For 3 days in July, Alex, Jared, Owen, and I participated in a 5-stake pioneer trek for youth 14-18 years old. Alex and I were in charge of all the Mas and Pas for this trek. In January and February, we gave talks at the 5 information nights about our previous experience as Ma and Pa four years ago. Then we did 4 training sessions (3 in-person and 1 zoom) during May and June. We trained about 30 couples. It was an interesting process trying to get the right number of couples to participate. At first we didn't have enough, so we went through all the alternates. However, in the last week or so several youth dropped for whatever reason, so then we had too many couples. We ended up needing 26 couples and one of the couples was dropped the morning of trek. We felt bad about that. Each of the 26 families had 7-9 youth in it, so we had over 200 youth participating. It was a big event!
Alex and I ended up with 5 boys and 4 girls in our family, and they were all strong participants and didn't require extra motivation throughout the trek. We actually had to try to slow them down most of the time and keep them from running with their handcart. We had one girl who got sunburned the first day and didn't have a great experience, but she continued to pull the cart and keep going. Each of the families was assigned a name of Christ to display on their family banner and discuss in one of the devotionals. We got "Rock", which was fun to talk about building on the solid foundation of Christ. We had a little R-O-C-K chant along the trail. I made some rock bracelets for our family that went along with the story of the Brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon.
There were 4 companies with 6-7 families in each company. Our family was in the green company. Owen and Jared were in different companies, so we didn't trek with them, but we saw them at the evening activities back at camp. We trekked 7 miles the first day, then 13 miles the second day, and 4 miles on the last day. We had stops along the trail to listen to speakers share about various topics.
In the evening we did family devotionals, had a nice dinner, and other activities. We had a motivational speaker on the first night, followed by square dancing. The 2nd night was free time to hang out and read letters from home. We got some great food - beef stew, BBQ chicken, salad, bread, apple pie, cookies, oatmeal, pancakes, sausage, hamburgers. We ate a plain baked potato and a biscuit for lunch on the 2nd day, but otherwise we were fed pretty well. The last activity of trek was company testimony meetings to let the youth share any experiences they wanted to. I enjoyed our family devotionals, where we talked about our name of Christ and shared modern-day pioneer stories. I shared my parents' conversion story and Alex shared how he joined the church.
The hardest part for me was the foxtails that got stuck in my socks and shoes, not having a chair to sit on, and sleeping on the hard ground with very little cushion. My back couldn't really take sleeping on or sitting on the ground the whole time. It was also challenging keeping the youth from running with the carts. We had a tender mercy with the weather. At our trek in 2019, the weather was really hot - 95 degrees. I had prayed and fasted this time for cooler temps. We had 10-15 degrees cooler this time, which was much more bearable. I only got one pre-blister that didn't turn into a blister. My other issue was bloody heels after being told to put on our water shoes for an upcoming crossing while still having to walk at least a 1/4 to 1/2 mile in the water shoes. That was near the end of the 2nd day.
I'm not sure I want to serve as a Ma and Pa again but maybe some other role. The social and spiritual experience is good, but the physical part is getting more challenging. The walking wasn't bad, but the aches and pains of sitting and sleeping on the ground was hard. The heart and mind are willing but the flesh is weak! Trek is such an interesting experience - so many emotions, unusual things, moments of amazement at the strength of the youth, challenges, the ups and downs. I love writing letters to our kids, reflecting on their strengths and gifts and things I want to express to them. That was a spiritual experience for me.
Jared and Owen had no problems with trek. They were strong and motivated and got along well with everyone. They even helped clear brush in the devotional areas along the trail prior to trek, so they got some good manual labor service in before trek even started. There were very few who volunteered to help with that, but our kids are very dependable and we can always count on them to show up.
We had to find other arrangements for Weston and Savannah. Savannah stayed with school friends and had a great time. We had a hard time finding arrangements for Weston. We eventually decided that he would stay home by himself during most of the day and stay overnight with friends (who both work during the day). And Kai would stay with Weston (and in our friends' backyard at night). Weston was thrilled to hang out with our good friends in the evening. They made steak and Chinese food for him, let him eat ice cream and Oreos, and drink Dr. Pepper. He watched movies and even hung out during the day on Friday to watch episodes of Ninjago on their Netflix. He still was a little bit anxious hanging out alone during the day, so we told him to just keep a bat nearby. He had that bat sitting there when we walked in the door after trek - it was pretty funny looking.
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