Trek 2k16 Featuring "The Donner Party"

Ten years ago or two treks ago for my stake, my two oldest brothers came back from trek. I remember sitting in our family room and they came back filthy. Then they began to inform me that they were starved and then given a piece of bread and some broth. This scared me more than anything. This made me not want to go on trek. Why would I want to go starve myself? No, don't sign me up for that. The next trek my stake went on, my parents, brother, and sister all went on. The came back with amazing reviews. They said the food was great and they all had a great time. They all loved their trek families. I was so so excited to get assigned a family, and my trek family was wonderful. I was assigned to great parents, Elvis and Stretch. (Those were the names they chose to be called on trek). They took great care of me and the rest of my family and treated us just like their own kids. We decided to call ourselves "The Donner Party".  If anyone commented on our name we would respond with "Would you like to join us for dinner?", "there is always room for one more", and "you look divine tonight". It was really great and super humorous because we are funny people.

(Thanks Desirae for the all the awesome pictures!)

My awesome trek ma and I

Tug of War gets pretty intense

When it was my turn to go on trek, I was really excited. I knew we would be fed well because the church got rid of the starving thing and my parents were in charge of the food. They had my back, it was great. was pumped to go because physical labor is kind of my thing. I like moving heavy objects, sweat, work out, and feel the spirit. Trek is somewhere that you get to do all of those things. Well I was in for quite a treat. I struggled with the physical part of trek more than I thought I would. It really humbled me. I have no idea how the pioneers did it. Constantly wearing down their bodies, pushing handcarts, and then getting up the next morning just to do it again. That seems a little crazy to me. Like I said, this part of trek really humbled me.

Something else that really got me thinking was, WE HAD NO IDEA WHEN WERE GOING TO STOP. The missionaries and some leaders knew what was going on but I couldn't keep track of how far we had gone or how long we had been going. I never knew how much further we had and that drove me absolutely crazy. If I could have known when we were going to stop, I could have paced myself better and not constantly wondered when we were going to be done and eat dinner. As I was complaining to myself on the first day about this, I realized that the pioneers didn't know where they were going, when they were going to stop, or how much longer they were going to be traveling. Despite the fact that they had no clue when they would get to stop and settle in, they kept going because they KNEW it was right. Their faith was incredible. We walked around six miles a day and that was plenty for me. I have no idea how they walked, pulled, and pushed for miles and miles with no actual destination in mind. Every time I think about this I get a little bit more amazed. I seriously cannot wrap my mind around the trials my pioneer ancestors had to endure to make it to Utah. I am so thankful they had the faith and courage to follow the spirit and establish Salt Lake City. I will be forever thankful for the opportunity to go on trek and get a tiny glimpse of what the early saints had to go through just to worship what they wanted to without being tormented. I hope to have faith and a testimony as strong as the pioneers did. Thinking about the pioneers and their travels ansewres so many questions in my mind about this gospel. It must be true if people were willing to do what the pioneers did just because they wanted to live the gospel. It must be true. It is true.

Yes this is my shoe and I can do hard things. Yes I did need to think about this a few times on trek.