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Text of the page (random words):
to look forward to something i had been told about called the women s pull at that point i knew that the women would be in charge of pulling the cart up a hill with no help i was a little nervous but really thought we would be okay as we came to the base of a mountain it was no mere hill we stopped for a drink break and then the men were called away they headed up the mountain and as soon as i watched my husband walk away i was overwhelmed he and i had not spent one second apart on the trek so far he had always been there to pull the cart for me to help me drink and find shade and just to be my best friend as i watched him turn away i couldn t even imagine being a pioneer watching her husband leave or having to carry on after her husband s death and so the tears began i was crying as i listened to sister leis give a beautiful talk to our young women about how amazing they all are and how they are all divine it was perfect and i couldn t help but feel so moved as i looked around the circle and saw all of my beautiful young women from church who i love so much and long for them to know how special they are i did manage to pull myself together toward the end of her talk and as we got ready to climb the hill i gave my little daughters a pep talk and then we started we began to trudge up the hill and we were doing pretty good for a few minutes then we started struggling we had to stop twice to move positions i started in the back then moved to the front to pull and finally went to the back again we put all our strength into it muscles burning and finally made it over the crest of a hill only to look up and realize that there was a whole tier or the mountain left we were only half way and we had spent all of our strength getting that far we kept going little bursts of energy coming out every once in a while but about halfway up that second portion my feet started slipping our cart came to a stop and i knew we weren t going to make it at this point i was crying and having a hard time catching my breath so i m sure we looked like a pretty pathetic sight as it happened the cart behind us was doing really well so one of the girls jumped up to help us push and we ended up making it up the mountain finally we made it to the top where the men were waiting for us i was pretty fatigued at this point so i ll let dan share the rest all i know is that we made it and i felt so strong and empowered it was amazing right after the women s pull after a little rest and recovery we trekked to another sight to honor a couple named jens and elsie nelson this was the story from the trek that affected me the very most jens and elsie were were traveling with their one little boy jens they were also caring for a good friend s daughter named bodil jens was a big man he was over six feet tall and had been caring for many families beside his own he had pulled his cart carried children and sacrificed his food and shelter for others his wife elsie was a tiny lady she was just 5 feet tall but strong and brave as could be after the saints were rescued they had received new clothing and some food but they still had to finish the trek to utah in the snow there was one particular climb called rocky ridge that was especially difficult there was no way around it though so they set out to climb it it started blizzarding as they set off so the little girl bodil was put in charge of little jens but soon became separated from their mom and dad now most of the group had gotten new boots to walk in but jens feet were so big that none could be found for him so he was still walking with rags around his feet as he climbed rocky ridge his feet got frostbitten and frozen so badly that he no longer could walk he begged his wife to leave him behind and continue to zion elsie however knew that was not god s plan she got her husband somehow into their cart and then this amazing woman climbed to the top of rocky ridge all by herself jens was alive when they got to the top however when they found their children they found that bodil had gotten little jens to the top of the mountain then sat to take a rest and passed away later that night their son also died the two children were buried along with 13 others at the top of rocky ridge elsie and jens made it to salt lake and were sealed together in the temple they never regretted making the journey that had cost them so much and bore powerful testimony of the truthfullness of the gospel until the end we were told this story at the top of a hill and then bishop kimball and his wife reenacted it for us she pulled him up the mountain for a little way she really struggled though and it became apparent that there was no way elsie would have made it up the mountain unless she had had help from somewhere as we watched our group inched down the mountain longing to be close to and help sister kimball finally though they were called back there were some who could not stand it any longer and ran down to help all of us moved down the mountain and cheered and pushed and in my case cried and cried as we reached the top together it was amazing the top of rocky ridge where 15 people were buried was where we spent the last day we got to have a testimony meeting up there and many beautiful testimonies were borne it was a perfect ending to a wonderful experience and then it was time to say goodbye i sincerely hope that all those who were there will write down and remember their experiences that was a long play by play and i hope i didn t lose you too badly the trek means something different to everyone and everyone learns something different kind of like reading the book of mormon i d like to share one of my biggest lessons though as we were trekking around i started feeling overwhelmed by the hardships these pioneers went through they were tested to their very limits and i had a terrible feeling that if i was ever put through that i would not make it i didn t make it to the top of the women s pull i was frustrated because i was absolutely sure that i would not be able to keep my precious babies safe and i knew for sure that i would never be able to pull my husband up a hill i felt like i was being faced with unreasonable challenges and not feeling inspired at all it actually felt like i was carrying a heavy burden on my shoulders and i struggled a lot at the end of the first day until the thought finally came to me to remember the sweetwater crossing obviously it was the spirit trying to teach me something so i pondered it and the rescue portion of the trek became more and more significant in my mind this story would have had a very different ending if the rescue had not come like me none of those saints could have made it without the help that came from salt lake and yet they didn t give up they had faith that the rescue was coming and it did the rescue i m thinking about is both a physical and a spiritual rescue and there are two ends to it first we can learn that there are people all around us all the time in need of rescue and that sometimes like the four young men at the river heavenly father needs brave people who will be his rescuers second as we think about the rescue of the saints we should learn and remember that there is always going to be a rescue no matter what trial or sadness we might be going through there is always a rescue for some of the saints their rescue was a safe crossing across the sweetwater river for some their rescue was in a full belly and new clothing for others their rescue was death for all of them their rescue was christ they all found peace comfort and strength to carry on in him the scripture matthew 10 27 kept coming to me as i trekked on and felt my burden become lightened as i depended more on god than myself it says and jesus looking upon them saith with men it is impossible but not with god for with god all things are possible i know that with god we can be happy with anything we are given we can be strong and brave and face any trial or tribulation with faith and hope posted by marianne at 6 33 pm no comments as marianne has told you we are lucky today to talk about our experience on the trek a few weeks ago we were blessed to be able to participate with our youth in this feel an amazing spirit and walk where the savior walked we spent lots of time planning for the trek one of the things we were asked to do was find a name of someone who went on the trek and walk for or in honor of that person the person i chose was a man named levi savage levi was returning from a mission to england and a well known frontiersmen so he was asked to help lead one of the last hand cart companies to salt lake when they were setting out from iowa levi knew that it was too late in the year to go and that the companies were not equipped or strong enough there were many more women and children to men than other companies he actually spoke up at one meeting against going telling people strongly that they were going to suffer if they decided to go i sympathized with this i didn t understand at first why these people would head out on a trek that seemed so ill advised however as i learned more about the circumstances these people were in many were completely destitute and had no way to survive the winter unless they were in salt lake i realized that the only option they had was to press forward and have faith that it would be okay though levi savage was against the trek he realized the importance of it and told the people that he would go with them help them and even die with them if that was what was asked he did accompany the willie handcart company the entire way helping and saving lives i admire his faith and would like to think i would have been strong enough to make the same decision if i were in his shoes one part that marianne left out is our transportation to and from the trek site when trek stories are told this part is not really a highlight the same for the original trek we focus on the trek over the plains and don t think much about how they came to be gathered in iowa and ready to cross the plains most of these people hoping to find zion were converts from europe so by the time they were ready to start pushing their handcarts over the plains they had already been traveling for months by sea and train to get there they had spent lots of money their life savings for many of them they endured cramped hot and stuffy conditions just to get to the point to walk 1000 miles our bus ride was nothing like this but we did get a small glimpse of it because our bus ended up not having a working air conditioner let me tell you this modern convenience is incredible the ride back was especially bad we had to stop at gas stations to buy ice for the kids to put on their heads and necks the bus was a great time to get to know each other better and to catch up on several years of mormon cinema it was actually tons of fun obviously the women s pull was a powerful experience for many who went on the trek both marianne and i were very moved as we participated in it i d like to share some of my thoughts and perspective but first i need to set the stage a bit as we were preparing for the trek many people who had gone before president gage in particular had warned us that this would be one of the most spiritual experiences we had ever had he even went as far as to warn us that we would cry more than once i listened to this with a bit of skepticism i knew it would be great and that i would probably feel the spirit but we had done some church history tours before and so i thought i knew what was in store for us let me tell you he was right there was not one dry eye as we participated in the women s pull including mine so the women s pull happened rather late in the day we had been treking for several hours in the hot sun with very little relief our family had four strong older boys so we hadn t had to exert much effort to keep our cart rolling and running smooth however we only had three young women in our family and one of them was sick for most of the time we were there and actually rode on a cart most of the way we had just finished lunch and refilled our water so that we were carrying a nice heavy load and could see a big hill in the distance at that point the very first small cloud of the whole trip covered the sun i thought it was a trek miracle which our family had been watching for a little in jest but also finding the hand of god many times but the cloud quickly passed as we came closer to this hill it became apparent that it was more than just a hill we were heading for a small mountain i dismissed the thought that it would be the site of the women s pull because it was just too big i was wrong when we came to the base of the hill we stopped for a water break and then they called the men away i frantically tried to make sure my girls were prepared i made them drink some water and find their gloves and then half jokingly gave my wife a good luck kiss then said goodbye i knew it was going to be difficult but the spirit of the moment had not hit me in full yet but then after just two or three steps away from my wife and my daughters i started crying for no reason so i quickly pushed my sunglasses closer to my face to cover the tears and save face a little bit but the tears just kept coming as i kept hiking up this hill by far the steepest and longest we climbed i kept thinking about how at one point in the saint s history 500 men were called away from their families and then far far more got called away to serve missions i kept thinking how incredibly difficult that would be whether in salt lake in nauvoo or on the plains because you would have no idea what was going to happen or if they would be okay life is unpredictable children grow illnesses happen and a man called away from his family for years at a time would have no guarantee that he was leaving them safely i imagined it felt as though one would be leaving with the realization that they could die especially if he must leave while they were crossing the plains as i kept climbing the realization that marianne and the girls would not make it up the hill overwhelmed me three because of our sick daughter who did by the way walk up the hill but definitely didn t push were not enough to push that heavy cart up the hill we kept walking and walking the hill had a saddle in it or a spot that it leveled out a little i thought that we would stop there wait for the ladies and help them the rest of the way but we just kept climbing i tried to spot the top thought i did but as we came to that spot it became apparent that there was yet another tier to climb still our leaders kept going at this point i was feeling some frustration and anger at the leaders guiding us up the hill i thought that they could have made their point and then let us help the women get our carts up the hill i m sure there were some members at that time of the pioneers that felt those very same feelings why would the lor...