Trek

I had the opportunity to go on my stake’s trek as a big sister and had an amazing experience. My ma and pa were Michael and Amy Baird, Randy Abbott was the big brother, and then we had 10 kids-6 girls and 4 boys. The kids were all great, and I’m so glad that I got to be in that family. We pulled the handcarts for 12 hours on Wednesday and were really exhausted. Then we got half a cup of chicken broth and a roll, the first food since before we’d started. Thursday morning we got up and broke camp to prepare to keep going. However, the baby (a doll full of sand weighing 8-10 lbs), whom Ma Baird had named Ephraim, passed away and we had to bury him. I cried and some of the kids definitely thought I was crazy, but to have been looking at it from the perspective of someone trying to keep track of all of those kids and to realize that people really had to bury their family members made me cry, not just the cute Ephraim doll. Then we headed to the temple, that we had seen the night before as we walked into camp. That walk was surprisingly shorter during the day and without pulling a handcart. At the temple the stake presidency talked to us about our job as the last generation. After they finished, we sang Come, Come Ye Saints. As we were singing the “mob” came, shooting guns and yelling, driving us out and setting fire to our temple. We then walked another 2 hours or so to make it to base camp, or Zion. We set up camp and had lunch then we got to play some pioneer games. We pulled taffy, played marbles, butchered a freshly killed chicken, visited a blacksmith and got prairie diamonds and all kinds of fun things. Friday morning we played “life games” that made the kids work together to solve problems. Then we gave the kids a bag lunch, a journal and some scriptures and told them to go and read, pray and ponder as they ate their lunches. Then we had some down time before going to a square dance and then a testimony meeting. After the group testimony meeting, we met as families to have a testimony meeting there, and it was awesome to see the kids gain testimonies essentially right in front of you. Several mentioned that they didn’t want to come on the trek, and only came because their parents made them, but after all of that they had gained a testimony of the gospel and the importance of families. Saturday was an easy pack up and head out, and I was soooo excited to get in the shower as soon as I got back!