All things testify of Christ and all things denote that there is a Christ and that there is a God.
Cornerstone was probably one of the most meaningful
and most impactful events that I have ever been to.
During Cornerstone I felt closer to God then I had at any other time in my life.
It was a camp that taught me about how powerful I was,
how powerful the Aaronic priesthood was.
Building a Tabernacle was one of the most amazing experiences of my life
and it really changed my life.
Guided by the Spirit
For me this experience started last summer as our family traveled
through Church History sites, the western half of Church History.
As we went on to the Temple site at Far West Missouri, I was overcome with emotion
as I stood in front of the cornerstone representing the Aaronic priesthood.
I had a desire in my life to elevate the Aaronic priesthood
to a level it had not been elevated to before.
A couple of days later I received a phone call from the executive secretary,
and the Stake President wanted to meet with me and my wife.
And upon meeting with us he called me to be the Stake Young Men's President.
And after I had been called, and our presidency had been called, I had received a prompting
that I really needed to reach out to Brother Mark Miller, and to have Brother Miller come
to our presidency meeting and teach us the doctrine of the Aaronic priesthood.
And he kind of caught me off guard, and I told him that I wasn't even sure if I knew
that there was a doctrine of the Aaronic priesthood.
And he kind of said, "you'll figure it out, we'll need you to come in a couple of weeks."
So I thought about it for a while.
There was a night, a week later or so that I could not sleep, so I got up in the middle
of the night and started typing on the computer.
And started feeling that the best way to talk about the Aaronic priesthood was to go back
to Old Testament times, and the beginning of the Aaronic priesthood.
And kind of outlined at least some ideas and thoughts as they came.
It was a few weeks later that Brother Miller came to our presidency meeting with two apple
boxes under both arms and when I turned the time over to Brother Miller, Brother Miller
began to cry and said, "I do believe that there is a doctrine of the Aaronic priesthood,
and I'm going to do my best this morning to teach it to you."
And that morning as a presidency, with Brother Miller, will go down as one of the most memorable
spiritual experiences of my life.
Brother Miller started to explain to us the doctrine surrounding the Aaronic priesthood.
As a presidency, with our suits and ties on, we were on the floor putting together blocks,
puzzles, pieces, and we literally built on the floor of the church of the Stake Center,
we built the Tabernacle of old.
As we talked about the Aaronic priesthood and the role that it played in the Tabernacle,
we could clearly see and understand the way that the Lord wanted these young men to understand
the doctrine of the Aaronic priesthood.
So after building the Tabernacle that morning, a few days later, I felt so strongly that
we needed to build a life-size replica of the Tabernacle to teach the young men of our
stake about the Aaronic priesthood.
Spiritual and Physical Preparations
Well after deciding that we were going to tackle building a full-scale Tabernacle,
I volunteered, I volunteered to lead the committee that would build the Tabernacle.
And I remember going home that night thinking, how in the world are we going to do this?
And the thought just kept coming to my mind as I prayed and as I thought about this, and
that was 'divide and conqueror.'
We have just an amazing amount of resources and talent across our stake and it's just
a matter of tapping in to that talent.
And it was amazing as I approached these different members of our stake, without exception,
every single person just gladly agreed to help.
And just to see these brethren, and also these sisters, the Relief Society sisters,
just be so willing to jump in and learn and study.
And the excitement just built as we went along.
It has been such a wonderful privilege for the sisters in our stake
to be involved in the Tabernacle project.
We were called upon to sew the fabric for the sides, the gate, the doors, the veil,
for the Tabernacle, and it was sacred work.
It involved about a dozen women over a three month period.
About 150 yards of fabric, and at the beginning it was overwhelming,
but as we got into the project, we felt the spirit guide us.
We felt our prayers were answered.
It became a sacred and holy work.
Miracles and blessings attended each sister and her family as she worked on this project.
We are different women, and different mothers because of this Tabernacle experience.
Maybe 40, maybe 50 different people had a hand in building this.
It was just amazing to see the commitment.
The number of hours, literally probably hundreds maybe thousands of hours were put together.
I had a small role in this whole project, very minor.
But it was a blessing to me, a blessing of joy.
It was a gift, a dream come true for me to be able to serve in that structure
with so many wonderful, fine young men.
And to see lights come on in their eyes and in their heads.
I would say it's the most significant teaching tool of the Aaronic priesthood,
for the Aaronic priesthood in about 3000 years.
The Camp of Israel
So after we arrived there on Wednesday, we broke the young men up into tribes.
And each of the tribes attended classes that day.
Many of those classes were classes that were centered around symbolism.
During that day we had the opportunity for the young men to actually construct the Tabernacle.
Each tribe spent an hour during the day building a different aspect of the Tabernacle,
and man, just to see their excitement
as they participated in building different pieces of this.
It was so neat to see. A lot of them didn't want to leave.
And then other classes that they attended were classes on the symbolism of water,
the symbolism of oil, the lamb, incense, the rod of Aaron.
And Brother Parry was able to teach them some of the meanings of Hebrew words.
So as we built the Tabernacle we learned about how everything in the Tabernacle,
over thirty symbols, pointed towards Christ.
And as we learned about that, we learned that the Priest were the ones working the Tabernacle,
helping people come unto Christ.
And we made the connection between the Priest working in the Tabernacle
and us priests blessing the sacrament, and Aaronic priesthood holders preparing it.
And what we realized is that we really are representing Christ and we're not only reciting
a sacrament blessings for us individually, but for every single person in the congregation,
helping others partake of the atonement of Christ.
And that is how sacred our obligation is as priesthood holders is.
After completing the Tabernacle on Wednesday, we had an opportunity to all of us get together
as the young men brought the furniture in the Tabernacle.
And as they placed the various pieces, it was quite a peaceful experience.
The spirit was definitely strong.
The next day we had put together an eco-challenge for the boys.
They went through a series of courses that were very physically demanding, and in between
those, we had three spiritual classes that we taught the young men.
One of the classes was on the robes of the Aaronic priesthood, and what they meant.
One of the classes was Brother Parry, he taught each tribe one specific item of the Tabernacle.
And then the last class was the class taught by our Stake Presidency;
they taught the young men about the bread of life and what that means.
Building the Tabernacle was really cool to be able to visualize
what their actually talking about in the scriptures.
And it really deepened my appreciation for the Old Testament.
At first, I didn't really think the Old Testament was that important, but now I truly know that
it is all Christ centered, and that it all focuses on Christ.
And in the Tabernacle I was really able to see that all things testify of Christ.
On Friday we took all of the young men, and all of the pieces that they had gathered,
all of the symbolism that they now understood, and each of them had as tribes bread, oil,
water, lamb, all of the ingredients, if you will, of the Tabernacle.
These young men brought these pieces with them and were able to utilize them
in the Tabernacle to help them understand
what Heavenly Father was trying to teach the children of Israel.
Probably the best memory was being able to walk through the Tabernacle on the last day,
and being able to connect all the symbolism that we learned throughout the whole week.
And just being able to put it all together.
As we worked on the Tabernacle, it didn't take us long to realize
that the Savior Jesus Christ is in every piece.
It's everywhere.
Friday night was the last night before we went home, and we had a devotional,
right in the Tabernacle courtyard.
And when they were done, they all took a step back and pointed up.
As soon as they did that, a huge beacon lit, and it looked like it went to the moon, it
was so bright and so big, and for me I saw that, and I thought, "that's my path to heaven."
So the devotional ended and the beacon was still lit
and we went to do our testimony meetings.
We came together on testimony night as a quorum, as Aaronic priesthood holders,
and we just poured out our hearts.
And I don't think I've ever felt the spirit that strong in my entire life.
After that week of learning about the truths of Christ, all the symbolism, the Tabernacle,
we were at a spiritual high.
And there was just so much love for each other and power in the air.
And after it, I never felt as much love for my quorum as I did that night, and as much
love that God had for my quorum and for myself that night and how powerful we were.
And I was just so thankful for that opportunity.
What really struck me was at the end I watched
two or three of the young men take their parents through the Tabernacle.
And these young Aaronic priesthood holders taught their parents what they knew.
And to watch that spiritual experience of them
sharing their feelings and their testimony with their parents.
Taking the Tabernacle Home
You know the think I learned most as I had this experience in the Tabernacle was actually
as my role as a Bishop, being the president of the Aaronic priesthood, and what that meant
in bringing the atonement to the people in my ward.
It also taught me about how my priests and my teachers and my deacons in administering
the sacrament to the people in our ward are truly the atonement workers in our ward.
And they take that atonement and they represent Jesus Christ and his atonement to these people.
It was a very powerful experience for me,
and also it's been a powerful experience for my young men.
Our son was able to attend the cornerstone experience and he came home on fire.
It was wonderful to sit and listen to him for the whole evening
as he talked about his experiences at cornerstone.
Not only did he love being in the beautiful mountains, and being with all of the boys,
he especially loved learning from these wonderful priesthood men that taught him about the Tabernacle.
He said, from the very moment that he started learning, his whole life changed.
He said he'd been blessing and passing the sacrament and he had no idea
what it really meant.
And so for the rest of his life, he said blessing, passing, and taking the sacrament
will take on new meaning.
I believe during cornerstone we were able to teach young men not only what it means
to be an Aaronic priesthood holder, but how it feels to be an Aaronic priesthood holder.
I'm a quorum president for the Hobble Creek ward, and I've always known my responsibilities
and my keys, but I've never really felt them until cornerstone.
As we've been able to see young men now as we've come home from this camp,
we see the young men in the way that they pass and bless the sacrament.
It means something to them today that it didn't mean to them a month ago.
The sacrament meant something different this next Sunday
when they blessed the sacrament, to all of us.
And I had several of my young men tell me that they wept while they administered the
sacrament that Sunday because of what they had learned.
So the Tabernacle brought us all closer to Christ, and we look forward to taking the
Tabernacle with us, where ever we go.