It's so hard to try and capture everything that happened last week on our stake's pioneer trek. It was my first time ever participating in one and my experience was different than that of the ma's and pa's in that I didn't have kids assigned to me. But I had an awesome stake family (all of the behind-the scenes staff) and I miss being with them as much as the kids miss their trek families. This is going to be a long entry but here are some random things I don't want to forget...oh and if you ever get asked to go on a trek, you'd better go. Seriously. Go.
1. I want to always remember the visual of the kids arriving all excited and happy and shiny and clean in their darling trek outfits. We had 154 youth on our trek. One of the greatest ideas someone had was to have them turn their gear in on the Saturday before trek. Everyone was locked in and showed up on Wednesday so we didn't have to quickly reshuffle families before they left.
2. I want to remember that dust kills digital cameras. Mine lasted one day - and I ordered a new one today after blowing air through it and trying to fix it. Dang.
3. I want to always remember how great it was to have the kids I'm closest to coming to find me throughout the trek for a hug or a chat or whatever. I so love these youth!
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| Emily, me, Cindy & Carly |
4. I want to remember that teenagers eat way more than you think they are going to eat. Alberta and I had to drive 45 minutes into town to get more snacks plus fruit, eggs, milk and cheese at Costco and WalMart in Kennewick. IN OUR TREK CLOTHES! Oh the pain. I could have changed but that would have left Alberta alone in her darling bloomers and I love her too much to do that to her. We took off our aprons and bonnets and braved WalMart. We got a lot of double takes. I taught Alberta to not make eye contact with anyone because then you wouldn't see them look at you like you're a nutjob. We saw missionaries at WalMart which was nice. Then Costco was a trip. Thankfully the carts are big and hid us, mostly. Alberta had to go get a second cart (yes we filled a flatbed AND a cart) and she came back saying "we can't ever be alone in here" because the two of us together blended better, apparently. I came out to the parking lot and Alberta was at the car, calling to me, "sister wife, oh sister wife." So funny.
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| Alberta and me with pained looks on our faces after dealing with the gawkers at Costco & WalMart. |
5. I want to remember how hard the wind blew the first two days (thus the death of my camera.) It was 35 MPH gusts and they were a killer. Alison, Melanie, Lisa and I shared a big 8-man tent and seriously, it was a-rockin' that first night. The side of the tent kept hitting me the whole night. I woke up at one point to see one of the poles flailing about. I remember praying off and on that the winds would calm. It was a painful night of no sleep. I woke up at 4:45 AM and promptly laughed hysterically about nothing until I cried because I was so tired. I changed into my red pioneer outfit and had to add my dark blue hoodie because it was still so cold and windy. I felt very patriotic as I looked outside at the amber waves of grain and had to sing "America the Beautiful" for everyone. Alison and I went from handcart to handcart singing that and "Scatter Sunshine." It was very entertaining (for me, at least.)
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| Paige and me |
6. I also want to remember how much we all laughed every night and every morning. We stayed up past midnight every night and were the first ones awake, at least an hour before the morning bugle. The stake leadership tents were all sort of close together the second night and we got comments from our stake president after he listened to our conversations about how he'd be calling us all in for personal interviews after we got back. So funny. One of the families who was camped at least 10 handcarts away from us commented about how they heard us laughing all night and hoped we'd sleep by them the next night. We also got "so, um, where are you guys going to sleep tonight?" comments (meaning, we will sleep as far away from you as possible.) Alberta called me "her happy alarm clock." Who doesn't love hysterical laughter??
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| Alberta and me (another one of my friends who is moving away. sob.) |
7. I want to remember how incredibly hard the women's pull was. Since I wasn't assigned to a family, I asked different families if they needed any help but didn't get any takers until I came upon my good friend Lynda and her group of 4 girls, one of whom was one of my darling YCLs from camp last year, Nikki. I happily agreed to help them pull their handcart up the 3/4 mile, super steep hill. Oh and the wind had completely subsided so it was really hot, besides being super challenging. I stood next to Nikki and we made up words to Primary songs with the other girls and talked about cute boys to take our mind off the heat and the pain. We stopped a lot but made it to the top and I couldn't make eye contact with the young men who flanked either side of the path with their hats off in respect for what we just accomplished (many of whom were crying at the sight of us working so hard and knowing they could only step in to help if we asked - none of the girls asked.) Lynda called me her family's angel - she didn't know how they were going to make it until I came along. I'm so grateful I was able to participate in this special event and with people I love so much.
8. I want to remember how well our activities went...from the angry mobs, to the mountain men, to the evening vignettes and the carnival at Zion...it went perfectly. I loved working with Lisa - she did most of the work and I just happily did what she told me to do.
9. I want to remember that fasting and prayer works. We fasted and prayed about the Ma's and Pa's and they were all just wonderful. We fasted and prayed about the big brothers/big sisters assigned to each family and they were so perfect. They all did such a great job and were always where they were supposed to be and were wonderful leaders. We fasted and prayed to place youth in their families and every single young man and young woman who bore their testimonies this weekend all said they were in the perfect family. It was such hard work but so totally worth it in the end. Heavenly Father is so amazing and good.
10. I want to remember both the fantastic testimony meeting on the last day of trek and the wonderful one in my ward on Sunday after we got home. Our Sunday meeting went over by more than 30 minutes (a bonus for being the 1 PM block.) I loved hearing testimonies by so many youth who have never gotten up to share their thoughts and feelings in front of people before.
11. I want to remember the super fun drive home with Alison. I worried for months about that drive home, knowing we'd be exhausted. But we stopped and got a drink and a candy bar at a mini mart and then just yakked and yakked the whole way home. It was so fun getting to know her better. I also want to remember that when we were paying for our drinks, I told Alison I needed to use the restroom. As I was using the bathroom, I remembered that I didn't give her the keys so she could go get in the car and I just started laughing at the thought of her not blending in at all in that mini mart. Some of the Ma's and Pa's rode together in a large van and when they stopped on the drive home, someone asked if they were filming a movie. Funny.
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| The boys starting the hard rope pull (pulling the carts up a big, steep hill) |
12. I want to remember feeling impressed to tell a young woman I barely knew that I wished she would come to YW camp with us. Her YW president had told me earlier in the day that this darling girl wasn't going, that she didn't like it, etc. I found her after the testimony meeting and challenged her to fast and pray on Fast Sunday about camp (she'd been 1-2 times before and this year would be her last opportunity to go before she graduates.) We became facebook friends yesterday and she told me she'd gotten the paperwork and was going for sure. I'm so happy!
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| My bishop falling into the gear while we were sorting it. Ha! |
13. And finally, I want to remember the Facebook flurry after we got home from trek. I have 25 new friends since Saturday night. So many kids talked about how much they missed their trek families and shared their feelings with the world about what they'd experienced the previous four days. I love the safe place that Facebook can be for our youth and that they proudly share their religious experiences with everyone they are friends with.
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| This is the super cute service missionary, Elder Poe. LOVE HIM. |
There is so much more to mention like being dirtier than I've ever been before, tons of mosquito bites, an awesome farmer's tan, riding in a golf cart around Zion with Alison and Melanie just to feel the cool breeze, taking my stake president and his wife four wheeling in one of the guy's Dodge Durango's, writing letters to some of the youth I'm closest to for the pony express mail delivery (our stake president riding in on a horse - awesome visual), one of the angry mobbers (Kim, it was Gale O.) saying like 5 times how it had been a week since he shot someone (so funny that he kept saying it over and over!), washing kids' hair at the Zion carnival on Friday night, seeing kids smile I'd never seen smile before while they were dancing the Virginia reel, my friend Lisa pretending to be an angry mobber with a toy machine gun (laughing about that even as I type), Cindy telling the angry mobbers that they weren't hugged enough as children, and on and on. Treks rock. Seriously.
