Trek 2009This year for Youth Conference was trek. We went to This is the Place for two days. The first day we went around and saw how the early pioneers lived and what they did. That evening we got in our pioneer clothes and then had a dinner and pioneer dancing and then we watch a big storm come in across the valley. Michael Wilcox came and spoke to the us about Joseph Smith. The next morning we began the trek. It was actually the anniversary day of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and they did a reenactment of the mob coming and taking them away. It was a very sombering experience. Then we played some pioneer games before we started our trek. We gathered in our trek families and headed up the trail that was fairly steep. We stopped for lunch and to the east you could see a really steep and rocky hill that we had to go up next. But we were told that only the woman would be taking the handcarts up the hill. It was a very moving experience as it was very difficult for a lot of the women and many of them didn't think they could make it. At the top some were able to talk about just how hard it was. We then walked to where we were able to look out across the valley and the pony express brought letters from our families at home that they had written. We walked down back the trail part way where the youth were able to participate in a testimony meeting and talk about their experiences of the trek. It was an amazing experience for me to be able to be apart of this trek and be their with Jeff and Landon. Now I have had to opporunity to do a trek with both or our boys.
