St. Mary's Dam Visit

5th Ward Young Chefs

One of our first activities in the year 2012 was graciously hosted by Brother and Sister Gladding.  They were kind enough to open their home and plan a cooking event that got all the young men working on a variety of dishes.  The menu included biscuits, orange-zest chili, hamburger and macaroni, and chocolate tacos for dessert.  Nothing was left afterwards, which wasn't too surprising.   It was impressive to see how well our young men followed recipes and made some really decent food!  Thanks to the Gladdings for being such fantastic hosts and for planning such a great activity!

Arise and Shine Forth

The LDS Youth Theme for 2012 comes from D&C 115:5 and encourages our young men to Arise and Shine Forth.  We encourage our young men and their parents to visit the Official LDS Youth website and note the important changes in the new For Strength of Youth counsel from the First Presidency.  Other links for Family History and the challenge from Elder Bednar for our young men are also there.  Many of our activities planned for 2012 are aligned with the current counsel and direction given to us by our modern day prophets.  We look forward to a great year in 2012!

Helaman's Encampment July 2011

Our young men attended Helaman's Encampment from July 4-9 held at Camp Impeesa, located on the shores of Beaver Mines Lake.  We joined with 23 stakes from Alberta (including the Regina Stake from Saskatchewan) in celebrating 100 years of scouting in the province of Alberta.  The planning and day-to-day operations needed for such an event were incredible, and as participants, we greatly appreciated the chance to actively participate in the encampment.  We had exceptional weather throughout the week (somewhat miraculous considering all the rain and snow that had fallen in the mountains this spring) and each day brought engaging and often challenging hikes and activities.  After each day's activities, the evenings were spent eating, watching a quickly popular spontaneous stick fighting competition started by members of the Cardston 3rd Ward, relaxing, and finally enjoying a fireside speaker at the natural amphitheater after dinner.  The speakers were as follows:

Monday:  Elder Richard Melchin, member of the Fifth Quorum of Seventy.  Elder Melchin read a letter to us written by President Monson, the text of which was made available afterwards.

Tuesday: Edwin Moliki Mulitalo, starting left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, SuperBowl winner, drove up to Alberta the night before he spoke to us once he realized his passport had expired and he couldn't fly.

Wednesday: Elder Gifford Nielson, member of the Sixth Quorum of Seventy, All American Quarterback from BYU

Thursday:  Charles Dahlquist, former President of the Young Men's organization

Friday:  President David L. Beck, President of the Young Men's organization

Capturing all that transpired throughout the camp would be difficult to summarize, but it was a memorable experience for everyone who participated.  What follows are a host of pictures capturing some of the events.  If any of you have photos to share, please send them to fifthwardym@gmail.com. Thanks to the Bishopric, leaders, and all the young men who helped make this encampment a memorable experience!  And thanks to our mothers and fathers who got us all there!

Thanks to everyone who submitted pictures!

Mixing Youth with Gun Power?

Our young men were fortunate enough to have some brief firearms training combined with marksmanship with our recent skeet shooting activity.  Thanks to Bro. Mackenzie for letting us onto his father's land to have a blast shooting shot guns!  Bro. Mackenzie even brought out his special shot gun for a few of the young men to try.  We definitely have some surprisingly sharp shooting young men who easily outshot most of the leaders.  Well done everyone for a fun and safe activity where we were reminded that when necessary respect is shown for firearms, using them can be challenging and fun.