Week 10, 6/18-24/17, 3rd Trek, Jordan North Stake, West Valley UT

As we start our 10th week of being on the second summer of our mission, we realize the time is really going fast.  We will have our 3rd trek this week, with five more to go and then a week working on the gate, and two weeks after that.  We are enjoying the time we have left because we know it will go fast.

The sunsets are still beautiful here on the Ranch.  They always happen whenever there are a few clouds in the sky.  In each direction in the sky, there is a different scene.

Elder Mark Durham, our Area Authority Seventy, has been given a new responsibility and is not over the Deseret Land & Livestock Trek Mission any longer.  We will miss him.  Our new Area Authority Seventy is Elder Raymond A Cutler.  We had a short afternoon meeting with both of them to introduce us to Elder Cutler, and to tell him a little about ourselves.  We are excited to work with him.

Our Monday family home evening was with Micheal McLean.  He is a popular musician, song writer, author, and performer.  One of his most well known performances is "Forgotten Christmas Carols."  He also produced "Mr. Kruger's Christmas." He told us a lot about his life and the struggles and successes he has had.

It happened to be Sister Clark's birthday and they had been having problems with a plugged black water line in their RV, so Brother McLean made up a birthday song for her about her sewer problems.  It was hilarious!

Our 3rd trek was with the Jordan North Stake from West Valley, UT.  There were about 135 people, with 9 carts.  It was on trail 7 and they came in busses.  They were a great group, and very well organized.  It was nice having a smaller group. 

The Calls were our support missionaries.  This is our second year serving with them, but the first year we were never assigned to do a trek together.  So, it was fun trekking with them this week.

After the woman's pull, one of the support vehicles ended up with a flat tire.  It looks like it took at least four men to change it!  We were kind of glad for it, because they were ready to take off trekking again soon after the pull was over.  We like to see at least an hour's rest before we start again after a women's pull.  Sometimes the adrenaline its there, but the bodies sometime poop out soon if they don't rest long enough.

At camp one night, they played some fun games.  There was a relay where the girls had to "shave" the boys . . .

. . . and then the boys had to tie a ribbon in the girl's hair. 

 Another relay had them walking three-legged, jumping in a gunny sack, carrying a pinecone in a spoon, and walking with  a Book of Mormon on their head.

Archery was one of the most popular activities that afternoon.

One night the group had a hoedown, called by Elder & Sister Call.

One of the three dances that we learn to call is the Heel-Toe Polka.  It is really fun and everyone changes partners often.

Another favorite dance is The Virginia Reel.  A lot of kids learn it in grade school.  It is always a fun one, and is also one of the three songs we missionaries learn.

Our last campground was a large one and had plenty of room for our small group.  They put up their tarp city, which, after three days of practice, they did a good job of making their tarp tents!

They come up with some pretty ingenious ways of stretching out their tarps, most of the time using the handcart as the central support.

It is pretty cozy in this one, although they don't have room to stand in it.  This tarp tent will be used for the whole family of 12-14 with the Ma and Pa in the middle and the boys on one side and the girls on the other.

Brother & Sister Harmon did a great job as Committee Chairmen!  They are getting a well deserved short rest in the cook tent.

They had plenty of room to play soccer at this campsite.  There were some pretty avid soccer players in this group, with at least one girl!

Elder Howard is delivering mail for the group on the last night.  He alleges to be from the famous Pony Express riders and comes galloping in on his stick horse.

He states that he doesn't see to well and gets confused as to which group he is supposed to be delivering mail to.  After he pulls out his "glasses" he sees better.  Afterwards, he takes off on his beloved horse, Sliver, whose mother is Splinter and father is Two-by-Four.  They do come from a family of thorough boards, however!

The last day, at staging where the trekkers will board the busses for home, their leaders sing a touching farewell song to the youth.  All the while, the ever present drone records it for posterity!

Week 9 6/11-17/17 2nd Trek, Kays Creek Stake, Layton UT

We are already into our third week of trekking!  This week was nice because we had a group from Layton, UT, of about 250 people and 19 handcarts.  They had a great group--good organization, good food, good music, and good people.

We were with Elder and Sister Anderson on this Trek.  They are first-year missionaries and are from Heber, UT.  It was a lot of fun getting to know them better.  They are great people.

We still have water crossings on most all of our trails.  Trail #14 has one of my favorite ones because it is nice water coming off of a little reservoir, called Crane Reservoir.  It is just before the porta-john stop/lunch on the first day.  It was actually nice enough to take your shoes off and wade though, even with the rocky bottom.

It was pretty easy getting the handcarts over, but not without getting your feet wet!

Sister Anderson is driving the side-by-side (used as our emergency medical/haul the photographer up the hill/give a catch-up ride vehicle) across the dike.  The kids are always asking for rides in it and I tell them they can have a ride if they break their leg!  They don't think that would be too much fun.

What a pretty place to stop for lunch, although the mosquitos were pretty bad.

Elder Howard and Sister & Elder Anderson in their favorite places after eating lunch and waiting for the trekkers to get going again.

We had lots of fun musicians on this trek.  A Sister and several Young Women played ukuleles and sang some really cute songs.  She tried to called a couple more youth out of the audience one evening and said they were "closet ukulele players" but she couldn't get them to come play.  She said she would get them to join their group on the next trek!

Some of the most appreciated support people on the trek are the porta-john drivers.  They get to do all of the plugging/unplugging, stirring, and cleaning of the porta-johns.  The best plan is to assign the kids in each family a shift, which they did.

The Stake President is practicing for his performance for one of the devotionals.  This was a very musical ward.

The men unloaded all of the kitchen supplies and set up the canopies . . .

. . . while the women start cooking the next meal.  The food is always good and they are all pretty busy from morning until night, especially because they have to take down and set up each day, even for lunch on the trail sometimes.

We had a casualty on the trail!  I offered to help put him in a shallow grave and cover him with rocks, but he had a miraculous recovery!  We love being with these crazy kids!

This looks like another water crossing, and it was--but just for the support vehicles.  We were able to walk the carts around it and found enough dry ground to eat lunch and play some fun games before heading for the evening camp.

Tug-of-war is always a fun game to play.

An oldie is Duck-Duck-Goose.  The kids are never too old to play this favorite game.

I don't know the name of this game, but they put a kerchief in the middle and call out two numbers.  Two people go into the middle and try to get the kerchief first, but if the second one touches him before he gets out of the circle, he doesn't get the point.

The Prophet Joseph Smith's favorite game was Stick Pull.  It is also a favorite of the kids.  We have a hard time getting them to not use the handcart pull bars for this game.  We do have some that get broken because of it.

This was a fun game.  Each person had a piece of PVC pipe, cut in half lengthwise.  They had to put them together to form a ramp for a golf ball to roll down.  As it went by each person, they would run around to lengthen the ramp in order to reach a bucket at the end.  Two teams raced to see who could reach the bucket first.

Our great Committee Chairman volunteered for the duty of removing cow pies from the hoedown area.  Since we trek on a working cattle ranch, with up to 15,000 cows, calves, and bulls on it, some of our campsites get pretty full of cow pies!

We had a great hoedown caller.  He taught a couple of line dances first and the kids caught on quickly.

Then he circled them up and they learned several dances. The Heel Toe Polka is a favorite one of us Missionaries.  No matter how many miles they trek, they seem to be able to dance.  Music and dancing was also an important part of the original pioneers trekking, which seemed to revive them after a long day of walking and helped them to endure to the end of the trail.

Last morning devotional before heading towards the trip back to their homes.  The seagulls know they are leaving camp and are hoping for a few mortals left behind.  But, our trekkers do not leave them much.  We have a "no trace" trekking policy and the trekkers do a good job following that (although sometimes they need a little reminder!)

The support crew is ready to go, too.  It has been a great trek, but they are ready to return to their lives back in Layton.  Besides, along with the youth, a 4-day shower fast is about all they want to endure!

This group came to Trek in buses, but their parents came to pick them up.  We were not expecting that many cars in staging.  It was hard to find places for them all to park and still leave room for the water buffalo, porta-johns, and other support vehicles to come in.  There was just a small path for the handcarts to come through.

But, it was fun to see all the families (moms, dads, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and even some pets) walk out on the trail to greet the trekkers as they came down the trail.  We had some great times with this group and thank them for letting us be their missionaries!