Analogy of the Guidebook and the Backpack

 (My thoughts and Relief Society lesson on the talk by Elder Stevensen "Highly Favored of the Lord" October 2020 General Conference)

In the Late 1990’s I had an opportunity to backpack Mt. Shasta in Northern California. To give you some idea of the hike, Mt. Shasta is covered in snow all year long and requires special equipment to hike. The Trail is 11 miles round trip and increases 7300 feet in elevation with the summit being at 14749 feet. It is typically done in two days.

Most of the year you hike straight up on a snow trail or in late summer a barren rocky switchback trail, leading you to Helen Lake. This is the place that most set up camp and wait for morning when conditions are more favorable to hike the remaining 5 miles and last 4000 feet elevation increase to reach the snowy summit.

Climbing Shasta comes with multiple warnings. If conditions aren’t right, such as extreme winds, avalanche warnings, sudden weather changes, and low visibility, you should not climb to the summit. You must use crampons and ice picks and it is advisable to wear a helmet up this trail.

I went with 3 other people, 2 of which were avid backpackers. My friend and I began running daily to train for it and get into better shape, but living and exercising at 171 elevation didn’t quite prepare us for the higher elevations and lack of oxygen we would experience. I carried a backpack with food clothing and sleeping bag and other necessary equipment. We got good shoes, rented our crampons and ice picks and headed out.

We drove several hours to get there, spent the night on the ground beside the car and headed out the next morning. We were excited to begin on the beautiful trail. We hiked later in the season so there was little snow until we reached Helen Lake, We hiked 1 1/2 miles, coming to the vegetation line. From this point on nothing grew out of the rocky landscape.

As we left the trees behind, the landscape became barren and there was very little to distract our mind. The trail became more steep and it became hard.

At first I would find a spot ahead of me and focus on that spot until I reached it and then would take a rest, I found that if I took too long of a rest it was much harder to keep going. My legs would cramp up and it hurt more starting again and I would start to doubt my ability in being able to make it. During these breaks I would turn around with my back to the barren rocks and look out at the view. I could see how far I had come and the view was spectacular. It was motivating and helped keep me going.

About halfway up the steepest part, my legs tiring, my pack beginning to weigh a ton, I found I could only take 10 steps and have to take a rest. I found that in this way 10 steps up and 10 seconds break I could keep going. Very slowly we climbed the mountain.

The 2 experienced backpackers moved much faster and were soon far ahead of my friend and I. However, we kept on plugging away through the rocky barren switchback trail until we finally reached Helen Lake. Helen Lake has no shelter from the wind, it is just a flatter area about half way up to the summit where most people set up camp and wait for morning to hike the summit. I wasn’t feeling well and had shortness of breath and a headache (altitude sickness). I took a nap, which helped me acclimate a bit to the altitude. We heard of a few other backpackers that also had gotten altitude sickness as well and were suffering from fevers and headaches.

We spent the remainder of the day playing UNO and relaxing inside the tent away from the cold and wind.

The next morning as we prepared to go up to the summit, another backpacker had just returned and said the conditions were too poor to reach the summit. He had climbed up part way and had waited for a couple of hours only to have to turn around and come back down.

We ended up heading back down the mountain not getting completely to the top. Regardless it was an awesome but crazy hard hike.

Our Journey of Life is like this backpacking trip.

We all are on a hike. Depending on the path you choose you will reach different destinations.

There are many kinds of paths; Some with beautiful views but that loop around to the beginning, There are paths that are flatter and require little effort to hike, and more exciting for those that seek the thrill. There are paths that follow swamps, or end at lakes, with all sorts of difficulty levels. etc.

However, There is one and only one trail that leads to our destination: eternal Life.

There may be some paths that look as though they will go to our destination, but all fall short.

We all carry a backpack with what we each feel is important for our hike.

There are risks like avalanches rockfalls, or strong winds that may hit us.

And there are others moving along the path with us, at different speeds.

As we enter this path we are given a guidebook, with recommendations on what to bring on your journey, trail hints, warnings, hiking conditions to prepare for, and information of what is around us. There is also a how to section to teach you skill you will need. It only contains what you need to know to prepare for the next leg of your journey. And like the Liahona changes from time to time to give us new information.

The instructions in the guidebook sound like this.

Pack light, The things you need on your journey will be found along the way. The Guidebook will teach you how to search and find the things you need.

Matthew 6: 25: Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.”...........v.32: For your Heavenly Father knoweth that yet have need of all things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

1Nephi 10: For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost,...

Look back and check out the view. Look how far you have come. And how you have been blessed along the way.

Alma 9: 9 Do ye not remember that our father, Lehi, was brought out of Jerusalem by the hand of God? Do ye not remember that they were let by him through the wilderness? And have ye forgotten so soon how many times he delivered our fathers out of the hands of their enemies, and preserved them from being destroyed, even by the hands of their own brethren? Yea, and if it had not been for his matchless power, and his mercy, and his long-suffering towards us, we should unavoidably have been cut off from the face of the earth long before this period of time, and perhaps been consigned to a state of endless misery and woe.

Study the guidebook on how to become a master backpacker;

Matthew 22:37-39 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart and with all they soul and with all thy mind.

The best way to really learn the guidebook is to help others along their way.

Matthew 22:39 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Trust the guidebook. The Keeper of this trail has cleared the trail and built stations where you can rest and reevaluate your backpack and gain further instruction to continue on your journey.

John 14:15 If ye love me keep my commandments

Moroni 9:25: be faithful in Christ…..may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.

Next, your backpack. This is what you choose to carry. As you prepare, you peruse your guidebook and realize it doesn’t give you a very big list of things to bring.

To supplement the instructions in the guidebook you use your own wisdom on what else you should bring. Things from your previous experience on different trails that were important to have. Perhaps you came from a trail that had many wild beasts and weapons were helpful, or perhaps there wasn’t enough to eat on another trail or not enough shelter from the harsh weather, etc and so into your backpack you pack all the things you think are important.

You also put food, sleeping bags, tents, weapons. You check your pack & find it to be a good weight. It will get you through.

As you start along your way, things are going great. Your attitude is good, you have supplies, and are moving at a good pace. You stop and help some people along the way. You are looking at the beautiful view and Feeling Great!

Then the trail starts to incline. You still feel good but you notice you definitely slow down and your legs are starting to feel sore. Eventually the incline wanes and you notice how much easier the trail is, the weight on your backpack seems lighter. Your body has been strengthened and you are grateful for this extra strength you now have.

Every now and again you notice stations built along the side of the road where you can resupply or rest. But since you brought all the things you need you really don’t stop and utilize these places.

As you continue on your journey you come to a steep hill and your pack becomes heavy, after a short time on this trail you can barely put one foot in front of the other. You keep looking back during the times you are resting to see your progress and realize you have barely made any progress, you are discouraged, but despite this you continue to try. As you try, you become overwhelmed with the heaviness of the pack and wonder how you are going to make it. You notice that some people have a rope that is helping them and wonder where they got it. You continue to struggle until finally your legs are about to collapse under the weight and strain, and in desperation you decide you have get rid of something from your pack to make it over this mountain. You decide on the tent, because you can sleep under the stars and hope for good weather on your journey. And so you fetch the tent out of your backpack and let it go! As you do this you see the guidebook and remember what it had said about there being shelters along the way for you to use. You begin to say to yourself: I don’t remember too many shelters along the way but i will start looking for them to be able to use them for myself. You feel such relief to lose the weight of the tent you were carrying, and again you start to feel good about your journey. And sure enough as you continue on your way you look around for shelters and you find there are many along the path. You wonder why you never noticed them before, but then you never needed them to look for them.

As you enter these shelters you realize that many of them have information on the next part of your hike and the extra supplies you will need. You look in your backpack and realize there isn’t much room, you see some people easily fitting these new supplies into their backpacks, but you look at yours and wonder how you are going to fit it. You see others that shrug at the suggestion of the extra supplies and move along without them. And you see others that pile it onto the outside of their packs, But you know you won’t be able to add too much more weight to yours because it will get too heavy again. So you look through and decide maybe you can take something out to fit them in. You replace one of your weapons to fit it in.

As you move along up the trail, you notice in some of the rockier parts, those that added the extra supplies to the outside of their packs lost them, broken alongside the trail, and they were without. The trail gets rocky and unstable, you use the equipment you received in the shelter and you realized how much more stable you are with them and you are grateful that you obeyed the signs and brought them. You notice the people that didn’t grab any. Their footings are unsure and they are slipping around on the trail. Some people just stop not knowing how to go on, many fall hard or slide over the edge. You help when you can, but you tell them how much stability these supplies bring and they should go back and get them before they continue on. Some listen, others don’t.

On one especially hard part of the trail you help someone and you realize that you don’t notice the weight of your pack when you are focused on others.

As you have been studying the guidebook it has been teaching you how to find food along the way. This food supplies you with more energy and strength than that in your backpack. And so you begin to remove the added weight of what you carry that seemed so necessary when you started.

You slowly over time start emptying your pack of the “extra’s you brought” finding that everything you really needed were supplied in the shelter along the way. Sometimes you remove things because you can’t get over the hill with the extra weight, or because you need to make room in your pack for essential supplies obtained in the shelters.

This experience and many others you have along the way teaches you that each time you are guided to use extra supplies you follow the guidance and add them to your pack. And your faith and belief in them grows. Soon you realize as you have been traveling that your pack has become lighter and lighter and your faith in what the guidebook has said grows, and as you let go of the unnecessary things you realize the guidebook was right. The Lord would supply all your needs.

You are able to help others more, your experiences shared can help others know the helpfulness of the guidebook and the truth it contains. It can help them begin to have faith in and begin to remove their own unnecessary item weighing them down.

You continue in this way until you finally reach your destination. Up hills and down, adding special supplies and removing unnecessary ones.

Representations

Trail - Jesus Christ making the way back to Heavenly Father possible.

Guidebook - Holy Ghost, personal Revelation

Supplies we bring: Worldly wisdom and Ego

Shelters - Scriptures, Modern Day Prophets

Our Backpack - Our Values, Beliefs and Priorities

Extra supplies given in Shelters: Our Talents, Abilities, and Gifts of the Spirit

Reevaluating our backpack - Repentance

Jesus Christ carved a path back to our heavenly father and he gave us a guidebook (the holy Ghost) and built shelters for rest and rejuvenation and with guidance along the way: our Scriptures, modern Day prophet and apostles, who are constantly teaching how to navigate our world today. He gives us opportunities for learning and growth, through personal revelation and service to others, through ministering and callings. There are many more comparisons i could make with this analogy but suffice it to say, all he asks of us is repentance….the taking out of our backpack our worldly wisdom and putting in the tools he knows will help us be successful on our journey.

Matthew 16: 24-25 Then said Jesus unto his disciples,, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. for whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it”

Matthew: 11:28-30 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light

I Nephi….having seen much afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days.

Each of us could say the same thing…..having seen much affliction in the course of my days…...Yet can we all say we have been highly favored of the Lord in all our days?

Elder Stevensen said "Times of affliction and disappointment do not change the watchful eye of the Lord as he favorably looks upon us, blessing us."

Nephi, Laman and Lemuel are a perfect example of this. First we see Nephi, Immediately looking to the guidebook for instruction. Laman and Lemuel refuse, sometimes the advice is helpful to them when they are compelled to use it, but mostly they want to do it their way and in fact they mostly don’t want to do it at all. They can’t see that the destination is better than the beginning of the path. Lehi’s family is asked to travel like nomads for 8 years, suffering starvation, family disputes, fatigue, sickness, learning new skills building a boat. Nephi continually sought the guidebooks help while Laman and Lemuel refused to open it and trust that it could help them. Instead they worried, complained, how they would get food, shelter, weapons, and learning new skills...no way!! In the end, while Laman and Lemuel were dragged along on the back of someone else’s work, Nephi grew strong and confident in his faith that the lord would provide all. The result: when they got to the promised land they were prepared to build a new life there. Even though these brothers went through the same experiences Nephi Did one thing his brothers did not.

He grew his testimony, Listened to the Holy Ghost, followed the Prophet, and He experimented on the words of God and found that his burden was made easier to bear.

Elder Bednar said "If all you or I know about Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel is what other people teach or tell us, then the foundation of our testimony of him and his glorious Latter-day work is built upon sand”

In the End Nephi proclaims...having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, “I have been Highly Favored of the Lord in All My Day.”

Joseph Smith while languishing in Liberty Jail, feeling abandoned and forsaken, heard the words of the Lord: “These things….shall be for thy good and God shall be with you forever.”

These words brought comfort not only to Joseph Smith, but gave comfort and peace to the saints as they left Nauvoo and travelled west.

And again Joseph wrote while he was constrained and restricted at a home in Nauvoo, hiding from the mobs

“Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth;.....glad tidings of Great Joy. Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage....and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth in singing.

In this time of "Covid" when we have been compelled to distance ourselves from the world, I challenge you to see it as a time to focus on our faith, strengthen our belief in the Savior and the guidance he gives to us through our Prophet and Apostles, Seek for and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost and Repent (reevaluate our backpack) - utilize the Gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which will strengthen and enable us to continue the hike.

I truly believe our Heavenly Father is giving us this precious time, to be strengthened for what is to come to prepare for the 2nd coming of our Savior.

Because no matter how hard the trail, the eye of the Lord is upon us waiting to give us all. We are highly favored of the Lord.