Trek

Brady and I had the opportunity to be a ma and pa for our stake's trek this year. We spent many a Sunday in meeting helping us to prepare spiritually to go on trek. I even read Fire of the Covenant and Brady read tons of historical books on the pioneers.
Although we felt spiritually prepared to go, we were a little lacking in temporal preparation. We had no idea what was going on. We found out, each day, just like our kids did. I guess pioneer parents were the same way, they just had to encourage their kids to keep going and not complain even if they themselves weren't sure of what was in store each day.
The first day was interesting. We had a really good family. They were excited and very eager to make it to Salt Lake. :) They had pushed 3 miles, when we got to Brigham's arrow. They looked at the landmark, and then we were told to turn around and hike back those same 3 miles. Talk about grumbling! I have to admit, I did a little complaining myself. This was not part of the 6 miles/day they told us about. (We ended up hiking 18miles that day!) We got a baby (sack of rice) too. They had real pioneer names on them. Luckily Brady had read about our baby and knew that he would make it to Salt lake, so we didn't have to bury it along the way. There were trail sides along the way also. They had people act out pioneer stories, and sometimes we had treats that went along with it. We had one son that doesn't walk.... I had Brady take the rest of the family and my son and I walked at the very back of EVERYONE for the whole day. Every once in a while I would run to catch up with the rest of my family to make sure they were doing good. My son and I ended up having to catch a ride on the medical 4-wheeler at the very end.... they didn't want to wait for us anymore. It's hard to walk that slow....we never would have made it to salt lake in the olden days.
We got back to camp late, so late that my family ate and then asked if they could go to bed. It's not often that kids ask to go to bed, so we of course said OK. Before they went to bed, I had them grab their buckets and sit in a circle. It was too dark to read scriptures (and I forgot my flashlight) but I told them about a scripture that helped me on my mission, in D&C where we are promised that the Lord will be on our right hand and on our left and that His angels will be round us to bear us up.... I promised them angels to help them if they did their part and asked Heavenly Father for help, and then I had them go around and tell me what their favorite part of that day was. For some it was hard, but I reminded them that it was the journey that was important. I then told them that we would have the same family meeting the next night so they should try to think during the day about what would make them happy. We were blessed with a really good group!
The second day we really did only hike the 6 miles. We had the women's pull, which wasn't as hard as I expected. My girls were awesome. We sang Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, and every time we said sunbeam, we pushed really hard. The girls thought it was fun. Our boys were at the top cheering for us. It was nice to have them take over for us though. We also had cholera hill. We received a letter after lunch telling us who in our party was sick with cholera (bloody diarrhea and vomit) Those who were sick had to just walk to the top of the hill, while the others were left to push the handcart by themselves. Brady and I were both sick, so that left 3 kids to do it. They did awesome! Our handcart tipped, knocking off all of our water and supplies, and we made it to camp around 2, so pioneer games commenced. This helped every one's spirits. There was tug-of-war and water balloons (totally a pioneer game) and they filled up socks with flour and played dodge ball. There was a fireside that night, I got to sing, and Brady got invited to have man steaks with Chad Zito, Kith Mitchell, and Colby Dabb. I wouldn't mind if he hung out with those guys!
The third day was the last one. We had lots of trail side stops and the kids were itching to get to the finish line. There was an awesome one where we were sitting on a grassy field and over a hill came Colby Dabb, dressed like captain Moroni. He spoke like Captain Moroni and had the attention of everyone. It was awesome. Then, finally the trail boss (Kirk Douglass) let our family go first. (We set too fast of a pace, so we weren't allowed to be first the other 2 days). Our boys ran to the finish. They made really good time. :) The girls and I speed walked behind. We let the crazy boys just go!
I bore my testimony the next day at church. What I realized is that there was a lot of complaining. It just occurred to me that the pioneers probably didn't want to have to make all the stops that they did, but still they did it. I mean, who really wants to have their baby die, or have someone get sick, or have to cross a river.... they all wanted to get to Salt Lake too. They had to take care of those in their family though, and sometimes that delays the journey. I remember reading that Brigham Young had to remind them to quit complaining a few times along the trail. And I also remember reading about the valley boys, boys that were called to help and were very eager to get to salt lake. Most of the boys in my group were valley boys. Strong in testimony and eager to push forward to salt lake.
Brady and I had a good experience. It was fun and I look forward to seeing my kids again at the trek reunion next month. Hopefully I can get some pictures to add to this post. I am very grateful for the pioneers and I am very grateful that I didn't have to cross the plains. I would have done it, but it sure would have been hard. I'm truly grateful for their examples of faith and perseverance.