Trek 2019

We had a chance to go on a pioneer trek with the kids in our stake.  It gives them a chance to appreciate what their ancestor sacrificed for them and helps them appreciate all of the modern conviences that we have.  We went to Bing Canyon.  It is a church owned farm.  We went from Monday-Thursday.  We got the the church Monday morning at 6:30am, had a short devotional, met our trek family (Kirt and I were ma and pa to 8 kids) and got on the bus and rode 4 hours to the site.  We hiked 5 miles.  At the end of the 5 miles was a really steep hill that is supposed to represent Rocky Ridge.  We had to pull each wagon up individually will ropes.  When we got the top of the rope pull, we set up camp.  We played pioneer games and visited.  In the evening we had a family devotional.  This was one of my favorite parts.  The theme for the trek was "On the Covenant Path" and we talked with the kids each night about making and keeping covenants.  Tuesday we hiked about 7 miles.  Monday and Tuesday were really hot, but thankfully there was a breeze.  Wednesday we hiked 5 miles.  We had the women's pull this day.  The women pull the carts up a big hill by themselves while the men stand by and watch.  This helps to teach the youth that women can do hard things, and that men should never be in a place where they are unworthy or unable to help the women in their lives.  It was really hard.  I didn't think we were going to make it up the hill, but then a girl named Marie Ford who had already pushed her wagon to the top came back and helped us.  She truly was a angel sent to help us.  When we got to the top we sang the EFY Medley which was my favorite part of the whole trek.  Then we hiked a bit more.  We got to do the Sweet Water crossing (through the irriagtion ditch).  Then we got to Zion, a beautiful camp ground with grass and trees.  The kids had the afternoon to play lots of games and dance and visit.  Wednesday evening we had a testimony meeting.  Thursday we got up and packed up and came home and were home by 1pm.  It was a great experience and I am glad that I got a chance to go.

Kirt and I's trek family.  We were in the green company.  Wes Mortensen was our company captain. Our trek kids left to right: Baili Elber, Madi Duarte (big sister), Taylor Norman, Jarom Jorgensen, Brandon Zimmerman, Isaac Woolley (big brother), Kirt, me, Asher Dalton, Nicole Vernon

 We just got our handcart loaded and are ready to go

 Rocky Ridge rope pull

 We did our morning devotionals in companies led by our company captain Wes Mortensen

 Liam Carothers came home from his mission in Santiago Chile on Tuesday and wanted to see his sister who was on trek and get released so he came up to the trek (all of the members of the stake presidency were on the trek).  He talked to the youth for a few minutes about his mission

 Liam was in our trek family 4 years ago, now he's a returned missionary

 It was super windy on Wednesday morning

 Our stake president President Byers

 Katie's family on pushing the cart on the women's pull

 My family on the women's pull

 They had these vignette (still scenes) to help us think about things in relation to the trek. This one represented the women who had to pull the handcarts alone and even sometimes pull their husbands in the carts.  (This was our stake president and his wife.)

 Isaac Woolley our big brother, was walking around without shoes and kicked a tent stake and gashed up his foot.  He had to have stitches.  Thankfully we had a podiatrist on trek, Brent Clark, who could fix him up.  Isaac was getting the numbing medicine put in his foot and he passed out for a second.  

Sleeping on the bus ride home. Everyone was exhausted.