This weekend we had the first ever Young Men's Camp in our Stake. After hearing all the awesome experiences that were being had at the camps down in California we could only hope that we might have some of those same experiences. We got more than we could hope for. Everybody made it up the mountain, including all three members of our Stake Presidency. I think it was more of a hike than everybody thought it would be, especially for some of the adult leaders. It was amazing to me how throughout the whole planning process nobody really got what we were trying to accomplish. We had quite a bit of opposition, even one ward that just decided not to participate. Funny story there. Leslie got a phone call on the Tuesday before we were leaving from one of the Mom's in this particular ward. She had been at a meeting when we were presenting the idea of this camp to the High Council. She had been waiting all summer for word from her ward leaders when it was going to be. Because she hadn't heard anything she called the house to find out when it was. She wasn't too happy when she found out we were to be leaving the next day. Needless to say we had three young men attend that we hadn't been planning on. It was a great time. We hiked to a spot just below the summit on Thursday. Some made it to that point in about 5 hours. We had one young man and his 'motivational team' (his YM's President and one of the Stake Presidency) take about 12 hours. Three steps at a time, but he was going to make it. It was neat to see all the others rally around him. It was a great experience for all of us. We really had some neat experiences on that mountain that can only be appreciated by those who were there. I will say this, miracles happen still today and prayers are answered. We had 35 young men and 15 leaders who's testimonies are stronger because of the experience. Now we'll have to start planning for next year. .