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.