2013 Trek - Luke Mosher's story

My experience in trek started in the summer of 2009. It was my first trek and I was very excited but immature and honestly spiritually unprepared. I was thirteen almost fourteen, so the youngest person there and I looked at it more in terms of an adventure than as a spiritual experience.

 The theme that year was "Walking on Hallowed Ground." It was great and I did feel the spirit during that week but what left a larger impression on me was the way the older youth had treated me. They had taken me in. They helped keep my spirits up and they had made me part of the group. I remember one of my trek sisters always singing hymns right in the middle of the day. When the day was hot and motivation and moral was very low, but that small act is what kept me going.  The Christ like love I felt from them was powerful but I didn't recognize it at the time.

Well skipping forward four years to 2013, I had the opportunity to once again participate in trek. This time around being a little older and a little more mature. As I looked forward to trek I was again very excited. I again looked forward to the adventure but I also was brought back to reflect on my last trek experience. I had remembered how much the older youth had done for me and I had decided that I wanted to help others to have that same experience. So as we started to prepare as a stake, I tried to have the mentality of forgetting myself and helping others. I tried to give them the same experience I had. Well months later the day finally came. We had piled onto busses and headed out to Wyoming, we were put into families and the experience started. The walk was long and at times hard but it didn't seem that way. The joy overpowered all difficulties. As the days past I found others in my family developing the same attitude. 

The truly spiritual experience however started on the day of the women's pull. We had stopped walking and had sat down to hear the story of Jens and Elsie Nielsen. As we were hearing this story we watched Brother and Sister Berrett reenacting it. We watched as tears welled up in Brother Berrett's eyes while he viewed his wife struggling to pull the cart with him inside it by herself. We then saw the relief of both him and his wife as youth, who played the role of angels, stepped in to lighten the load. Words cannot describe the spirit that was felt on that hillside that day. Directly after that event the women were asked to stay and all the boys and men were asked to come and start walking down the trail. At this point I knew it was going to be the women's pull. We had walked for what seemed like forever. Brother Mel Sabey had been leading us and we had finally stopped. We were all in agreement with that decision. We had thought that we had gone far enough but Brother Mark Sabey, who was organizing trek that year and bringing up the rear, caught up to the front and said "It's not far enough." To which an utter shock came across everyone present but we continued forward finally stopping at the top of Rocky Ridge. 

Although we were only reenacting the journey of the pioneers, the worry for these women was real and the spirit and reverence on top of the ridge was strong! Men and boys alike had nowhere else to turn but to prayer. It was an awe inspiring sight to see everyone in different groups and as individuals praying for the strength of those sisters. I too found myself turning outwards as I offered my prayer on their behalf. As part of my prayer I had felt the need to call upon angels to assist the sisters and did ask that my father, who had died about four years earlier, would be permitted to help those who stand in need at that time. Well after sometime we finally saw those incredible women round the corner, to our surprise with smiles on their faces and the sound of hymns being carried through the air. A huge sense of relief settled into our hearts. Especially in the heart of Brother Mark Sabey. 

As we continued on walking for the rest of that day and later going around working in the camp for dinners and setting up tents I had somewhat forgotten to the prayer I had previously offered, until I had the chance to talk with my sister that night. We hadn't seen each other much that entire day and she had no idea of the prayer that I had offered, however she had something to share with me. She told me that as the women's pull was under way her and one other sister had picked up the tongue of a handcart packed with supplies and were pushing with all their strength with no success. When out of nowhere she felt an incredible push from the back that got the cart moving and maintained its motion. She said she could have sworn someone had come to help but as she looked back to see whom it was; she could see no one. She told me at that time she knew that it was our dad that had been pushing the cart. My prayer had been answered and as I shared with her the details of that prayer we shared an incredible moment together. However, little to my knowledge the experience didn't end there. As we spent those last few days in camp I had been particularly drawn to a small, nearby cliff that over looked the camp. I kept receiving promptings to go to the top of the cliff but I always found myself to be too busy with something else around camp. As the days became fewer and fewer the feeling became stronger and stronger. On our last night there It came to the point that I knew I had to go to the top before I left. So the next morning I woke up earlier than normal and walked over to the cliff. When I arrived at the base of the cliff some of the leaders were there looking at some of the carvings that the early saints had made but slowly dispersed back to camp. As I found myself alone I walked around to the top of the cliff and was in awe of the beauty. As I stood marveling at the view I suddenly felt an arm resting on my shoulders. I looked over and saw no one but the feeling was there, it was real and I couldn't deny it. At that point I realized that it was my father. I couldn't see him or hear him but the Lord had blessed me enough to feel him. I spent the next several minutes there with my father enjoying the beautiful view and sacred spirit of that hallowed ground. Several minutes past and despite my desire to remain there forever I felt that our time together was coming to an end, sadness began to come over me but quickly the spirit communicated to me that we would be together again soon but for now my father and I both had things to do on our respective sides of the vail. 

The experience may have been short but it was powerful and the spirit of it will never be forgotten. I was taught in those short few minutes the truth about the plan of salvation, eternal families and I came to know the Love that my father in heaven has for me. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity and the experiences I had on trek. The spirit that is there is almost unrivaled and without it I would have never had been able to feel what I felt. I know that as we give opportunity for the spirit to act lives can be changed, I know that because trek was the situation and opportunity the spirit had to change my life and I know that it can and will be the experience that changes the life of many more. I know that the Lord lives, I know that he loves us and that we have a father in heaven who truly knows and cares for each of us individually. He answers our prayers and seeks for ways to bless us and bring us joy. I know that families can be eternal. I know some day I will not only be able to feel but also see and hear my earthly father again, but not him alone all my family, including my older brother Jesus Christ and our eternal Heavenly Father. This is the joy and hope we all share and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.