That first day they were faced with this hill, and the boys pulled up the handcarts by rope. I kept hearing over and over, from so many people, how incredible the boys all were, being men, and not letting the girls do the hard work, but doing it all themselves as much as possible. They were all so very protective of their 'sisters' and their 'Ma's'. Each family had a 'big brother' and a 'big sister', basically the oldest ones assigned to be helpers to their Ma and Pa. Dallin was the 'big brother' in his family.
Tuesday they started trekking, and pushed those big handcarts over 5 miles that day. Dallin was telling everyone how he didn't think it was going to be that hard. He was sure the leaders, and mom, were making it out to be much harder than it was. Ha, ha! That lasted about 10 minutes into the trail, he thought he was going to die!
Wednesday (the hottest day that week) they trekked some more, over 6 miles. They did the Sweetwater Crossing that day. About halfway through the day, they stopped for lunch and were told about the Sweetwater Crossing and those three young men who rescued the freezing handcart companies there. Then three young men in the Stake sang a beautiful song about it. This was one of the most spiritual experiences for Dallin! The song touched him deeply, and he is planning on singing it, with 2 of his friends, when he goes back to YFF next week. Anyway, the young men and adult men carried all the young women and adult women over the creek.
Wednesday night they had a Fireside (they had them every night) Stake Pres. M sang a beautiful song about handcart children. It affected everyone a lot. All the firesides were incredible. He also gave a Priesthood blessing to the entire Camp and made some incredible spiritual promises to them. All of which came true. Thursday was 9.7 miles, the longest day. It wasn't the hottest day, but they had a wind storm that put people on their knees on the side of the trail with 'sandpaper eyes', as well as being the most emotional and spiritual day of the Trek.
About halfway through the day, they all stopped right before a huge triple hill, and the Stake Leaders took all the men and boys away up the hill out of sight. The boys were talked to about the many pioneer men and boys who had died along the trail, and how many of the women and girls had to go on alone. They were to represent those men. The girls and women were left at the bottom of the hill and told how many of the women had to go on alone after their husbands died. One of the stories was about Elsie Nielson. She was about 4' 10", and her husband was over 6'. His feet were so badly frozen that he couldn't walk and he asked her to just leave him there to die and go on without him. She refused, and picked him up and carried him up Rocky Ridge saving his feet, and his life. In the process, her child, as well as another child that they were taking with them both died. Then they sang "As Sisters In Zion", said a prayer, and started pulling those carts up those hills. The men and boys weren't allowed to help at all. They had to stand there with their hats off, watching in silence as their Ma's and sisters pushed and struggled with those carts up those hills. It was a very emotional time for both the YW and the YM. On Sunday almost every young man spoke of that day and how they felt, and how badly they wanted to run up to them, push them out of the way and take those carts up for them. There was not a dry male eye during that Women's Pull. It affected them all so very much, and was a spiritual highlight for everyone.After the Women's Pull, they went on together. Later that day when they were within sight of Camp, they were all so excited, when Stake leaders stopped them all. They came up to one or two children in each family, whispered in their ears, took them away, putting a white armband on them. Those left behind didn't know what was going on, and wondered where their family members went. They were told to pull their carts into Camp, parked them and gathered in one end of the meadow. Stake Pres. M spoke to them about the people who had died on the trail and never made it to Zion, and how they represented family members that had died without their temple ordinances. It was very emotional. As he was speaking all those people that had been removed from their families walked across the meadow and gathered on the far side of the meadow. Pres. M told them all how important it was to 'rescue' our families by doing their temple work, and then told them to go find their families across the meadow and rescue them and bring them back home to Camp. It was pretty emotional as they all ran as one, as fast as they could, across that meadow to find their family members.
Following that spiritually uplifting day, and fun evening, they followed up with Testimony Meeting that night. It was over 3 hours long, and they even had to cut it short and not let any more people stand up after a certain point. Kids were standing in line for over an hour waiting for their turn. They said it was the most amazing meeting they'd ever been in, ever.
Friday was the day to take down Camp, and they had 'solo experience' for an hour and a half, which was them all splitting up and going off alone. They handed them each letters from their parents that we had written and turned in before Trek, and sent them off to read them and to read scriptures, and write in journals about their experiences that week.
After they were reunited with their families, they were told to rejoice and celebrate as the Saints did when they reached the Salt Lake Valley.
I am so very grateful to be a part of this Stake! Our old Stake in Wyoming is going on Trek this summer, but I don't think my boys would have had the full experience that they had here! The quality of youth and leaders in the Spokane East Stake are BEYOND anything I have ever seen!
Thanks Heather!!
1 comment:
Isn't it awesome to live here?!
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