Youth Conference: A life changing experience.

*Warning: TONS of pictures below

So before I go off about Youth Conference...

My brother's family came down from Hanksville to visit us! I was sad because I only got to see them for one day, then I went to Youth Conference. But, it was fun having them here.

Youth Conference. What an experience. They decided to have us hike the Honeymoon Trail while pulling handcarts. Luckily we didn't hike the whole trail. That would have taken us five days and we only had three.

The Honeymoon Trail is a trail that engaged couples (and of course, chaperones) traveled to get to the St. George temple to get married. The whole entire trip back and forth would take probably around six weeks. I am so glad that we only did three days.

We got to the church at around 7:30 and then waited for everyone else to come. We didn't leave until probably around nine.

I think me and Wanda were lacking in sleep. We took tons of pictures like this just to pass the time.

They took us to Pipe Springs. That's were the some of the pioneers lived and made supplies for the building of the temple.

This was the first building that they built. It was just temporary.

Then they built this. It was a full blown fort with little holes on the sides were guns could poke out if they were attacked. It was pretty awesome.

Inside the fort was pretty cool too. This railing was so short. We concluded that the pioneers were shorter back then because if they were taller, they would have built taller railing.

They still had the original telegraph wires hooked up!

These grape vines are just about 200 years old!

There is a huge tree by the grape vines. They climbed up the tree all the way to the top.

Then they laid the wonderful task upon us of pulling these handcarts.

I don't even remember where we started on the trail. We didn't do the whole thing. If we did the whole thing, it would have taken us five days. We only only had three. There were some nice dirt roads, but our leaders decided not to let us pull on those. We got to pull through all the bushes and cactus like the pioneers did. We pulled the handcarts off road for about 6 miles. It took us about 5 hours to get to our camp.

This was after we finished. Thinking back, that was probably the easiest day.

We had to stop and refill our water bottles all the time.

The next morning my group was in charge of breakfast. We used up 4 dozen eggs!

Yum.

The next day we packed up camp and hiked about 2 miles. Then we did the women's pull. The men walked behind us as all the girls pulled the handcarts for a mile. We couldn't talk and had to rely on our pulling skills to get us to the top of the picture below.

We hiked down the mountain without the handcarts and then picked them back up at the bottom. We hiked for about a mile and then we came to a massive, steep hill. I used my head and went to the back of the cart. I didn't want to be at the front when we went down the hill. Next thing I know, someone shouts: "Lets run down the hill!" They took off at full speed, leaving me in the dust running after them. My friend Wanda was at the front in the middle. Soon they were going so fast that she couldn't keep up with her feet. She decided to drop, so she did. The wagon rolled over her and she went sliding down the hill.

All I remember is seeing her hat lying on the ground then looking up and seeing her slide under the handcart. I picked up her hat, ran over to her and gave her the hat. Then I ran to our handcart to stop it. After we stopped it Wanda came over and helped us push it back over the next hill. Then we saw that her jeans were all torn up and she was bleeding.

I felt so bad for her. They poured hydrogen peroxide on her wounds on the side of the trail. From the looks of it, it hurt pretty bad. I got knocked over during the Virginia Reel (we had someone come and teach it). I got a couple of cuts on my elbow and had to have peroxide poured on it. Even that little bit hurt like crazy. Wanda's wounds were much, much worse.

They had to cut her jeans open to get to the cuts. She was walking like an old lady for the rest of the trek.

She was in a lot of pain. They had to clean them three times in one day. The first time she was groping frantically for something to hold onto. I almost offered her my hand, but then thought better of it. From the look on her face when they poured it on, it hurt enough that she would probably break my hand. So we gave her a little thing of plastic wipes to bite onto. The last few times she bit on a hotpad.

Get better Wanda!

And then, after injuries and throwing up sicknesses, we finished! The last two days were horrible because there wasn't any clouds. We roasted. But all in all, it was a great Youth Conference!

As soon as I got home I took a long shower and a nap. Then I left for the church so I could go to the temple with my ward. It was so spiritual, I don't think I have ever felt the spirit so strong. All of the youth have gotten to know each other in a whole new way and it was wonderful going to the temple with all of them. I don't think I will ever forget it.

I am so tired and sore it is not even funny. Girls Camp is going to seem like a piece of cake compared to this.

Anyway, so right now I'm sitting around watching Avatar: The Last Airbender: Book 1. They are so good! They are just my kind of cartoon. I am slowly getting less sore as I watch the episodes. But it isn't making my bug bites any better.

Goodnight my fellow Air/Water/Earth/Fire Benders.