dates

Important dates to remember!

May 18-  Ma and Pa Training- 7:00 PM.  Please bring all permission slips and parent letters to this meeting.

June 1st-  Jenny Phillips Trek Fireside, "Remember the Journey," at 7:00 PM. This will be amazing!

Ensign Peak handout

ENSIGN PEAK JOURNAL GLUE-IN

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isa. 2:2).

Before leaving Nauvoo in the winter of 1846, President Brigham Young had a dream in which he saw an angel standing on a cone-shaped hill somewhere in the West pointing to a valley below. When he entered the Salt Lake Valley some 18 months later, he saw just above the location where we are now gathered the same hillside prominence he had seen in vision.

As has often been told from this pulpit, Brother Brigham led a handful of leaders to the summit of that hill and proclaimed it Ensign Peak, a name filled with religious meaning for these modern Israelites. Twenty-five hundred years earlier the prophet Isaiah had declared that in the last days “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains,” and there “he shall set up an ensign for the nations.”

Seeing their moment in history as partial fulfillment of that prophecy, the Brethren wished to fly a banner of some kind to make the idea of “an ensign for the nations” literal. Elder Heber C. Kimball produced a yellow bandana. Brother Brigham tied it to a walking stick carried by Elder Willard Richards and then planted the makeshift flag, declaring the valley of the Great Salt Lake and the mountains surrounding it as that prophesied place from which the word of the Lord would go forth in the latter days. (Jeffrey R. Holland)

I believe and testify that it is the mission of this Church to stand as an ensign to the nations and a light to the world. We have had placed upon us a great, all-encompassing mandate from which we cannot shrink nor turn aside. We accept that mandate and are determined to fulfill it, and with the help of God we shall do it.

There are forces all around us that would deter us from that effort. The world is constantly crowding in on us. From all sides we feel the pressure to soften our stance, to give in here a little and there a little.

We must never lose sight of our objective. We must ever keep before us the goal which the Lord has set for us. (Gordon B. Hinckley)

High on the mountain top

A banner is unfurled.

Ye nations, now look up;

It waves to all the world.

In Deseret's sweet, peaceful land,

On Zion's mount behold it stand! (Joel H. Johnson)

Ensign Peak and First Encampment Park Activity

Trek Activity- April 30^th (2^nd, 3^rd, 9^th and 11^th Wards)

                       or May 5^th (5^th, 6^th and 7^th Wards)

Please make sure your trek family knows where and when to meet.

Ensign Peak (This hike counts toward the May Trail of Faith goals- to go on a hike in the shoes you’ll be wearing on Trek. Please remind your youth ahead of time!)

Length: About 1 mile round trip Difficulty: Easy

Description: Ensign Peak is a prominent small mountain peak at the north end of the Salt Lake Valley, above the State Capitol building. From the top, you have marvelous views out over the Salt Lake Valley and Great Salt Lake.

Two days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and seven other pioneer leaders climbed the mountain to survey the valley. From its summit they laid out in their minds the city they intended to build. A small monument now sits on the summit.

Ensign Peak Trailhead

The trailhead is at the top of a residential area above the Utah capitol building. From downtown Salt Lake City, drive State Street north to the capitol, fork right and follow the road around to the northeast. It becomes East Capitol Boulevard. Follow it up the hill to the north and then turn left onto North Sandrun Road. Follow that road west to the LDS Church house. The trailhead is in the back of the church parking lot, where it abuts Ensign Vista Drive.

Ensign Peak

From the trailhead, follow the obvious, well-maintained trail to the top of the peak. The trail swings around the mountain and approaches the summit from the north. Return the way you came in. Please stay on the established trail. Work is underway here to re-vegetate the area, which has been harmed by erosion.

First Encampment Park (This would be a great place for the kids to write in their journals.)

1704 S 500 E Salt Lake City

"First Encampment Park was created in 1997 to honor the pioneers who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The first group of pioneers to enter the valley included 109 men, 3 women, and 8 children. They had to push their way through high grass before they found an area suitable to set up camp for the night. The park marks the spot where they spent their first night, and the names of some of the pioneers are inscribed on the granite rocks.

On that night, Thomas Bullock, the company clerk, recorded in his journal: “…We descended a gentle sloping table land to a lower level where the soil and grass improved in appearance…The wheat grass grows six or seven feet high, many different kinds of grass appear, some being 10 or 12 feet high – after wading through thick grass for some distance, we found a place bare enough for a camping ground, the grass being only knee deep, but very thick; we camped on the banks of a beautiful little stream (Parley’s Creek) which was surrounded by very tall grass...”

Parley’s Creek still flows underground through the neighborhood that stands there now.

The next morning the company moved to the place where it was decided they would plant crops, two miles to the north at City Creek.

Even the layout of the park is symbolic of the pioneers and their journey. The granite boulders on the east side of the park represent the Wasatch mountains. The path through the mountain rocks represent Emigration Canyon, which is the canyon the pioneers passed through to get to the valley. The dry streambeds represent Emigration and Parley’s creeks. 

The park was dedicated on July 22, 1997 by Elder M. Russell Ballard exactly 150 years after the group of pioneers camped here. It was presented as a city park to the people of Salt Lake City and to all who honor the pioneer heritage.

Activity Date Changes

In order to accommodate our large stake, we have divided up the hiking and service acitivities, as follows:

April 30th- 5th, 6th and 7th wards will do the service activity. 

April 30th- 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 11th wards will hike Ensign Peak and 1st Encampment Park. 

Which means on-

May 7th- 5th, 6th and 7th wards will hike Ensign Peak and 1st Encampment Park.

May 7th- 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 11th wards will do the service activity.

(4th Ward already did their service activity and will still hike on Tuesday, May 6th.)

If you have scheduling conflicts due to your service project, feel free to go on the original nights.

Thanks-

The Stake YW and YM Presidencies

Family Service Project

April 30^th

Trek Family Service Project

As a trek family, you choose a service project that you want to do for this activity. Some ideas are listed below, but these are only suggestions. Feel free to be creative!! You are welcome to combine with other families in your ward, but you do not need to.

Remember to take a few minutes at the end of the activity to add the journal glue-in and record your thoughts about the activity into your journals. (Don’t forget pens and glue-sticks)

This activity covers one of the spiritual preparation goals for the Trail of Faith Award.

Encourage your trek children to look at their Duty to God requirement in the Serve Others Section of the Priesthood Duties OR Personal Progress Good Works #6. This service project can help the youth complete those requirements.

Service Project Ideas:

*Bake cookies together and deliver to the fire station or police station

*Make homemade cards.  Drop them off at a rehabilitation center or hospital
*Put together a care package for a missionary or member of the military 

*Find an area in town that is dirty and littered and clean it up!

*Singing at a nursing home

*Make/deliver blankets or hats to homeless shelter

*Make blankets, quilts, or dolls for Primary Children’s Hospital

*Organize a board game night at your local nursing home

*Decorate placemats for Meals on Wheels

 *Volunteer at an animal shelter- play with the dogs and cats, help to brush them, and clean up after them

*Babysit for children while parents attend the temple

*Collect, make, or recondition toys or games for a nursery

*Clean the meetinghouse

*Perform errands or read to a homebound person or others in need

*Canned food drive

*Book drive for the library

*Help make flour bags for TREK***

*** The stake leaders will be making 4 oz flour bags to represent the daily rations of the pioneers for each trekker to carry. We would willingly accept any help in putting these bags together. This includes measuring flour into plastic bags, cutting fabric into small rectangles, and/or sewing the fabric bags closed.(Any families interested in helping flour bags for your service project, contact Deena Peterson 801-420-5321 or deenapete6@gmail.com to coordinate and get supplies.)

TREK service project handout

SERVICE PROJECT JOURNAL GLUE-IN

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. Mosiah 2:17

Following the Pioneers--DALLIN H. OAKS

It is not enough to study or reenact the accomplishments of our pioneers...

The foremost quality of our pioneers was faith…two companion qualities evident in the lives of our pioneers, early and modern, are unselfishness and sacrifice. Our Utah pioneers excelled at putting “the general welfare and community goals over individual gain and personal ambition.”

These pioneer qualities …are as vital today as when they guided the actions of our pioneer forebears, early and modern. To honor those pioneers, we must honor and act upon the eternal principles that guided their actions. As President Hinckley [reminds us], “We honor best those who have gone before when we serve well in the cause of truth.” That cause of truth is the cause of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose servants they were, and whose servants we should strive to be.

Nellie Pucell Unthank

(An excerpt from an article written by W. Paul Reev, History Blazer, August 1995)

[9 year old Nellie Pucell endured the handcart trail with the Martin Company. She suffered severe frostbite and her legs had to be amputated below the knee.] Due to the primitive surgical conditions the wound healed poorly, and bones protruded from the end of Nellie's stumps. She spent the rest of her life waddling on her knees in constant pain.

She married William Unthank, bore six children and lived in poverty. She was, however, accustomed to facing challenges and did all in her power to make the most of her situation. Even while living in a log cabin she kept her home immaculately clean. To help meet her family's needs she took in laundry, knitted stockings to sell, carded wool, and crocheted table pieces. At times, however, she could not provide all the essentials for her children and received assistance from her Mormon bishop. As repayment for this aid and out of deeply felt gratitude, she and her children yearly scrubbed and washed the church where they worshiped each Sunday. Nellie spent most of her life in similar quiet acts of service, not only for her church but also for her family and neighbors.