Before these young men and young women came over to our house, I thought I would try out all of these things on my own kids. Of course, they all turned up their noses and didn’t taste all of the items with curiosity. They knew the tastes would be different so they only tried a little tiny bit.

In any case, I decided to pull out my mission treasure box and show them some cool stuff from Colombia and Ecuador. While rummaging through my box of stuff, I came across this little poem. I don’t remember when I found this on my mission but it was perfect for how I felt while serving for 2 years. I thought I would share this little poem with the world on my LDS Family website.

——–

A mission is a strange experience
It is a trial and a test
A mission throws you at the worst
Yet teaches you the best

I’ve never been so happy
I’ve never been so depressed
I’ve never felt so forsaken
I’ve never felt so blessed

I’ve never been so confused
Things have never been so clear
I’ve never felt my Heavenly Father so distant
He’s never been so near.

I’ve never been so discouraged
I’ve never been so full of hope
I feel I could go forever
I think I’ve come to the end of my rope

I’ve never had it quite so easy
I’ve never had it quite so tough
Things have never been so smooth
Things have never been so rough

I’ve never traveled through more valleys
I’ve never ascended so many peaks
I’ve never met so many nice people
I’ve never met so many freaks

I’ve never had so many ups
I’ve never had so many downs
I’ve never worn so many smiles
I’ve never worn so many frown

I’ve never been so lonely
I’ve never had so many friends
Boy, I hope this is over soon
Gosh, I hope it never ends

———–

Last Sunday we had a missionary in our LDS Ward return from his mission. He spoke in Sacrament Meeting and talked about his experiences while he served and LDS mission in Cambodia. What made this particular missionary important to us was that he was our neighbor. His family lives just across the cul-de-sac from our family. He had even helped coach my son’s baseball team a few years ago. I know that our boys look up to this young man as an example of what they want to be when they get older.

This return missionary gave a wonderful talk in church and really gave inspiring specific examples of how his testimony and the testimony of investigators grew. I could tell that my boys were soaking up this information and were interested in what he had to say. At the end of his talk, this return missionary bore his testimony in Cambodian. All of our kids were astonished that he could easily pronounce words in a foreign language.

While in Elders Quorum, I couldn’t help myself from commenting that this was a “big deal” in our family. We are so proud of this young man and his willingness to serve a mission and dedicate two years of his life to serve Jesus Christ and spreading the gospel around the world. We are blessed to have such a wonderful young man live next to our family so that he could show such a good example to our kids on how to live a righteous life.

Every time one of the missionaries from our LDS Ward leaves for a mission I try and send them a couple of notes using DearElder.com. I then try to send them a package while at the training center. The package I usually send is a small box of microwave popcorn. Below is the story.

“While I was spending my 2 months in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) to try and learn Spanish, I was walking with my companion one day up the steps to my room. I am sure we had already been in the MTC for over a month so we felt like we knew everything there was to know about all of the buildings. Anyway, our district was on the 2nd or 3rd floor of the building we were in. As we were walking up, I smelled something delicious. We followed the buttery smell downstairs and walked around. We discovered that in the basement of our building there was a small kitchen area. This kitchen was supplied with a microwave and someone had just popped a bag of popcorn. It smelled soooooo good. Anyway, it was a memory of mine from the MTC I wanted to share with others.

The MTC is very intense and really goes by fast. Even though I was excited to go to my field of service, the MTC was a wonderful place to start my mission. I think it was in the MTC that I learned of the seriousness of the call to serve as a Mormon Missionary. Even though some of the Elders goofed around, they were all serious about there dedication to their missions and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I had some great role models to look up to while I was there.

The last story I’ll tell you was about a song we sang while there. It seemed like several times a week our entire floor would meet in one room and have a devotional. It was great to sit with all of the other Elders and learn about the Scriptures and the Gospel. My favorite part was when we sang songs together. All of the Elders on our floor were going Spanish speaking so we would sing songs in Spanish. Our favorite song was “Secret Prayer”. We really got the room rocking with that song even though it was supposed to be a quiet song we sang it loud and strong. The harmony in that song was awesome as the music reverberated off of the wall in that dorm room. I loved those moments.

When I was at “The Y“, I worked at the MTC too but I did not have the cushy job of sorting mail for the missionaries. My job was a little more gritty and unpleasant. I worked in the dish room. Yep, I washed the dishes of thousands of missionaries. I would wake up really early in the morning, like 4:30am or something crazy like that and washed dishes. I remember putting in earplugs because of the noise of the dishes clanking together and the noise from the dishwashing machines, drying machines and disposals. I would put on green rubber gloves, a plastic apron and stand by a conveyor belt. I was assigned the job of cleaning off all of the major pieces of food off of each plate, bowl and cup. Then I would stack each piece nicely on another convener belt so that it would go through the washer correctly. On some of the days, I would work at the end of the washing line where I would have to take off the clean and dry dishes and stack them. At that time, I would have to wear cotton gloves because the plates and bowls were so hot coming out of the rapid dryer that they would burn your skin. After a couple of hours of staking hot dishes, the gloves would be soaking wet. Even though it was not fun work, it did help pay my way through my classes. So, if you want to know what missionaries eat, or don’t eat, I could tell you. I must say, I don’t think I have ever put that work experience on my resume.

This week my son Coby is up at Scout Camp. This is not the regular camp that most scouts go to earn a bunch of merit badges. This is a special camp called NYLT which stands for National Youth Leadership Training. When I was a youngster it was called Dan Beard Rangers. I have a few memories of this week of camp in the South Hills of Idaho. One of my best friends convinced me to go because of all of the fun he had when he went. I found out later that he really didn’t enjoy Dan Beard until the last 3 days. The first couple of days, he said he cried.

My experience was not great up at Dan Beard but it did help to build me into a man. As you might already know, the Scout Master over all of the scouts splits everyone into Patrols. They try not to put you with people that you already know so that you make new friends. That in itself is a little hard. I remember having to make our own meals every day and for 13 – 15 year olds, this is no easy thing. By day three I had gathered a small group of boys ready to decent. We had devised a plan where we would sneak out of camp, hike down to the nearest Ranger Station, and figure out how to call our parents to come pick us up. Seriously, we had a whole group ready to leave at a moments notice. I was a couple of years older than most of the boys there at camp and I was older than some of the staff, so many of the younger kids rallied around me as their leader. Fortunately I did not lead a rebellion and decided to stick it out for the whole week. I was reassured over and over again that things would get much better. They didn’t, but we made it. I still remember that the ride home was the longest ride of my life. It seemed like I was gone a month and my body ached to be home.

One of the things I got out of going to this camp was the realization that I could do hard things. In fact, I remember looking back on times on my mission to Cali Colombia and Quito Ecuador and remembering that I could do hard things because I survived Dan Beard Rangers. I know, it seems kinda silly but it helped me stay focused and gave me confidence.

So, my mind keeps returning to my son Coby up at NYLT this week. My hope is that he will have a good time, but more importantly, he will find an inner strength that might give him a foundation from which to grow. Maybe there will be some lessons that he will learn that will help him as he serves in the Aaronic Priesthood and when he serves a mission for the LDS Church. Maybe it will help him in a calling or just help him to be a better Father. That is my hope and prayer today. Go get’em Coby!

I tell you this story so that I can tell you this other story. I was walking out of the YMCA last week and a young adult stopped my and called me Brother Carter. He looked at me intently and asked, “do you remember me?”. I looked really hard but could not place the face. He told me that he was in my seminary class in 9th grade. He said he had served a mission for the LDS Church and was now married. Wow, that was cool. I asked him if he remembered anything from his days in my class. He said that he did and mentioned a “magic square” that we used to memorized the Doctrine and Covenants scriptures. It was just nice to know that he remembered me and remembered some of the scriptures we worked on.

Here are a couple of the ideas that I really liked:

Ward blogger — Sacrament meeting schedules. online testimony drives. Sacrament meeting agenda.

Mormon.org email addresses — Give each Church member his/her own mormon.org e-mail address (e.g. john_doe@mormon.org) to drive interest in Mormon.org. The footer of each transmitted email could optionally include quotes or scripture citations.

Here are some of the highlight of this training.

Here are the Methods of Venturing
Al Right= A – L – R – I – G – H – T
Adult Association
Leadership
Recognition
Ideals
Group Activity
High Adventure
Teaching Others

Notice, there are no uniforms listed in these methods. Uniforms aren’t that important in the lives of these young men at this point. Recognition is somewhat important but not needed as much as in the younger years of the scouting programs.

Venturing should be a program that leaders can use to prepare Aaronic Priesthood youth, specifically Priests, to go on missions.

Use the PCI (Program Capability Inventory) and the AIS, (Activity Interest Survey) to create your program and fill in your Wednesday activities.

The VLSC (Venturing Leadership Skills Course) is a great way to train your Venture Scouts (Priests) how to be good leaders.

Venture Youth should learn as follows. Read, Listen, Recite, Teach others.

Click Here for the Ensign article.

My nephew entered the MTC yesterday and is now on a 2 month stay. He will be learning Russian and servicing in the Moscow Russia mission. I remember several things about the MTC that I like to share with new missionaries. I like to share the idea that many people feel overwhelmed when they first start learning a new language. I like to tell them that there are many people praying for their success.

Anyway, I like to use a website called dearelder.com. It’s a really great website to send messages to a missionary whether that be in the MTC or out in the mission field. If you send a message to the MTC, the service is free. If you send it to a missionary out in the field, it might cost you a few cents for the postage.

Send your favorite missionary an message of encouragement today.