Ancestors In the next few months each person going on the trek will be assigned the name of a person who was in the Martin or Willie handcart companies. You will represent that person on the trek. Your love and gratitude for the handcart pioneers will grow as you learn about your pioneer.

If you have an ancestor who was in any of the handcart companies (there were ten companies of handcart pioneers that journeyed to Utah between 1856 and 1860), please let Sister Dawnie Baxter, our stake young women's president, know the name so you can represent your ancestor on the trek. Email her at sisterbaxter.stake.yw@gmail.com.

If you aren't sure if your ancestor was in a handcart company, go to the following website. Enter a last name and see what comes up. You may find one of your ancestors, and if you are lucky you may find an attached journal entry that was written by one of them or about them.

http://lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanysearch

"We suffered beyond anything you can imagine, and many died of exposure and starvation. . . . [But we] came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities.

I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can only go that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it. I have gone to that sand, and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.

Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin handcart company." Francis Webster (Andrew D. Olsen, The Price We Paid, 2006, pp. 2-3).

Prepare Now for the Trek

In one year you will have one of the GREATEST weeks of your life. At Martin's Cove, Sixth Crossing, Rocky Ridge, and Rock Creek Hollow, you will experience firsthand what it was like to be a member of the Martin or Willie handcart companies. You will have the opportunity to get to know our Savior, Jesus Christ, in a way you never have before.

The trek will be for the youth who are 12 years old by August 5, 2012, up through the youth who graduate from high school in 2012.

Start preparing now to have a wonderful experience:

• Financially--The trek will cost each person $275. Work hard to earn the money yourself. Turn your deposit of $50 into your bishop by October 1st.
  
• Spiritually--The pioneers kept their faces pointed toward Zion. This year, exercise your faith and determination to be temple-worthy as you prepare for the trek.
• Physically--get yourself in shape before the trek. You will be doing a lot of walking.
  

"It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and
perspective for the future." President Gordon B. Hinckley