2017 Trek - Day 1 - June 6
Theme: Humility/Seeking & Creating Zion
Good morning! Today our Littleton Stake Trek family is embarking on an adventure and journey to Zion. We encourage you who are remaining at home to be a part of it by participating in one or more of any of the activities we share.
This morning our Trekkers will meet at the Easter building to board a bus that will take them to where we will start our journey to Zion. They weighed in their gear last night and were only allowed 19 pounds per person (not including bedding). The Handcart Pioneers were limited to 17 pounds each-and they discarded much along the way. In our modern day we are lucky to have so many options for travel. Our group will arrive near Rangely, Colorado (about 5 hours via car to the West and North) sometime early this afternoon.
Once they arrive, they will leave the buses and meet their Trek Families. There are 12 families made up of the youth from our stake, each with a Ma and Pa couple as their ‘parents’. Some families will have non-member friends who have come to experience Trek with a member from our stake. Each of these families are prayerfully assigned. Our leadership has sought the guidance of the spirit to help them find the right siblings and Mas and Pas for this experience.
This is an exciting time, and a little bit scary. Some kids will know one another or their new Ma/Pa but some won’t. Much of this day is a learning time, getting to know one another. We start out on handcarts right away. The first pull is only about 2 miles to camp- a nice practice and warm up for the week. They will arrive in our Camp 1 location, which has a backdrop of huge rock formation and lots of nice grassy open space for our tents.
The focus for today is Seeking Zion through humility, or having a soft, open heart. We will talk about how important it is to soften your heart to feel the spirit in your life. It is through humility and listening that the path Heavenly Father wants for us is revealed. Our youth will receive fabric hearts with the word “humble” in light activated paint. We encourage all participants to carry the hearts with them with them during Trek as a reminder to have a soft heart, particularly when challenges and frustrations arise.
This evening we will have a pioneer theater, during which, the kids will hear powerful stories and music about pioneers and their individual paths to Zion. Like the pioneers, we all have unique journeys toward our own Zion. We too can forge ahead in faith even when things go wrong, and like the valiant pioneer saints we can grow closer to the Lord with every step. This growth comes when we allow the Lord to guide us on our path to Zion.
Things you can do today:
- Pray for those on Trek; specifically that the families on Trek can build trust and strong relationships and be able to work together in unity.
- For young families (or young at heart), consider making paper or felt hearts and talk about what it means to be soft hearted, kind hearted versus hard hearted etc.
- If you have youth on Trek, consider making paper hearts for family members that are on Trek, writing your thoughts of your love for them to find when they get back.
- Listen or watch this talk from Ezra Taft Benson about Pride-the opposite of humility. Think about ways you may struggle with various aspects of pride. Come up with ways you can improve those and try to have a humble heart. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1989/04/beware-of-pride?lang=eng
- Learn about some of the pioneers we are talking about today. Small summaries are posted at our blog here: https://littletonstakevision.blogspot.com/
- Parents of Trekkers: Consider writing a note for your child every day they are gone and have them ready when they get home on Saturday.
Pioneers our Trek will learn about tonight:
Jane Manning- This story tells of one of the early saints of African American heritage. Jane was the leader of a group who walked hundreds of miles to Nauvoo to join the Saints. She went on to cross the plains and was a valiant early member of the church.
Elizabeth Panting – Elizabeth left an abusive husband in England and fled with her two children, ages 5 and 1, to join the saints in Zion. After escaping him through a miracle of him not recognizing her on the train, she joined the Willie Handcart Company. She experienced many miracles, including being given strips of buffalo meat to take back to camp from a stranger.
Emily & Julia Hill – Emily and her sister Julia left together, two young women who went to Zion without their families. They were allowed to join the Willie Handcart Company by assisting a widow who was also heading to Zion with her small children. The women worked together through the terrible conditions and made it to Zion. Emily wrote the song “As Sisters in Zion” along with other poetry and prose.
Anson/Margretta Call – Anson Call was an example of an early pioneer saint who gave his all to build up Zion both in the early years in Nauvoo, but also by toiling in Utah through many trials. He was one of the rescuers who came to preserve the Martin Handcart Company. He met Margaretta who was in the Martin Company. She was starving and freezing to death and he held her hand and forced her to run up and down in the snow to keep her from freezing. They married two months later.
Susan Stone – Susan came across with the Willie Handcart Company and during the struggle was so exhausted she had given up. She was visited by an angel who encouraged her to continue on. Doing so, she ended up being rescued by a friend she knew a year earlier and eventually married him.
Ephraim Hanks – This is the incredible story of one of the valiant rescuers who was prepared to go help the pioneers on the plains and was ready to go immediately. He had many experiences, but while trying to find the pioneers in the snow he shot and prepared buffalo meat that ended up saving many lives.
Bodil Mortensen and Neils Neilson – These two children came with Neils’ parents Jens and Elsie Neilson. Facing the treacherous Rocky Ridge in the snow, Elsie pulled Jens through a blizzard and found that both their son and Bodil, a young girl they brought for a friend, had died of exposure. Both of the children are buried at Rock Creek Hollow.
Agnes Caldwell – A young girl who was with the Willie Handcart Company, Agnes tells of how she desperately wanted a ride and not to walk after the rescuers had arrived to help them. Because it was so cold, the rescuers forced anyone who wanted a ride to run to get warm before they would allow them to ride so they would not freeze to death.
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