Dear Friends:
This is the second post about our recent Pioneer Trek near Lampasas, Texas. If you want to see the first post, click here.
We begin this post on the morning of the second day. We had just packed up all the handcarts and were moving along the trail:
Our first stop was just a couple of miles away, but began one of the most important experiences that we would provide for the 150 youth during this activity. Basically, we attempted to have the youth experience two related, and extremely challenging, events that happened to the original Mormon pioneers. A little history first - during the original pioneer trek across the U.S., the U.S. was involved in the Mexican-American War. The government asked for volunteers to help fight. Despite the fact that the pioneers were already living under severe circumstances, they wanted to prove their loyalty to a country that had previously driven them from their homes. Over 500 men volunteered to leave their families and form the Mormon Battalion. From July 1846 to July 1847, the battalion made a grueling march nearly 2,000 miles long from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego.
We had a good brother show up in military uniform, to deliver the original text of a letter to the original pioneers:
We then separated the young men and had them travel ahead on a difficult part of the trail - with a twist. We had a man in our congregation that had ancestors involved in the Mormon Battalion. His great-great grandfather had been one of the volunteers. This man's brother also volunteered. During the long march, one of the brothers became very ill. The army captain that led the battalion was going to leave him behind, as they didn't have have medical facilities nor personnel to handle the problem. The army captain ordered the rest of the group to continue marching, leaving the man behind. Every night, his brother would ride all the way back to find his brother and bring his brother to join up with the battalion. Eventually, the army captain forbid the man from using any army equipment or horses. So the man walked each night to find and carry his brother - repeating the process for several days. Eventually, the native americans who had been watching this strange behavior, helped both men to reach the battalion. Due to this man's incredible faith and diligence, the brother survived. This brother was our friend's great-grandfather. For this reason, we had the young men break up into groups of three and two boys would carry a third, to symbolize the story:
During the time of the Mormon Battalion, our Prophet - Brigham Young - promised these families that no men would die in combat. However, several men died in the difficult march. One of these men was married to an ancestor of mine. I was able to share her story with the young women on trek, to give them a first-hand account of the challenges the women faced. For our trek, we had the young women band together and pull the handcarts without the help of any young men. We chose a particularly difficult area of the ranch, to help re-enforce the sacrifice that the original pioneers made. We also wanted the young women to know that they can do hard things, as that’s what will be required of them throughout their lives.
Here are some images from the “Women’s Pull.” This is the first of two hills that they had to climb. The rope that is attached to the front end of the cart was purely for safety - nobody helped pull the cart up the hill:
Then, the women had to go down another steep hill:
...and then up the second hill. We allowed the young men to stand to the side and cheer the young women on:
We finished the Women's Pull and gathered all of the youth at the bottom of the tough hill. We wanted to try and connect the youth with the experience that they had just endured. We wanted so badly for them to understand that they can do hard things...just like the pioneers before them. We also wanted them to understand that being pioneers means that you will have to sacrifice - whether that's comfort, sleep, questionable activities or friends that may not share the same values. We finished the experience with burying one of the "flour babies". On the original Mormon Pioneer trail, this happened all too often. The leaders helped set the mood:
It was a powerful, poignant moment that I hope they remember. Once finished, we took a short break. We made sure that the kids had water ALL of the time. This included large containers on every cart, as well as 50-gallon barrels brought in to each stop. As a treat, we through some ice into some of the barrels ; )
My logistics team was amazing - getting port-a-pottys into a variety of locations throughout the ranch, where the kids (and adults) would need them:
This is part of my leadership team, including our Trail Boss, Stake YW President and one of our Company Captains. They made the entire experience a lot of fun:
We got back out onto the trail, as we needed to travel several more miles that day:
We stopped for lunch and every family worked together to make sandwiches. There was plenty of food - which was yet another goal of ours ; )
A member of our Stake Presidency wanted to teach some of the kids how to "pull sticks" which is an activity that was popular in the mid-19th century. Here he is showing one of the more popular young men how it's done:
After moving several more miles, we took another break and had letters delivered by Pony Express. We arranged to have all of the parents write encouraging letters to their children:
We then brought in ice-cold watermelon for the kids to enjoy. It really kept their energy up and they started making games on-the-spot:
We moved back out onto the trail for a while, passing by some gorgeous meadows and open fields:
Just so we're clear - this was a working ranch. Since we're in Texas, there were Longhorn cattle all over the ranch. We had to delicately navigate our way through some animals:
We reached our final destination for the day, and stopped in a grove of trees to escape some of the heat. The families held devotionals before making dinner:
Some of the logistics team were a little tired...this guy fell asleep on a cement floor, in the middle of the barn!
We invited all of the Bishops in the Stake to come up to the ranch and hold a special discussion with the youth from their particular congregation. I was impressed with the effort to provide a great experience for the youth:
That's it for now. The next, and final, post will show you the big dance and end of the entire Pioneer Trek.
Thanks for reading!!
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