Armstrong Family: Bre's Trek Experience

In Breann's words...

Trek wasn't just a physical challenge, but a mental and emotional challenge as well.

When I first left, I didn't know at all what to expect. I soon found, however, that trek wasn't going to be easy. When we first arrived at the site, we created our banners, made up our cheers, ate lunch, cleaned up, loaded our handcarts and were then told we would be trekking 7 miles the first day. Yeah... definitely not the type of "vacation" I was expecting.

After about 2 miles, I couldn't see anyone's face, teeth or hair under the layers of dirt. I was not happy about this. For those of you who know me, I was way out of my element. I don't necessarily like dirt or bugs... and walking 7 miles in a pioneer dress pulling a 700 pound handcart is definitely not my idea of a good time.

What I didn't know, however, was that this was going to be one of the best and memorable experiences of my life.

After we finally pulled the handcart 7 miles, we stopped and set up camp. There were 4 boys in my group including Alex, Jake, Jeshua, and Ryker. There were also 4 girls in my group including me Abby, Janessa, and Laurie. That day at lunch we had a cow pie throwing contest and tried to hit birds with rocks. Hopefully pioneers didn't actually do that but hey it was fun!

That night we had salt water, rice and a stale roll for dinner. We then had a devotional, set up our sleeping bags and slept under the stars. Who would've known that sleeping under the stars would be so monumental for me and my testimony. Laying there I thought how lucky am I to have a God that cares enough about us to create such a beautiful thing as the stars just for us to look at.

The next morning we woke up, packed up, and headed out to walk 9 miles. We took turns pulling in the harder spots so that none of us got too exhausted. Right before lunch, all the boys left us and walked up a hill. We then sat together as sisters and had a discussion about priesthood and that even though women don't hold the priesthood the men need us in order for the priesthood to take full effect.

Then, us girls got on the handcart and started to pull it one mile straight up hill. About halfway up, 2 of our girls had to get off the handcart and be driven the rest of the way so there was only 4 of us. We didn't know how we were going to pull the handcart the rest of the way. There was a wall of dust in front of us choking us, making us want to give up and so I offered a prayer to give all of us strength to pull the handcart the rest of the way. Right as I got done offering the prayer, the cloud of dust cleared and we could see the boys standing on either side of the road, hats over their hearts, with their other hand behind their back.

Finally, when we reached the top of the hill the boys came and took over. I don't think I have ever been more grateful for anything in my entire life. When we arrived at our final destination, I started to cry. One at a time, the boys came up to me saying how proud they were of me, how strong us girls are, and how much they look up to us. They then told us about their lesson. They said that their teacher told them that as us girls were coming up the hill, not to think of us as pretty girls, but to think of us as daughters of God. They said they were told how important us girls are to God's plan and that they need to not only respect us but when the time comes to properly provide for us, love us, stand by us, and protect us. It meant so much to hear this coming from those boys because it's not very often that you hear boys saying those kinds of things. That was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I will never forget it.

That night after we set up camp and ate dinner, we danced. It was SO much fun! I never knew that I liked square dancing until that night. We then played some games and talked about how much God loves us. Then Ryker got out his ukulele, Jesh got out his guitar, Pa got out his harmonica and we sang hymns while sitting in the dark with only the light of the stars and a flashlight. We then laid down once again and watched the stars... making wishes on the shooting stars and hoping they would come true.

The next day we walked 6 miles. We stopped for lunch, played pioneer games, and slept in the shade. When we got to camp that night, one of my good friends Alex got heat stroke, and started seizuring. Me and the other girls in our little trek family got together and prayed. We prayed that he would be okay and that they would have the equipment to take care of him. We later found out that they didn't think they had any IV's left, but found one in the back of the truck so that he didn't have to be life-flighted to the hospital. All he wanted while he was waiting was for people to be with him so that he wasn't alone. I was with him the entire time trying to help him and yet feeling so helpless. I didn't think he knew I was there but he told me later that he appreciated me being there so much. He said he couldn't communicate with me, but just my presence helped him to feel more calm and relaxed. It was so amazing and that experience strengthened my testimony of the power of prayer.

That night we all got together in our wards, spoke for a while, then had testimony meetings in our families. Everyone was so exhausted and just wanted to go to bed, but as soon as everyone started to bear their testimonies the feeling in the air changed from complete and total exhaustion to complete love. The spirit was so strong and it felt so good.

The next day was the last day. We walked 3 miles and we laughed along the way. We talked about the amazing experiences we had and about the friendships we made.

Getting on the buses was so bittersweet. I was so excited to see my real family, but I didn't want to leave the amazing people in my trek family either. When we were just a couple blocks away from the church, the buses stopped and we walked the rest of the way with our families lining the sides of the road waving their white handkerchiefs. My cousin ran to me and hugged me. My grandma and grandpa were there. My sister was there and it meant so much and seeing my parents filled me with joy. I got a renewed sense of energy and our little trek family yelled out our cheer one last time as we walked, laughed, and cried.

I feel so blessed to have had the experience to go on trek. Not everyone gets to have an experience like that, but I did. I know that I am a different person because of it and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I learned compassion, I learned appreciation, I learned to trust, I learned how strong I am, I learned to get to know people before you judge them, I learned that sometimes the people you never thought would be important to you can make a huge impact on your life, I learned how to love and how to accept it, and most importantly I learned how much God loves me.