What a Weekend!

I had the best weekend! I am the YW president in our ward and we had youth conference (planned by the stake thank heavens) this weekend. It started Thursday night they had decorated the church to look like Navou They had all kinds of little shops set up each with a unique story and activity or goody to have or do. Then they had Brigham young talk to us and tell us we would need to go home and get our families ready to head to the promise land (Zion). So Friday morning at 6 am we all met back at the church in our pioneer dress once again, we headed up to Heritage Park where we embarked on the Pioneer Handcart Trail, we were split into 16 families, my Family consisted of the Bishop (pa) Me (ma) and two sisters and the 1st counselor in YW. We declared our Motto KICK BUTT! And I think we did considering most families had 6 or more people and more men. The whole trek was about 5 miles it took us 6.5 hours to do it. It was amazing not one of the youth complained the spirit was so strong, I cried so many times, not because I was having a hard time, but because we tend to take for granted the people that brought us this land and this gospel. They had so much faith, they lost children, spouses mothers fathers and they still pressed forward. There was a time for those of you unfamiliar with the pioneer stories that all the men joined the army (Mormon Battalion) So the women were left to push and pull the handcarts and care for their children on their own, we had that experience for one brief but monstrous hill, it was incredible to see the strength of theses women pushing the carts of this hill, and to hear the cheers from the men. The heart ache in the men's eyes knowing they couldn't help because they weren't suppose to be there, they had such a hard time so as soon as we reached the top they all jumped to our aid to carry it to a resting spot. Wow what an experience!