Arizona at last

The mission statement at Anasazi is "to prepare parents and children to turn their hearts to one another, begin anew, and walk in harmony in the wilderness of the world." As employees, they ask us to live by the same standards we require the YoungWalkers to live and to also participate in turning our hearts towards our families. Consequently, you should all be expecting a whole heck of a lot more phone calls from me this summer, and I have also decided to revamp my dust ridden blog. I have really missed you all so much already. There's no one I want more after a long, hot, cactus-infested day in the desert than my family and especially my mother. I love the job so far, but really miss our weekly get-togethers. I'm excited to see everyone when I make my visits this summer.
Work has been going well--just a lot of training so far. We spent the first three days of training "on the trail" in the north-east Arizona wilderness. We went through a few varying desert climates on our way up to our camping location, gathering supplies from fallen vegetation and learning which plants were useful, edible, medicinal, and deadly. While we were cutting down the stalk of a yucca plant for fire boards a carpenter bee flew out. Inside the stalk was a rich deposit of desert honey, which is a bit grainier in texture but just as good as honey. I'm learning that even in the desert, there are endless resources available to us. I'm also quickly learning that cacti spines are unpleasant in toes and that clothing is the best kind of sunscreen around. I can happily report zero sunburns--thanks to my long sleeves and wide brimmed hat. Thanks for the years of advice, Mom; it has finally sunken in.
During our three days of outdoor training we went to work with our knives and machetes, making our fire sets, bows, knife sheaths, digging and rabbit sticks. It felt like I was back at the Walker Rendezvouses with the Southams--we even use good old fashion cow pies to start our fires. I love it.
One of the greatest highlights was finding wild mint on the edge of a small stream and wild mustard growing in our camp site. I was able to make a delightful minty drink before I went to bed.
The hardest part of the three day training was the dehydration I experienced on the first day out, while collecting resources for the making of our tools. I thought I had been drinking enough liquids and I had even boughten a large Gatorade for the car ride up. But after a couple hours in the Arizona heat my body began to sweat and feel sluggish and my head began to pound. Just a short while after these symptoms started I started to feel like I was going to throw-up: a true sign of dehydration. The field director explained to us how we could evaluate the level of our hydration through a pulse check and also the things we needed to do to stay hydrated. I began hydrating myself right away, after discovering that I was three quarts short of hydration. I felt sick for a couple hours after that, but once the water and food sunk in, my energy and spirits were fully restored. Through this experience I quickly learned the importance of water. I learned that I need to be drinking water not casually and lightly, but that I need to be drinking frequently and deeply. A sip here and there is not enough. Reading my scriptures the next day I came across a passage that refers to Christ as the living water. It struck me then that the same principle I learned about water's role in my physical survival the day before was applicable to my spiritual survival as well. I think too often I have drunken the living water casually, taking small swallows here and there. The world is a deadly place for spirituality and Satan is everywhere, setting up traps and ambushes and beguiling us with his deceitful promises of survival and guidance. In the desert, if I am dehydrated I cannot perform my responsibilities. Eventually, I cannot even function and perform the tasks vital to my survival. Without the living water, without Christ, without the Atonement, and without the Gospel, I cannot survive the wilderness of the world and I cannot perform the service God has asked of me. We need to partake of the living water, but not just casually. We need to drink frequently and deeply in order to hydrate our souls.