Reading about young women from a Centerville, Utah, stake summiting Kings Peak, I was impressed with their expressions of lessons learned and testimonies strengthened.
After a multiday hike to the top of Utah’s tallest mountain, they recounted relating the weight of their packs to life’s burdens and likening the challenging ascent to the journey of mortality. Most importantly, the experiences helped them gain a greater appreciation of and connection to the Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Atonement.
It reminded me of hikes my wife, Cheryl, and I conducted with missionaries as we led the Arizona Phoenix Mission a decade ago — morning or afternoon hikes substantially shorter in distance, duration and elevation.
Our hikes ranged from preparation-day outings with a specific zone to ones that were part of specialized training conferences with various groups of elders and sisters. Locations varied from the pink sandstone formations above Sedona to South Mountain’s Mormon Trail and on to various foothill trails in and around our mission area in Phoenix’s Valley of the Sun. And as we hiked, we often discussed gospel messages, learnings and applications.
About every five or six months, we took 25-30 missionary leaders — later including sister training leaders, when that assignment was introduced — to the Thunderbird Conservation Park in north Glendale. The park features easy to difficult gravel trails along the volcanic boulders in the Hedgpeth Hills, which neighbor the Phoenix Arizona Temple. Our Thunderbird hikes were done on the Coach Whip and Arrowhead Point trails, directly south of the temple.
With the temple of the Lord under construction during our three-year mission, we frequently visited the site with missionaries — those newly arriving, those departing for home or those gathering for nearby conferences. There we underscored that their purpose was to invite others to not only learn of the doctrine of Christ and to be baptized, but also to eventually go to the house of the Lord, there to make and keep additional sacred covenants.
Our typical morning hike with leaders followed this pattern: We started at Thunderbird’s parking lot off West Pinnacle Peak Road, a block away from the temple. During the 2.5-mile hike, we paused after each of several segments to relate that segment to a different principle from the doctrine of Christ — faith, repentance, baptism (or the next ordinance in one’s life), receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. And as we hiked the hills in the park’s southeast area, we often caught glimpses of the under-construction temple.
A steep climb came after the first half-mile; before our missionaries started up, they were invited to each pick up a rock to take up the hill. With bravado, some missionaries hoisted sizable rocks requiring a firm grip or maybe two hands to be carried.
Pausing about halfway up, I took an empty backpack and directed the missionaries to put their rocks inside. A predetermined, capable and forewarned elder then shouldered the backpack as our group resumed its climb.
The earlier chatter decreased as missionaries watched the elder struggle with the backpack’s weight while continuing up the incline, mindful that their rocks added to his burden. Those who had picked up larger rocks were visibly shaken, sometimes near tears, knowing the weight that they had contributed. Some asked if they could help or even take over carrying the pack.
In each of these hikes, the elder successfully and exhaustedly completed the task, soon surrounded by missionaries offering congratulations and appreciation — and apologies for the size of their rocks.
As you would guess, our discussions after that segment centered on bearing another’s burdens, being freed from the weight of burdens and recognizing how Jesus Christ bears our burdens and sins through His Atonement. We made special effort not to directly equate the activity to the Atonement nor the featured elder as the Savior.
Similar discussions were held after different segments of the hike — on faith; on baptism, ordinances and covenants; on the gift of the Holy Ghost and recognizing and following the Spirit; and on enduring to the end. The latter seemed a fitting conclusion as we hiked down to the valley floor with the temple in full view.
We can draw discussion of the Savior and His gospel into our conversations and our activities. We can perceive analogies and reminders of Him, His ministry and His mission all around us. The world around us — including the earth itself — is evidence that “all things denote there is a God” (Alma 30:44). And the best place to learn of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, to make covenants with Them and strengthen our understandings and testimonies of Them is in the house of the Lord.
— Scott Taylor is managing editor of the Church News.
