Week 8 - 6/13-19/16 2nd Trek, Orem Heather Ridge Stake, Orem UT

We had another great week and Trek!  

Well, we had our first "toilet Tuesday."  The better the job the trek support porta john person does, the nicer the job is for us.  We have to check at the end of each trek to make sure there is nothing floating in the johns that isn't supposed to be there (anything other that what comes out of the body and toilet paper.)  If there is, we have to use a "grabber" and get it out or the porta-john company will not pump them out on Monday.  Then we sweep and wipe them all down and sanitize them.

Here is the rest of the "toilet Tuesday" crew, Sisters Brinkerhoff, Peart, Cowan, Ekins, and Walker.  What a great group!

Tuesday afternoon we took one of the Rangers out to review our trail for the next day's trek.  One of the nicest camps was full of cows.  We could chase the cows out with all of the trekkers, but it is what is left behind that is hard to deal with, especially being so fresh!  So, I guess it will be plan B for that camp site.

Tuesday night we had visitors for a fireside.  Elder and Sister Flinders shared their experiences trekking in Argentina.  The Flinders are standing in the middle of the picture with all of the missionaries, the Stake Presidency on the left, and the Sisters Moon on the right.  Here is their story, with pictures, borrowed from their web page.

Five years ago, Utah residents Blaine and Ann Flinders accepted a call as farm missionaries to Argentina. One of their first assignments was to manage the Church-owned, 5,000-acre Kilgruman Farm near the city of Cordoba. The vast and isolated property included recreational amenities such as soccer fields and a swimming pool and was a popular destination for Church groups and families. The farm also owned a few aging handcarts that were occasionally used by visiting Mutual groups for two- or three-hour “pioneer walks.”

The handcarts were at the farm thanks to the foresight of earlier senior missionaries at the farm.

“But the walks were nothing like a real handcart trek,” said Elder Flinders. “A handcart trek … is an encounter with reality.”

The short walks did not allow participants to step from their 21st-century lives for several days and work and pray together as “families” while learning the life-altering, historical accounts of Mormon pioneers.

“We felt strongly that a handcart trek on the farm would truly be a blessing in the lives of the Argentine youth and their leaders,” he said.

Organizing a three-day handcart trek across the vast Kilgruman Farm demanded a pioneer-like effort. First were the handcarts the participants would push and pull. Many of the existing handcarts were showing their age. So the Flinderses began scouring salvage yards and trade shops across central Argentina in search of iron wheels and other materials that could be used to improve and fabricate handcarts. Then a trailer was also located to haul several portable toilets across each trek route.

The Flinderses and a team of volunteers also set about developing a trek system across the farms that included water features and uneven terrain. They felled trees and cleared acres of brush to make a path for the handcarts.

But a handcart trek is far more than a wilderness adventure. It’s an outdoor classroom where gospel lessons are taught along dusty trails and under starry nights. The Flinderses desired for the Argentine participants to truly come to know the men, women, and children who were part of the Willie and Martin handcart companies. Unfortunately, few of their faith-building accounts were available in Spanish. So they enlisted a team of bilingual members in Argentina and the United States to translate the pioneer stories from English to Spanish.

A few local stake leaders had to be sold, initially, on the idea of a handcart trek. Some felt such a trek was suited for North Americans or LDS youth who had direct family ties to the Mormon pioneers.

“But we all share the same pioneer legacy and heritage in the Church,” said Elder Flinders.

The Argentina handcart treks have become popular for stakes and districts across the country. In the past five years, thousands of Argentine Latter-day Saints, along with many of their friends, have taken part in Kilgruman Farm handcart treks. A second trek system has also been developed, allowing two stakes to use the farm at the same time.

Devotionals enrich each day of trek. Participants learn about the Mormon pioneers—and becoming modern-day pioneers. Quiet time is spent with scriptures, and each young man and young woman is presented with a personal letter written by their parents.

The Kilgruman treks conclude with a makeshift viewing of the pioneer-themed film 17 Miracles and a testimony meeting.

“The youth have experiences here that they will never forget,” Elder Flinders said.

I think we would be tempted to sign up for Argentina if we could speak Spanish!

We had a nice dinner with the Flinders.

Our second trek was with the Orem Heather Ridge Stake and we were the assistant missionary couple with lead missionaries Elder & Sister Barton.  What a change from our little 3-cart trek to a 23-cart trek!  They arrived on five large buses and had 13 support vehicles, which were about three more than they were supposed to have!

They were very well organized, with the companies (3-4 families each,) each having a different colored flag.

The trail boss and Elder Howard looking on as the families packed their carts after they had been organized.

The boys all had vests, the girls all had skirts and aprons that matched, and all of the leaders and support people had coordinating shirts--Stake Presidency purple, medical red, cooking crew white, etc.  The Pa's had on blue shirts and a vest and the Ma's had on the same skirt as the girls, but with a different apron.  It was nice because you could keep the 300 people straight that way.

They made a pretty impressive sight as they trekked and it was a little hard keeping everyone as close together as we would have liked.  Here they are going cross-country on a trail.

Some of the "road" trails are a bit rocky, but they didn't have to walk on this one too far before they went off of it onto a trail.

They had a group of youth who put on a production 2-3 times each day.  Their leader was a past 5-year producer of the Hill Commorah Pageant!  They were all done with music and no spoken words, and depicted some pioneer stories, with matching modern stories.  Some of them were a little hard to figure out, but they portrayed stories about Hope, Faith, and Victory.  Their scenes always included a life-sized door and a curtain/backdrop.  It was pretty impressive, but took quite a bit of time to get set up and taken down each time.

The meals were also pretty impressive.  They were more or less catered by the BYU Food Services.  The Brother who works for BYU was with the group.  It was all pretty much pre-cooked, packaged, and then heated up food for the meals, and all eaten with plastic plates and utensils so there was very little dish washing.  It was so organized that there was a table plan that showed where everything was to be put, down to the last serving spoon.

The meals were great.  The first day we had stew in bread bowls, the second day was Mexican food, and the last day was barbecued baby-back ribs and chicken.  We even got BYU brownies and cookies!

It was pretty much tent city at night.  It is a good thing we had a fairly large camp site.

Elder Barton drove the Trail Boss, the Activities Directors, and the Stake President to the beginning of the Women's Pull, which was to be the next morning.

They had some very musically talented youth who sang every day.

This was a great trek, although maybe a little over the top with the production side.

One of the special things about this trek is that they had a special needs boy, Micheal, who came the second day with his parents.  He is a non-verbal, downs syndrome boy, and, because he doesn't walk very well, they had a three-wheel adult stroller that they pushed him in.  They were only going to push him the one day because it was on a pretty smooth road.  It included the Women's Pull, where the boys pushed him all the way to the top!  He enjoyed everything so much that his parents brought him back the second day to trek cross-country.  He did great and every family had a chance to push him.  They actually tied some ropes to the front of his stroller and put a bar through it so that it was more like a handcart.    His Mom and Dad gave one of the devotionals  the first night he was with us and told us all about him--his limitations, his likes and dislikes, and other things about their family.  What a great experience for everyone.

We also had a boy named Gabe, who has cerebral palsy.  He never complained and was always happy.  But, after the second day, his toes (because of the way he walked) were so bad that the medical people had to remove three of his toenails.  He was carried in a cart part of the time, but led the whole group to the start of the Women's Pull, and everyone cheered for him.

Ky was another special needs boy.  Sometimes he would be at the back of the group and would see and hear the Ranger behind him.  He really was fascinated with it and wanted to ride in it.  So, he would sit down and wouldn't go any further.  I would slowly ride by him and wave.  He would give me a big smile, jump up, and start walking again.  I would try to stay a little ahead of him for a while, then pull off the road for them to pass.  Once he would catch up with everyone and be with his family, he couldn't see or hear the Ranger and he would do fine.

This group had great youth, leaders, and medical staff on this Trek, with no serious problems to deal with.

I will put in an addendum to this posting when I get some pictures from their photographer.  I had an accident with my cell phone and was able to only save the first day's pictures. (Don't ever sit on a porta john with your cell phone in your back pocket!)

Week 7 - 6/6-12/16 1st Trek, Lehi East Stake, 34th Ward, Lehi UT

We had a great FHE on Monday.  After having a good dinner with all the missionaries, some of the Evanston Stake Presidency and their wives, the Flinder's family, and the Young family,  Elsbeth Young and her father talked to us about their lives and their paintings.  Several of their paintings were bought by the Church and are now in some of the temples.  When the Church buys them for the temple, they cannot be sold publicly.  Her latest painting depicts a young pioneer woman sitting in the snow against a tree.  Elsbeth told us that she went out in the snow four times and sat so she could feel what it was like to be that cold, and to know the color hue of the skin when it was so cold.  Brother Young told us stories of when his dad was in the Army during the war and how a man gave him a Book of Mormon .  After joining the Church, their family found out that the man's ancestors were some of the early pioneers.  He feels a very close relationship to the pioneers because of that, even though he has no blood ancestors who trekked to Zion.

The Flinder family is speaking to us next week.  They do treks for the youth in Argentina.  That should be very interesting to hear about.

Tuesday is the day we get ready for the next day's Trek.  Yup, it is finally here!  We clean porta johns (didn't have to this week because we haven't used them yet,) fill water buffalos, move carts and porta johns so we have the right numbers for our trek.  Sister Call writes the names of the groups on the white boards at the gate so everyone coming in will know which direction to go.  Elder and Sister Johnson will be at the gate to also direct them.  We didn't sleep too well that night--it seemed like Christmas Eve or something!

Prayer Meeting started bright and early--7:00--and then we headed down to our staging areas to meet our trekkers!  Elder & Sister Ekins were our partners on our first group, who was a ward from Lehi, UT.  We had a small group, only 37 people with three handcarts.  We just hoped that we wouldn't get them lost!

The Lehi 34th Ward was divided into three families.  This was the Jackman Family.

Here is the Coles Family.   Each family had a Ma and a Pa and either 6 or 7 kids.

And, this is the Barton Family.  We trained the porta john and the water buffalo support people how to do their jobs.  We showed the families how to take care of their carts.  After Elder Howard welcomed them, introduced the rest of us missionaries, and gave them a few more instructions, they had a devotional, gave a cheer, and were ready to trek!

The trails across the meadows were really nice the first day.  The kids were so excited that it was hard to keep up with them.  Elder Howard lead the first day and I trailed at the end.  We trekked almost 9 miles that day.  Elder Ekins lead the support crew and Sister Ekin drove the Ranger and kept just in site of the trekkers in case we needed her for anything.  We made it to our first camp in good time.  It was in a beautiful meadow.  We had great weather, delicious food, and a very nice evening.  All of the missionaries leave the groups and go back to sleep in our RVs at Missionary Village each night.  The next morning we returned to camp just in time for a delicious breakfast.

I think this little gal's name was Addie.  She is going to be a senior in high school next year.  She said I could take her picture and use it in my blog (all of them agreed to be in my blog).  She touched my heart as she was walking around camp, carrying her Book of Mormon.

The second day, I guided the support crew, Elder Howard drove the Ranger, Elder Ekins led and Sister Ekins trailed.  This was the day of the Women's Pull.  When the pioneers trekked, many of the men did the hard labor, while giving a lot of their portion of the food to their wife and children.  Because of this, when they hit a bad snow storm they weakened first, and many of them either died or were so ill they couldn't do much of the work.  Because of that, many of the women and children had to pull the handcarts.  We re-inact that by having the girls and women pull the handcarts (usually up a steep hill) by themselves, while the men and boys line the side of the trail in reverent respect for them.  It is usually very moving and can have a big impact on lives.  After our girls did the women's pull, we rested and ate lunch at the top of the hill.

We had taught the families how to stand up their carts and bring the tarps up over the top to make shade for them to sit in while they ate their lunch or stopped for a rest.

They all did a good job doing this.

We had been given this picture by Elder & Sister Cowan, who told us to be on the lookout for this flower, Death Camas.  If it is touched by the hand and then the fingers put in the mouth, it causes stomach cramps and diarrhea.  Well, when I pulled the kitchen crew, water, and porta johns into our second camp, they began getting things set up.  I started looking around and saw a few of these flowers.  As I further inspected the camp, it was pretty well filled with Death Camas.  I told them about the flower and said that I did not feel good about them staying there.  After a little discussion, they agreed.  So, we ended up leaving a really nice camp on a beautiful point, to go a mile further to a camp with lots of sagebrush, cow pies, and badger holes. 

We had a nice evening there, with Elder Ekins riding in on his stick horse "Sliver" and portrayed Ephram Hanks.  Ephram Hanks did a lot of things in his life, but one of them was to be a rescuer of a couple of the handcart companies.  He told his story, then turned some time over to "his friend," Elder Ekins (by literally turning around) who read part of the dedication of the DL&L Ranch to be set apart for the youth of the Church to TREK.  

The third day, Elder Howard led again and I trailed.  Elder Ekins dove the Ranger and Sister Ekins lead the support crew.  We had a shorter day of trekking because of walking the extra mile to camp the day before.  In the middle of the trek, we reenacted the Jens & Elsie Nielsen story.  They had already lost their 5-year-old son and a young 9-year-old girl they were taking to SLC to meet up with her family.  Jens' feet were frozen and one was deformed to the point that he couldn't walk another step.  He told his wife, Elsie to just leave him beside the road and go on, but she wouldn't do it.  She put him in the handcart and pulled him for a week in the snow until there was room to put him in a wagon.  She said that at the point that she could not pull him any further, she felt someone pushing.  She looked back and saw no one.  She testified that there must have been angels helping her.  The reenactment turned out very well and all of us were touched by it.

When we got to camp that afternoon, it was in a beautiful valley, which made up for the sagebrush camp the night before.  What a fun time we all had.  Everyone played games and made crafts.  After a delicious dinner of stew and fruit cobblers in dutch ovens, we had a hoedown, with Sister Ekins calling the dances.  Elder Ekins, Elder Howard, and I taught the dances.  We danced the Virginia Reel, Heel Toe Polka, and Oh Johnny Oh.  

At the end of the dancing, we heard this beep-beep-beeping.  Then we saw the little mini truck coming, with signs on it saying "Pot Gut Express."  A goofy man (Elder Howard) got out, with his hat on crooked, a vest, and a mail bag.  After he finally got the mail delivered, he started to get in on the wrong side of the truck (the steering wheel is on the right side.)  The kids got him straightened out! Then he took off around the kitchen trailer and we heard a loud THUD!  We all ran around, thinking he had hit the side of the trailer.  Well, the front tire had fallen into a large badger hole, clear up to the frame.  The kids all gathered around and pushed him out.  They had great fun, and we had quite a story to tell the next morning in Prayer Meeting!

I will amend this part of the posting, with pictures shared by the trekkers as soon as they send them to me.

The next morning, our last trekking day, we had a beautiful trail to follow.  Elder Ekins lead, with Sister Ekins trailing.  I drove the Ranger and Elder Howard the support crew.  We had about six miles to get down to staging, where all of the trekkers would be leaving us.

We would usually stop about every half hour and everyone would drink some water and maybe have a little snack.  Everyone was so good about doing this that we had no medical problems with our group except a couple of nosebleeds and some hotspots on feet.  We had heard that some of the groups that week had had to give several IVs to kids and adults because of dehydration from not eating and drinking right.

The trail was beautiful, but there were some pretty good-sized hills to climb.  The kids just zipped right up them.

Along some of the trail, and sometimes right in the middle of the trail, were these large badger holes. The kids in the front of the cart would call out when they saw them so that those in back would not stumble into them.

No wonder the "Pot Gut Postman" had trouble getting the "Pot Gut" mini truck out of the badger hole he fell into!

Last rise in the trail before coming to the end!

The support crew had music playing, Come, Come Ye Saints, and were banging on pots and pans and cheering as the trekkers came in.

It didn't take long for them to unpack their carts and get in their cars to go home.  They were ready for the end of their "4-day shower fast" and were ready for their soft beds at home.  

This is all of our trekkers and the support crew.  What a great experience we had with them.  I hope they will have as many good memories of their TREK as we do of our first TREK at DL&L!

After sending our trekkers off, we have to check all of the carts, empty the porta johns of any un-used toilet paper and trash, and then head back to Missionary Village to wash our support truck and our Ranger.  As we were vacuuming out our truck, we heard this chirping.  There was a blackbird nest of little ones wanting some food.  It will be fun to watch them grow and then fly away.

Week 6 - 5/30/16 - 6/5/16

We have been on our mission a little over six weeks now, and we are still loving it.  The first couple of weeks we were kind of wondering if we could handle all of the physical work entailed in getting ready to take groups out on the treks.  The work doesn't feel so arduous any more.  The tasks we are assigned to do are still  hard sometimes, but it is so fun to do.  We laugh and have a good time with whomever we are working with and soon the job is done. 

Spring has finally sprung in Evanston.  They are about a month behind our Idaho spring.  They have such a short growing season here that very few people try to grow a garden.  The elevation and the weather are just not very conducive to doing that.  We had lilacs in full bloom in Emmett the middle of May, but they are just beginning to come on now here in Evanston.

On Memorial Day, most of the missionaries went to the Evanston Roundhouse for a Memorial Day Community Observance program and luncheon.  It was really nice.

The roundhouse (in the upper right side of the picture), built in 1914 by Union Pacific Railroad, was used to repair rail cars and engines.  It is one of the few roundhouse left.  They would pull the trains into the building, fix them, pull them out the other side and onto a turntable, and return them to the tracks.

They have re-done the inside and outside of the building and it is really unique.  The city of Evanston owns the property and it is used for all kinds of functions. There are still tracks in the floor.

Our missionary group took up two tables for the program.  We were allowed to wear our "blues" which we all like better than having to dress up in skirts and white shirts and ties when we leave Missionary Village.  At the front table are the Bartons, Pearts, and Cowens.  At the back table are the Higginsons, Sister Call, and Ekins.  I was taking the picture and Elder Howard and Call were getting ready to present the Army flag in the ceremony.
 

They asked that two people from each branch of the service come forward to present their flag.  No one seemed to be willing to do it for the Army, so Elder Howard and Elder Call volunteered (the only veterans in our Missionary group) just as another man volunteered.  So, there were three with the Army flag.

It was nice seeing all of the military flags posted at the front of the room.  There was music and speeches before they served lunch.

Bear River State Park is on the outskirts of Evanston, and since it was a beautiful day, we all decided to go on the river walk after the Veterans Program.

It was really pretty.  Along the way, we saw buffalo and elk farms.  It was about a 3 mile walk--nothing for TREK missionaries!  I was a little worried for next week because of how tired I was when we finished.

At the end of the walk there is an old bridge that had been moved there from another part of the city.  It was very picturesque.

Elder Howard, Elder & Sister Call, Elder & Sister Ekins, and Elder and Sister Barton are posing on the bridge.

We stopped on the way back on the trail and visited with a lady who was wondering who we all were.  We told her our story and where we were all from.  She said we needed our picture taken by the fence along the river, and she volunteered to take it for us.  We couldn't say no!  Here are Brother Higginson, Elders & Sisters Howard, Barton, Peart, Ekins, and Call.  What a nice day we had!

Back on the ranch the next couple of days, we were busy getting some final jobs done before TREK starts.  We have been doing a lot of weed spraying--especially thistle!  I hadn't helped with any of it, but Elder Cowen asked me to take the water tank and weed chemical to a couple of meeting places so the sprayers wouldn't have to come clear back to Missionary Village to refill their sprayers in the 4-wheelers.  I was supposed to fill a portable sprayer and spray the area I was in while I waited for them.  I had never driven to these places before, so I was a little worried about finding them by myself.  Well, I managed to find where to go and filled my sprayer several times to spray all of the thistles around me.  It ended up being kind of fun!

Some of our support roads and trails have some really bad holes and ditches in them, so we borrowed the skidster from the ranch and got sand and gravel from our gravel pits to fill them.  Elder Howard was one of the missionaries chosen to run the skidster.  I think he had more fun on it than he was supposed to, but he did a good job!

The hard part started when we had to shovel the gravel out of the trucks into the holes.  We worked two days on the roads and trails, but with lots of hands working it, the job got done.  Elder Cowen, Sister Ekins, Elders Call, Peart, Howard, and Ekins are helping here.  Even after some sore backs, and Elder Barton falling out of the truck once, the roads and trails will be much nicer and safer for our trekkers to travel on.

After we finished with the skidster, we rode with Elder and Sister Brinkerhoff to take it back to the ranch.  On the way across the ranch property we passed the "Cheyenne Social Club."  Many years ago, before the Church owned the ranch, these buildings were an "exclusive house of ill repute!"  Now, they are just some old buildings that the outfitters or fishermen may use once in a while.

 The 235,000 acres of the ranch are in Utah, bordering Wyoming.  The ranch headquarters are at the northern end of the ranch, while the trekking in on the southern end.  It is a beautiful ranch.  Before we came home, and because we hadn't had lunch, we stopped and ate at Jody's in Evanston, a favorite restaurant of the missionaries.  We justified stopping there because it was Elder Howard's 68th birthday!  We had woken up that morning with the outside of our motorhome decorated and little gifts appeared at our door all during the day.

 We were able to go on one more outing before starting our TREKs next week.  Sister Moon and her daughter, Sister Moon (we call them the Moon Sisters,) took us on a tour to Fort Bridger.  It was really interesting.

From the pamphlet:  Jim Bridger established the fort in 1843 as an emigrant supply stop along the Oregon Trail.  It was obtained by the Mormons in the 1850s and then became a military outpost in 1958.  In spite of temporary times of abandonment during the Civil War and then again during the late 1870s, Fort Bridger remained U.S. Government property until 1890.  After the post was abandoned, many of the buildings constructed by the army were sold at public auction and moved off of the fort ground to become private homes, barns, bunkhouses and the like.  For a time, the buildings that remained were allowed to fall into disrepair.  But after a period of neglect, various groups and individuals took interests in preserving and restoring what remained of old Fort Bridger.  In 1933, the property was dedicated as a Wyoming Historical Landmark and Museum.

Several of the missionaries bought harmonicas at the Fort Bridger Museum and we had a little concert around the fire pit there.  We even had a cowboy poem from Sister Walker!  There was a non-member couple kind of following us around.  When we told them who we were, they said that they thought we were tour guides for the Fort!  They did enjoy the entertainment, though.

 After we left Fort Bridger, we ended up on some of the Guild Family property where they do TREKS as a family business.  We had been on these roads before, but they had just put up some of their TREK porta-johns.  We took advantage of them!  Sisters Peart, Ekins, Howard, Cowen & Higginson, Call, Barton, Walker, and Hutchings, are posing in front of them!

Next, we went to see a culvert built, originally under a railroad, by the Chinese.  It is quite a fancy culvert.  We were challenged to walk through it by Sister Moon.  Some of the "seasoned" missionaries opted not to.  Did they know something we didn't know?

The other end of the tunnel was only about half as tall as the opposite end, so by the time you got to the middle, you had to crawl on your hands and knees.  Besides that, there was fresh cow manure  half-way through!  It was quite an adventure!

On down the road, we got near The Needles. 

 At the bottom the these mountains is where Brigham Young and the Vanguard Company camped for several days on their way to the Salt Lake Valley because he had tic fever.  This ended up being a great landmark for many pioneer companies coming later.

 We got to see the grave marker for one of Elder and Sister Peart's ancestors.  They didn't know they were related to any of the pioneers until they came to the DL&L Trek Mission!

 We have two of the coolest little mini-trucks that come in really handy.  As we were headed down for some training on staging (where trekkers first come in and start their trek) Elder Howard told Sister Cowan that he hadn't driven one yet.  She said, "Take one now."  So, we did.  How fun they are.

They have really small tires and the steering wheel is on the wrong side!  They are a stick shift so it feels really awkward to drive them.  They are 4-wheel drive and have a cute little horn!  Elder Howard needs to learn to drive one because he has to deliver "mail" to our first trek in it.

 We still have our "resident" antelope.  He never goes very far from Missionary Village.  He seems to like people, but doesn't let us get too close to him.  Elder Ekins looked out his window and saw him taking shelter under our slide.  It is fun to have him around.

Well, next Wednesday is the big day--our first TREK.  We are nervous and excited at the same time.  Because Elder Johnson is not well enough to do a trek and is doing gate duty, we were assigned to be the lead couple on his first trek, with Elder and Sister Ekins assisting.  We are the only ones without a "seasoned" missionary couple with us.  With Heavenly Father's help, we are ready!