Pioneer Trek

Thanks to my awesome parents, Patrick and I had the opportunity to be "Ma" and "Pa" Watson on our Stake's Pioneer Trek that we did for youth conference this year. It was hard to leave the kids that long but we knew they'd be in good hands with my parents and weren't worried about them, just missed them lots! This is what we look like as pioneers - when we're still clean! And yes, it's still dark because we started at 5 am! The first day was definitely a long one!Gavilan Peak Ward YW (and YM!) rule! Here's Kathryn, Alexus, Veronica, Kameron, Jed and Karlee all ready to go! They make cute pioneers, don't they?

We all met at the Stake Center on Wednesday morning and had a short devotional from President Gaisford. Then it was time to load up on our buses that would take us north about 2 and 1/2 hours, where we were set to trek. We were on the buses as wards, which was fun because we knew we were all going to split up in our various families soon. We got a little lost getting there, but once we did we unloaded all our gear. We all gathered in a big group and the Ma's and Pa's took turns introducing themselves (with a cheer!) to all the youth and then President Scott Smith read off the kids that would join each Ma and Pa. It definitely shook things up a bit because most of the kids didn't know anyone in their family, or if they did, they didn't know them well. We spent some time introducing ourselves and setting goals for the day, then loaded up our cart. This photo was taken just after the Watson family loaded up and was set to go!Dani (Moon Valley); Kayla (North Canyon); Summer (Campobello); Joel (North Valley); Jake (Country Gables); Bubba (North Canyon); Aaron (Country Gables); Tyler (Deer Valley 1st); Amanda (Daisy Mountain); me and Patrick
This is our family right after we set off for the day. We were excited about our family right away. Everyone had a really positive attitude and seemed really ready to work. We discovered early on that we had a really quick pace and named our family the "Super Speeders." Our family bonded really fast and soon we started calling ourselves simply "The Best" because we were having so much fun and doing so well that we were clearly the best!! We did end up having to re-pack our cart once that day (it was too heavy - all the weight was in the front!) and Jake had an old ankle injury that was bothering him so he didn't walk the whole day but other than that, everything went smoothly!

Amanda, Kayla and Summer taking a break on the trail. Notice our sweet trail bosses behind them on horseback!
An entire group break. Look at all these people! We're listening to the trail bosses telling us what to expect next. The morning was slow going for the entire group and we were encouraged to pick up the pace or we weren't going to get in to camp until 1 am! That freaked us out enough to get everyone going and when we all rolled into camp that night, we were told that we got there 2 hours and 15 minutes before any stake that had trekked that year! Go Deer Valley Stake! In all, we did about 10 miles this day.
The Watson family getting dinner ready. We did it all over the fire but it was easy - chicken soup with vegetables.
Setting up camp for the evening. This photo looks almost authentic, doesn't it?
Yep, this is our awesome sleeping arrangements! It was actually way better than I thought it was going to be - the boys made us a good tarp tent that even kept out rain the second and third nights! We slept in families with the girl tents on one side of camp and the boys on the other. After a short fireside from President Sherm Smith, we headed to bed. We slept pretty good because we were so tired but had to get up way too early!

This is us heading out on the second day. Notice my makeshift front pack for our sandbaby who we named Travis. We liked him on the first day but by the second not so much. He was so stinkin' heavy! We found out later that he was only 9 pounds but we swore he was more like 15! The experience of carrying the sandbaby for a good part of the day was one of the first things about the trek that really impacted me. I felt like I gained a little more first-hand knowledge about what it would be like to walk as a pioneer with small children. So many pioneer women walked with babies and toddlers that would need to be helped and carried! I can't even imagine how difficult that would be.
About an hour after we started walking on the second day, our stake staff reenacted a Mormon Battlion. A general from the army read a document from the government and one from Brigham Young that asked for all able men to serve. Yep, that's right! Time for the women to pull all by themselves! We were feeling confident until we saw that the next mile of the trail was basically completely uphill. We later would learn that this was the steepest and most difficult part of the entire trail - and we did it ourselves! The men walked off the trail beside us but they couldn't help and they couldn't talk to us either.
On the trail, we were organized into companies. Our company had three wagons in it and we were able to help the women in each family. Our three families pretty much did the first 2 big hills by ourselves, with a few sisters from the stake staff helping. But when it came to the last hill and we saw how hard it was for the first family (they did so awesome though - without much help from the others in our company!), we did a better job of pitching in on our next 2 wagons.

This is the last hill of the women's pull. I'm not sure if I like this picture because it doesn't look hard or even look like it's a hill! All I can say was that it was one of the hardest things I've done in a really, really long time! All the girls were amazing! They had such confidence in themselves and knew that it was going to be hard, but also knew that they could do it. I think it was a great lesson for all of us - that we can do hard things, just like our stake YW president Sister Edwards says! I also really loved hearing the comments from the boys afterwards and the complements they paid the girls. I think it was a great experience for them to witness the strength of women in action. How grateful I am to be a woman in the Church!
This is me after the women's pull. Let's just say I was glad to have a little break.

Each family's cart had a name tag and this is ours. By the second day, we had also named ourselves "Orange Crush, " which was Patrick's good idea for a name - due to the fact that our family's bandannas were orange! So on our tag is Orange Crush and also the fact that we rule! On the bottom, it says "Where's Joel?" because we said this a lot through the course of the trek. He liked to disappear but when we needed him he was always there! After more waiting for more companies to finish the women's pull, we then got on our way to the Salt Lake Valley. Hooray! We got in to camp a couple of hours before dinnertime and had a little free time before we started on our stew. Patrick took the kids off to play stick ball while I started peeling vegetables with some of the girls. It's really interesting cooking that primitively - I haven't camped that way in a long time. But it was made pretty easy by all the great preparations from the stake staff. All week long, I was so impressed by the organization of the trek and all the meticulous planning that was involved. There were so many people behind the scenes that I don't think we were even aware of and I was just so grateful for all the hard work that was put in so the youth could have such life-changing experience. The boys made us another good tent (I think theirs was good too) and then had a great fireside from Sister Sawtelle who is a seminary teacher in our stake. Every night, after the fireside we have family time where we have a devotional and talk about the days events before family prayer. I loved having a chance to hear what the youth had to say and feeling their testimonies. We had so many great talks!
Friday was a more mellow day with some free time and the youth having an opportunity to have an hour of solo time where they got to study their scriptures and read a letter that their parents had written them ahead of time. Then they had time to write themselves a letter that they would have mailed to them in 6 months. We also had a bunch of games that we played as a family that were called "life-skills" games. They were kind-of problem solving type games that you had to figure out as a family and they were a lot of fun!

This is everyone figuring out "Prisoner." We had to figure out how to get everyone over the rope without touching it - and the area was boxed out so that you couldn't run and jump over it.
This one is called Centipede. You can't touch the ground at all and you have to move each board together - way harder than it looks! You gotta love our 2 tough guys, Bubba and Joel, who were at the front and back. They were always so much help! That night we also had square dancing and then a little bit of a dance afterwards. It was super fun - I think my favorite was watching Bishop and Patti Christison dancing! He does a great robot and a Riverdance impression! The stake cooked for us that night and that was a real treat. It was fun to have a little bit of free time because the girls in our ward had time to come over and hang with us and our family. That night President Scott Smith talked to us and then we had a testimony meeting. After that, we had a walking activity where we followed glowlights around the camp area which likened us to following the Spirit. Every day had a theme: the 1st day we focused on the way God strengthens us; the 2nd day we focused on the ways God strengthens us through other people; and the 3rd day we focused on the way God send us light through the Holy Ghost. It was really awesome to be able to focus on these really important concepts each day. Then we came back to the fire and we put in our hands the ration of flour that we had carried in our pouches all week. All of us threw it in together and when you do, the whole fire explodes and sparkles! It was really cool! We spent some time hanging out by the fire and roasting marshmallows since we couldn't do it the night before (it was raining!) and had a family testimony meeting, then we called it a night. The next morning we were all pretty ready to go. I don't think any of us have ever gone that long without a shower! So we got packed up and then we heard from President Gaisford and Sister Edwards and President Winters before we left.

This is our family before we left to walk that last day. We are so much dirtier and scrubbier - but I love the body language in this one. We were totally family by now. I really grew to love these kids - they were so good to each other and they worked so hard together. There was never a time when they said a negative thing to one another. I was really impressed! I'm really glad that I'll still be able to see them when we have stake activities. Such a neat group of youth! I ran around this morning getting pictures of the youth in our ward - I tried, but some kids didn't cooperate!
Ma Polly and Karlee

Kathryn





Kameron


Christian


I like this picture because you can really get a perspective on how many people were trekking. 19 Ma's and Pa's and about 9 or 10 kids a family and then all the stake staff. Really unbelievable especially because it was so well organized!


My cute but scruffy hubby helping unload the handcart for the last time. It was so fun to share this experience with him! He is such a good example and easy to be around. He has a great way with youth - he likes to hang out and have fun with them but also can have the greatest spiritual talks with them too. He has a really approachable way of teaching the gospel. I love him!

The Gavilan Peak Ma's and Pa's - holla! It was so much fun having everyone from our ward to do the trek with, Bishop Johnson included. From the left, it's me and Patrick; Ben and Polly Moore, Ben and Brielle Gundersen; and Bryan and Katie Knueppel.

When we got back to where the buses were to pick us up, we had fun doing pioneer games and activities then had a trek photo. I can't believe we got all of us in there! Then our Subway sandwiches were delievered! I don't think a sandwich and chips ever tasted so good! We rode back to the Stake Center in wards again and the kids slept while we talked about our experiences. We had a chance to say goodbye to our families and the girls in our ward and then it was home to shower - but not before we stopped at 7-Eleven!!!

I know it's been a really long post but it was a really important experience for me and I wanted to make sure that I "journaled" it so that I wouldn't forget! I was so grateful for the opportunity to have this experience and I feel like I learned a lot of important things. I know that I have a greater appreciation for my pioneer heritage. I always knew it was hard to do what they did but having just the tiniest taste of it made it that more real. We only walked about 20 miles but by the end, I was bone-tired and had a couple bruised toenails to boot! I can't even wrap my head around the experience our pioneer ancestors had. I am forever grateful for their sacrifice. One of the main goals that the organizers of the trek had was that the youth would be able to apply this particular "wilderness experience" to other wildernesses they will experience in their lives. I certainly understood better the way that the Lord works in my life to strengthen me when things are hard and I feel like I can better see the hand of the Lord in my life. I know the youth gained an understanding of that as well. We have to do hard things in our lives but not by ourselves. I love being with the youth! Despite all the pressures and temptations in this world, they try so hard and want so badly to do the right thing. More than ever, I know that the youth of this Church are wonderful, good people and I feel how much the Lord loves them when I'm with them. I feel of their potential and of their divine nature. The trek took them out of their comfort zones but they were kind to each other, they helped each other and they lifted each other up. I saw the YW in my ward grow and I saw the youth in my family grow. It was truly beautiful to witness. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of happiness. I know that we can succeed in our earthly life, through the atonement, and return to live with our Heavenly Father and our brother Jesus Christ. I know we have a prophet who leads us today and am grateful for the guidelines he gives us. I'm thankful for Joseph Smith who restored the church in the latter-days. I'm thankful for the Book of Mormon and all the truths that it contains. I'm thankful for temple blessings that allow me to keep my family with me forever. I can't picture my life without the knowledge of all these many blessings that I have.

I am so thankful for my membership in this church and that I'm privileged to have experiences such as this pioneer trek that strengthen me and cause me to want to be better. I love the youth of this church and am so grateful for my calling that allows me to be with them!!