By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
It was a day of outdoor adventures for about 150 young boys on Saturday, April 24 at the Overton Wildlife Management Area. The Logandale Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held its ‘Activity Days’ Day Camp event for boys in the community ages 8-11. And there was plenty of fun to keep all those boys busy.
The youngsters were organized into six smaller groups. Each group advanced through a series of six different activity stations where they learned stories about some of the earliest members of The Church.
Activities at each station were guided by members of the Logandale Stake who are assigned to minister to the 8-11 year-old age group in their specific local congregations.
In organizing the event, the Logandale Stake Primary Presidency had chosen the religious theme of “I can be a witness.” The six activity stations all centered around stories about early Church leaders being called upon to be witnesses of important truths, despite challenging circumstances.
“The theme follows the ‘Come Follow Me’ curriculum of Church history, which our Church membership is studying together this year,” said event coordinator Becky Kelly who serves as second counselor in the Logandale Stake Primary organization.
Stories included accounts of the earliest witnesses of the Book of Mormon, which is considered by Church members to be scripture. These witnesses included the Prophet Joseph Smith, who is believed to have been called to translate the Book of Mormon through prophetic gifts; the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon: Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris and David Whitmer; and another group of eight witnesses to the book.
Kelly said that it was important in planning all of these history lessons, that each station be carefully targeted to the age group being taught.
“When we were assigning the stations, we tried to make it very clear to each of the facilitators that the presentation needed to be short and story-based,” Kelly said. “After all, we are working with little boys.
So words should be brief and activities using large muscle movements should predominate. I think all of them did a really impressive job at that.”
There were target shooting activities using sling shots, wheel-barrow racing contests, pioneer-era ‘stick pulls’ and more.
One obstacle course activity even had the boys acting out a well-known story from Church history. In the story, Joseph Smith has only recently received the ancient Book of Mormon record from an angelic messenger. He then finds himself dodging persecutors in order to keep the ancient Book of Mormon record hidden from those who might take it from him.
The boys got to role-play this story, carrying a heavy bag through the obstacle course. They bricked it up in a fireplace nook, hid it in a barrel of beans, engaged in a (stick) horse chase and more.
“Each of these groups came up with some amazingly clever ideas for these stations,” Kelly said. “The boys have had a great time today.”
At the beginning of the event, Logandale Stake High Council member Elwin Brown spoke to the boys about the importance of being a witness for good things.
“I wanted to let them know that these people from long ago in history are not the only ones who can be a witness for truth,” Brown said. “Anyone can be a witness of the truth of the Book of Mormon who is willing to read it, pray about it and gain a testimony of it. Even these young boys can become witnesses for Christ.”
