MTC CAMP

Joel, Fernando, Jonathan, Brother McDermott, Jake, Nick A., Travis, Parker, Coelton, Cameron, Nick T. Eric and president Bastian.

     This summer our priests went to an MTC camp that our stake puts on every 3 years for their high adventure. This year is was held at a girls scout camp in Garden Valley.  They do a really good job and the boys get a companion, and they do service projects; this year they cut and split several trailers full of wood.  They are all interviewed by President Miller; our Stake President.  They also listenend to some amazing speakers and had study time to write in journals and read scriptures.  They all went on several high adventures which included mountain biking, geocaching, rifle shooting, rapelling and hiking.

Joel's calling is the priest venture leader.  He attended the entire week of MTC camp, except for the last night when he came home to surprise me.  He had been in England for 10 days, then we were at his family reunion and then he left that Tuesday for MTC camp.  He came home Friday night at like midnight and then flew out to Reno for work on Monday.
He LOVED the camp and loves his priests.  He is really good with them.  Joel worked with President Miller in getting all 53 boys ready to be interviewed.  He would sit and visit with them before they went in to see President Miller.  He also was in charge of the Mountain biking.  He said it was the most difficult course he had ever been on.  The firts trip was with about 10 boys, one of them crashed into Joel and rode down the mountaiin on top of Joel.  Joel's knees and hands got the worst of it.  After sadeling back up and finishing the ride Joel found the same boy laying in the road.  He went to him and saw he had a pretty bad crash and his knee was in bad shape.  He could see his bone.  The kid was Jake Taylor, a friend of Coelton's who runs XC.   Joel could see he was in a bit of shock and was trying to keep him from looking at his knee when a man on a 4-wheeler drove up.  The man offered to drive him the 4 miles to camp.  Heavenly Father was watching out for them, that is for sure.  Jake was able to get into the nearest town and got stitches in his knee to close it back up.  He's a varsity runner this year and can't run until his knee is healed.
Joel said after the boys saw what happened to Jake everyone was extra careful and no one else got hurt the rest of the week.

Joel and Coelton both said how good the food was.  The Ward's in our stake volunteered to be the cooks.  They said it was amazing food and every day they surprised them with ice cream, brownies and cookies. 

Coelton's companion was Cory Hall.  He was so excited about that.  He had a great time and gained a lot spiritually.  He is looking forward to his mission this Spring.  He will be a great missionary and will work hard.  Coelton is a very hard worker and will be blessed for it.
 One of his very best friends just recieved his mission call last week.  Elias Lines will be serving in the Santa Cruz, Bolivia mission.  Spanish speaking.  He called me this week and asked if Joel and I could attend the temple with him tomorrow night.  We just love Elias.  Coelton has been blessed with good friends.