I woke up early Sunday morning. I have no idea how early since I didn't have a watch (*note for whomever is planning the next Trek: please add "wristwatch" to the Ma & Pa packing list!) I only know it was early because I was up with the sun before the 6:00am wake-up call went around. I got myself dressed in our tiny 2 man tent (*note to self if we ever get called as Ma & Pa again: take a bigger tent!) and went off to the Ma & Pa meeting that morning, where we were given our run-down for the day.
Once our family was up and going for the day, we sent a couple of them back to the food tent to pick up our breakfast, which was to be prepared in our dutch oven over a single-burner stove. They came back with hash browns, eggs, cheese & bacon. We got the dutch oven heated up and added some oil to brown the hash browns a bit (there were 2 huge bags of the potatoes...the dutch oven was already pretty full after the first bag but it cooked down enough that we added the second bag, which we shouldn't have done...that slowed down the cooking too much!) The eggs were supposed to be beaten before going in with the hash browns but we had no bowl...so we improvised by using the bag that the hash browns had come in, but we hadn't noticed that there were holes in the sides of that bag--we ended up with an eggy mess! In went the eggs...then the cheese & the bacon on top...and we closed the lid and prayed it would turn out.
While that was underway, we had our first family scripture study. The Trek leaders had put together a great little journal that contained all our scripture studies with the scriptures written out along with questions to ponder, quotes & space for journal/reflection....all very well organized! We checked on our food after we'd finished our study and it looked questionable but we dug in anyway since it was time to head to the company meeting with Captain Fisher. At each company meeting, we sang our trek anthem "We are Walking to Zion", heard an inspirational story and got more details about our day's plans.
On Sunday's agenda was church, of course, and an afternoon exploring the visitor's center there at Martin's Cove as well as a short excursion to Devil's Gate. After cleaning up our breakfast, we gathered everyone together to begin our 3 mile hike back to Martin's Cove for church. At first, the hike seemed pretty easy and we said, "There's no way this is 3 miles..." but 20-30 minutes later still walking in the blazing sun, "This is definitely 3 miles, at least!" Haha. Finally we got there and lined up to re-fill our water bottles. Then we were led into a building where Sacrament was to be held.
The room was filled with chairs and as the families filed in, each row filled until the entire room was packed full, everyone in pioneer clothes, including the Stake Presidency who sat at the head. It was a memorable sight. We sang an opening hymn, business was conducted and we sang the Sacrament hymn, after which the Sacrament was blessed and passed by young men who'd been given the assignment previously.
The speakers were first 3 youth: Andrew (I missed last names on all of them) who shared the story of Ann Rowley's feather bed and asked, "What is 'your' feather bed?"; followed by Sage who spoke of the blessings of the temple and how we, like the pioneers, must beautify our own deserts, and take on our burdens & press forward; and lastly, Camille, who spoke of the ordinances of the temple and shared the story of Sarah & George who waited to be sealed in the temple (and sadly, George died on the trail, but was still sealed to Sarah.) After the youth, we heard from the stake presidency. President Bair taught that our ancestors are with us, that the Savior knows and loves each of us and wants us to come to Him in prayer. He taught that we should each look for our Pearl of Great Price...to increase our faith in the Savior. President Goodfellow followed him and shared the story of his own family's sacrifice of a new house when he was called into the bishopric earlier in his life. President Fisher then spoke, sharing his testimony that the Lord wanted each of us there. He shared a story from his mission in Japan when he taught and baptized a minister and his wife. The entire meeting was so inspiring and spirit-filled.
After Sacrament, we divided for Sunday School: the adults staying put while youth divided into their various age groups. Bro Hodson taught the adults. I missed the very first part since I needed to go run to use the restroom (they had us drinking SO much water!) but when I walked in they were discussing what the meaning of the word "caring" is. Some of the points I wrote down: caring is to recognize a need and act on it; caring for each other allows us to do more together; caring shows--it's in your face & people can tell when it's genuine; the Lord cares for us even when we make choices that puts us in bad situations just as the pioneers were rescued though it was many of their own poor choices that put them in the situation they were in; and you love others more in the process of caring for them. He then had us talk about what charity is and what it means to have charity. I remember the discussion being very sweet and spiritual but all I wrote was this scripture reference: Moroni 7:45-47
During 3rd hour, we divided again into RS, Priesthood & YW. The RS lesson was taught by Sis Bair. We discussed first what it meant to be a pioneer and why are pioneer stories important? She taught that to know our history strengthens us in our own trials--we can liken them to ourselves just as we do with the scriptures. Then we spoke at length about Levi Savage and his amazing story. We learned about the amazing life he led even before his experience in the handcart company--did you know he was called to serve a mission in Siam but was stuck in Burma? We know as much as we do about the handcart experiences thanks to his daily journal. And though he was proven right in his counsel to the company, he never uttered a word of negativity or criticism. He was such an incredible example of humility and obedience. What an amazing man.
(Sorry this is so long already, such a full & inspiring day!)
After church ended, we met back up together with our family to go eat lunch. Lunch was SO yummy--it was beef roast with carrot & celery sticks, apples & chips. We sat with our family inside the same building we'd been in for sacrament meeting. When everyone finished, we set off to explore the Martin's Cove site. We had a couple pages in our journals to fill out with facts about the Willie & Martin handcart companies, for which we found the answers within the visitor's center. Some things we learned: the 3 best months to cross the prairie were May, June & July; the Martin handcart company allotted only 17 lbs of personal items each to carry in the handcarts; and 15 people died in the Willie handcart company trying to cross Rocky Ridge.
When we finished with that, we wandered over to the meeting place for our company to hike out to Devil's Gate. It was only a half-mile walk and when we arrived there, there were about 6 horses gathered with all the people there--they said the horses just wandered right over and were super friendly. We touched the horses along with a bunch of the kids. We listened to Bishop Hardy share a pioneer story there and then were free to explore Devil's Gate a little more closely, climbing up the rocks there. A photographer took photos of our company perched up there on the rocks.
We returned from Devil's Gate back to the church site area where they had a presentation for us in the Trek Center. There was a musical video presentation and then a couple of the missionaries spoke to us. Finally it was time to hike the 3 miles back to camp where dinner was waiting for us. For part of that hike, we veered off the regular trail to a more overgrown trail, which we learned was the actual Mormon trail (and we'd come to spend a lot of time on that trail in the days that followed!)
Following dinner (which I think was BBQ chicken that night) we had a dessert contest! Everyone had their dutch ovens and were given a choice of all kinds of tasty ingredients. We let our kids choose and they came back with white cake mix, coconut and blueberries. We tried to make a cobbler based on the little knowledge I knew of making dump cake when we'd camped the month prior...with dump cake, you add a bottle of soda and since we didn't have the soda, we tried adding water...but we added way too much...and our little camp stove was not working well--we turned it off accidentally at one point and later ran out of fuel completely without realizing it, so the baking process dragged on forever! We did try adding a crumb topping with flour & brown sugar to try to salvage it. We had to leave it baking when it was time for our evening fireside.
We climbed the hill overlooking the camp where there were some benches set up for the fireside. At the fireside we heard more pioneer stories and we also heard from the missionary about how the church acquired the property where the Martin's Cove site now sits. It was owned by the Sun Family Ranch and for a long time they didn't want to sell the land to the church. The stake president at the time there though (Pres Lorimer) had felt prompted that the time was right--he'd bumped into one of the land-owning brothers one day who was angry with the rest of his family and wanted to sell out his part of the land...but despite trying to partition the land so that only a small part would go to the church, the rest of the family chose to keep that small part and sell the larger part to that brother. But still Pres Lorimer persisted and ended up spending a full day with one of the family members driving around the property. It had been a super hot day and the only thing available to drink in the man's truck was a Coke, which he'd offered to Pres Lorimer, who politely refused the Coke because he felt it was against the WoW. By the end of that hot day, when Pres Lorimer got out of the truck and the Coke was still there unopened, the man was so impressed by his integrity and honesty and trustworthiness that he finally agreed to sell the land to the church. Well, that's the gist of the story--I probably totally mixed up details as I have a habit of doing...
It was dark when the fireside ended and we made our way back to our campsite. Our cobbler was sitting there waiting for us. Recneps (I'm using my kids' Trek names) was brave enough to sample it first and declared it edible...so pretty soon everyone was perched around the Dutch oven spooning out bites of our attempt at dessert. It was this night that we decided our family name would be the Bandits (thanks in part to Recneps' daily outfit with his bandana covering his nose & mouth) and our family motto: "We try!"
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