#LIGHTtheWORLD Day 4 Worship God

I have a confession, during many of the years I served on the Salt Lake City Council, I use to enter my church house doors at the front of the building, because they were closest to the chapel.  You see, if I entered the doors near the parking lot, I would often get stopped multiple times on the way to the Chapel with City Council related questions.  It wasn't that I wasn't willing to respond, but it was Sunday, and frankly I was there to worship.  Rarely a Sunday went by that I didn't have to respond to an inquiry. While I tried to avoid it best I could and rarely performed council activities on Sunday, having that day of rest made me not resent it more.  I personally needed to feel the spirit that Sunday worship brought me.While my service as Stake President puts me in many meetings, including often multiple Sacrament Meetings, I'm there to worship and find it a wonderful experience in my life.

I also love to attend the Salt Lake Temple and participate in sacred temple ordinances that while initially were for myself, subsequent visits are for those who have died to bless their lives as well.  The temple is really the great equalizer for all mankind, whether in this life or the life to come that provides a venue for those ordinances to take place.  On Saturday, I spent a couple of hours there, and it gave me time to think about things in my calling, my family and sometimes even work, as it pertains to an issue in which I'm struggling to resolve.  I am so grateful for that blessing in my life and the lives of the saints in the Rose Park Stake.

Our meetings are always open to you.  there may well be a building closer to you, but if you're in Rose Park, we have two meetinghouses.  One building is located at 760 N 1200 W or we also have one west of Redwood Road at 868 N Starcrest Drive.  These are not the only congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints near you, so if you're trying to figure it out, check out Meetinghouse Locator on www.lds.org.  We would love to have you come worship with us.

#LIGHTtheWORLD Day 3 - Helping the blind to see

This one has definitely hit home, and due in large part to the work of our youngest daughter Sarah Christensen.  Sarah has spent most of her High School years, being trained and then training guide dog puppies for the blind.  I was the reluctant dad, who wasn't sure he wanted a puppy in the house. I wrote a year ago about this reluctance in a story you can read called Daughters and Dogs put Dad at a Disadvantage!  Well needless to say, we are on dog #3, Oceana.  We don't choose the names, but they definitely become part of our family.  Below, is a sweet and tender moment, where Sarah was able to hand off her first dog to someone who was blind.  It's a bitter-sweet moment, because you truly become attached to the dogs, and yet we know it's for a greater purpose.  Sarah, who takes the dogs daily to school and other locations, has her heart tugged in so many directions during the experience, but exemplifies the Savior's love for those who can't see.

Sarah's 2nd dog, Orchard, was nearly at the point of graduation,when an accident happened with a blind person training with him, which caused him to be career changed.  Faced with the opportunity to bring him home and have him become a permanent part of our family, or allow him to try and be trained as a service animal for those who are hearing impaired, Sarah, with a full heart, gave permission to see how he would do with this new calling.  While still in training, we were encouraged with a report this week that he is progressing in this new assignment.

While still the grumpy dad, I'm so proud of our daughter and her selfless service to God's children.

#LIGHTtheWORLD - Day 2 Honoring one's parents

I feel like I have two sets of parents now, my own - Robert and Verda Mae Christensen and also my in-laws, Frank  & Lois Nielsen.  The only one I still have left, is my mother-in-law, but she is the best Grandma in the world to my children and the rock of Cathy's family.  We cherish her days with us still on earth and while she gets after me from time to time when I pay for things or do things on her house, it's only because I know the Savior would not only want me to do it, but he expects me to do it.  Just like he asked James to look after his mother, I know he would want me to do the same.

I've written two blogs about my own parents, Robert Christensen and Verda Mae Christensen.  I love them both, and both blogs are consistently in my top 10 blogs.  They were wonderful examples to me and I'm ever so grateful to have them in my life.

#LIGHTtheWORLD Day 1 - Rendering service to others

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a challenge for every day prior to Christmas to live our lives as the Savior would and to share that light with others.  In addition to posting the video presentation, I was trying to think of a person way I could do it and take advantage of my blog.  While I could write about how I might be doing it, I thought I would take each day, and write about how I've seen others do it, whether to me or to someone else.

Day 1 talks about rendering service.  I am the recipient of it often, but I was thinking back in August of 2013 when I took my job at Salt Lake County as the Director of the Office of Regional Development.  A co-worker who really looked out for me and got me set up to be successful. Her name is Karen Lowe.  She worked with me in the County Mayor's office.  From the start she would make sure I had what I needed, knew exactly how to request or have something done for me.  Every time I looked lost or wondered how I would do this new job, she helped me with logistical needs that just made me feel like I could do it.  I valued the conversations she shared and she was kind enough to listen to me.  While Karen has since retired, I think often of the blessing her service was in my life.

From holding my hand to my heart, my friend and my love

26 Years of holding her hand have been better than
I would have ever imagined!

A week or so ago, my wife Cathy took a challenge to post in Facebook for 7 days a picture of me, indicating why she loved and cared for me.  It was far more generous than I deserved, but I was grateful and it reminded me of what a great partner she has been for me.  Last year I wrote about our first date and then another piece about our 25th wedding anniversary.  Today, I just wanted to write about how much I love to hold her hand.

While for most, it might not be quite so eventful, you must remember that I was a shy person and holding a girls hand was not an easy social move for me.  In fact, it's fair to say that mentally, I tormented myself over it and my record of holding any girls hand was maybe once or twice.  However on my third date with Cathy, I took her to a Utah Symphony concert (tickets were inexpensive as a student) and I not only really liked her but had an impression that she was the right girl for me.  I tend to over-think things a lot, and this was no exception.  However I couldn't figure out how to initiate the process and Cathy was not making it very easy.  Her hand while visible, was no where to be found.  As we walked up South Temple from the parking lot on block 85, I decided that it was now or I would never have the courage to make it happen.  Having visualized it earlier in my mind, I mustered all the courage I could find, and asked Cathy, "What's that in your hand?" She lifted her hand to look at the inside of it, and then I slyly slipped my hand into hers and replied, "Oh I guess it's mine".  I thought it was very creative, to which I guess she did too.  She smiled, a little and then left it there.  Victory!

Cathy and I were engaged on Ensign Peak, but hiked up again
during the period of our engagement.

I'm pleased to say in the years that have followed, the encouragement to get Cathy to hold my hand isn't quite as intensive but nevertheless similarly satisfying.  We've held hands in a variety of social settings since, before Prophets, Governors, Community leaders, and crowds of thousands.  However for me it's still about the one and and in particular, Cathy.  She now not only holds my hand, but my heart as well and hoping that it never ends.

Rose Park Stake Trek of 2016 was a life changing experience for me!

Photo courtesy of Christina Stanley on our
first evening with my beautiful wife and
partner in crime, Cathy.

 Trek experiences were never there when I grew up.  In fact most youth outings involved water, either river running or water skiing.  They were good experiences, but for someone who wasn't a great swimmer and who hated to leave home, they were usually tests of my faith and conviction.  However I had great Priesthood Leaders who did much for me, and I usually had a great deal of fun and look back fondly on those experiences and with gratitude of the personal sacrifices those leaders spent to make it happen.  However as a consequence, I usually don't go looking for outings, and even in the four years of serving as Bishop, really only had one "Trek like" experience from which to base my own decisions.  I've relied heavily on the insights of my counselors and as we've discussed it, have come to a feeling of unanimity in our decision process.

Shortly after we were called as a Stake Presidency in November of 2013, we realized that we needed to make a decision in a short time frame about a Trek experience for Summer of 2016.  Many places required multiple year notices and they also require a great deal of discussion and planning.  The prior Stake Presidency had been very judicious and had left us sufficient resources for a wide range of options, but nevertheless, we had to make a decision.  Our Stake holds trek every six years, with the idea that every youth can have the opportunity at least once.  It does mean we include 12 and 13 year old youth, who often aren't included in other activities.  However, we knew they would be important to include and they did just fine, often carrying more than their own weight.  As a Stake, they had been to Martin's Cove a couple of times, but never over Sixth Crossing, including over Rocky Ridge where the Willie Handcart Company had gone in order to meet up with the rescue party from Salt Lake City.  As we met with other Stakes who had done it, looked at multiple options concerning it, we felt impressed that this was an experience our youth needed to have.  I'm not one to tell someone what their spiritual experience should be or where it should take place but this experience would prove that in fact, it happened in multiple places in multiple ways for different people.

Almost literally on New Year's Day 18 months ago, we made application for the date because it also required going on the old pioneer trail over BLM land, that in itself had many restrictions.  However we were fortunate that the Church had extensive experience and the missionaries were always ready to help us on nearly every turn.  The way opened up, and we were one of the first groups that would take the trail in 2016.  Our youth prepared both spiritually and physically in the year leading up to it.  They prepared a name to take to the Temple to do work for someone else and they prepared physically for the couple of days of extensive walking as part of our Trek.  In a previous blog entry I talked about some of the experiences in watching our youth interact with each other.  What I didn't realize at the time, is how reflective that would be for the whole experience.

A year ago this month, we visited as Stake leaders Martin's Cove, WY for some training and a short Trek ourselves.  I had been intending all last summer to condition my legs and prepare myself.  However I was reminded from Alma 34:34 that it also holds true on a physical sense as well.  At the end of the walk, I could hardly move my legs for the last mile and by dinner, was cramping so bad, I could hardly sit or walk.  Cathy took me into Casper that evening where we secured a motel room and I drank a couple of gallons of Gatorade.  I probably should have gone to the hospital, but in a tender mercy, got through the experience.

From my experience from August of 2015, I learned and started to workout.  Nothing spectacular or note worthy, but I couldn't see how I could ask our youth to do something that I myself didn't do.  While I had made a great deal of improvement and found some ways to help me walk better, I was quietly worried about how I could do it and what message I would have for the youth after their first day of the experience.  I was sitting in a Sacrament meeting thinking about the individual I was walking for (my brother Milton, who died at age 11, shortly before I was born) and again what message the Lord would have me give the youth.  I then received an overwhelming answer that while I would be walking for my brother, my parents would be walking with me.  My father passed away in 1976 and my mother had passed in 2004.  They both had a huge impact in my life but I only shared this impression with my 16 year old Sarah prior to Trek, who herself was wondering about how she would do.

My S Health reported on that first day, I walked, 55,442 steps or a total of 30.87 miles (which was much longer than the formal hike of 15 miles).  While I'm not sure those figures are entirely accurate, it did say, I burned 7,214 calories and I know that week, I lost 10 lbs.  My brother Clayton had purchased me some walking poles and I literally leaned on them at times to keep me going.  I didn't have the burden of a handcart like the youth and their leaders, I figured my job was to get myself to the end.  As I walked and felt like I was holding someone up, I stepped aside and let a few handcarts pass, then walk, stepped aside and let a few more pass me.  When the company would stop, I worked my way back up to the beginning and started over again.  As we pulled through the first of six crossings, which was a mud hole that went up to the axle of the handcart, I couldn't help but think to myself, what had I done to these youth and their leaders.  However they not only pushed through it, but five more that day and did so in an amazing way.  When I we walked into camp that evening after being a few hours behind our original plan, I knew there was only one way I had achieved that experience, and that was with two angels that I loved so much.

The next day, the youth walked again for another eight miles around Martin's Cove as well as "Women's Pull".  When we came out of Martin's Cove and I could see a string of our youth over the skyline and ridge of the next hill, I had an overwhelming feeling that not only had we been in the right place at the right time, but it would have an effect on them and their knowledge of how God helps us accomplish tasks that go well beyond what we think we can do if we place our trust in him.  I saw many tender mercies from both the youth and their leaders during those four days.  We had unseasonably cool temperatures on the day of the longest trek.  Even a couple of mechanical problems with a pickup truck and the U-Haul we rented to haul our cooking and support equipment, happened in a way as to not hinder the experience.  In fact that evening, when the tow truck brought the U-Haul to our Church to unload our equipment, that despite the fatigue and drain the prior four days had been, we were overwhelmed with volunteers who unloaded our gear in a few minutes and everyone made sure each other had their needs met.

 Just like you can't determine when and how someone will feel the spirit or have an experience, I don't think I'll ever know the full extent to what this experience has been on those who participated.  I have been touched however by the outpouring of testimonies, including my own daughter that have reminded me on how the Lord knew what should happen for the youth of the Rose Park Stake.  I will be forever grateful.

Side note:  While I've avoided press experiences now that I've left public office, I received a call asking to comment on the Trek experience for the Salt Lake Tribune.  That article can be found here.

Examples often come in the most unexpected way - Youth of the Rose Park Stake

Youth from the Rose Park Stake complete their hike down
City Creek Canyon (Photo courtesy of Teresa Hyde)

Youth from throughout the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on a periodic basis do a "Trek" experience for a number of reasons.  It's often a reenactment of early Church Pioneers, even to the extent of dress and use of handcarts to feel more what the challenges these early church members went through to reach the area of the Salt Lake Valley.  The most important aspect of this experience is not the physical hardship, but understanding what faith it took for strangers to the area to push forward, based on a hope and belief in their faith of how God would help them through their trials, leading them to the joys the gospel would have in-store for them.  Some sadly never made it, but their stories live on in many ways by family members who completed the journey or witnesses who documented their experiences.  The Salt Lake Rose Park Stake is preparing for its Trek experience during the week of July 11- 14 in the area of Martin's Cove and Sixth Crossing and over an area known as Rocky Ridge.  A portion is a very lengthy walk so we have been preparing both physically and spiritually for this experience.

In preparation for the physical side, we planned a hike up City Creek Canyon yesterday, April 30, 2016.  Our destination was picnic site #18 just past the 3 1/2 mile marker.  We parked at the upper lot of the Capitol and with the additional mile prior to the Canyon gate, walked just over 4/12 miles each way or over 9 miles in total.  It was check-in of sorts to see how we were doing physically (I made it but have a ways to go!) and it was a chance for us to be together as a group.

Return trip down the canyon with my daughter
Sarah and her friend Jenna. (Photo courtesy of Teresa Hyde)

Being toward the end on the return trip, I experienced a series of unexpected interactions with people as I came down the canyon.  I was stopped about five times, by people I knew and some by total strangers.  Each time, even though during most of that journey I was walking by myself, people stopped me for some reason and asked me who were those youth walking down the canyon and why were they here?  Each time I explained some of the information above, explained to non members what a Trek involved, and of course why they were here that day.  I explained my role as Stake President and jokingly asked, if the "group" was behaving themselves, to which the reply was always, "They are acting in an upstanding way and reflection of goodness."  Of course, for those who know me, it brought a few tears to my eyes and I reflected in gratitude their commitment and effort and it also reminded me how we are often setting examples in the most unexpected way.  We don't know who is watching us or the impact our behavior might have upon them.

While I've challenged the youth as well as members of the Rose Park Stake to be prepared, both physically and spiritually,  I am also taking an opportunity to do so as well.  The physical may have to wait until tomorrow, while I do a little recovering today!