For the Beauty of the Earth

This summer I discovered that I love hiking and camping. I love all things outdoors and quite frankly Utah is the best place for all of those things. Here are a few pics and highlights.
We went to Zions last May and it was awesome:
(L-R) Preston, Ie Ling, me, Greg- The four of us went down to Moab on a Thursday night and found a good camp site and then on Friday we did a fun hike to this arch and then half of another very uphill hike, which we gave up on. It was really fun.

Another from that hike. The future cover to our band's first album:

Then, on Friday afternoon/night a bunch of our other friends from the ward came down and we all watched the sunset and then on Saturday we did some of the fun hikes around Arches National Park. Here is the whole group:

We did Delicate Arch which was beautiful, although crowded. The arches really are amazing.

I think this hike was called Double O Arch hike which included landscape arch which was awesome. Again, really incredible stuff.

Greg, Preston, and I stayed behind a bit longer after everyone else had headed back to Provo and did two other awesome hikes including our favorite called Negro Bills which took us to another amazing arch. The trail went through more greenery and along a beautiful stream. I don't have any pics of that one. The boys have them all and I keep forgetting to ask for them!
After the glory of Moab I realized that I needed to do more hiking. I didn't do nearly as much as I would have liked during the summer, but in the fall I started trying to go weekly so a few of us would go on Friday afternoons. This is some of us: me, JM, and David with Preston taking the picture. This was a great hike up Provo canyon.


Next, and a super highlight of my hiking from the past few months:
ZIONS!! The hiking crew- JM, David, Preston, and myself- took off on a Friday afternoon, got to Zions in the early evening and drove around the park a bit- including a small but fun hike/run while we were stuck in construction traffic, camped on BLM land for free, battled fire ants, made peach cobbler on the fire, and had a not-completely-miserable night's sleep under the stars. Saturday we woke up early and headed deep into the park. We started with Hidden Canyon, which was a fun one. It was especially nice because we were some of the first on the trail so it was pretty peaceful and nice. Then, after lunch we hiked the Narrows, which is so fun. I had done it as a kid but it was nice to go again. I would love to do the real hike- the three day backpacking trip- someday.
Here is Preston jumping in Hidden Canyon (I don't know why these pictures turned out so small)

Me, Preston, and David taking a break

On the trail!






So, the moral of the blogpost is that I love hiking. I love being outdoors. Virginia is beautiful in a different way and I am excited to being able to get to know her trails. All I need now is a canine companion to accompany me...

A wonderful Story

President Monson shared this during the General Relief Society broadcast this past October and I thought it was such a beautiful story. I will actually post info on my life soon...

Enjoy:

A classic account of judging by appearance was printed in a national magazine many years ago. It is a true account—one which you may have heard but which bears repeating.

A woman by the name of Mary Bartels had a home directly across the street from the entrance to a hospital clinic. Her family lived on the main floor and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the clinic.

One evening a truly awful-looking old man came to the door asking if there was room for him to stay the night. He was stooped and shriveled, and his face was lopsided from swelling—red and raw. He said he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no success. “I guess it’s my face,” he said. “I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says it could possibly improve after more treatments.” He indicated he’d be happy to sleep in the rocking chair on the porch. As she talked with him, Mary realized this little old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. Although her rooms were filled, she told him to wait in the chair and she’d find him a place to sleep.

At bedtime Mary’s husband set up a camp cot for the man. When she checked in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and he was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, he asked if he could return the next time he had a treatment. “I won’t put you out a bit,” he promised. “I can sleep fine in a chair.” Mary assured him he was welcome to come again.

In the several years he went for treatments and stayed in Mary’s home, the old man, who was a fisherman by trade, always had gifts of seafood or vegetables from his garden. Other times he sent packages in the mail.

When Mary received these thoughtful gifts, she often thought of a comment her next-door neighbor made after the disfigured, stooped old man had left Mary’s home that first morning. “Did you keep that awful-looking man last night? I turned him away. You can lose customers by putting up such people.”

Mary knew that maybe they had lost customers once or twice, but she thought, “Oh, if only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear.”

After the man passed away, Mary was visiting with a friend who had a greenhouse. As she looked at her friend’s flowers, she noticed a beautiful golden chrysanthemum but was puzzled that it was growing in a dented, old, rusty bucket. Her friend explained, “I ran short of pots, and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn’t mind starting in this old pail. It’s just for a little while, until I can put it out in the garden.”

Mary smiled as she imagined just such a scene in heaven. “Here’s an especially beautiful one,” God might have said when He came to the soul of the little old man. “He won’t mind starting in this small, misshapen body.” But that was long ago, and in God’s garden how tall this lovely soul must stand!
-Adapted from Mary Bartels, “The Old Fisherman,” Guideposts, June 1965, 24–25.