Never Without Faith. LONG post!

McLaws Family.

L to R: Christian, Tori, Kylie, Ma, Pa, Ashton, Hayden

Bottom: Morgan, and Jordan

Last Wednesday...(the 18th) I had the Opportunity to go on a pioneer trek for my stake. This was one of THE best experiences of my life. I would do it over again in a heartbeat. There was a quote on the bottom of out packing list that said, "positive attitudes open doors for great opportunities." I wanted to keep this in mind the whole trip. And that's exactly whatI did. The whole time I was positive and Excited to be where I was. I never let anything dampen my mood and I never let anything get me down. so from here i'm going to give you our itenerary...

~Wednesday the 18th:

We drive up to Forest Lakes On the rim of Payson and arrive there at about 8 o'clock. They have us all grouped together like a heard of Llamas inside this arena of caution tape. Then they would call you by your ward to come get you bonnet (girls), Cowboy hats (boys) and name tags which also had your cart # on it. Keep in mind NO ONE knew who their family was AT ALL so you can imagine the rush of ppl just waiting to find out who their new Ma's, Pa's, Sisters, & Brothers were. So Creekside (my ward) was called and we all shuffled over there to get our things. I was put in Cart #2. and let me say now how TRULY grateful I am for getting the cart that I did. seriously no other cart was as amazingly wonderful as my family. i loved them RIGHT away. My Ma and Pa were...words cannot even describe how much these people mean to me now. they are amazing in EVERY way and I love them so much. I had 3 sisters, Kylie, Ashton, and Morgan. My brothers were AMAZING as well, i also had 3 brothers, Hayden, Christian, and Jordan (who was somewhat of a bumpkin) haha but overall i was OVERJOYED with them as my family. So we get into our families and go and start setting up our Carts, pack up all of our stuff onto the cart and head off. our cart was the lightest out of the 22 that were there weighing in at about 400 lbs. did i also mention we were the smallest family? normally everyone had about 10 or 11 kids. nope. our family had 7. But later that day we came to realize what a blessing this was when Ma pulled aside and started crying. we were all listening as she told us that the reason we had the smallest group of kids was because of how much faith the stake presidency had in us. they told her that #2 had to be the strongest group so they could help #1 cart (who had a handicaped boy). She then went on to say how much the stake presidency prayed about this decision on who to put in this cart. She pointed to every single one of us and said, you are in this family for a reason, this wasn't chosen out of a hat. You have been chosen because of who you are and how much faith those leaders had to place you in this special calling. Immediatley i was filled with the spirit KNOWING FOR CERTAIN that this is where I was supposed to be. We were going through thinking this was nothing and this was going to be easy. Then we were all stopped by the Head security saying that this was going to be VERY steep. so my family left our cart and went and helped #1 down the rocky Mountain then treked back up one mile and went to get our cart and take it back down again. This happened 3 times in the whole day. it was an AMZING experience to serve one another and help eachother in the roughest of times. At about 5 o'clock we FINALLY ate lunch. a piece of bread, salami, and cheese NEVER tasted so good in my ENTIRE life! also during lunch we got to shoot gun powdered rifles. it was AWESOME!!!!! but i swear if there were any bears nearby i bet all the pee got scared out of them it was LOUD! after this, we all hitched ourselves back into positon and headed off. but the order changed, instead of 1-22 it went 1 & 22-12 and then 12-2. so we were now the TAIL END! after walking about 2 more hours after this I asked my Ma how long we had until camp and she just starrted crying and said. 3 more hours. I didnt complain I didnt say HOLY CRAP ARE YOU KIDDING ME, i said, ma, this means i get to bond with you and my family more. Trying to keep a positive attitude on for her. She was so grateful and would stop and give me a hug every 5 seconds. during the way to our camp we had come to a fork in the road and couldnt remember if we had to go right or left. So we followed the cart in front of us and went right. about 2 min traveling on this road everyone stopped. we were told that no one was sure this was the right road. so we got about a 30 min break and stopped. Then being told that this was the wrong road. We were SO blessed at this time becasue we were now in the front of the handcarts only 10 yards away from the fork while cart #22 was 2 miles away. We were filled with such gratification, we were so happy that they decided to put us in this order. so we started on the new trail (and at this time its about 9:30 at night. and we were all so tired. we were traveling through THICK THICK sand and it was so tough to puch through it. I was on the back of the cart with my Pa for about 10 miles while the girls were in the back with Ma the whole way and hayden and christian pulled the whole way. and jordan was doin something idk what. at about 10:30 we Finally made it to camp leading the way. I had to go to the bathroom BADLY since the time i arrived on the trek. so i had been holding it ALL day! I asked ma if she would wait for me while i relieved myself and she said yes. When i came out of the bathroom Ma wrapped me up in her arms sobbing saying. Pa needed you a lot tonight you could have easily Come back off the cart and stayed with me and the rest of the girls. I was so thankful I got to Help mY Pa out and have my Ma appreciate what i had done for the family. After the bathroom we parked our Cart and went and set up our tent. The Boys did it SOO fast i dont know how it was done. they're magnificent, one of the few things greatly appreciated. sothe boys set up our tent and the girls changed into our Pajamas and went outside to where our chili and cornbread were waiting for us. i have never been so greatful for PANTS in my life. I was SO sick of wearing a skirt. I loved getting into my pajamas. and the cornbread and chili were also as well amzing. then we said our goodnights had family prayer and went and CRASHED! end of day 1. this is a picture of my <<<< Ma and Pa.

2nd Day. we wake up and Pack EVERYTHING because we had to move camps. so we packed up our tent backed our bags, ate our oatmeal (thoroughly Doused with Brown Sugar) and took off. about 3 miles into our trip the hardest yet most rewarding experience of the trek had come. We were stopped in front of a very steep road saying it was time for the Woman's pull. Kim stopped all the carts and gave us a breif introduction on how and why we were doing this. Instantly The spirit was felt by all and we knew that this was going to be a rewarding experience. so we started up this towering hill with me and Ma in the back Kylie, Morgan and Ashton in the front Pulling. The Men were asked to stand by the cart not saying a word and not being able to touch the cart or help us in ANY way. I could hear my Ma crying Because of How hard this was on her. She was SO weak the night before but she kept PUSHING AND PUSHING. She's Such a wonderful example to me as if she was my own mother. She gave me the strength to keep pushing as hard as i could and never giving up. at the time we were told that we would be hiking 2 miles. so it came as a HUGE suprise when the boys pushed us out of the way and said move MOVE! we were all in suprise not knowing what was going on. but we gladly took the break. But about 1 min later. all us girls were back helping doing whatever was needed. our family was truly amazing.! the spirit that was felt at this time was overwhelming. it was one of the best times on this trek. you could tell that there was someone heping us the whole time. because there's no way that we could've done that without someone there beside us. it wsa a very rewarding experience. after thais it was all uphill for about 2 miles. ( we only had to walk 5 miles today.) so we stopped ate lunch which consisted of bread and apple butter. and we were ON OUR WAY!!! we were all so excited to get to our camp so we could rest and play games that we seriously sprinted. it was awesome how much determination our family had. the day was filled with activities!

1. WASHING OUR HAIR!!! you have NO idea how amazing this felt

2. Frybread. OOOhhhhh so good!!!

3. Hans mill that was fun

4. pioneer stories

5. stickpull

6. RESCUE mission (thanks katie and brian haha)

7. Candle Making

8. Taffy Pull yum yum

This concluded our night aloong with YUMMY dinner!!

The next day was the "sabbath" day. it truly felt like the sabbath. we all split off into our own stake's and i was fortunate enough to hear from kim and her talk was AMAZING! i'm so glad i got to go with her (practically my second mother) she took such good care of me! after relief society we joined the young men to hear from kace rothlisberger (cousin) and Pres. Allen. thhe rest of the day was filled with Testimony meeting our 3 HOUR SOLO TIME!! (everyone fell asleep!!!) haha but it was good to connect with the spirit in such a sacred place. And Playing VROOM!!! haha this was a great day of rest.

The Next day was our LAST day it was a bittersweet goodbye. i Miss my family BUNCHES and i love them SOOO much we had to hike 5 miles to our camp and the last 1/2 mile everyone was asked to be silent. it was AMAZING except the sonic this way sign i hate you kim. that was SO not funny. but this was one of the most precious and sacred experiences i will ever have. I Love my family so much and was so grateful i was placed in their care.