Saturday, November 12, 2011

I GOT THIS!

About 3 years ago I was at this camp with a bunch of members of my church. We were camping up in the woods in Arizona...Yes, there are trees in Arizona. One night one of my good friends Jordan, yearned so badly for cell phone reception. So at about 11 o'clock Jordan asked if anybody would go with him out into the forest in hopes to find a hill where he would be able to use his phone. Well of course I wanted to go, when I hear adventure I am there! Two others(David and Gabe) joined in this spontaneity search to find cellular service! Without telling any of the leaders we headed off. We walked pretty far out into the forest, I thought to myself "I'm a pretty experienced hiker...I GOT THIS" I figured I would be able to lead us back on my own! So we reached an opening where we could get reseption, Tyler made his call and while he was doing that we were all just walking around when all of a sudden David steps on this cactus and got poked pretty bad in the foot!
We then decided it was probably about time to head back to camp. We headed off into the direction that we thought was the way back to camp. After walking for about 45 minutes and not seeing any sign of tents or campfires we started to worry alittle. We still just kept on walking for about an hour. At this time it was starting to get alittle chilly out (Yes, It can get cold in AZ). We found a trail that had obviously not been used for quite a while this is when we decided to just sit and regroup. We found some wood and started a fire with a lighter and some Axe Body Spray. This wasn't  enough though. We needed to get back to camp! Then the thought came to us so clearly "We should say a prayer!" We all knelt down and desprately pleaded with God to lead us back to camp. Knowing that we recieve answers when we are on our feet and not being idle we headed out once more! Within a matter of minutes we found a barbed wire fence, which I vaguely remembered a similar fence near camp. We followed this fence for awhile not straying away from it for a moment! The story in the Book of Mormon came to my mind while following this fence! Nephi and Lehi saw a vision of people wandering in the darkness. Some of these people were holding on to a "Rod of Iron" which led them to the place where they needed to go! The Iron Rod represents the word of God. Well after walking parallel with this fence we soon found ourself in sight of camp. We rejoiced and I went to my tent and said a fervent prayer of gratitude then imediatly fell asleep! We had been in the woods from 11pm-7am!
What did I learn from this exhausting experience?
I learned that when we go through this life thinking that we can do it alone saying to ourselves  "I GOT THIS!" we are sadly mistaken! We need the Lord at all times! Especially when traveling through the dark mist of the world! I was humbled that night and this scripture sums up what I learned!

 Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

We need to remember to trust in the Lord and he will direct us to him!  

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