We did it--the handcart trek! And I was nervous for nothing. It was great.
With my trek jitters, I did a ton of research before the trek. I found out some rather interesting ancestral details. My favorite discovery was that my great great great grandfather Edmund Lovell Ellsworth was captain of the first-ever handcart company in 1856. He married 4 women, 3 of whom were named Mary Ann. Jeff's great great great grandfather Joseph Argyle was a tent leader in Captain Ellsworth's handcart company, so they had regular meetings and knew each other. Joseph Argyle was a tinsmith who lined the axel boxes of the handcarts with tin to keep them from wearing down in the dirt and sand. He also pulled an entire handcart to Utah by himself. BUFF! Jay's official name is Joseph Argyle White, by the way. I like it even more now than I did when we named him 4 years ago.
Anyways, we met Grama Meri at the Church's Ensign Ranch (located in the mountains halfway between our homes, conveniently) on Tuesday, June 25th and handed off Jay and Rose. Then we went in to the ranch, donned our ponchos, claimed a handcart, and were assigned a trek family of 4 girls and 4 guys, ranging in age from 14 to 18. We had a wonderful mix of personalities in our family. They made for a good time.
Some details: We were in Company A, led by Captain Pulsipher, our stake president. There were 3 companies with 7-8 families of 8 kids plus a Ma and a Pa in each company. Each company was captained by a member of the stake presidency. There were about 180 youth at the trek.
We didn't bring a camera, so no pictures to illustrate the four and a half day pioneer experience. Words will have to suffice. They had a photographer AND a videographer documenting the trek, soooo I'm guessing at some point we will get to see some raw footage and images of the experience. But for now I'll just paint a few pictures with words and lists:
Our trek family name, chosen by the kids: Stark (Ironman/the armor of God)
Our trek family goals, made by the kids with gentle parental guidance:
1. Make it out alive together
2. Be positive
3. Learn the Handcart Song
What I was nervous about:
1. How on earth to be a youth leader
2. The women's pull (up a steep muddy hill with no masculine muscles)
What I should've been nervous about:
1. Using a tiny filthy port-a-potty in the dark while wearing a giant dress with apron strings dangling down the back
2. RAIN! It was only supposed to rain a little on the first day and then be warm and clear the rest of the week. Ha! It rained off and on (as in more on than off) for the first two days and nights.
Here are my less favorite parts, although we simply didn't dwell on them so they became non-issues:
- The awkward first lunch together when nobody really knew what to say.
- The rain was inconvenient, but it sure did keep the air nice n cool for us.
- I got a raging headache after the hoe down and all I had for to pillow my throbbing skull was a rolled up fleece jacket. The ache finally subsided by lunchtime the next day, after gallons of water and snacks and prayers-a-plenty.
- The general sleep deprivation was rough, although it really did make the laugh-a-thons that much funnier.
- Camping right next to the aromatic port-a-potties for 2 of the 3 nights was yuck-o, although we did make the best of it with a certain yellow glow stick.
- Not bathing for 4 days was blah of course, but it wasn't hot so we were much less gross that we could've been.
- Full, STINKY port-a-potties (aka, the infamous "Biffy")
Favorite parts:
- Jeff YELLED each of our kids' names at the top of his lungs as our family was announced at the beginning. It was great.
- Our family sang The Handcart Song over and over and over while we walked till we memorized 4 out of 5 verses. The best part is that our KIDS chose to learn it and asked us to help them. They rocked it. It became our ANTHEM. That song is still in my head 3 days later.
- The women's pull-- it was the only time I was allowed to help pull the handcart. We sang and huffed and chanted and puffed our way all the way up the hill.
- It was nice to get to know our stake president personally in such a unique setting.
- Our epic doughy dutch oven dinner fail: We let the coals burn down too much before putting them onto the dutch oven, so they didn't have enough heat in them to get our dinner hot. Luckily all the ingredients in the chicken and dumplings came from cans, so we could still eat the lukewarm goop, but we did have to discard the uncooked biscuit blob topping. The trek dutch oven expert came and rescued our peach cobbler dessert so we had that nice n steamy-hot an hour later.
- Huddling on buckets under a makeshift tarp awning and talking with our family during the rain
- LAUGHING my cheeks off with our hilarious kids--they were so fun to laugh with!
- Watching the stake leaders go through a quick mental sorting process when they tried to remember if Jeff and I were youth or Ma and Pa. We're in that awkward not-quite-old-but-not quite-young phase of life, and it was fun to see people guess about us.
- Our makeshift "foot spa" on the second evening when we filled our Rubbermaid box with icy water and washed our throbbing smelly feet.
- The hoe down--square dancing with the best (and worst) of them!
- Power-walking with the handcart--our family was full of FAST walkers. They would've made it to Zion a month early back in the day. Jeff and I had to put some hamstrings into it to keep up with them. On the last day, we were asked to take it slower so we could all enjoy the journey together.
- Watching our kids loosen up and become buddies was rewarding and GOOD.
- Holding hands with my Husband for most of the walk was the bomb. We haven't held hands that much since before Jay and Rose. We liked being romantic at a youth activity.
- Jeff told tons of stories to our family. They loved all of his clever tales--both the real and the pretend.
- We had evening family compliment time where we went around the circle and each person took turns saying 3 compliments to the family or to specific individuals. It was such a happy time to talk about the day in an indirect, positive way. If any outsider interrupted our compliment time, we made them join in and give 3 compliments too. Then we had family prayer.
- Our family took the river crossing at a run, and the people pushing nearly waterskied behind the handcart as they were dragged through the freezing, almost knee-deep water.
- The port-a-potty glow stick incident: our 15 year-old son broke open his glow stick while we were all sitting together on the last night. His loving Ma encouraged him to go in and decorate a port-a-potty stall with the glowing neon yellow liquid. The resulting splattered glowing droplets were perfect. We got a kick out of watching people's reactions when they looked into that stall.
- The devotional about modern day pioneers on the last night was inspiring. 15 or 20 youth went and changed out of their pioneer garb into modern day Sunday clothes. Then they came back and stood in front of the group with lit glow sticks. The stake presidency then read about how each one of those youth is a modern day pioneer. One girl gave up a lifetime of expensive competitive cheerleading so her family could afford to send her older brother on his mission. Another guy attended two wards (6 hours of church) each Sunday to show his skeptical non-member parents that he was truly committed enough to get baptized. Now he's preparing to serve a mission. Today's youth are strong and faithful!
- On the last night, we stayed up late telling ghost stories under our tarp.
Lessons learned/wisdom gained:
Lesson #1:Teenagers aren't as different from young kids as I thought! Then left their stuff laying all over the campsite, they enjoyed goofy stories and giggling, and they are always up for a snack. They are great! It turns out that my experience with young children and serving in Primary were very useful with teenagers. It was the most natural thing in the world to say "if you poke him one more time with that stick, I'm going to take it away,"and then take the stick away 5 seconds later. It didn't phase me one bit.
Lesson #2: When the Lord gives us a calling, he doesn't want us to change to fit the calling; he wants us to use who we are/our personality to fill that calling in our own unique way. He will guide us along when we do our part and then pray for his help. I had no idea how to be in charge of teenagers--I haven't been in charge of them since I was an EFY counselor at age 19. I felt so out of the teen-y loop that I just didn't know what to expect or what to DO with them. Ha! Lesson learned: just be myself, love the kids, and don't force them into anything. Fancy that.
Real-life application: My favorite trek metaphor that was mentioned after the women's pull: Brother Bell, our dry-witted trek coordinator, observed that every time an extra person came and started to help the girls push the handcart up the steep hill, the girls would all sigh and stop pushing for a few seconds, leaving all the weight of the handcart in the helper's hands [insert a Brother Bell-style dry humorous comment here]. Then, after that brief recharge of energy, the girls started working again, pushing along with the helper. He related that to the atonement. When we have done everything in our power, the Lord steps in to carry the weight (or we can give the burden to the Lord while we recover our strength). Then we are able to jump back into the fray and get back to work. I loved that analogy. Cast your burden upon the Lord and then get back to work!
Observation: The youth these days are STRONG and full of light. It was almost blinding at times to see the beautiful light shining out of their eyes. I don't know how else to put it--I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but that's what I saw when I looked around our family circle. They were positive, friendly, inclusive, and good sports through all of our trekking--mud, sweat, biffies, and all. They are real modern day pioneers, each in their own way. It was such a humbling experience to have them call me "Ma"for a few days.
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For your information, here's The Handcart Song, written by Captain William McArthur of the second 1856 handcart company. We memorized the first 4 verses together as a family on the trail by reading/chanting/singing and repeating it line by line, over and over. Yes, the handcart behind ours loved us.
THE HANDCART SONG
Ye Saints who dwell on Europe's shore,
Prepare yourselves for many more
To leave behind your native lands
For sure God's judgements are at hand.
For you must cross the raging main
before the promised land you gain,
then with the faithful make a start
to cross the plains with your handcart.
chorus:
For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill.
For merrily on our way we go,
Until we reach the valley-O
The land that boasts of so much light
We know they're all as dark as night
Where poor men toil and want for bread
and rich men's dogs are better fed.
The land that boasts of liberty
You ne'er again would wish to see
When you from England make a start
To cross the plains in your handcart.
As on the road the carts were pulled,
'Twould very much surprise the world
To see the old and feeble dame
Thus lend a hand to pull the same
And maidens fair will dance and sing,
Young men more happy than a king,
And children too will laugh and play,
Their strength increasing day by day.
And long before the valley's gained,
We will be met upon the plains
With music sweet and friends so dear
And fresh supplies our hearts to cheer.
And then with music and with song
How cheerfully we'll march along
And thank the day we made a start
To cross the plains with our handcart.
When you get there among the rest,
Obedient be and you'll be blessed,
and in God's chambers be shut in
While judgements cleanse the earth from sin.
For we do know it will be so;
God's servant spoke it long ago.
We say it is high time to start
To cross the plains with our handcart.
