Trek

This summer I had to opportunity to ditch the swimsuit and suntanning cream and get the long skirts and bonnets on and go on a reenactment of the mormon pioneer trek. At first I was against it completely I had the worst attitude ever I'm sad to say but I even considered breaking my own foot so i didn't have to go. As you can tell I really didn't want to go. I'm telling you now though it was the best thing I did all summer. The first day was tough but it wasn't till the first morning when things changed and trek got a lot more personal. [i have to give you some background real quick before I continue just a year earlier my stake went through major redistricting in all our wards I was taken out of the ward I had grew up in and placed in a new ward with almost no youth and to make things even better my dad was made the bishop. I again had a very bad attitude about it and was still struggling with it] anyway that morning I woke up we packed up all our things loaded our handcart and then headed over to breakfast we ate and started to get ready to head out for the day. I was tired but a game of steal the flag had broken out and I'm a very competitive person so I was focused on the next flag to get. All of a sudden the world seemed to stop. They gathered us all together for what we thought was going to be a normal short devotional and then we'd head out. But as President Walker began to speak his voice was different he proceeded to announce that a 19 year old boy, in my ward, who had just received his mission call had died. He came from a larger family and had two brothers who were on the trek with us. I was brought to tears at the sound of the announcement and right then my trek experienced was changed. We all knelt and prayed. Everyone then started back to there trek families but my ward gathered together at first no one was saying anything we all just hugged and cried together. After a while we all put our arms around each other and said a ward prayer I don't remember much that was said in the prayer but I do remember that it truly felt like Angels were surrounding us. We continued our trek that day. There was more of a calmness to all the handcarts we sang church hymns and shared different experiences. That day of trekking was suppose to be the most challenging. But I think everyone would agree the spirit was so strong our handcarts were being pulled for us. Trek went on and there was other cool experiences that happens. But that by far was the biggest thing that really started to put things in perspective to me. It was one of those blessing I saw from the ward switch. If the wards would have never split I would never have been able to have to opportunity it was one of the reassuring blessing to show me that everything truly does have a purpose.