Nauvoo for me

Rustin's grandparents (great, great, great...) came to Nauvoo from Vermont.  Captain Jeremiah Hatch  played the fife in the Revolutionary war.  His dad Nathaniel died in the war as part of the Vermont Green Mountain men.  'Captain' was a joking nickname that Jeremiah was given during the war because he was just a little guy.  After the Hatch family joined the church in Vermont, they eventually went west and settled in Nauvoo.  By then Jeremiah was in his sixties.  Their house still stands in Nauvoo today!  Jeremiah's  married son Hezekiah died in Nauvoo and his family was thrown out of their home in the fridgid weather to make the trek west. Eventually they ended up in Winter Quarters where both Jeremiah and his wife died in miserable conditions.  Their grandson Lorenzo (Hezekiah's son) eventually made his way to settle Franklin, Idaho where Rustin's family still lives today!

We have lots of other really amazing stories of sacrifice and love by our ancestors.  Many walked across the plains with handcarts or wagons.  One grandmother was with the ill-fated Martin handcart company.  Some left their friends and family and everything they knew in England to escape persecution after joining the church.  They all gave up their earthly possessions for their faith.  I always think of them when I find myself mourning the loss of the 'dream home' that only exists in the box of magazine clippings that I have kept under my bed since I was a teenager.  Today was the first time in a long time that I felt a wave of understanding fill my mind.  I think my grandmothers were whispering "Kim, don't worry so much about belongings--I sacrificed for your soul not for your decorative couch pillows."

When I ponder my faith and my testimony I often have this thought come to my mind--"either this gospel is all true or it isn't." I have asked myself that question in a million different situations and times in my life.  I am the only one that can determine where my faith will stand but I feel like I have the benefit of a dozen whisperings of encouragement and kindness coming from the other side of the veil.  Every now and then I have a breath of clarity come over me and I feel like I can see things clearly.  Today was one of those days.  I still don't exactly know what to do with the trials of day to day life but I'm sure that the Lord has a plan for me and I am certain that His plan is what I want. But there is always a little voice in the back of my head that is afraid of giving up all the dreams and truly embracing a life of service.  So I just take it a day at a time.  One step forward at a time.  I have been given just enough faith and happiness to get through the days that seem clouded.

And just for the record I think I could have been a pioneer just for the petticoats!!  

They totally hide curvy hips!!

Missionary Monday: week forty-six

July 17, 2017

Dallin:

Hello everyone!  This has been another great week of miracles and much
success.  I am greatly enjoying my time with Elder Fillingim here in
Cleveland.

On Tuesday we went down to Chattanooga for our first Zone Conference
with the new Mission President.  It was a different Zone Conference
than ever before because we have had a lot of change, but it was good.
Each of the Picketts had a chance to introduce themselves to us
including the 16 year old daughter Emma.  President Picket didn't
prepare anything for his training. I later learned that he trusted in
the spirit and prepared him self to give a training.  I thought that
was a bit incredible.  He told us a couple stories from his mission in
Canada including one about running into a gang and arm wrestling one
of them for the opportunity to teach them.  Haha, it was pretty cool.
He also taught us about treating our companions well.  How we treat
our companions now really does prepare us for how we will treat our
eternal companion in the future.

Right after our of Zone Conference I went on an exchange with Elder Morris.
Elder Morris is a pretty cool guy from Pleasant Grove Utah.  We had a
pretty great night that Tuesday night and taught a couple lessons together,
one of which was with Ariana and Princess.  Ariana and Princess are
the little Sisters of a woman in our ward who is just in her late
twenties who about four years ago married a member and got baptized
into the Church.  Her name is Crystal Fink and she is super awesome
and just got her endowments out of the temple last Saturday.  Ariana
and Princess are doing great on their own and (especially Ariana) want
to get baptized. But their mother in Chicagom still has custody of
them and she certainly would not approve of their being baptized so
right now we are really just hoping and praying for a miracle.  The
other lesson I taught with Elder Morris was actually in Spanish with a
man that claimed to be a true Atheist.  He was very much a strong
atheist that really was lost.  He had some good points and I can
easily see how he could be led astray the way his life has gone, but I
laid the Book of Mormon out in front of him and told him that that was
the key and the reason he needed to change.  He accepted the Book of
Mormon and said he would read it.  That night we also went on splits
within the exchange.  It felt a little like inception but it was fun.
I taught Kaytlyn with our awesome second councilor in the Elders
Quorum the plan of Salvation and also specifically about eternal
marriage.  She actually got super excited about it and told us she wanted
to get married like that.  Haha, we told her we were going to do
everything we could to help her get there.

Later in the week we had some hectic things happen which ended up
having us help a woman who was in a very bad situation move all her
things from Ringold, Georgia to Cleveland.  Her name was Vicky and she
was very distraught about certain events that had taken place and
really needed help right then so we got our Ward Mission Leader and we
headed out on an adventure.  She ended up having a LOT of stuff to
move to the point where we filled up the trailer and the van that we
brought to get her things which which were described as "a few books
and some clothes."  But we did it and all is well now I think.

Friday we did some really good studying and Weekly Planning which we
really needed and taught some good lessons.  One family we have been
working with in Spanish is the Valdez Family.  They are from the
Dominican Republic and I will try to send you a video of the mom's
ridiculously fast Spanish.  They have five boys and one on the way
with the oldest being 12.  Haha they are awesome! The oldest boy is
Misael and he showed us how he built a crossbow.  They are cool but we
are having trouble really getting through to them sometimes.  They
came to church last week but not this week.

Yesterday we spent a ton of time with a huge Polynesian family in our
Ward that is not active right now.  They have ten kids with eight
boys,  five of which are still at home. Haha we were running on
"Polynesian time" yesterday so we got there at 4 and got out at around
7:45.  The kids were fun. We taught them the Restoration and the Plan
of Salvation completely before dinner.  Brother Palelei is about 6'4
and 350 pounds and one of his sons is playing for Oklahoma State right
now but will switch to play for Utah State in not too long.  We got
them to commit to come back to church though on the 30th of August.

The really great miracle this week was with a couple that randomly showed up
at church last week.  Brian is a member and Ashley is not.  We went
and taught them on Wednesday and she accepted and when we returned on
Friday she said she prayed and felt that God told her to trust and she
wants to get baptized.  We told them they would need to get married
first and so they set date to head to the courthouse as well.  It just
shows how easy it really is once you make up your mind to do something
on a prompting of the Holy Ghost.

I love you all and pray for you.  I know the work I am doing is good
and that it is making me into the man God wants me to be.

Elder Hatch

Landon:

Sealy Texas is doing great!!  I feel like this area gets better every
week I'm here.  We definitely have our problems but the people out
here are easily some of the best I've met on my mission.  I title this
email El Campo because it means The Field because that is basically
where we are all the time which is pretty awesome. This area is 10
times more beautiful than my past areas which by the way did include 
Down Town with all the city lights. ;)

Alvaro continues to be a miracle. He reads and studies what we ask him to
study, and he understands which is the most important part.
Understanding of the gospel is what brings people to change. In PMG it
states that "true doctrine understood changes behaviors" and that is
absolutely true. When it comes right down to it, true doctrines answer
questions, they tell us why, and with that beautiful knowledge of the
why the how will come.  We see examples of this all throughout the
scriptures and early history of the church.  When Pioneers understood
the why it became priceless to them and no hardship could could get
between them and the Truth that they had come to know.  This true
understanding of which I write can only be brought about by the power
of the Holy Ghost and it requires first faith.  The Scriptures found
in Alma chapter 32 explain far better than I could ever approach. 

The question is then asked how is it some people don't understand? If God
truly loves us and gave us all the capacity to know right from wrong
why don't all come to this level of understanding as soon as the
missionaries find and teach them?  The answer sadly and ironically is
knowledge.  By that I do not mean to say learning, I mean the Pride and
contentment that is felt by some people who think they have nothing
more to gain or learn.  It is a very interesting state that is a lot
more common than you would think and it is found in people both high
and low in the worlds' standings.  This is why Jesus Christ taught us to come 
with a broken heart and contrite spirit,
because only in such humility can one be open to the teachings of the
spirit.  This is why Alvaro succeeds, he is a professor of engineering
in Mexico yet he is humble and open enough to learn.  He will be
interviewed for baptism tonight and the baptismal service will be this
Saturday.

We have continued to visit the far corners of our areas and had many
"only in Sealy moments." On Tuesday we went and visited a less active
member named Jahn Schmidt and his sobrinos Ethan and Devon.  Ethan and
Devon are not members but we are currently working on that ;) They
live out in the middle of a forest town called Cat springs in a little
trailer.  We asked them if they had had any guns and they were happy
to shows the extent of their armory. And even let us take some
pictures.

We had an awesome lesson with Sofia and Sergio about the why of church.  
They were found through our English class here in the church
which is really strong and gets a pretty high attendance usually.
Sofía told us in the lesson that she doesn't know why but when she
goes to English class she feels like she learns more than just English
and she always really calm and good when she goes home from it. It was
really great because they set up and scheduled the lesson with us
without us even contacting them and then at the end the lesson they
asked us if we can come back and today to visit them so we are exited
to see them progress more.

Saturday was a pretty crazy day! In the morning we went and built a
house for homeless family.  It was pretty good we did a lot of
painting this week.  Then later we went out to Eagle Lake (one of the
little towns we spend a lot of time in).  We visited a bunch of less
actives, some investigators and recent converts that live down there. 
Later we traveled across our entire area to go to a dinner
appointment with one of our awesomest families in the branch, la familia
Garcia.  They are from El Salvador and they have a bunch of kids
preparing to go on missions.  It's funny because to get there you
drive out into the back roads and then go to the back roads off the
back roads and the go on the dirt road and then you literally just
have to go off road into the woods to get to their house.  They made
some really good food and told us some stories about growing up in El
Salvador during the Civil War down there in the 80's.  They will eat
and hunt anything and their son and daughter preparing for a mission
are both really good at shooting.  Also we took some super cool
pictures of the sunset.

Being a district leader is going pretty well!! We led the zone in
people at church this week!

This is how you know a Latino family lives in the house!

Hatch Family--week Seven continued!

We love family.  That's just all I can say about this week.

Missionary Monday (week forty-five)

Landon:

Landon with Boise State Center Jeff Beiderman. 

 We just went on a tour with this guy from the branch who works
at the Henesey factory. Basically it is a place where they take fast
sports cars and make them faster and crazier.

Dear Amigos,


The Fourth of July was great we had an exchange so I was with an
English elder from Katy.  It was a pretty fun day because we also went
to a zone conference in the mourning and met our new Mission
President, President Peterson.  He is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
and was a banker.  He has a bunch of kids and served a South American
mission so he speaks Spanish pretty well though it is obviously a
little rusty. I really wasn't sure what to expect and I am still kind
of getting to know him but I believe that he is a great man for the
job.  His wife is a convert to the church and shared her conversion
story with us which was very nice.  She seems like a very kind hearted
person I think we will be able to learn a lot from her as well.  The
night of the Fourth of July I was still on exchange and we did some
finding in a very Hispanic trailer park and which was interesting
because I was the only one that spoke Spanish.  Then later we went and
ate some really good barbecue with some investigators that invited us
over.

Alvaro and Gabriel are still both on date to be baptized.  We had a
super awesome lesson with them on Saturday about the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.  It is so nice to meet someone who is actually reliable,
Alvaro does what he say he is going to do even studying the material
we are going to be teaching before we come over.  Gabriel his brother
isn't quite as reliable and works a lot but he is coming along as
well.

I went on another exchange with an English Elder named Elder Hansen
from Logan Utah. He is pretty cool he was a wrestler in High School
and has been out on the mission about 8 months longer than me.  For
part of the night we went to a correlation meeting with their ward
mission leader who is none other than Jeff Beiderman who played center
for the Boise State Broncos. They were a really cool family too they
gave us breakfast for dinner and have two little boys and a little
girl who love playing crazy ball, which is a game with only two rules
don't break anything and the big guys  try to hit the little guys with
the balls.  I had the privilege to put on a Boise State 2007 Fiesta
Bowl ring.  If you don't know what that is or you don't remember then
you need to go look up the highlights from that game and you will
understand the awesomeness of that.

Also this Sunday we had a potluck dinner with the whole branch after
church which was super fun.  I got to sit and talk to the two oldest
members of the Sealy Branch.  They are from a tiny little town called
San Felipe but if you ask them it's San Philip because "we won the
war!"  They also told us all about how Texas got started in San
Felipe.

Elder Marquez is doing awesome he only has 3 weeks left on his mission
before he goes home to California.

12 Porque si no hay fe entre los hijos de los hombres, Dios no puede
hacer ningún milagro entre ellos; por tanto, no se mostró sino hasta
después de su fe.

Elder Hatch


Dallin:

This has been another week of miracles and blessings of all kinds.  We
had the baptism of Alex and Erica on Saturday and the Confirmation and
reception of the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday.  We also did
exchanges with Dayton Elders and met many great people.

Last Tuesday was the 4th of July!  It was a good day although we had a
lot of our plans change we still taught a lot of people and had a good
time.  We ended up eating dinner with our Ward Mission Leader Brother
Cordell.  They made us some good burgers and hotdogs.  We also visited
and spent time with a couple other members and had a whole bunch of
home made Root Beer.

We went on Exchanges later in the week and I went with Elder Pruit.
Elder Pruit is a great missionary only about 3 months our of the MTC
and he has spent his whole time in Dayton and only been on an exchange
once with the Zone Leaders which wasn't even a real exchange.  So it
was a new experience for him and me as a District Leader.  It went
really well and we actually did have some good success.  One think I
learned is that Cleveland is a bigger size town than I have ever
served in.  Just about the same size as Twin Falls but feels a lot
more chaotic and harder to navigate than anywhere in the west.  We had
some adventures finding our way just because I still don't know the
area so well.  We did meet one really cool guy named Chris who claimed
to be atheist or agnostic leaning atheist that still isn't sure that
there is no God but doesn't think so.  He was actually super blown
away when we told him about the Book of Mormon and what it was a
record of.  We got to teach him again on Sunday and he is so filled
with questions and speculations.  But some of the questions that he
has not been able to answer before are actually found in the Restored
True Gospel of Jesus Christ which we teach.  So we will continue
working with him.  Elder Pruit is from Colorado and took 5 years of
French in High School so he can speak French.  We had a great time
learning from each other.

The baptism of Alex and Erica was on Saturday and we came and met with
them on Friday.  Erica got super super sick.  She was feeling terrible
and couldn't even stay with us for the whole lesson.  We got them all
prepared for the baptism with what they were going to wear and who was
going to do what.  That night they both had a terrible night and Erica
was very sick.  Alex was stressed out of his mind and had all his
former doubts and fears return.  He told he was expecting so much from
the baptism and wanted it to be fulfilling and a very big experience
spiritually and emotionally.  The next morning Erica wasn't sure she
wanted to do it and thought about calling it off or rescheduling.
Erica had always been the driving force behind them getting them to
keep commitments and come to church, but it was at this time that Alex
overcame fear and doubt, took courage and decided they would go
through with it of at least to just go and be baptized and then come
back right after.  They called us that morning and we were already
filling the font and told us she was sick and that they might not want
to stay for the talks.  I received that phone call and prayed right
after. I felt comforted that things would be OK.  They came and were
baptized.  Immediately after being baptized while we were changing
Alex told me that he felt everything he could have hoped for and that
as he left the water he felt such joy that he was brought to tears.
Erica was sick but went through with it and said she was happy too
even though she had to be dunked under the water twice because her leg
popped up.  They went home.  The next day they came,e to church and
received the Holy Ghost.

In addition to Erica and Alex he had another 6 Investigators come to
church including people who spoke Spanish who were members and
investigators.  This was perfect because some of the less active
member Hispanics could also speak perfect English and translate for
the Investigators.  Some people that I had never even seen before came
to church. They were Bryan and Ashlee: Bryan is a member who actually
offered to come out with us to teach people and Ashlee is his fiancée
who is not a member so we will get to visit them this next week.  We
were very blessed with the help of members in taking care of our
investigators.  Last night we had the opportunity to find two new
families of Hispanics who will come to English class and let us teach
them.

This week has been awesome and tomorrow we will have our first Zone
Conference with the new Mission President!  Life is good.

Elder Hatch

Summer week eight! July 9-15

We have been seriously exhausted this week so we took it easy at home! 

These boys find their way into our bed in the early (does 7 am count as early...?) hours of the morning.  

On Thursday I went to Salt Lake for some training for our homeschool CommonWealth classes next year.  I'm teaching a class about study habits, science and math and logic.  It includes a ton of philosophy which is still making my brain hurt.  I have so much to learn!  Of course Robyn, Shelly and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning discussing the state of the universe--and doing a lot of homework! It was good for my brain. 

Missionary Monday (week fourty-four)

Our favorite day of the week is here again!  Both boys had new mission presidents arrive this week.  Dallin's new president is the Pickett family from Oakley!  We are so happy about that.  Landon is looking forward to meeting his new president as well.  You don't want to miss the video at the end.  Ha.  Here's the report from the mission front...

From Dallin:

dhatch@myldsmail.org

Wow this week and last have been some of the busiest weeks of my
mission.  We have spent the majority of our time just teaching all the
people that we meet and have had many adventures.  I can't write them
all because there are so many, so I will just talk about some of the
more exciting parts of this week.

Tuesday was an all around awesome day.  I felt like every one we
talked to we were able to teach and we ran into almost no rejection.
We got to go visit Kay Booker again as well.  She was the woman that
we gave a blessing to last week that was so thankful and comforted
because of it.  We went to her house and shared with her the message
of the restoration and she accepted it whole heartedly. It was pretty
cool she asked some of the best questions and really understood some
things that almost no one understands.  She is pretty old so we will
certainly have to go over a lot again but at the end she told us she
wanted to be baptized by someone who really does hold the authority of
God to do it.  She committed to a date on the 22nd of July to be
baptized. She also, of course, said she was going to come to church
this weekend as well!

Wednesday night was pretty chaotic but we had one of our
investigators, Kaitlin, who is Kay's granddaughter, come to mutual.
Things got a little complicated and we ended up having to go pick her
up with a member because Kaitlin's mom was uncomfortable with things
and then Kaitlin wanted to bring her boyfriend.  So we brought them
all and put the boyfriend with the deacons Quorum, I hope he likes
Indian Lore, and Kaytlin went with the young women who are preparing
for girls camp.  We were about to leave but then the young men's
leaders told us we needed to stay in building with the young women
because all of the other priesthood holders were actually leaving with
the young men, and of course he Bishop got there late, so then we were
at young women for the next hour and a half! Yay!  Haha it was funny
and we made sure Kaitlin was doing well and making friends and
things.(honestly I think I know how my mom felt dropping off each of
her kids at primary for the first time).  And we also have two other
teenage girls that we have been teaching that ended up coming to young
women's as well so it ended up being a pretty successful night and all
went well.  But then we had to drive pretty late because we had an
exchange/power up with the Zone Leaders in Chattanooga and we were
supposed to drive there that night and actually we ended up getting
lost because we don't have a GPS.  But it is OK because we made it in
the end.

We were in Chattanooga all day on Thursday with the Zone Leaders.  It
was good because I got to talk to them about being a District Leader
and get some tips and stuff.  We didn't really have any success in
Chattanooga though, which was a bit disappointing, but it was good and
we met some members there.

At District Meeting on Friday we had a good time and had a senior
couple come and visit us.  It was good and I think I am starting to
get the hang of being District Leader and all that.  After the meeting
we met up with Alex and Erica at the courthouse.  It was pretty great
because we helped them get their marriage license!  We signed a paper
that we had been teaching them in preparation for them getting married
and it worked out great.  Then they wanted to know if WE could marry
them right there.  I wasn't so sure about how that all worked.  We are
duly ordained Ministers of the Gospel but I didn't know if that meant
we could marry them or not.  So we called President but now we have a
Mission President so I actually got to meet him for the first time and
talk to him.  He went and found out and called us back and told us
that we weren't supposed to do that as Missionaries.  He said that all
officers of the church can do it though, but that the Bishop is
usually the one.  So then we had to find a way to get in contact with
Bishop to set up a time when he could come and marry them.

Over the next day or so we tried and tried to contact the Bishop but
he was out of town.  Finally we had a lesson with Alex and Erica in
Saturday night.  Honestly this lesson was one of the most Spirit
filled lessons I have ever been in.  Alex still had some doubts and
fears baptism and didn't feel that he was ready.  We taught him about
the power of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how having the Holy Ghost
for companion is not something to take lightly.  It truly is a
strength and a blessing to have with us.  He finally began to realize
that the next step to take was baptism and that that truly is the gate
to path that leads to immortality.  So we called the Stake President
and asked if HE could marry them and he said he would on Sunday after
church.  Alex then told us he wanted to set a baptismal date for next
Saturday.

On Sunday Alex and Erica both came to church.  Kay Booker was not
feeling very well so she didn't come. I spent all Sacrament Meeting
translating for a Hispanic guy named Robbin, and I also translated for
him for Priesthood.  That ended up keeping me pretty busy for most of
the meetings, but Alex and Erica did come and after church we went
into the Stake President's office and they were married.  They were
super happy.

As my mission goes on I truly have seen my testimony increase
exponentially.  It gets stronger and stronger faster and faster.  I
also see how important the small and simple things are.  Consistently
praying and studying the scriptures is something that can never be
overlooked.  We must continue to do those things always and to
reaffirm our faith.  If we do not it will leave and eventually we will
falter.  The iron rod really is the work of good.  We just need to
hold tight and keeping going even when the mist of darkness gets
thicker and thicker.  I know the power of prayer is real. This is my
testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Elder Hatch

From Landon:

hatch.landon@myldsmail.net

Happy Fourth of July!!!

If any of you remember for Mexican Independence Day I was in Mexico
and it was a pretty cool experience. Now I get to make the comparison
between Americas and and Mexicos. ;). I don't think I will be
disappointed, out here people take their fireworks very seriously and
there is no lack of national Pride.  We actually got invited by one of
our investigators to go to their house and eat and have a bonfire
while we watch fireworks so we are pretty excited for that.

There is also a big ward breakfast tomorrow that we have to miss, but
we are missing it because we are going to go meet President Petersen
for the first time. Needless to say we are pretty exited,  he got here
last week but I am sure he has been moving in and trying to get a feel
for our mission these past few days.  I still don't know very much
about him.

The Sealy Branch is doing pretty good out here, and I actually think
they will make it a ward before too long.  The Branch President,
President Bingham, is a great guy and with a big family of six kids
that all served missions.  They invite us over every Sunday to eat and
it always reminds me a lot of home.  Right now we are working with
some good families out here.  We just set a baptismal date with a man
named Alvaro.  He is super cool. His mother and wife are both actually
pretty recent converts and he just got here from Mexico.  He and his
wife are both engineers he teaches at a college in Mexico and she
worked at a nuclear power plant and they are trying to come here to
America. It is really hard for them and their previous education
probably won't mean anything here but they know that the future in
Mexico doesn't look very good.  Especially around this time of
Independence Day I feel very fortunate to have grown up in this
wonderful country.

We had another mini missionary this weekend a guy from the branch
named Raymond he has 9 sisters and is preparing to serve a mission
next year.  He is also like 6'5". I think I have a picture. We do a
lot of service out here every Saturday we spend several hours with an
organization, Habitat for Humanity, building a house.  The people out
here have an awesome accent.

Con Amor,

Elder Hatch

Keep calm and trek on (summer week 6)

Friday night dinner and dance with the trekkers!

Last October Rustin started working on plans and preparations to take 175 youth up to the South Hills where they could re-enact some of the experiences of their ancestors as pioneers.  At the time I thought it would surely not take anywhere near that amount of time to get things together--but I was wrong.  I can't believe the amount of time and effort and resources it took to pull off three amazing days!  Rustin and I both have grandparents who walked across the plains with their meager belongings packed into a handcart to go to a land they had never seen.  Rustin's grandmother was with the Martin handcart company.  We both feel like many of the blessings we currently enjoy are because of the prayers and faith of our ancestors.  We don't ever want to forget them and we want to give the same blessings to our own children.  

So back to the trek.  

This undertaking is the perfect example of how to get things done.  Once the wagon masters were called (love you Kelly and Cory Piling!) they sat down and made a list of what needed to happen and then they assigned people to be in charge of each specific area.  Here's the amazing thing--every single person did their part to the very best of their ability.  It was amazing!  They had activities on the trail (some people got snake bites, or mission calls where they went and taught other families, or typhoid fever so they had to ride in the cart...), they had dances with an awesome live bluegrass band, they had their carts raided and had some of their lunches stolen so they had to share with the other families in their company, they passed the great and spacious rock where the young single adults were having a 'party' and tried to entice some youth to join them for a soda. 

 They had the best food ever!! (seriously...)

They had quiet moments to sit and ponder and times to laugh and socialize.  They walked almost 20 miles total.  And there were virtually no complications.  The kids were happy and the ma's and pa's loved their children and the logistics all worked just as planned.  Every night the families split up and the kids met with their wards and bishops to talk about what they had learned for the day and how it could be applied to their current lives before they went to bed. 

It really was amazing.  

I'm so happy that I never complained when Rustin was gone to yet another meeting to make sure things were on track! I am so very grateful for other adults who sacrifice for my children.  I truly love youth leaders! 

  

Thirteenth ward trekkers!