I love being in God's creation.
And it really is almost a spiritual experience for me to
be up there.
And it really is exhilarating.
Skiing is probably, for me, that's the closest thing I
think I can come to to finding out what the limits are that
are still within bounds.
I've been patrolling now for 18 years.
I've been an LDS bishop now 22 months.
Bishop Lowder is a really fun bishop.
He knows how to, like, connect with the youth.
We've got three left over from when we did this before that
we didn't have time to get to.
He's not just my bishop, you know.
He's more of a friend,
and someone that you can really get to trust, really
get to know.
It really is one of the greatest things to go out and
do something they like to do.
And particularly Nelson, who skis up there every Saturday.
He comes up and finds me almost every week.
We'll take one run together.
And it's been a real nice bonding thing for us.
There are many similarities to what a patrolman does each day
they patrol and what a bishop does on Sundays.
For our patrolling, we start out every day with what the
resort terms "buffing out your area."
And what that entails is, first and foremost, setting up
the boundaries,
making sure the ropes that are put up the first of the season
are maintained on a daily basis.
It's enticing to go to the back areas that are marked
off, because there's fresh snow that
hasn't been skied in.
There's nobody there.
It's just by yourself.
And you want to get that good snow.
The good snow is just beyond the boundary.
If you don't play in the safe areas, you get in trouble in
those areas.
Because there's so many things that aren't
really what they seem.
The warning signs we post and the boundaries we set are
sometimes ignored.
But the problem is, underneath that fresh layer of snow in
the out-of-bounds area you have rock bands that might
only be a few inches under there.
You have tree stumps that have just barely been buried, that
could hook a ski underneath the snow that you'd have no
idea that they're under there.
Whenever somebody is injured and we get a call, either on
the radio or on the phone, we involve the whole team,
sending one person to first check the person out and then
calling back to the rest of the team to bring whatever
equipment is needed.
Is it OK if I check this out here?
A full assessment is done on the hill of what's the injury
possibly and what equipment's needed to safely stabilize,
pack, and transport.
Let's have you come this way a little bit.
You're a tall one.
The comparison between the work we do in patrolling and
what a bishop would do within his ward, particularly with
the youth, is clearly establishing boundaries in
both senses and identifying those things they can do to
prevent the injuries in the first place.
But once an injury has taken place, help guiding them back
and understand that there's always hope.
If I make a mistake and I'd have to go to my bishop, I
feel he wouldn't rail on me; he wouldn't get on my case.
He would take it in a manner of calmness
and he'd sit me down.
And he'd be really understanding of what I have
to say to him
and give me a sense of forgiveness, I guess.
But it's true that not many people get to have that
relationship with their bishop, that they
get to ski with them.
Nelson's a great skier.
He is fearless about the terrain features.
But also remember that, because they're in bounds,
they were built by people who use those features
professionally,
making those jumps features so that they're the right angles,
both on the takeoff and the landing, so they don't throw
you in the back seat as you're taking off.
And as you land, you aren't landing flat, but that you
come down on an angle and it's a softer landing.
And if you happen to fall, you slide rather than
landing hard impact.
In bounds, like, Nelson was going off the cool jumps and
doing all these cool tricks and having a blast. And it
looked like he was having such a fun time.
But it was all inbounds and legal.
In real life when you're out there and we're enticed by
things in the world, if we follow what the world is
doing, we're going to find that we're
in unprotected areas.
If on the other hand, we stay within the guidelines that the
Brethren have given us in modern-day revelation and
through the scriptures, listen to the promptings of the Holy
Ghost, as we're taught to do, if we're doing those things on
a daily basis, then we stay within the bounds.
And we find that we didn't miss out on anything.
And we had more freedom and more enjoyment by staying
within the bounds the Lord has set, just like people do
skiing when they stay in bounds.
Ski safely but get to do some pretty incredible things.
The offices of bishop and branch president and
counselors are sacred in this Church.
The men who hold those offices are respected by the Lord,
inspired by His Spirit, and given the powers of
discernment necessary to their office.
Thank heaven for faithful and inspired bishops and branch
presidents and their counselors.