Words from Alec

(Cub Scout Day Camp was great...especially because I got to spend 2 full days
with Alec. He still loves having me around, which is a good thing!)

Today, Alec gave a talk in Primary about preparing to go to the temple.
This morning before church, he sat down at the computer and wrote the talk
mostly all on his own after we brainstormed a few ideas
over breakfast. Here's his talk (fully edited by me - talk about summer regression!!):

This summer me and my family went to Philmont – a scout camp in New Mexico. We flew from Detroit-to-Denver and drove the rest of the way. When we got Philmont, we were assigned to age groups, like mine was called “Sidewinders”. We got sent to tents, luckily our family was together. Each tent slept 2 people. Me and Ian got a small tent while Hannah, Riley, and my mom and dad got two bigger tents than our own .

One day me my group went on an all day hike. We took a bus to the mountain trail where we started our hike. It seemed easy at first, but as the day progressed it got hot, dusty, and dirty. I was getting tired on the trail because I was running out of water. Luckily, we got to refill our water bottles half-way with a water pump along the trail. We hiked all day and went 8 miles. It wasn't easy, but when I finished I felt glad that I did it and didn't give up.

Preparing to go to the temple is a lot like this hike I went on. Sometimes it can be easy – like after we get baptized. And sometimes it gets hard – like when our friends say bad words or choose to do the wrong thing. But like the water pump, we are blessed along the way. As we go to church, listen to our parents, do the right thing, pay our tithing, keep the commandments, and make good choices, we will be prepared to go to the temple someday. We can't give up – like I sometimes wanted to on my hike – but if we keep going and follow the path, we will be glad we did.

The temple is a special place and I can't wait to go there someday. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.