Last fall Justin and I were called to be the Activities Committee chairs for Trek 2019! I don't think we quite understood what that all entailed when we agreed to fill the position. For the past year, and last 6 months in particular, we spent all our spare time planning the activities leading up to trek as well as the activities that took place while on trek. This was NO easy feet. The countless hours spent in meetings, typing documents late at night on the computer, kneeling in prayer waiting for inspiration to come, searching the internet for resources, ordering supplies to complete the activities and so much more were hopefully all worth it to the 170 youth who showed up to trek the 30 mile journey along the Old Barlow Road trail on Mt. Hood. Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of it all. Justin was asked to talk about our experience at the trek reunion and here is his reflection on our experience this time around, on our 2nd trek to date, plus some pictures to help us remember our experience.
I am grateful to be here. I am grateful to have had
the opportunity to be a part of trek. Some of you might know me as the guy
yelling during tug of war, the Native American off in the distance, a Mormon
Battalion General, the guy obnoxiously emailing you to get a letter and MAYBE
that guy that got you lost on the trail. But my name is Brother Justin
Marostica
About a year ago Ashley and I were asked by Brother
and Sister Jensen to be part of trek. More specifically over the activities
that would happen while on trek and prior to trek happening.
Before I talk to you about my experience on trek, I
need to give thanks to those that helped us with the activities. To those that
spend late night cutting things out, putting together games, fun stories and
creative ideas. Trek could not have happened without you. Also thank you to the
other auxiliaries and personnel who helped make the activities happen before
and during trek.
I need to give thanks to my wife Ashley; she was the
true brains behind all the activities. She spent many late nights compiling
information, writing plans, coming up with timelines, finding needed items and
procuring personnel to make it all happen. There were tears, lots of sweat and
even some blood (a tug of war injury) that came from her and I could not think
of a better person to pull of the enormous task of trek activities.
One of my favorite quotes is from W. Christopher
Waddell it states, “We cannot control all that happens to us, but we have
absolute control over how we respond to the changes in our lives.”
As Ashley and I were brainstorming activities for
trek, we searched the internet for ideas, talked with previous trek leaders and
read church published materials on trek, we decided that we wanted to do
something different, something unique, fun and something that might involve
modern technology. We came across the pioneer story of Mary Ann and Louisa
Mellor, mother and daughter pioneers, who faced significant hardship on the
trail. Mary Ann the mother, would not go any farther on the trail, she had
given up. Louisa her daughter, having faith, prayed that she could help her
mother overcome her despair. After praying in seclusion, she walked back to
meet her mother and along the way she found a pie. She would give the pie to
her mother, who would gain back her strength and because of it, her faith and
spirit were lifted such that, she along with her family would reach Zion.
We decided to use this story and came up with a
geocaching activity. Where each family would be given a GPS with coordinates to
find a pie, they would first watch a vignette about Mary Ann and Louisa’s
experience and off they would go into the woods to find their pie. Sounds fun
right???
Brother Jensen, Sister Bay and I, 2 months before
trek, even tested the idea in the same exact location and everything went
perfectly. So, we rented 22 GPS units, bought the pies, labeled everything and
with the help of the food committee this was going to be the one activity to
end all activities, the one everyone would remember. It was going to happen on Thursday,
and I could barely sleep Wednesday night I was so excited. It would be a
perfect prize for a long day on the trail that would include getting up early,
a tough women’s pull and steep difficult terrain.
On Thursday of Trek, Ashley and I decided to go to the
designated pie activity location 3 hours early to get ready, hide pies, set up
the vignette scene and make sure everything worked. Once we arrived at the
location with help from the logistics committee, we realized very quickly that
we were in the middle of nowhere and we had no radio service. The forest was
very dense and there were a few trails that crisscrossed through the area. We
located the spot, set up all the GPS units, acquired all the satellites, got the
labels ready for each pie and once we were ready we decided do a test run since
we had about an hour and a half before the trekkers would arrive.
Ashley told me to take a bag of beef jerky, walk 300
steps into the forest, hide the jerky, write down the coordinates and return.
She would then set off using the GPS to find the jerky, just like we wanted
each family to experience. I decided to follow her to help her understand the
GPS since she was a geocaching nub. After 30 minutes out searching, winding in
and out of trees and being completely off the trail, I was completely lost with
only a sense that if we went downhill, we would eventually hit the creek which
would lead us to some type of civilization. I started to panic, and Ashley was
NOT happy with me. Everything looked the same and even more unnerving, our GPS
was acting funny, we now think because of the dense forest. By this time, we
had been looking for the jerky for over an hour and needed to get back to the
site to see if the pies had arrived from the food committee.
We also realized that geocaching for pies was out of
the question since we were lost, and the GPS was acting weird. After being
admonished by Ashley for having chosen such a stupid hiding spot, I said a
little prayer that we would find the trail again. I remember having a strong
sense to head to the left and when we did, we found the trail, were off the
trail about 100 yards. We followed the trail and arrived at the activity site
with about 15 minutes to spare, but the pies and actors for the vignette had
yet to arrive, we found that half of the GPS batteries were dead and we could
hear the trekkers descending the steep hill toward our activity site.
With about 5 minutes to go the pies arrived, the food
committee and actors had gotten lost. We now had to go with Plan D, forgo
geocaching, do the vignette and hand out pies as the trekkers continued on the
trail. If we even tried to do the planned activity, we would risk multiple lost
families and a lot of time wasted trying to find pies.
Plan D worked perfectly; all committees worked
together to pull off an amazing spiritual experience with an outstanding
performance of the pie story by the McCauleys. Halfway through I noticed the
Stake President had arrived, THANK GOODNESS we did NOT go with Plan A.
The lesson I learned from this experience was that no
matter how well we plan our lives, no matter how precise and organized we have
every detail, things WILL happen, batteries will die, things won’t happen when
they should and we might even get lost. Sometimes our Plan A becomes our Plan
D. These things happen for a reason and at the moment we might not understand
why, but as we look back, we realize there was a purpose and it was our
Heavenly Father helping us to learn. Sometimes it takes getting lost or
batteries dying for us to realize what is important and Plan D can be just as
good as Plan A.
I am grateful to have
been a part of trek. To serve with so many wonderful people in this stake. I am
grateful for the youth and the Spirit I felt being amongst them while on trek.
My testimony is stronger. I am grateful for the faith, perseverance and
determination of the pioneers. This church is true. In the name of Jesus Christ
Amen.
