Stake Youth Trek

Last weekend, Ryan and I had the opportunity to participate in the Stake Youth Trek. This is a mini reenactment of what the Mormon Pioneers had to go through as they crossed the plains to Salt Lake City.

When we were first asked, I was very hesitant to go since I have never gone camping (Girls Camp in Florida was in cabins). The thought of no showers/facilities sounded like torture for a neat-freak/germaphobe like me.

But surprisingly, the experience was much better than expected--it was truly an amazing and uplifting experience. We were "Ma and Pa Jamison" for a group of 9 youth ranging from 12-17 yrs old. We went up to the Jemez and hiked a little over 12 miles on Thursday hauling 400+lb handcarts while wearing pioneer attire. There were some pretty steep areas along the way, but with trek family unity and wonderful leaders and many prayers and words of encouragement, we were able to complete the trek.

I must say that one of the most incredible experiences during the trek was the woman's pull. Along the way, there was a segment of the trek where the boys in the group were tapped out of pulling the handcart, leaving the women to pull on their own. This represented the time when all the men had to leave and join the Mormon Batallion, leaving the women, children, and elderly to continue the journey on their own. I know that when I was pulling the cart with the 4 other young women, I thought we were not going to make it up and over the hills. There were times when our cart was moving backwards as we climbed uphill and felt like we just didn't have enough strength to go on. With much faith and many prayers, we were able to make it to the next section of the trek. From the men's perspective, I know that Ryan and the young men in our group said that it was so painful to see us struggle without being able to help and do anything about it.

Having this experience made us realize the great sacrifices that the pioneers had to go through on both sides--the men seeing how difficult it was to leave their women/children and see them struggle on their own, and the women realizing that they must rely on each other and to have the faith, strength, and courage to overcome obstacles. We were able to talk about the experience with our trek family and the youth talked about the importance of families.

On Friday, we were able to have a day of pioneer activities. It was a day to relax and re-cooperate from the previous day. That evening we had a fireside with talks given by a few of the youth and the Stake Presidency. We ended the evening off with family home evening held within our trek family. Our youth shared their testimonies and it was so uplifting to hear their thoughts and impressions from this experience.

Saturday was our day to go home! We packed up camp and loaded up our handcarts and walked about 2 miles out to the main road. Everyone was in good spirits knowing that hot showers and civilization was awaiting. Overall, it was an incredible experience for all. There were many lessons taught and learned during the trek. I think some things that really impressed upon my mind were:

• FAITH and knowing that Heavenly Father and our Savior is there for us and knows who we are and what we can accomplish and having faith in the people around us
  
• PRAYER and that He hears and answers them
  
• ETERNAL FAMILIES and the importance of celestial marriages and finding a true companion to help each other along the way and to help lead and nurture family members
  

Here are some photos of the Trek weekend: