TREK 2008 :)

I thought I would share my Trek experience with you. :) sorry it's really long!

First off the people in my experience are real people. Second Kelsey in my experience is one of the girls that was in my trek family, not my sister. :)

On the trek I thought I was gonna hate it because I went into it having a bad attitude. By the first day I was having a blast, even though we had to walk a ton. Then the second day came and the women had to pull the handcarts up 3 really steep hills with rocks and dips in the road. My group only had 3 girls. We decided we wanted to try to see if we could pull it all the way up just by ourselves. So we started off with one person in the very front and two people on the bar to be able to push and steer. We made it about 3/4 the way up the first hill and our girl in the front collapsed. She turned back to us and said she couldn't do it anymore. So i jumped out of my spot and went up to help her push the whole handcart up the rest of the way. Meanwhile the other girls from different handcarts were running back down to help us. When we were pushing the handcart up, we got stuck on a rock. They told us to slowly rock backwards and the counted to 3 for us to push. On three I pushed but my foot slipped on another rock. I fell and my tears were already flowing by then. Kelsey, the girl next to me began to cry and she immediately dropped the bar to help me up. We made it the rest of the way up the next two hills with help from our handcart company girls. At the top, Kelsey and I collapsed and couldn't breath. The leaders quickly rushed to us and so did some of the boys. When Audra had me catch my breath she told me that Kelsey and I were going to have to go into the doctors suburban, I responded with I am alright, I can make it the rest of the way. Even though it was clear to everyone around me that i could not stop crying, that my face was almost a purple color, and that I could barley walk. I made it about 50 feet before I started to black out. I was right next to Brother Ben Moore's handcart and he's the guy in my ward that always is watching out for us youth. He is a cop and a very nice guy, but loves to give us all a hard time. Well I was already very emotional and on top of that I could not see. He said in a joking way, is she wining again? This is when I started to sway back and forth and I couldn't stand straight. Well he came over and felt my forehead. He said very sternly KAMERON, YOU NEED TO GO IN THE SHADE. This is the point where I had a break down because it was already really hot outside and everyone was holding onto my arm to make sure I wouldn't fall and I yelled, LET GO OF ME, STOP TOUCHING ME! They all backed away. I know at that moment that all of those men were praying for me to get my strength back and for me to be able to feel better. So the question in your mind might be, where were the men while the women were pulling? Well they were right beside us. You see they were at the Mormon battalion. So the leaders told us that the men were not going to be able to help us and that we could see them, but it was like they were there in spirit. They could not give encouragement and they couldn't give advice. They couldn't even look at us. I know it was really hard for all of the men to watch us pull the handcarts up the hills because you could see it in their faces and they also told us that it was a difficult thing to watch as they were walking up the hill along side us. Well after the women's pull, we all had to sit in the shade and listen to a leader tell us a story. While that story was being told the men picked up the handcarts where we had left them and they carried them right past us. That was so spiritual that I could not keep the tears away. Then as the women got up, Kelsey and I wanted to help the guys because we realize how much they really do help us pull the handcart and they continued to say, NO we are going to pull it the rest of the way, you guys have done enough. This experience also made me cry. As we got into the Salt Lake Valley(ZION), we were congratulated and welcomed by everyone. We were the last handcart company to arrive. It was a very spiritual experience for me, even though it was tough to do the things that we accomplished, I am so glad that I was able to do that. It made me have a greater appreciation for everything I have in my life. Especially for the priesthood. I realized that without the priesthood that life would be so much harder. The rest of the trek was fun because we got to hang out with kids outside of our family and we got to play games as a family. We had testimony meeting the very last night and that was a very spiritual experience too. The very last day I did not want to leave everyone. It was sad to me that we were all leaving and that the next time I would see most of these people was at the trek fireside. I was happy we were going home so I could shower and have food and a soda. I am so thankful that I got to attend this trek and I am so glad that I decided(with the help of some pushing by leaders and family) to go on this trek. It has truly changed my life. -Kameron Luster :)