I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and live in Utah. 150+ years ago Latter Day Saint (LDS) pioneers walked over 1,000 miles to cross the plains to settle Utah. Every few years the youth in our area get the chance to see - even if just a little - what it was like for those pioneers for 3 days. They pull handcarts for 3 days in the plains of Wyoming, and sleep out under the stars (or under a tarp). It's a great experience for the youth and leaders as we remember the hardships our pioneer ancestors went through to get to a place where they could worship in peace.
The first day of the trip the youth are split up into families, each of them being a brother or sister in a family. They try to put them with "siblings" that they don't even know. My wife and I got the chance to be "Ma's and Pa's" of 5 teenage boys and 4 teenage girls. We were so excited!
We had the best kids! We walked a total of 20 miles, and cooked our own food (mostly, there was a food committee that prepared stuff and gave it to us in boxes for us to cook to simplify), and slept on the hard ground with no pads, and we never heard a complaint! They were awesome!
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