After dinner, President Wurthrich from our Stake Presidency talked to the youth. He told a story about an Emperor who knew he didn't have much longer to live, so he sent out for all the young people in the empire and gave them a task. He gave each one a seed. He told them to take the seed home and plant it and nurture it and take care of it, and then come back with whatever they grew, in one year and at that time he'd choose who would take his place as emperor. Well, in the empire was a boy named Ling. Ling did just what the emperor said, and took his seed home. He told his mother about the Emperors challenge and she helped Ling find a pot and plant the seed. In two weeks, after Ling had spent time watering, and nurturing his seed, nothing had grown. In a month nothing had grown. In six months nothing had grown. All around Ling, the other youth in the empire were talking about what was growing in their pots and Ling began to feel like a failure. His mother told him to wait a little longer to see what happened. The year quickly passed, and nothing had happened with Ling's seed. He was discouraged, and didn't want to go back to the emperor knowing he was a failure, and now everyone in the empire would know it as well. When Ling got to the palace, there were many young people with all different kinds of trees, shrubs, and flowers. Ling hid in the back, half concealing his pot full of dirt. When the emperor entered the room, Ling shrunk back a bit more, afraid of what the emperor would say when he found out that Ling had failed. The emperor walked through the room, noticing and commenting on the beautiful plants around him. He then walked to the front of the room and called Ling up to join him. Ling was frightened. He was sure the emperor would make an example of him and could only imagine what his punishment would be. To his astonishment, the Emperor announced to everyone, that Ling was their new emperor. He told them that the seeds they had been given had been boiled, so they would not grow. Ling was the only one who kept the original seed. The rest had noticed that their plants were not growing, and so planted other seeds in their place. Ling's integrity and honor won him the role of emperor and he ruled honestly the rest of his life. President Wurthrich then talked about virtues that are important in our lives. He quoted from President Faust and talked about 10 virtues that are very important. Exercise Faith, Be honest with yourself, Be chaste, Be humble, Develop self-discipline, Be fair, Strive for moderation, Be clean, Live with courage, and Grow in Grace. At this point the youth were blindfolded and led to an iron rod at the end of the camp. Several leaders were chosen to help them through the path as Guardian Angels. I was one of those. At the beginning, two young women Presidents greeted each youth and gave them a charge to hold fast to the rod no matter what else happened for the rod would lead them on their journey. They were given a pebble that represented unresolved sins and told to put it in their shoe. They were also given an egg, that they were told represented their virtue and they were all given instructions to guard their virtue. Then their hand was placed on the rod and they began their journey. I was right near the beginning. My job was to tell each one that they had been baptized and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. I was also to help them stay on the path. Along the way, were deceivers. They were the members of our stake’s young single adult ward. Their job was to lead the youth off the rod and to try to get them to give up their virtue egg. The youth came in two groups. I noticed a couple of key things. When the first group came through the deceivers weren’t quite as sneaky as on the second group. They would try to outwardly deceive the kids and a lot of them fell for it, but as we got further along less and less kids were falling for it and the deceivers got sneakier. It surprised me, how many kids early on gave up their eggs for a chance for help. The deceivers would say something like, “there’s a big hole here, so let me hold your egg and I’ll help you around it.” Needless to say the kids didn’t get the egg back. Each time one of the deceivers would get one of the eggs they would hold it up triumphantly and kind of laugh. I wanted to cry! It was so easy. By the time the second group came up, I had gotten a lot more insistent on my end. Instead of just telling them they’d been baptized and had received the gift of the Holy Ghost, I would add that it was so so important that they keep their hand on the rod and hold onto their egg no matter what else they were told. The deceivers got better too. They started helping the kids find the rod and then once they’d gained the trust of the kids they’d lead them off the path and you wouldn’t believe some of the tactics they were using. I heard one of them tell a girl that she could have temple marriage if she’d just give him her egg. A gleam of triumph and the deceiver was holding up her egg. It was so unbelievably heartbreaking to see each of the youth go through and I just hoped in my heart that they’d have the faith to remember my words and keep their hand on the rod. At the end of the rod, stood the Bishop of each ward. He took the youth off the rod and handed them off to a guardian angel to help them off to the “Spirit World.” The Spirit World was at the top of a hill where the Stake Presidency was waiting to welcome each of the youth in. Some had sticks instead of eggs, given to them by their deceivers. Some held fast to their virtue and were clutching it at the end. At the top of the hill they were given an opportunity to sit alone and write their feelings. It was so amazing to see and hear about their experience on the rod. We followed the experience with a very emotional testimony meeting. I was so humbled by the strength of our youth. Even the ones that were deceived into giving up their virtue, learned a very important lesson and I hope walked away from the experience a little more aware of how sneaky Satan can be. We finished the night off with scones and honey butter and a slide show of the days activities provided by our resident photographers Papa Rat See and Watt Chin Ewe. It was a great end to a great day. We went back to the cabins and luckily it was a warm night so sleeping was okay. I didn’t need my sleeping bag to sleep in, so I laid on top of it with a blanket and used the sleeping bag for padding on the wooden bunk. Not the most comfortable bed, but I did okay. Holly woke us up at 7:30 this morning singing Rise and Shout the Cougars are out… and I’ve had the song in my head all day!! That’s for you Andrew! We went down to the lodge for breakfast which was amazing!!! Big thanks to the cooking staff… we did not go hungry! After breakfast we had a devotional where the Stake President, President Martin and his wife shared with us the importance of being awakened. Sister Martin talked about King Benjamin’s people and about Enos. She related their experiences to ours as we read the pages of the Book of Mormon and feel the awakening that reminds us of our responsibility for action. They then discussed a few experiences of giving someone a Book of Mormon, and then encouraged us to write our testimony in a Book of Mormon to give to someone. President Martin said that our role was to be rescuers. We need to rescue those who are in need of being rescued even if that was us. He told us not to give away our Book of Mormon if we didn’t have a testimony of it yet, because it was going to be very important that we testify of it. He told the youth that they could write the message in the book to themselves if that was who they felt needed the rescue.