Finish Line

My eyes are drooping.

My feet are tired.

I'm walking slowly because my body is tired.

I feel weak.

My mind feels like it's shutting down.

I'm ready to go to bed.

My mind is reeling really fast as it constantly goes over today's events, only letting me remember snippets as they pass by on the fast-moving wheel in my head.

I spent a total of 15 hours and 45 minutes getting ready for, driving to, and participating in a Speech and Debate tournament today. But you know what?

No more tournaments this year.

I reached the finish line without quitting.

IT WAS WORTH IT.

Handmaidens of Virtue

Hello friends!

Many of you have heard me talk about "Summit."  If you read my blog all the time, you've probably seen it on here more than once.  But a lot of you are probably wondering what it is.

This year, there are actually two different "Summits."  They are called Mastering Knighthood Summit (the one you've heard me talk about) and Handmaidens of Virtue Summit.  Handmaidens of Virtue Summit is one that is starting this year.  It's based off of the older Mastering Knighthood Summit, which is a hero simulation for boys.  In that Summit, 8-12-year-old boys from all over Utah (and sometimes other nearby states) gather for two days to learn the knightly virtues from a king and queen (Queen Emily and King Richard) and they do many activities and workshops to learn how to be a knight.  They have the Seven Standards of Terre Libre (Terre Libre is their kingdom) that they recite: Work Hard, Serve Others, Seek Knowledge, Promote Peace, Protect the Weak, Respect Women, Live By Faith.  In the kingdom of Terre Libre, they will also have camps.  They have youth leaders in those camps.  And oh, those youth leaders practically run the entire two days.  Those leaders are called Master Knights.  There are other youth leaders in Summit and other adult leaders, too, but the Master Knights take all of the boys through the workshops and provide mentoring and examples for the boys to look up to.  Now, the part that the boys tend to actually show up for is this:  They earn a sword and they go to battle.  During the two days, those 8-12-year-old boys must earn a sword and shield and complete a quest.  There is a whole storyline and theme that goes along with the quest, which almost always involves the bad guys at Gelt.  The boys who have come to Summit before know who these bad guys are.  They loathe them.  They want to mutilate them.  They can't wait for the battle so they can destroy them.  These bad guys are really good bad guys.  Then, at the end of the quest, they report back to the king and queen to get ready for the battle that they know will ensue.  They get major adrenaline rushes.  You can tell by just watching them get ready to charge.  Last year, they had music playing for the battle (the kind of stuff that would play during a battle in a movie).  It.  Was.  Awesome.

That sums up what Mastering Knighthood Summit is.  Now I want to talk about Handmaidens of Virtue.

Handmaidens of Virtue (as I mentioned) is based off of Mastering Knighthood.  It's also a hero simulation; but it's for girls.  The handout on the website says this:

"Never before has the world been in greater need of a generation of girls who are willing to be courageous defenders of virtue - courageous defenders of the family!  In this one day even we will inspire young handmaidens to rise up and fight for what's right as they participate in this hero simulation without the use of swords.  They will discover new wells of courage within themselves as they strive to choose and be better friends.  Their heart will be open to power they have within, and the power true friendship brings."

The theme for Handmaidens of Virtue this year is, "Friendship is like a golden thread that binds hearts together."  The 8-12-year-old girls attending this event will learn all about courage, fighting for what's right, and being a true friend.  They will also have a storyline like the one in Mastering Knighthood.  They will have a villain as well, but this villain will be a girl villain.  They will go through workshops to learn about what they need to do and how they need to act in order to beat this villain (basically the same thing as the boy Summit).  There are youth leaders in this Summit as well that will also basically run the event: Princesses.  These Princesses will be mentors and examples for the young girls just like the Master Knights.  There is a Crown Princess also that will be there to lead and guide and direct the girls along with the king and queen.  Those three are rulers of the nation called Christathel, which means "beautiful follower of Christ."  Under Christathel there are six nations, each with a color and a virtue and a name that goes with that virtue.  Two Princesses, each of their Ladies in Waiting, each of their Royal Guards, and one couple will reign over and guide and protect and teach the girls in each kingdom.  This year, I am one of the Princesses in the blue kingdom called Thia, whose virtue is kindness.  I have a Lady in Waiting and will have a Royal Guard to help me guide and protect and teach eight young girls.  There are sixteen of these girls in each kingdom that are split up between two Princesses, two Ladies in Waiting, and two Royal Guards and over all of those youth leaders and girls in the kingdom there will be that one couple (does that make sense?).  And the six kingdoms will be under the nation called Christathel.  Anyway!  Redundancies are occurring; enough said about kingdoms.  At the end of the day, each young girl will be crowned by their princess with a tiara.  There will be a feast.  Then, at the very end, there will be a ball.  Fathers will escort their daughters to this ball (if not a father, another male relative of the girl that is at least 15 years old).  This will be the highlight of the event, like the battle at Summit.  Boys like fighting in a big, epic battle for a finale.  What girl wouldn't love to be escorted to a royal ball by her father for a perfect ending to her hero simulation experience?

That sums up Handmaidens of Virtue Summit.  They have a website: handmaidensofvirtue.com.  Check it out.  You can ask me any questions.  Registration closes May 15th.  If you haven't heard of this before and decide to register your girl, make sure to put my name in the "How did you hear about the Virtue Summit?" field.  And also, spread the word!  They have 96 openings for the little girls altogether, and I think only 20-something spaces are filled.  It's on July 6th.

That's my whole schpeel.  I love talking about these events, so feel free to ask me anything!  I'm spreading the word, too.  We need girls to come to this so they can learn how to fight against the worldly war going on around them.  And plus, they need friends.  That is what this Summit is about: friendship.  And these girls need the right friends.  Plus, I'm nice, and so are the other Princesses, and your girls will like us.  We have cloaks and tiaras.  :)

Thanks for reading!  Two thumbs up if you finished the post!!

Amory

Climbing Mountains

General Conference was so cool!!  My favorite speakers were (1) Jeffery R. Holland, (2) President Monson, and (3) David A. Bednar.  They have such insightful and inspirational messages to share.  I love listening to what they have to say.

My favorite part of Jeffery R. Holland's talk was about when the boy said, "I don't know but I do believe," and then he said, "I squeezed that boy until his eyes bulged!"  I loved that!  I laughed.  I was able to see and feel the love that he felt for that boy.  He shared such an inspiring message, too.  Now I feel like I can just believe some things without feeling guilty because I don't know them yet; and I will continue to learn more about those things I believe in until I know those things.

My favorite part of President Monson's talk was about the fire.  It made me smile.  Little kids are so innocent, even after being baptized, simply because they just haven't learned yet.  He did teach a valuable lesson, though: Be obedient.  It's VERY important, I can tell, especially since the prophet strongly admonished it.

I really liked Elder Bednar's talk.  My mom and dad laughed because right when he said, "Why is the law of chastity so important?" at the beginning, I just whipped out my piece of paper and pen and fixed my eyes on the TV.  I took a whole bunch of notes on that talk.

It is becoming increasingly notable to me that the talks in General Conference have been sounding more and more urgent.  I feel more and more inspired to be a better person each time I hear those talks.  I think that the prophet and apostles (and all the other speakers) are trying to tell us that we need to hurry.  The tell us to hasten the Lord's work.  What do you think it means to "hasten?"  That's right!  It means to hurry!  That's why they're sending out so many missionaries; opening new missions; building more temples.  They are hastening the Lord's work.  And do you know what that means?  They want us to hurry, too.  They don't just want us to casually participate in whatever the church is doing and be a good person.  They want us to actively and enthusiastically participate in church activities, go on missions, gain strong testimonies, and do all that we can possibly handle doing to better ourselves constantly, be a good example, and bring others to the church.  They don't want any of us to say to ourselves, "Oh, I'm a good person already!  If I just keep being a good person, I'll do wonderfully at the second coming!"  Yeah, you could do pretty well.  But I think they want us to do more than just be a good person.  I think they want us to keep trying and trying and trying to reach higher and higher and higher!  It's like climbing up a mountain.

Heavenly Father tells you to climb a mountain.  Your home that you built when you were a little younger is at the bottom of the mountain.  You don't want to leave your home and you know that it will be very hard.  You even argue with Him.  He says that it will be hard to climb the mountain but He promises you that once you reach the top, you'll receive a great reward and have a WAY better home there.  You trust Him, so you decide to start climbing.  You get a little tired as you start but you say, "Eh.  I can keep going.  I can make it to the top."  So you keep climbing.  You climb and climb until you reach a little shelf.  You're a little over halfway up the mountain and you're extremely tired, so you decide to rest.  Then you sort of just say to yourself, "You know, I'm over halfway up the mountain.  He didn't say to climb to the top of the mountain, Heavenly Father only said to climb the mountain.  I'll just stay here a while."  So you bide your time for an hour or two.  Then you actually look up the mountain.  It looks like it gets way hard to climb towards the top.  You start to feel like, "Well, it's fine.  I don't need to climb all the way up.  I'll just make my little home on this shelf."  You gather some things from the mountainside to sustain yourself and you feel comfortable.  You get really comfy and decide to live the rest of your life there.

When you die, Heavenly Father greets you lovingly.  But then His expression turns sad.  When you ask Him what's wrong, He says, "I told you to climb the mountain but you didn't do what I asked.  You knew that I meant I wanted you to climb the whole mountain but you didn't."  You protest, telling Him that He didn't say to climb the whole mountain, He just said to climb the mountain.  He shakes His head in sadness.  "I'm sorry," He says, "but since you didn't climb to the top or at least as far as you possibly could, I can't give you your reward."  Heavenly Father decides, though, that you did get to the middle, so you just get a nice home to live in.

Now think about that.  The house is where you progressed to as a child.  Then, as a youth, you started realizing that Heavenly Father was asking you to reach higher and do more.  So, you progressed as fast as you could, learning lots and lots of things about the mountain and how to climb over and walk around obstacles, until you reached a point somewhere in the middle of your life where you felt like you were doing pretty well and you could just pause for a while.  But then you just completely stopped.  You decided that you had learned enough and you didn't really need to learn any more.  But once you realized that you had so much more ground that you should have covered, you regretted not reaching the top, especially since you learned what the great gift was: Eternal Life and a kingdom of your own like God's kingdom.

Now, not everyone is like that.  But I seem to be thinking that a lot of people are, and that that's part of why the people in General Conference are trying so hard to urge us to climb faster and higher and as high as we possibly can; or in other words, to progress spiritually and mentally as much as we possibly can.  That's the message I'm getting from General Conference.

Climb your mountains, guys.  Climb fast.  Climb high.  Reach for the highest point.  Stretch to your potential.  Climb to your destination.  I just noticed something: "destination" has the same root word as "destiny."

Fulfill your destiny.

Amory