. Think of it as a cross between breakfast casserole and an omelette. We put it on the griddle and chopped it up with a spatula. The boys warmed some tortillas, it was super good with salsa.

After we got cleaned up we did the frisbee football course in the forest, it was entertaining. We came back and the boys decided to go cliff jumping at the local reservoir. It was at this moment that I realized that my poor water skills were indeed a blessing. Brother Blake, or as I refer to him as Superman, swam across the river with the boys to support the cliff jumping. I stayed behind and chatted with bishop. They stayed out they for quite a while. The more extroverted ones started talking to a bunch of the girl campers that were also cliff jumping. There seems to be an inverse relationship between those boys who have the ability to talk to girls and the amount of worth that they have to offer a young lady. I must say here though that pubescent teens of any gender are probably the grossest and most off putting creature in all of biology. I get the feeling that you boys are of the same sentiment and therefore have a difficult time with kids of your own age, so there is a bias to my opinion.

We came back and I cut up the Walmart deli sandwiches that mom ordered. They were pretty good and the boys were tired. We hung out for an hour then went to the archery range. The last time we went was when we went to Salt Lake City and that guy got mad at me because I messed up his bow. At this range, they had pretty nice (like I’d know) compound bows. It was about a 25 foot range. The boys did pretty well, but I’m not going to lie, I had the most constant groupings. I did have one that missed the target and went right through the heavy rubber backdrop that they were using as a stop. I bragged up my strength quiet a bit. It was pretty hot that day so by the time we got back everyone was pretty tired. Bishop made these amazing grilled burgers. He does not mess around and he made them on a real charcoal grill. By the time we were done and cleaned up it was late, we were tired, it started raining, so thankfully everyone went to bed. Some of the more idiotic boys got up and tried to scare each other, and I thought of getting up and really giving them a scare, but I decided to go to sleep instead.

On Friday my morning routine was the same, but Joey and I made scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. Joe did the bacon and it was all pretty good. Everyone just wanted to go back to the lake. When we got there there was a bald eagle flying over the lake, it was majestic. Bishop went back to camp early to set up this amazing camp oven out of foil, chicken wire, and charcoal, to bake a turkey. When we got back Joe and I cleaned and cut potatoes. Bishop got everything going when it started pouring and hailing. Of course bishop was prepared and just put an easy up awning over the whole thing. We huddled under there for a while, and that’s when the boys realized I I was pretty good at roasting them, and they seemed to enjoy it. In the hours and hours it took the turkey to cook, the boys made up sum awkward teenage party games that made me fairly uncomfortable. I scolded them a couple of times, and I was proud of Joey for staying out of it. The turkey and potatoes turned out amazing, but I’m pretty sure the boys would have been just as happy with Hot Pockets.

Saturday we were able to get everyone up early and we got out of there fairly quickly. I got home and Joey unloaded the car. It was hot and we were pretty freaking ripe. After we got all cleaned up Joey just wanted to be home with Ben. Mom wanted to go to the Parade of Homes. Mom and I used to go all the time but we haven’t for years. It’s fun to look at homes when you have neither the desire or the means to move into these super expensive houses. We may want to do a few projects around here, so we did get a few ideas. It’s super fun hanging out with mom these days. She’s not distracted with school or classes or girls camp or anything. I feel like she’s mine, but that’s coming to an end in a couple of weeks as she goes back to school.

This morning we went to hailey and nick’s baby blessing. I put the address into Google maps wrong, we were late, mom was not pleased. Joe did a great job with his talk in our ward. Mom felt sad because grandma, who goes to every grandchild’s talk ever, didn’t come. For the fifth Sunday lesson, President Randall from the stake presidency gave the lesson on missionary work. He did a great job and he left it very clear that President Neilson told us all the that every young man’s priesthood responsibility was to serve a full time mission. It seems that the biggest experts on that in the ward are those whose kids quit coming to church by the time they’re 15. I must admit, you give us a lot to be prideful of. One guy asked about those poor young men that decide not to serve, “what about them?” I love that he reiterated what the prophet said. It’s amazing to me how many people want to be rewarded for disobedience. 

Tonight we went for dinner at aunt patti”s. She seems really happy these days. She loves your letters. The bergs came too and Spencer seems good at the MTC. we left ben there because he’s going to San Francisco tomorrow with Artie for the week, they seem excited. Joey, not so much. A week alone with mom and dad is a little daunting.

Well, it’s that time again. Tho repeat this opening, I love you, I miss you, I am extremely proud of you. Chat tomorrow,

Pops