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Why Do We Need Each Other?

This document discusses the importance of community and togetherness. It shares a story of the author's experience at a church youth camp as a boy where he initially disliked the challenges but had his view changed after seeing his cousin's positive experience. The author came to feel the camp helped him and his friends grow in their faith and character. It also shares a parable told by the author's uncle about how trees that grow alone produce poorer lumber than those that grow together, representing how people also benefit from community. The overall message is that we need each other for support and to help one another improve.

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Jake Law
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23 views2 pages

Why Do We Need Each Other?

This document discusses the importance of community and togetherness. It shares a story of the author's experience at a church youth camp as a boy where he initially disliked the challenges but had his view changed after seeing his cousin's positive experience. The author came to feel the camp helped him and his friends grow in their faith and character. It also shares a parable told by the author's uncle about how trees that grow alone produce poorer lumber than those that grow together, representing how people also benefit from community. The overall message is that we need each other for support and to help one another improve.

Uploaded by

Jake Law
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Why do we need each other?

Growing up I spent one week of every summer at an Aaronic Priesthood camp. At these
camps we were taught about the Priesthood of God. We learned about service, honesty,
respect, work, compassion, healing, and hope. Self discipline was also an important
uality to our leaders and as a result a lot of the rules and classes were designed to help
us e!perience doing difficult tasks. "his made the first few years of this camp very
difficult. A lot of us couldn#t wait to return home from what we called $%hurch
&ootcamp$.
"hen I had an e!perience with my cousin 'ark that changed my outlook on the camp. It
was night time and we all sat around the fire e!hausted and ready to go home. It was the
last night of a very long week. 'ark and all the other older boys had been taken by our
leaders to an activity outside of camp. All we knew about it was they were asked to fast
beforehand.
As we sat we could hear some cars pulling into the far side of camp followed by silence.
"hen, uietly at first, we heard singing. (ur conversation stopped and we all listened. It
sounded like an army of male voices were coming in our direction singing the )ymns of
the church. As we listened, we recogni*ed the words+
Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
'Tis better far for us to strie
!ur useless cares from us to drie;
"o this, and joy your hearts will swell#
$ll is well% $ll is well%
At this point we could see the older boys coming towards us. As the reached the middle
of the campe the began to break off into groups and went to the different campfires us
younger boys had made. 'ark came right up to me and gave me a big hug. I could tell he
had been crying. I didn#t know what to say. &eing the oldest in my family, 'ark was the
closest thing I had to an older brother. We#d always been close.
)e told all of us about how all the older boys had been taken on a hike up a mountian
with the leaders. Along the way, members of our stake bore testimony and taught about
the gospel of ,esus %hrist. )e said that it was all stuff he had heard before, but this time it
sunk in. )e felt, as did most of the people with him, that he had truely gained a witness
that the church of ,esus %hrist was the true church.
After that night, a change had come over my cousin. I couldn#t put my finger on it
e!actly, but I knew he was different. )e -ust seemed more grown up and more confident.
I wanted to e!perience whatever it was he had felt.
I did e!perience that. (n the last night of my last year of the camp, I found myself sitting
on top of a mountain surrounded by my friends and leaders. We had -ust heard a very
powerful instruction and testimony from our stake president about our future role as
fathers and husbands. "hough we were between the ages of ./ and .0, we recieved a
clearer vision than ever before of our potential.
A lot of my friends went through a similar change as my cousin 'ark due to those
Preisthood camps and I feel that I too was made better because of them. This is the
miracle of the Church and the priesthood. &eople are able to change for the better.
1A boy was e!tended an invitation to visit his uncle who was a lumber-ack up in the
2orthwest. 3 4As he arrived5 his uncle met him at the depot, and as the two pursued
their way to the lumber camp, the boy was impressed by the enormous si*e of the trees on
every hand. "here was a gigantic tree which he observed standing all alone on the top of
a small hill. "he boy, full of awe, called out e!citedly, 67ncle George, look at that big
tree8 It will make a lot of good lumber, won9t it:9
17ncle George slowly shook his head, then replied, 62o, son, that tree will not make a lot
of good lumber. It might make a lot of lumber but not a lot of good lumber. When a tree
grows off by itself, too many branches grow on it. "hose branches produce knots when
the tree is cut into lumber. "he best lumber comes from trees that grow together in
groves. "he trees also grow taller and straighter when they grow together.9;
N. Eldon Tanner- The Greatest Brotherhood
We were never meant to go through life on our own.

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