Winter Camp Out

I had my official first camp out as a young men leader this past weekend and I feel it important enough to share. It was a winter one obviously given the fact that it is January, but it turned out to be a bit of an adventure. Overall it is a long story, one of me heading up to the mountains by myself, going down the wrong forest road (which shared the name with the correct one), getting stuck in the snow, only to be saved by Brother Jenkins, finally arriving at camp at 10 at night, not being able to set up my rent due to the amount of snow, so sleeping in the back of Brother Jenkins Suburban and finally having to leave early to go and rescue my car. I may have made this trip sound like a rough one, which in some ways it was, but it also was a great example to me of the caring love of my Heavenly Father watching out for me. As I traveled up the mountain it began to snow very heavily. The sun was already down and I was having a difficult time seeing in the heavy snow, the snowflakes were large and fluffy, but also heavy and wet and I began to slide on the road and was having a difficult time steering. I was looking for a Tieton road, where supposedly our camp was located a few miles in. The majority of the boys and leaders were already up at camp, but since I had to work I was coming up late. There was one car with Brother Brian Davis and Brother Kim Mahaffey about a half and hour behind me. I eventually found the road I was looking for and turned down it in the heavy snow, it had not been plowed and was the snow was thick and heavy. I could tell that as I drove I was losing speed as my car got into deeper and deeper snow. Eventually there came a point where I got stuck. Not being able to move, I called Kim and told him of my situation, he said not to worry, they were not far behind me and to turn on my hazards and when they caught up to me they would help. So I sat for awhile, and not car with Brian and Kim ever showed up. At some point, I saw head lights coming toward me in the heavy snow. The vehicle stopped and rolled down the window to ask if I needed help. It was Brother Nate Jenkins! Little did he know, but he was also lost, nor did he know that I was stuck there, we just happened to get lose on the same wrong forest road. He and the boys that were with him had traveled down that road a ways, not found the camp and were coming back out when they found me stuck. He helped me get my car out of the snow, we took it back down and found a place to park it on the main highway, and pursued our journey looking for the campsite. As we traveled around we had no cell signal and no way of contacting the other men in our group. They were concerned that they never found me, and also that Brother Jenkins group never made it to the camp. Later, Bishop informed me that many prayers were offered in our behalf. We traveled around the mountains barreling through the heavy snow for 3 hours looking for camp and could not find it. We finally asked one of the boys to pray and ask for help, that we may be able to find out camp. Within minutes of that prayer my cell phone pinged and I received a text message from Kim asking where I was. I quickly called him, we had very poor reception, but good enough to let him know I was with Nate and the boys, and for him to tell us how to meet them on the main highway so they could show us the way. We eventually met up with each other and they led us to camp. We arrived a bit after 10 at night, but thankful to finally be there. Looking back on the situation has provided much clarity to me though, and I can see the hand of a loving Heavenly Father watching out for his son. As I sat there stuck in the snow Kim and Brian were never going to find me because I was on a different forest road with the same name as the correct one, which they had already gone to. Had it not been for Nate being "lost" before I got there on the same wrong road, no one would have ever known where I had been. I do not consider it a coincidence that Nate happened to be there at that time. He had no idea I was stuck, or lost or that anything had happened to me, he didn't even know it was me in that car when he stopped, but he was prompted to stop an help, and there I was. We also traveled for an hour or two with no luck, but after a simple and sincere prayer from a teacher, we received the text message that allowed us to find our way to camp. What a great lesson to me to see the love and watchful eye of an Omnipotent being taking time to keep me from getting stuck in the snow.