Monday, September 21, 2009

Some thoughts...

Yesterday we had Stake Conference and it was so good. One thing that impressed me was when we had a Young Man speak who is the President of the Seminary Council. He shared such a beautiful and heartfelt testimony!

Anyway, he shared his feelings about a special assembly they did for Seminary and he called it the Iron Rod Assembly. I think it was arranged by the teachers. He said on the day of the assembly, they were only letting the students in one or two at a time about every 30 seconds or so. When he got his turn, he walked into a totally pitch black building, except for a glow stick by the end of a rod (made out of PVC pipe). Once he started following the rod, with his hand on it, there was no light. He followed the rod for a while, and after a while he came to someone who said to come in and play the Wii. He chose to go on. Then another person wanted him to go see a movie. There were other temptations along the way as well. He held on and kept wanting to tell his friends who strayed to hold on, but some wouldn't listen. When he finally got to the end, he came to a room filled with light. He was welcomed there by the Seminary Principal. He was very affected by this whole experience, I could tell in his remarks.

They had rooms along the way where the temptations were set up, like the Wii and a movie, and other things. It sounds like the rod led all around the Seminary building.

This sounds a lot like something I did on a ropes course several years ago, but outside, and we had to put on blindfolds. We were told it was a silent event and to hold onto a rope. That rope led all over and wrapped around trees and through bushes. We were given an egg to carry, early on our trek, and told to pick something important to us for it to represent and keep it safe. We followed the rope for a while, when someone asked if he could hold our egg for us, or said come with me, and I'll take you to the end.. I remember feeling that my egg represented my family and how I couldn't let anything happen to them. I fiercely held onto that egg and wouldn't listen to the tempters. I struggled to follow the rope, even through knots and wrappings on tree trunks. At one time, I allowed someone to put my hand on the next line, when it got really confusing, but it was hard for me to let go of the rope. They were true to their word, and helped me. When I finally got to the end of the rope, we had been told to hold out our arms and someone would be there. I did and was immediately given a huge hug and told "Welcome home!". I equated this with returning to our Father in Heaven and was overcome with emotion. I was led to a circle of logs and helped to sit down. There was soft music playing and when I felt someone else who had finished and placed next to me, we hugged and held on to each other tightly and did the same as others were placed by us. Still no speaking allowed. We sat there until our group members were all done, at which time we were allowed to take off our blindfolds and share our feelings. Tears are coming to me now as I relive this experience from 15 years ago!

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