Snipe Hunters

As a young man having just finished my first year of college and needing to earn money for a desired mission, I spent the summer working at the new Jackson Lake Lodge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Many college-age youths came to work in that pristine, beautiful area.

One such person was Jill, a young woman from San Francisco, California.
Feeling that a young woman from a big city might be a little bit naïve about her new environment, I and a few friends felt it our obligation to teach her about the ways of the real West.
We decided to take her on a "snipe hunt."
For those of you who may not be familiar with a snipe hunt, it is a practical joke, as there is no such thing as a snipe, at least not in the western United States.
The tools necessary for a snipe hunt are a stick and a cloth bag.
The "hunter" is told to go through the brush, beating the bushes with a stick while calling the snipe in a high-pitched, ridiculous voice.
The nonexistent snipes are thus to be driven into the cloth bag.

We gave Jill her cloth bag and a stick and an area to hunt across the hill.
The plan was to return to our starting point in about 15 minutes, at which time we would supposedly count our snipes.

When she did not return at the appointed time, we gloated and took delight in the seriousness with which she took her hunt.
After about 30 minutes, we felt it was time to rescue her, explain the joke, have a good laugh, and all go to dinner.
However, it became apparent that she had taken her snipe hunt more seriously than we had expected--she was not to be found in her assigned area.
After searching rather extensively and still finding no evidence of her, we began moving into the woods, calling for her at the top of our voices, but to no avail.

Hoping she might have gone back to her dormitory, we returned and asked some young women to search for her there, but this also was to no avail.
It now was turning dark, and our concern heightened.
We enlisted all the young men we could from the boys' dormitory, and with flashlights continued the search deep into the woods.
Well into the darkness of night--frightened, concerned, and hoarse from calling--we decided it was not time to report our ridiculous deed to the park rangers.
While we were standing in front of the dorms, trying to determine which brave soul would have the privilege of reporting her disappearance, Jill suddenly appeared--not from her dormitory, but rather from that of a friend, with whom she had enjoyed diner (which we incidentally missed) and a comfortable evening with her friends.
Her first words to us as she approached said it all: "How do you fellows like hunting snipe hunters?"
Well, so much for big city naivete, and so much for the ways of the real West.
The joke was on us, and I have never had a desire for any snipe hunting.

But there is another "snipe hunt" going on all around us, and we may be the naïve victims.
It is not a practical joke, and it will not end with a good laugh and a little warm fellowship.
Satan is the great deceiver, liar, and enemy to all that is good, including our happiness and our well-being.
His great desire is to thwart our Heavenly Father's plan of happiness and make us "miserable like unto himself."
Being the very author and perpetrator of deceit, he in effect would invite us to join him in his snipe hunt, to fill our bags with excitement, fun, popularity, and the so-called "good life."
But his promises are as illusionary as the nonexistent snipe.
What he really offers are lies, misery, spiritual degradation, and loss of self-worth.

-Richard C. Edgley -Satan's Bag of Snipes  -October 2000 General Conference

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi