Trek 2012

This was one of the funnest and most exciting things I've ever done. Trek is definately something everyone should do because it teaches you the true meaning of strength and sacrifice. It brings together wards and 'families' to make friends that will last forever. I will never forget what we did there and what it taught me.

The Physical part for me wasn't really hard at all after Dark Canyon two weeks ago, but the Spiritual side was very uplifting. We left wednesday morning and started trekking around 10 'o clock. I was in the Sherwood's family that called themselves the 'Star Trekkers'. The Morse's were going to be 'The Walking Negroes' (an old chain gang) until they decided that was too racist and they became 'The Smiths'. We ate way to well in my opinion, with the Stake spending about $12,000 on food alone. I was mad about this until I realized that the only Pioneer authentic thing we were really doing was pulling a handcart, so I didn't mind the food that much.

We went 13 miles the first day, 8 Thursday, 6 Friday, and 3 Saturday morning. Thursday was the Women's Pull, which was inspirational to both men and women. The men had to walk up the hill and we just had trouble walking, so we couldn't imagine how the women would pull a handcart up that thing. While we were gone though, they had a devotional in which they were promised Angels to help them, and our ward did a fantastic job. When they got to the top we were not allowed to speak or help (we cheered a little bit anyway) until they got around this turn and stopped to breathe. Ahead was another hill that they thought they would have to climb until we were released and came running. It was an amazing spiritual experience that I will never forget.

The rest was easy compared to that, and we trekked along until Friday afternoon when we had a devotional in which we were told to turn around the bracelets that we had made with the names of our Ancestors to the side that had our name, put on 'modern' clothes and have fun. I hadn't brought a change of clothes because I thought we'd be Pioneers the whole time, so I cut my pants at the knee and put on my pajama shirt. The activities were very fun, including Gator Ball, Angry Birds, and homemade ice cream. The last part was another devotional with Captain Moroni showing up and giving us an inspirational speech of how we are modern day Nephite Soldiers, standing up for the right in the face of the Devil and all his minions. Then each of the Stake Presidency gave their testimonies and we went to bed. 

The next day was easy, with the 'Mormon Battalion' having taken our handcarts during the night so we didn't have to take them with us. We walked the last three miles and went home, and I realized that most of my tan was just dirt when I got in the shower. I had to talk today with 5 other people in church with no prior notice but that wasn't bad. I want to do it all again when I can in the future because it was unforgettable and irreplaceable. 

-Coy.

Dark Canyon 2012

This was the most dangerous thing I've ever done in my life up to this point, and I loved every minute of it. Hiking Dark Canyon is a scout activity that every scout able to do should do.

Why you might ask?

Because you learn more about scouting and survival on it then all your previous years of Scouting combined (including all camp-outs and week-longs).

The experience starts way before you even leave your home with the packing of your bag. Dark Canyon (it could be longer) is a three day hike where everything you need you have to carry yourself. Every ounce counts as too much or too little could make or break you. All your meals you're called on to bring and prepare yourself, with nobody babysitting or helping you. I had three dehydrated dinners (which turned out surprisingly delicious) and a variety of granola bars, Cliff Energy Bars,  and smaller snacks to tide me through the other parts of the day. Everything else needs to be carefully considered and classified into 'want' and 'need'. If you only want it, don't bring it or it will only end up as extra weight that will slow you down, make you use more water, and will make the trip much less enjoyable. Everything else I brought was 2 total pairs of clothes (one wearing and one packed) consisting of two t-shirts, a pair of shorts, a pair of light pants that turned into shorts, one pair of sturdy sandals and one pair of hiking shoes with two pairs of light wool socks. Everything else I brought was a light fleece sleeping bag, a tarp, a camel bag bladder (that my bag had a pouch for) a water bottle, and a small Book of Mormon.

The Hike started Thursday morning with a hike down a 1,000 foot cliff face. This consisted of about 2 hours of dropping and zig-zagging through faces and small plateaus. This is why we brought pants for the first day, and those that didn't ended this part with various cuts and bruises all over their exposed legs. We laughed at the bottom when we realized we had moved about 100 horizontal feet into the canyon when going about a mile at least total (the hike we did was about 21 miles total).

The next part of the hike was the hard part however, as you will now hear. We hiked through a dry riverbed for about at least an hour before DeLynn Summers (the oldest participant) began to slow down. It wasn't mentally that he was having problems, it was his knee giving out on him and the fact that we were running out of water earlier then expected. It also didn't help that a lot of the water spots our guides had seen the last time they'd been there were now dried up, making it an hour longer before we'd even seen water. Trevor Morse (one of the guides) and Joey Summers stayed behind with him while we went on to get to water.

I heard the whole story later that went something like this. After we left the three we left behind went on as fast as they could for about an hour longer. DeLynn started to get delirious at that point from water dehydration and heat exhaustion. Joey stayed with him while Trevor went on as fast as he could. He said he didn't think he was doing bad at all (he is a firefighter after all) until he suddenly blacked out. He woke up a minute later and went about 10 feet before it happened again. This time he got over to the shade before laying down and passing out again. He woke up again when Joey ran up to him and woke him up again. Joey brought Delynn over and laid him down next to Trevor and then he went on.

Joey went as long as he could before stopping to pray. He asked Heavenly Father to help him save the two people he'd left behind and to have the strength to go on. He reported a sustaining influence seemed to envelop him at that point and push him on to the water which was two turns away (about a half mile longer). It was a stagnant pool we (the leading party) had passed because it was basically swamp water that would have clogged our filters. Joey stopped there and started to fill his container and started getting water down his throat before running it back to the others.

During this, we had gone about one turn farther to find flowing water. Quickly we filled our water containers and drank our fill. Then we loaded up Jeffery Garner and Jesse Drury (who were the only ones in good enough condition to run) with as much water as they could carry and they took off back to the others. They found Joey a little after he had stopped at the water, who pointed them back to the others.

At the same time approximately, Trevor had waken up and shook Delynn until he was semi conscious They also said a prayer that help would come soon and that they would be able to finish the hike. They laid back down again after this. Jeff and Jesse ran up on them a few minutes later. Jesse said it 'was one of the most traumatic experiences of his life', when he saw them laying on the ground looking like they were dead. They shook them awake and gave them the water, and they were soon fine afterwards, which is a miracle in and of itself.

We were in water the rest of the trip, so nothing even remotely close to that happened again. We would have definitely went back earlier if we had known it was that bad, but everything turned out fine. The rest of the trip was a lot of fun, with active hiking and cliff jumping in-between that ranged in-between 10-40 feet in height. That's a basic summary of the last two days up until the end where the Bishop and Dylan Drury were waiting with their boats and amazingly delicious sandwiches. We went tubing for a couple hours before making the 6 hour drive home to me staying up to 11 playing Legend of Zelda and a deliciously Hot shower.

Overall, the experience was definitely worth it and made up for the challenge in learning experiences. I might get pictures, which I will post here when I get the chance. See you again in 2 weeks after our stake Trek!

Junior Year has ended...

Why must time slide like you on a block of ice heading down a hill, fun while it lasts but over before you realize it? This year was definitely the best school year I've had yet, and it made me only more excited for my Senior year. I'll have to go through period by period to make sure I can organize my thoughts and get it all down in one post, here we go. (I don't claim ownership for any artwork used, but I'm not sure who made it).

This was me in College Prep Math (of course after I'd done all the work and the next period's homework). I'd signed up for Pre-Calc but the School System derped on me even though I had every qualification necessary and had done the appropriate tests. because of this I had to sit through a repeat of my 4 previous math years without learning much new material. This was my only 'bad' class so to say, and the teacher could have been better, but I managed to get into Math 1060 next year so that won't be bad.

2nd Period was A' Capella Choir, which I will never ever forget. We had a choir of about 80 people and we had lots of fun and amazing experiences including choir tour. Some of our songs included Ver Du Ron, Jimmy Crack Corn, Lux Arumque, Let Me Fly, Choose Something Like A Star, I Am Not Yours, and Cindy. My Amazing teacher, Ms. Butterfield (who will become a Mrs. this October) was the perfect person for the job, and I am so thankful for all she's done for me this year. I'm looking forward to being in this choir again and in addition Madrigals next year!

3rd was Chemistry A.P., which I mostly took just to have Melville again, definitely one of the top three best teachers EVER! The subject material was nigh impossible at times but only Melville and a previous year of Chemistry got me through. I'll hear how I did on the test in June/July, but the class was fun because we could play Magic: The Gathering with him in the off times including the last month after the test.

Here's a snapshot of 4th period Debate class. This year was unique in the fact that I was one of the teachers this year, and we did way better then last. We had people place in state (including me, 6th in Lincoln-Douglas) and a lot of fun in our spare time. Next year is going to be Fantastic however, with twice as many people and a lot stronger base of students to build on.

Seminary doesn't get a picture because I don't have one to summarize it fully. I learned so much this year and my spirit was so strengthened that I can literally give a lot of credit for my testimony to my two wonderful teachers, Sister Beautikofer and Brother Browning. Sister B was fun and energetic and was the perfect person to teach the Old Testiment, bringing it to life it and what not. Brother Browning had amazing insight and great discussions even if we didn't get to all the material, he spake completely by the spirit. I am so thankful for people who give their lives to the increasing the spiritual knowledge go others. Thank you so much.

Chinese was a class that surprised me in a lot of ways, with the teacher being fantastic and the subject material being not even near as hard as people chalk it up to be. It's just like a little bit of secret code that most a matures could figure out with a little help (hint: the top of the poster says 'Rainbow Dash'). We only had to learn about eighty characters, something like 200 words, and have a lot of fun. Mr. Groethe was a cool guy who was relatively new to teaching but very good at it. Anybody should take his class, and I AM SO MAD THAT MADRIGALS TOOK THE SAME PERIOD AS IT NEXT YEAR! GAH! I will join the Chinese club though

Mr. Briggs, thank you for giving me the greatest History class I have ever experienced. Seriously, Mr. Briggs is a genius, as as most geniuses, he is insane. Literally. He even knows it and admits it. Direct Quote: "I know I'm insane, and the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. The Second is therapy and I refuse to take that." He was easily sidetracked and often did it himself on purpose but I learned so much from his class I could take it a hundred times more, and I MANAGED TO GET HIM NEXT YEAR FOR HIS U.S. GOVERNMENT CLASS! YESSSSSS!!!!! He is a Genealogy freak and and History nut and I love him as a teacher.

Language Arts Honors was a class definitely worth taking. Mrs. Marshall was a teacher that actually cared about what we learned and how much we learned and that made it enjoyable (although the class was my hardest under Chem A.P.). Although a large majority of the class was recycled material, we read a lot of great plays and studied literary devices in depth. I enjoyed it a lot.

Overall, my Junior Year was fantastic. I can't believe it's over and I can't stand the idea of Summer (I still don't know how I managed to type that). If college is better then this then I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Until next week after I get back from Dark Canyon!

LONG OVERDUE!

I can't believe it took me an entire month to do a post on Choir Tour! Procrastinators unite... tomorrow!

How in the world can I sum up probably the 4 most amazing consecutive days of my life to this point? With a bunch of random paragraphs and a barrage of pictures, that's how! So here we go.

We started Thursday morning with showing up to the airport 2 hours early. This was done to avoid the rush, which we definitely did. We were through security in about 10 minutes and Chris Neu and I watched Psych for the rest of the time. The plane ride it self was pretty uneventful except for the amazing trivia game they had that you could play with everyone else on the plane. I only got through one round with the username of 'Derpy' (as in Derpy Hooves) before the game kicked me out for some reason. The only other entertainment was the television, which had no sound, and therefore I could only watch Tom and Jerry.

When we arrived the sky was mostly clear, and we could see the Space Needle from above. We played Munchkin and watched Psych for the next two hours until the second plane load showed up. By then it was raining pretty bad and a little dark outside. With our stuff stowed safely under our seats in the big tour bus and met the greatest bus driver in the world, the Almighty DAVE! I need did find out his last name, though. We got to the Hotel and dropped our stuff before heading out again to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Fun place.

Next day the sky was clear, and we visited the Space Needle. You can see the video of that below. Near that was the Science Museum and some building called the E.M.P. Museum (the Electronic Music Pop-cultere museum or something). Both were very interesting and informative about all kinds of stuff, including the history of Horror Films and the world's largest Rubic's Cube.

The next stop was the local Aquarium, which was fascinating based on the fact that the city is on the Pacific Ocean front (See pictures and such below).

It was after the aquarium that we gave our performance at the local high school as a choir, and we did pretty darn good with our renditions of "Let me Fly", "Ver Du Ron", and "I Am Not Yours". We still might get the mp3's of those.

The next day we visited Pike's Marketplace where we sadly didn't get to see the people tossing fish around, through we did sing in the street for the crowd. There was also this guy in a suit giving out hugs for a dollar each. Following that we saw the Seattle Mariners vs Chicago White Sox baseball game where the Phillip Humber (the White Sox pitcher) pitched the 21st perfect game in history. That was pretty cool though I could care less about baseball.

After that was the Harbor cruise where we rode to an island that use to house an Indian race of indigenous  people. There was a lodge there where we were served to dinner and a award ceremony where we earned a Gold Award in our division (the best). Caden Larson got a special award for being AMAZING on the piano and the Madrigals took silver in their division.

Last but not least was the Museum of Flight sunday morning (see pictures again). There was a lot of history contained there and it was a lot of fun. We ended the trip the same way it started and my family was there to pick me up.

Over all it was a lot of fun. I'm getting nostalgic just writing this post and I can't wait until Madrigals next year to do something like it again. Happy days, everyone!

Pictures:

PROM 2012!

Oh man, that was fun. The entire experience started a few weeks ago when my mom informed me that she expected me to go to prom with or against my will. So, I planned to make the best of it. I got in a group with some friends, namely Colby Sims, Jake Christensen, and Thomas Argyle. My date was Christina Kimbull. Over the course of two late night planning meetings by the 4 males where we spent over half the time being distracted and not getting anything productive done, we came up with a convoluted that was a lot of fun which went as follows. We picked everybody up about 10 o'clock and drove them to my house. Then (after making the mistake of letting my mom decide what the pictures were) we did a picture scavenger hunt around the Riverton/Bluffdale area where we had to take pictures of us doing various activities that were worth varying amounts of points. If we didn't score enough points, our parents would accompany us to the Prom. We didn't know how much was enough, so we had to get as much as possible.

After we finished our shenanigans, we stopped at the Bluffdale Park for a picnic lunch. Our activities ranged from flying kites, playing kickball, telling stupid jokes and stories, and basic running around. After everybody was sufficiently sunburned, we painted Easter Eggs in the wind.

After this we dropped everybody off for about 2 hours to get dressed, while it took the guys about 10 minutes.

After we picked everybody back up and got lost trying to find Thomas's house, we had his dad do our pictures for FREE! He does wedding pictures as a part-time professional and he did an AMAZING JOB! (His website is dbaphotography.com)

We then attended a lovely private dinner in Grandma Jello's Basement Restaurant. With a delicious meal cooked up by the moms, we savored steaks, potatoes, salad, green-bean casserole, and Sparkling Sprite.

Then we actually attended the dance. The music was loud, the moves fresh, and the sweaty armpits. It was an extremely enjoyable time of socializing and making a fool of yourself.  We were so busy having a good time making up dance moves ranging from 'the shopping cart' to 'change the lightbulb' that we didn't get any pictures or videos.

We then ended by driving the Jake's house to enjoy Brownies and Ice Cream while winding down. It was an extremely enjoyable evening that I'm glad to have enjoyed. And Christina, when you read this, thank you for saying yes. You are a great person and I had a great time with you. ;)

CLICK HERE TO WATCH OUR VIDEO!

Major Update Needed

So much has happened recently that I haven't even considered writing it down, but now that I have a chance to breath I have come to consider it as a good idea. The first major thing was my entrance into the world of a Youtube video creator. I haven't done much but my channel is here. I'm working on an Abbott and Costello thing at the moment. Next, two weeks ago was probably the hardest I've had in my life up to this point, with a combination of major schooling challenges and State Debate over the weekend. I managed to get to the Quarter Finals and took "6th" place but it wasn't easy and I almost killed myself with a cold. It was fun though and worth it. After that my mom insisted I get a prom date for this weekend and I've been stressing over that since I have no idea about how to do dances on dates and especially what's expected for prom. You'll be haring about my experiences later.

Pioneer Children Sang as they walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked...

Recently on a Venture 'campout', enjoyable experiences were had by all. We got to go up to our Bishop's 'cabin' and snowmobile the next day. It was a lot of fun, starting with many of the boys in my crew flirting with girls on the highway that ended up going to the same cabin community as ourselves. We then hiked up to the cabin on what was supposed to be a fifteen minute hike that turned into a 45 minute hike. We'd gotten there later then expected, and it got dark as we hiked in snowshoes. The result was that we walked past the cabin in the dark, and when we asked them to turn on the lights, we were fifteen minutes off course and had to hike back. It was worth it for the cabin alone however. The house was completely furnished and decked out with ever modern convince including a huge flat-screen and remote-control fireplaces. We had a lovely dinner of chili-cheese dogs and ended it with a night of hot-tubing, karaoke singing, and Mario Kart Wii that ended at midnight. The next day we went snowmobiling for a few hours, and had an incredibly enjoyable time of it. We were incredibly sore the next day for church and it didn't help that mom got me up at 8 and had us all go out to shovel driveways. It was way fun though, and I suggest watching this.

The Game of Public Education

The story of my life for the last two months was incredibly boring. Nothing except school week after week and Debate on some weekends. Not to say I didn't enjoy it. I learned stuff, including Chinese and the definition of Proletarian. I played Magic and Munchkin with my friends at school. I did average at 3 debate tournaments and am slightly looking forward to regions this weekend. I am reading a good book though, 'Life and Death in Shanghai'. It's a true story about a woman who lived through the Proletarian Revolution in China and the atrocities and afflictions that beset her through the reign of Communists. I'm glad I read it as it shows exactly those behind Occupy Wall Street are idiots. School though, is a game. Its about playing your cards right and keeping vigilant to get that little blot of ink that says you're smart to the world. It determines your fate and career and how you will be treated by those above and below. I think its broken, flawed, and biased against those who don't quite fit the system, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I just hope it will be some day.

On that happy note, look what I can do!

LAST FUNDRAISER!

Hey everybody! As you may or may not know I'm am in A'Capella Choir this year and as you may or may not know Choir Tour comes with it. We are going to Seattle Washington and that costs a lot of money for the trip and Hotel. Fortunately we are taking orders for buckets of Cookie Dough and Carmel Corn and other delectable treats for 14 or 15 dollars. This is the last Fundraiser we're doing and if you could contribute it would be extremely helpful! All profits will help us on our way.

The choices are:

Cookie Dough 14$:

Chocolate Chunk

Peanut Butter

Oatmeal Raisin

Snicker doodle

Cookie Dough 15$:

White Chocolate Macadamia

Triple Chocolate

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

White Chocolate Oatmeal Raspberry

Lemon Drop

Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough Bits (yum!)

Churros

Pumpkin Rolls

Carmel Corn (all 14$):

Chocolate Delight:

Chicago Style:

Buttery Carmel

Cherry Delight

Mint Delight

Peanut Butter Delight

If you can help us out, then please e-mail me at coy@jrchristensen.com. If you're worried about quality, don't be. I've tasted this stuff and it is very good (especially the Oatmeal Raspberry, that stuff is like Heaven on Earth!).

I'll never forget

Today will be in my memory forever. It started about a month and a half ago when Annie asked me if I would like to baptise her (How can you say no when someone asks that?). Last night I took her on a date to Carl's Jr, discussing what would happen this morning. It was truly amazing to be a part of her ordinance. We'd been practicing the baptism for about a week and, with the water barely reaching past the top of my thighs, I nearly had to double over to get her completely in the water. This was also because she's just about half my height. Overall, the experience was amazing and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.