Well I put off purchasing boots (even though I need new ones) for Youth Conference for various reasons. The night before found me driving the hand cart down to the Charles Rich Cabin site and arriving home late, after any stores would be open (where I would want to buy boots anyway), so I decided to take my old boots. I patched them up as best I could, I put some tacks in the sole to hold it on, and hoped it would be enough for the hand cart trek.
I bought these boots about ten years ago at Recovery Sales Outlet (now Cargo Largo) in Independence MO. They were brand new and only $50, a fraction of what they were worth. It was a huge blessing at the time because money was tight and I really needed boots for work. The boots have never stopped being a blessing.
I’ve walked hundreds of miles in these boots over the last ten years. They’ve been to the Henry Mountains in Utah (climbed 7 peeks in them, somewhere around 40-50 miles of mountain climbing and hunting), to the Grand Canyon, Delicate Arch (all over Arches National Park), Red Rocks in Colorado, many scout campouts and on more than 15 deer hunts in Missouri. I’ve also warn these boots to countless service projects and move in parties and to work in on a daily basis for several years. But last of all these boots went with me to the Platte City Missouri Stake Youth Conference.
In all the time I have warn these boots, in the rough terrain and weather and through the many miles I have never once had a blister on my feet. They have kept my feet warm and protected from the elements, rocks, thorns and everything else.
During Youth Conference, after the eight miles on Thursday, the boots were doing just fine, but during the evening activities on Friday night the sole came almost completely off one of the boots. I asked around for some glue to see if I could possibly cobble them together for the last day of the trek, and who should have it…Sister Butler. She complained to me that she had dramatically over packed, but in my view she was following inspiration from the spirit in order to be the hands of the Lord in administering a tender mercy to me and my boots. Not only did Sister Butler have glue, she had shoe goo! Just what was needed. I took that shoe goo and patched my boots back up. And the next day they held together till the end of the day when the shoe goo let go and the boots died.
These boots have been a blessing from the Lord from the moment I bought them to the moment they died. They have blessed me through adventures and daily work, helped me to bless others and in the end to be blessed by others, and I am truly thankful for these boots, for all that I have experienced in these boots and most of all for that fact these boots help me know yet again with perfect surety that my Father in Heaven loves and knows me and provides the way before me.
So, Amber took a picture of my good old boots so I can remember them and all that they mean to me. That is the story of the boots.
