It's not fun being lost

When I was young, we visited Utah every summer.  I loved staying at my Grandpa Dickson's farm because it meant I got to help milk cows, feed chickens, haul hay, ride horses, and shoot a 22.  I also got to spend time with my cousins in Morgan and do all of the farm chores with them.  Uncle Short would wake us up really early and we would hop in the back of their pickup truck and ride out to Milton where they had a farm.  Chores involved milking their cows, feeding their pigs, and collecting eggs from their chickens.

One day we were given the chore of following the irrigation ditch from the floodgate next to the Milton road out to my uncle's field to make sure the water would reach it when the floodgate was opened.  As I recall the field was about a half a mile off the main road.  Depending on whose turn it was to get water, farmers would put temporary canvas dams across the main ditch to divert the water to the right field.  Uncle Short wanted us to make sure that there weren't any dams blocking the flow of water to his field.  Somehow we missed a dam.  We followed the ditch to their field and waited for the water to come after Uncle Short opened the floodgate.  We waited and waited for the water to come, but it didn't come.  We finally decided to head back to find out what happened.  Eventually we came to water in the ditch, but it hadn't come to our field because there was a dam in the way (somehow we missed this dam on the way out).  At the dam we took the left fork thinking it would take us to the road (we should have taken the right fork).  We walked and walked and walked, but no road.  I remember feeling so scared because I knew we were lost and I didn't have any idea how we would ever be found. That feeling of being lost is not a good feeling.  I remember how relieved I felt when Uncle Short figured out what must have happened and finally found us.

Grand kids, stay close to your parents and you won't get lost.  Even when you grow older and are on your own, stay close to the things they have taught you and you won't get lost in your journey of life.  Also follow the teachings of the prophets and the scriptures.  Don't get lost.