Braggin' On Jim

I don't do this near often enough. I have the most awesome and amazing husband in the world, and I don't record his neat stories for posterity as much as I wish I did. I need to be better about that. But there are three stories in particular that I want to have on record to remember years down the road. Two of them have already started to fade from my memory, so I may get some details wrong, but they are just so true to who this wonderful man is that I want to share them anyway.
The first (and most recent) event is related to Jim's awesome talent and skill in sports. BYU Track was given a generous donation to make a special recognition board in honor of one of Jim's good buddies, Curtis Pugsely. Curtis was a decathlete at BYU, and an amazing one at that. Well, about a year ago, he lost one of his legs due to cancer in the leg. As you can imagine, that is quite a blow to such an athlete. So anyway, an anonymous donation was given to BYU on the condition that it be used in Curtis' honor to help recognize some of the Track & Field All Star Athletes. So from 1991 to current, one athlete was picked from each year to be the Athlete of the Year. They based it on a point system of various accomplishments, etc. and the athlete with the highest points from each year was awarded the honor for that year. Well, Jim was awarded the Track & Field Athlete of the Year Award, for not one, but two of the years: 1999 and 2000! Wow. What an honor! They were having a big award ceremony for this and offered to fly Jim out to BYU for the occasion, but he declined the kind offer (after talking with Curtis first to make sure he was okay with this and it wouldn't hurt his feelings) because he had already committed to a scout campout that had been scheduled and planned for the same weekend. I assured him the scouts would all understand if they had to reschedule, but accepting honors has never been one of Jim's favorite things anyway (humble man), so he still opted to go on the scouting trip.
Which brings me to the other two stories. Jim is such a man of influence... especially when it comes to his scouts and the youth. They look up to him in a way I'm sure not even he comprehends. He's been a scoutmaster in our ward for about 4 years now, and the boys he has had the opportunity to serve have come to not only love him and admire him and respect him, but have been able to glean so much knowledge about life skills and the great outdoors from him as well.
There have been two incidences within the past couple of months that have reenforced in my mind the tremendous influence this man is in the life of so many others.
The first one is a story of a boy in our ward, named Cole (who was one of Jim's scouts, but is now with the older boys), and he and the other boys his age were out on a boating trip at a lake. They had been out having fun wake boarding and what not, but then the boys were dropped in the middle of the lake to swim back to shore (not too far of a distance). Well, a ways into it, one of the boys, who was tired and not a great swimmer to start with, started struggling to stay afloat. The other boys had all made it back to shore, but Cole saw the boy and noticed him struggling and began to realize that this boy was going to drown. Cole immediately jumped back in and swam over to help. Cole approached him from the front, and this boy, who was in a panic, started to grasp at Cole like a lifeline and pull him under. So Cole pushed the boy away and then swam behind him and 'shark attacked' him (grabbed him around the top of the shoulder and across the chest) and assured the boy it would be alright and to calm down. He then swam the boy back into shore, where the other boys jumped in to help bring him out. Later that night, one of the leaders asked Cole what had made him do that, and the first two words out of his mouth were, "Brother Roberts". He said he had remembered a story Jim had told about when he was a scout and had been able to save a boys life, and Cole had made up his mind that if he were ever in that type of situation, he would do the same thing. And so when this situation came up, he knew to act.
The other story is about another family in our ward (the Liufau's) who are a family of 6 strong boys (plus mom and dad). The boys are all either Eagle Scouts or are currently in the scouting program. The dad is one of the counselors in our bishopric and their family was out on a camping trip (along with the bishop's family actually) and they were at a river in a state park type of area playing around. There's one area that is concreted on the bottom to go under a bridge and then down a slope (kind of like a big concrete slide) and people like to go tubing down it and what not. Well, the family was playing around there and the dad (not quite sure what he was thinking... this was his wife is telling me this) :) decided to try and go down the slope while standing up. Surfer style, perhaps? Well, it didn't work and his feet slipped out from under him and his head smacked right into the concrete floor. Susan (his wife) said she saw his eyes roll back in his head and she immediately thought that was it... that he was dead. Well, all 6 boys immediately went into action. As Susan was telling me this, she said it was the scariest time for her, but at the same time, it was amazing to watch these boys in action as they took all the necessary steps to secure their dad, get him to safety, and perform the immediately needed first aid (wrapping the head, etc). An ambulance arrived on the scene and rushed the dad to the hospital. Well, as it turns out, all was well. The dad had split his head open and needed some stapling, but he was out within a day or two and doing just fine. And then Susan told me she had talked to her youngest boy, Tighe (who is Cole's same age), and he had wanted her to 'tell Brother Roberts thank you' for him. He said something to the effect of 'that the whole time this was going on at the river, he kept remembering the things Brother Roberts had taught him and he knew what he was supposed to do'.
Wow. You just never know whose lives you may have touched and how you may have influenced others, but I'll tell you what... Jim is such an incredible man, and I am so grateful he is in a position to be able to help guide and influence the youth in our ward. I'm sure if he reads this he's going to be super embarrassed that I'm bragging on him, but hey... it's his own fault. He's just too darn awesome to not. :)
So anyway, go and do something good today. You never know whose life you'll be influencing. :)