My Mom and I just got back from Youth Conference last night and we had an amazing experience. There were two events there that really stuck out to me:
The Service Project: We all went to a park, where there was a little carnival set up for Down Syndrome kids. All the youth were either responsible for running a booth or escorting a child who has Down Syndrome through the carnival. I escorted a little girl named Jamie. I took her to a little "fishing" booth and a puppet show. Then she made a little elephant art project. Also, we played duck-duck-goose. The kids had a blast and I could sense pure joy from everyone around me. Little Jamie held on to me the entire time. We went down a slide and through a blow-up obsticle course. I felt so much love for those children. We had heard a talk from David Christensen earlier that day, who said that those children are celestial beings. Jamie was so sad when her mom came to get her to leave. She hugged me so tight and I was heartbroken. I would have loved to stay with her longer. I absolutely loved that service project.
The Pioneer Trek: This was the hardest thing I have ever done. I cry whenever I think about it, so it is a good thing that I am typing it instead of saying it out loud. We were in groups that represented our "family." My family consisted of three boys and four girls. Each family got a 500 lb cart and had to fill it with a few bags of rocks to represent potatoes and food, a few bags of sand to represent flour, and two 5-gallon jugs of water. We had to push and pull the handcart up a long hill that I thought would never end. It was so difficult, I thought I would not make it. I knew my family needed my help, so I just kept working as hard as I could. Did I forget to mention it was about 100 degrees outside and we all had on long-sleeve shirts, bonnets, and skirts that reached the floor? Well, anyways, when we finally got to the flat part, we all stopped for lunch. Only a few of the carts had food, so we had to share with the other families, and make sure that everyone got food. Many people got sick. The "mother" of my group got sick and threw up. I think she got heat stroke and was dehydrated. By that point, everyone was so desperate for water, that we all were sharing each others' water bottles. Everyone was sweating. The food that we had were apples, bread, and beef jerky. We had to eat it, because we needed energy. I was so tired and felt like I could not go on. I could see this huge, steep hill off to the side, that did not look inviting. Then, we were informed that all the boys had to go off to war, and that the girls had to push the carts up the hill by themselves. We got our carts ready at the bottom of the hill, and we could see the men lined up the side of the hill. There were only few at the bottom, and we could see a bunch of boys toward the top of the hill. We started up the hill, pushing as hard as we possible could, and the men at the bottom were silent. When we got toward the middle of the hill, the boys started cheering for us. Then, when we got toward the end, the boys rushed in and pushed the girls out of the way, so that they could push the carts to the end. Later, we heard that the men at the bottom of the hill were crying, because they wanted so badly to help the girls, but knew they couldn't. I also heard that all of them wanted to be at the top, helping. The girls were impressed with the boys, and the boys were impressed with the girls, because they realized that we were strong. Everyone respected each other more. The boys realized how difficult it would be to leave their wives and children behind to go off to war. Then, we walked up two more hills, leaving our handcarts behind. At the top of the peak, we each recieved letters from home. We all sat, and were silent while we read our letters. The view was gorgeous, and we could see all of Salt Lake City. After that, we went back down. The total distance we traveled was about 5 miles. When I look back , I am so impressed and proud of myself. I feel like I can do anything now.
