Stripling Warriors

We're in Utah and went to the Bountiful parade for the 24th of July (a Utah holiday) last weekend. By far, the coolest entry in the parade was this:

2,000 young men from the surrounding area joining together to march in the parade representing the 2,000 stripling warriors from the story in the Book of Mormon.  My nephew was among them, and literally, it was thrilling to see it. People were on their feet going crazy the moment they came into view.  While this picture doesn't do justice to the massiveness of the whole 2,200 of them that were actually there, or the 10 minutes it took for them all to pass, it's still pretty darn cool.  (And thanks to whoever this guy is that I got it from on facebook.  :)

There are some things that definitely come in as a stark contrast to Miami. The only parade we've been to there featured lots of very large women in very small clothing shaking their booties in such a way as to make you cover your kids eyes and say, "Woah, I thought this was a family show, people."

So yep, a nice reprieve from sin city.

You can read about the story here (v.10-23) and here, but here are a few of my favorite excerpts and why it is a favorite LDS story (and especially tender to a mother of all boys like myself):

"And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.

   
Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him.

  
 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

    
And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it."