Newbury Park Youth Conference 2014

Today is the day after Youth Conference and I can barely move.  Our stake did a Pioneer Trek this year and Chad and I were asked to be a "Ma and Pa" - chaperones.  We had 11 children.
As far as the chaperoning went, we had a pretty great gig.  Our only complications were these:  One daughter kept taking off to hang out with another family (boy), and taking her pioneer skirt off (leggings underneath, little turkey), but even after all the reminders to put it back on and come back to the family, she was not upset.  Her heart was right, so I just gave her love.  It worked out ok.  One son wouldn't touch the handcart and all he did the whole time was walk along and mutter (but that wasn't a big deal).  One daughter kept having physical complaints so that she could ride in the medic truck (but then a kid broke his collarbone and opted to stay at YC, so he got the medic truck, and she found him to be annoying so she miraculously healed).  She was also the one who woke me up at 2am to walk her to the latrines because she was afraid of bears.  But she had a good attitude throughout the whole thing and I have to say that on the second day when she was miraculously feeling better, she pulled her own weight.  And those were our only chaperoning issues.  EASY!  I feel blessed with the kids we got.  The remaining 8 kids were fantastic in every way.  Except for a lot of complaining, but who can blame them?  I murmured too.  We've been raised in a different time.

The Trek was organized by a professional trekking company owned and operated by the Riley family of Riley Farms.  Two brothers run a huge ranch.  One is a member of the church, and his side of the ranch does Pioneer Treks.  The other brother is very inactive, and he runs weddings, and civil/revolutionary war reenactments.  They have their whole family involved, and have found some real characters to act out the parts of Brigham Young, Porter Rockwell, and other people from Church History.  When we weren't pulling handcarts, we learned all about church history and life in those times.  The history buff in me was fascinated.

Because we only had 2 days for this Trek, they crammed every single minute full of experiences.  We did not have time for all the niceties of Youth Conference - no getting to know you games, parties, or down time.  It was go, go, go.  The first day, we left the church at 6:00am and rode for two hours on school buses.  When we got there, they split us up into families and we got all our stuff loaded on the handcart.  Paint buckets full of clothes and gear, and sleeping bags for everyone.  It was pretty heavy but the guys in our family took on the pulling and the girls did most of the pushing.  There were a few hills but it was all doable.  A lot of stopping while carts ahead of ours (and us, a few times) had to re-load stuff that had fallen out of the cart (I came up with a better system involving lashing a tarp around it all).

We had lunch and then came to a big pond, which was supposed to be the Sweetwater River.  "Captain Riley" - the guy who runs the place, gave us a talk about the boys carrying people across the river, and told the story of the three 18 year old boys who were part of the rescue party that went out to get the Martin Handcart Company, and carried the starving and dying people across the freezing Sweetwater River…those boys eventually all died as a result of that act of service.  Brigham Young cried when he found out about those boys and proclaimed that they had earned their place in the Celestial Kingdom with that act.  Well, one of those boys was named C. Allen Huntington, and Chad is related to him.  Which means Sam is related to him too, and he was inspired by that story.  Ended up carrying a girl or two across that "River", after pulling the cart across it.  Chad rolled up his pants and pulled the cart over, and as for me, I walked around it on dry ground.  (after all, it was only a pond in real life)  Call me a cheater, I didn't want to get dropped in the water.

About a half mile later, word came back that we needed to unload all our carts because we had come to "Hole in the Rock" and the carts would have to be lowered into a ravine and pulled back out of it, reloaded, and move out again.  Chad and our boys kind of took that one on, although we women ended up pulling the cart out of the ravine while the boys were helping others.

Then we pulled again for another half mile and ended up at our camp for the night - where we parked our carts and had dinner.  And then there was a hoe-down.  We were exhausted and tried to get everyone to bed as soon as we could…difficult because half of our kids went off to sleep with friends that weren't in our family and didn't tell us.  The boys were in buggy barracks that were separated from the girls, who slept on a grassy field under the stars.  The stars were beautiful.  Other than the girl waking me up at 2am to go to the latrine, it was an uneventful night.  Cold, though.  95 degrees during the day, 50 degrees at night.  I wrapped my ground cover tarp around my sleeping bag, that helped with the cold.  All part of the experience, right?
One of the most annoying things about this experience was the dirt.  The trails consisted of fine dirt that was almost sand, and rocks.  When following behind the carts, the dust would choke you and cake on every body part.  That night I got out my wet wipes and wiped down my face - when I looked at the wipe, I was shocked at how dirty it was!  My legs and feet were even worse.  My pioneer clothes that I worked so hard on were FILTHY.  I could feel that dirt all over me and it itched.  I just had to do the best I could with the wet wipes.  Somebody found some soap and put it next to the spigot where we filled our water bottles…it was like Christmas!  Seriously.

The next day, after breakfast and a talk by Captain Riley and Brigham Young, we lost all our men to the Mormon Battalion.  As they left, the girls and women gathered together and sang "God be with you til we meet again".  It was really touching, and I admit, I teared up.  I knew what was coming…we women were going to have to pull/push that stinking cart up and down some hills and based on how little work we had done the previous day, I didn't know how we were going to do it.  We got started and I'm not going to lie, it was hard.  Especially when we looked up on the ridge on our left and saw the men climbing down - we thought they were coming to help us.  Some of them did show up but they weren't allowed to help us, they just watched while we struggled.  When I saw Chad coming back, I was so happy!  Funny, but just seeing him gave me extra strength.
I think the worst part of this sisters-pull was the disorganization.  Getting the carts up the hill required help from everyone, and it took awhile to figure out that some of the sisters were going to have to leave their carts behind to help the others ahead to get to the top, and then go back for their own.  Of course, there was the downhill too, which also required extra help.  We had to pull back like crazy in order to keep the cart from running away and dragging all of us with it.  And crashing into the cart in front of us.  I think I hated the downhills worst.  My toes got hammered on the downhill.  They still hurt!
The guys didn't like watching us but not being able to help.  Eventually they just started cheering for us and calling out encouragement.  We sang "As Sisters in Zion" and other songs while we pulled and that was fun.

When we finally made it, we got rewarded with lunch.  Little did we know what was coming next!  Testimony Hill, about 1 mile of straight uphill.  Steep enough that you couldn't ride a bike up it, and walking felt more like climbing a ladder.  It was beastly! This was supposed to represent Rocky Ridge, that awful mountain that killed a ton of the members of the Martin and Willie Handcart companies.  The night after they pulled their carts to the top of that ridge was the most deadly night of the whole trek.  Many of those people, who were already starving, freezing, and weak, just worked themselves to death.  They got to the top, collapsed, and died right there. What kind of determination and endurance did it take to do that?  To keep going and going until it cost you your life?

I helped pull somebody else's cart to the mid-point, and then raced back down to pull our own.  There was such a back up and people were in such a hurry to get up that stinking hill.  I took the crossbar along with our Stake YW pres.  We got about 1/3 of the way up and she started voicing my thoughts -  "We have to stop and rest.  I can't take one step further!  Please can we rest?"  Of course, everyone kept telling us that we couldn't stop until the halfway point, or we would just start rolling back down.  My feet couldn't get purchase in the sand and I kept slipping and falling to my knees.  Not good when pulling at the crossbar.  We took a breather at the halfway point and then quickly started again.  I didn't want to push again, in fact, I looked around to see if there was anyone else who could take my place at the crossbar.  My sweet son Sam stepped inside  and joined myself and another girl from our family (YW pres. moved to the back, I don't blame her!) At that point, the trail got even steeper.  I didn't look up at the trail, I just looked at the dirt where I was putting my feet, and tried to pick spots to step that would be safe.  It was horrible.  My arms and legs were already tired and sore from those other hills with the sisters, and this seemed like torture.  People were lining the trail encouraging us.  It didn't help!  It was like pulling a 500lb weight up a ladder.  Only without real steps.  I can't explain it any better than that.

When we got to the top, I thought I was going to collapse.  I don't know if I am just old, or in much worse shape than I thought I was, but I couldn't catch my breath and my stomach was killing me (I think I drank too much water in too short a period of time - my tiny stomach couldn't handle it).  The heat was unbearable.  Chad found me and helped me find somewhere shady to sit while he went back and helped somebody else.  I sat there and watched these teens pull carts to the top, eat a piece of watermelon, and then run back down to pull up another one.  Sam was one of them - he pulled up 4 carts!  They were amazing.  Not one of them quit.  How easy it would have been to say, "this is stupid.  why are we doing this?  I don't have to participate in this and I am done."  But they were caught up in the spirit of the re-enactment and they didn't stop until everyone was at the top.  In fact, Brother Brigham tried to block off the trail and kept saying, "if you have already pulled up 4 carts, do not pull any more!  Get some water and rest!"  It was 98 degrees, dry, and oh that dust!  Suffocating!

After I caught my breath and started feeling a little less light-headed, I just stood there hugging Chad.  It was easy to imagine what it would have been like to be a pioneer, and how much we would be depending on each other to get through the hard stuff.  It was such an intense two days.  When our Bishop talked about it in church the day after, he said that it was hell.  Over the pulpit, he said Hell.  And that was accurate.

After everybody got rested, we had another chat with Brother Brigham, yes, he said, "this is the place".  Then we pulled our carts to Zion.  NOBODY wanted to pull that cart again.  Even thought it was only about 800yds.  When we finally got to the lawn, we just dropped our darn cart and walked away…to the bathroom, to drinks, and shade.  Then we had a testimony meeting.  Now this was an interesting phenomenon.  I had listened to those kids complain like crazy the entire time we were there.  Some were louder than others, but all of them complained.  They were justified.  What kind of youth conference just about kills you?  I was kind of scared to hear what they would say - I wondered if this trek was an epic fail.  But they surprised me…and what do you know, they got it.  They bore wonderful testimonies!  There is depth to this generation that I did not know was there.  It was amazing to see.  It made me feel so great!  Sam was one of the first ones to bear his testimony.  It was so cool to see that he got it too, even though he is young (barely turned 14 in time to go) and very immature.  After he bore his testimony, he came over and sat on the ground with his head against my side.  He was exhausted too.  The testimony meeting was almost 2 hours long!  Those are the reasons that youth leaders do what we do.  Two hours worth of kids feeling the spirit and GETTING IT.
Then we ate dinner and got on the buses and went home. Oh home, it is the best!  It took me TWO SHOWERS to get all the dirt off my body.  I don't think I've ever been that dirty before…

So yeah, that was an intense two days.  And I was surprised, because even though I was a leader, and the youth conference was for the kids, I learned just as much as they did.
1) I learned how much I depend on my husband.  I flat out could not have done this trek without him.  Not just physically, although that was huge.  But emotionally.  His support and love made me stronger and able to handle more.  If I had been one of those pioneers whose husband died on the trail, I don't know if I would have wanted to continue without him.  Plus, Chad was just a good looking pioneer guy!  He was pretty great to have around, haha.

2)  I identified with my pioneer forebears on a totally different level.  I have always loved the history and inspiring stories about the pioneers, but this trek gave me a small taste of their lives and it was hard!  I don't know how they did it.  I said that about a million times during those two days, and I still mean it.  Of course, everyone says that they were born in a different time, and we have our own challenges to face that are less physical but just as hard...and all that…but the truth is, I think we are spoiled.  I think our day and age is much easier.  I know I couldn't have done what they did.  Maybe they couldn't do what I do now…but I don't know about that.  They were amazing.  The only thing that makes sense to me is that they had a faith like no one else.  They had been abused for their faith, and they weren't going to hang around to get abused anymore.  They wanted peace and Zion so badly that they were willing to go through hell.  And I am hoping that the Lord really did send them physical tender mercies…angels to help push the carts from behind.  My heart breaks to think of them going through something like that all alone.  It didn't happen that way, I am sure of it!  The Lord blessed them for their faith.  And it makes me want to be better, do better, so that I can earn a place with them in the next life.
3) Our youth.  Wow.  I got to know them in different ways - it seems like when you are having to work hard together, the true personalities come out.  I will never look at those kids the same again.  There were a few that I had some negative feelings about…not anymore.  Pretty fantastic young people!  It made me laugh - the next day (Sunday), I was talking to two of the biggest complainers, and both of them said, "It was awful, and I hated it while I was doing it, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss that trek!  It was one of the best experiences I've ever had!"  And they meant it.

I feel the same way.

Graduations, Birthday, and Father's Day.

  

Letter from Adam to Megan

I did some mommy-stalking the other day and found this in Adam's Sent Mail file.  Tears!

HEY MEGAN!!!!!

Sorry about the crazy format, saving paper, making the letter easier to fold.

As of today, I have 5 real school days left. After this week, technically, I still have school, but its just graduation practice. I’M FREAKING GRADUATING!!!! I’m sending you a copy of my grad announcement so you can see how cool I am. I actually haven’t really played my guitar for about 8 months. This is something I regret but haven’t done anything about cause I’m too lazy =/ I need to play again. I’ve been biking a lot lately though, mostly mountain biking. I’ve gained plenty more scars from that, super fun.

Now choir. We just had our last concert of the year last night. I can’t remember if I’ve told you already – I think I haven’t – but I tried out for a solo (only seniors were allowed to do that stuff for this concert) I did You Found Me by The Fray. I didn’t get in because apparently I didn’t have enough on-stage experience. And yet he had me do a solo in one of our choir songs Somebody To Love. Ya know, the one from Happy Feet? I’m not sure why he had me do that and not You Found Me, cause a couple of the other solos didn’t sound that good at all. I think he had me do this because I’m one of the few senior boys who can hit those high notes, and/or he wanted every senior to have SOMEthing in the concert. Whatever. Sarge is crazy. He seriously is. The first concert on Thursday everything went great except one thing. Somebody To Love. First one of the other guy soloists doing the song with me totally screwed up and it messed with the timing of that whole section of the song. That’s what set me off. I messed up too. It was so embarrassing and I literally felt like I was going to die. Everyone was pretty nice about it, most didn’t say anything about me messing up, just complimented me. But there was one chic that said nothing but rude things, being really sarcastic and jerky. Needless to say that ruined the whole night for me. After that, I wanted to die. After it was all over, I got out of there as fast as I could. Mom talked to me, trying to make me feel better, but it didn’t help much. But hey, at least it wasn’t the Friday performance. Those are way more serious, a lot more people show up, and they record the performance that night. Both days of the concert were about the seniors and them leaving, but Friday was the one where the names were read off, the alumni came up, a slideshow was shown, and more. This one was a much bigger deal. Well everything went perfect and it was great. Lots of the girls were crying and everyone was freaking out mid-song at the end. It was pretty emotional and there were hugs going all over the place. I felt kinda out of place though cause I’ve only been in concert for a year and was the only senior that was like that. After that we sang the Alma Mater and that was it. Everyone socialized for awhile after but since I didn’t have crazy friendships with almost all of them I just grabbed my stuff and met fam and nyal out front. Forgot to bring my yearbook to that which was lame, but ill just bring it to choir tomorrow morning as it’s the last choir meeting/practice of the year (seniors don’t have to go but most if not all probably will cause of yearbooks and saying goodbye and stuff).

Enough about all that. I haven’t had any changes in medication in about a month and a half. This is reeeeeally good cause it means we’re finding the right combo of meds for me and I’m stabilized (or close enough to seem like it to everyone else). This was something I was a little worried about for college and whatnot but everything’s just falling into place. I’ve been doing really well in all aspects.

So I’m graduating on June 13, and since Sam’s birthday is the next day, we’re both going to this airsoft field that I found about 45 minutes away. Out door field. This is awesome. The only out door field that I knew about before this was about an hour and 45 minutes away, so this was an excellent find. Then sometime after that I’m going skydiving with dad. That’s gonna be great. I’m not going to youth conference here in Newbury cause I feel like I’d just get really annoyed at everyone and it’s a 1-day trek. Lame. So I’m doing youth conference with Nyal. We’re setting up a special Olympics which I’m really excited about. Maybe we’ll see Michael our cuz there.

So the college plan is this: already been accepted into the dorms which are co-ed (mom’s nervous about that but I just laugh at her), still don’t know who my roommate is which annoys me cause I actually don’t even know much about SUU which is lame. Move-in date is August 16, orientation the 18 and right after that I can register for classes. I think school starts a week later. I’ve got a 12-a-week meal plan, which is nice cause it allows for some variety. I assume I’ll be getting a laptop like you, definitely Apple. And because I’ll be getting a laptop I plan on asking for a smart-phone for my birthday (definitely not an iPhone cause from my research, they’re some of the most technologically inferior of all smart phones on the market. I’m asking for a galaxy phone). So I’ll be getting through my required classes this year but I’m majoring in Criminal Justice as I believe I’ve already told you. After graduating with that degree though, I will either go to grad school, not sure about the major, but still considering it, or doing an internship in DC for the CIA.  Woof crazy plans but I think I can do it. Mom says she’ll miss me a lot for my handyman skills. I can fix almost anything and have done a lot around the house. She wants me to train Sam before I go.

So anywayz. Girls. I’ve been single since last early November I think and I have had no problem with that whatsoever. I’ve definitely grown out of that girl-crazy Adam you used to know. That doesn’t mean I don’t have minor crushes on select girls here and there, but I have no desire to do anything about it. I even have some friends in choir who are girls who I am closer to than any other choir member and it’s no big deal at all. Just good friends, no feelings whatsoever. ISN’T THAT WEIRD?????? I don’t think I’ve ever been like that with girls…well except with XXXXX (name changed to protect the innocent) but whatever. I didn’t go to prom cause I couldn’t find anyone in our stake I felt comfortable asking. It’s not like I didn’t want to go with someone I didn’t have feelings for, I just wanted it to be someone I knew and could have fun with. So nobody. How lame is that. But it came and went without drama or problems so whatever. I’m really happy about this attitude I have about girls because it dramatically decreases the potential for heartbreak (which I’ve had plenty of) and makes it easy for me to say no until my mission. I am certain that my college friends (assuming I’ll get some, which I’m somewhat confident I will) will try to set me up, but I’ll just date as friends, no intentions of going anywhere. No clue when I’ll get married though. HA.

Mission. So from what I’ve learned and heard, I will most likely not be serving a full time mission. Which needless to say, I’m a little bummed about, but (and this is cool) mom talked to the head missionary department dude IN THE WHOLE CHURCH, Elder Evans (apparently he’s the dad of someone in our ward). He took down mom’s number and gave it to the head doctor dude in the mission department who then called mom and they had a conversation about my options. Bipolar 1 people aren’t allowed to serve a mission period. I’m bipolar 2. I’m on a lot of meds, have been hospitalized, etc,etc. The church has to be very careful of these kinds of things because of all the problems they’ve had with missionaries with mental illnesses. So this guy told mom that I will most likely be serving a modified mission, which could mean serving around home, working in family history, temple square, service mission, and even being a veil worker in the temple. Ultimately this choice is up to bishop and stake president, but they will be doing a lot of research to decide. And even though they are the ones choosing what I’ll be doing (to an extent from what I know. The missionary dept obviously will have a lot of say in it) I’ll still be most likely serving in a modified mission, which I completely am ok with. I will be happy to serve any mission. I want to serve the Lord. So, lots to look forward to.

I am super excited to see you too when you get back. It’s getting closer and closer!! But don’t get trunky. Go hard until the end. I really liked your last letter that you sent about the Huntingtons. Mom confirmed that they were indeed our ancestors. I am so very proud to be a descendent of these marvelous men and will indeed work hard to live up to that standard.

You be good, ya hear?? Be careful with your health. It’s more of a deal than you realize, and you shouldn’t try to downsize these things. Just give us pure, emotionless facts and descriptions. We’ll try not to freak out about it, but we WILL act on it if COMPLETELY necessary. Don’t worry about worrying us, that’s our job. Just worry about being completely able to do your duty. If you’re cooped up in your apartment or in a hospital you wont be able to serve! And you are there to serve. Think of it that way!! You are so amazing. Realize how crazy awesome you have been dealing with all these problems and crazy situations. You are so brave. You do whatever you can to do your duty. You have no idea the effects it will have on your life. You will look back on this with such wonderful memories that you will have for the rest of your life.

I love you Megan. Remember that you do have a guy back home waiting for you, and this one wont Dear John you. I’ve changed a lot, you probably wont recognize who I am at first, but I have changed for the way better.

Love your ever strong and faithful brother,

Adam Huntington Wright