Connor and I were given a once in a lifetime opportunity this summer. Last December I was approached about being a Leader of 9 boys from my stake to be part of a 160 person, all LDS, Venturing Scout contingent to attend the World Scout Jamboree in Rinkaby Sweeden.

Our entire trip was 14 days, but the jamboree was only 10. We had a couple of days of travel and 2 day in Copenhagen Denmark where we had a short tour of the city and then spent the rest of the time with the missionaries in a Zone Conference and doing baptisims for the dead in the temple there. It truely was a remarkable scouting experience, but also an increadible missionary experience and a time to find out about people from all over the world.

We actually had 40 people in our camp and were quite a distance from the others that came with us. We did see them at our song practices and at the Religious Event in which all 160 of us with green venturing shirts and white stetson hats sang a traditional Swedish song, On My Honor, I am a Child of God, and Rise up O Men of God. Former President Charles Dahlquist was there running the program, and was the brainchild behind this entire trip for us. Connor was able to spend time with him and sit next to Pres. Gibson from the YM 1st presidency when he came to our camp to eat one night. We had so much fun meeting scouts from all over the world and doing activities with them, trading neckerchiefs and patches and finding out so much about youth in other countries. The boys were totally thrilled when they realized that scouting for the rest of the world includes girls!
















We had quite a few days of rain, but then were blessed with about a week of very nice weather! The last night and morning that we left was a reminder of the agony of camping in the rain!
Regardless of what scout activities we will ever go on again, this will forever be at the top of our list!

Konichiwa!

Yikes, it's been forever since I've posted on here. We've been busy, of course, but that's no excuse I guess. Brady came home from his mission to Japan, after the 9.0 earthquake caused a tsunami and a nuclear catastrophe. His mission, and the one north of him were evacuated. Because he only had 2 transfers left, he was sent home in order to make it easier to place the remaining 200+ missionaries! It was extremely difficult for him, but we were so glad to get him home, safe from the danger of the nuclear meltdown! We had already purchased tickets to go to Japan in May and pick him up from his mission, so we put that on hold for a while. But as it got closer to our departure date, things looked better and better. We sold our 2 tickets back and purchased 3 for June. We could only be gone for 10 days since Brady had a job by then and couldn't miss two full weeks of work, but it was awesome! We're so glad we went. What an incredible opportunity to meet the wonderful investigators and members in Chiba and Yokohama! We loved the country, the food, the people, the interesting culture...the whole experience! We weren't sure that we'd be able to get Brady to come back with us, but we won. I think he left his heart there, but at least, we got the rest of him back home again!