In honor of the Latter-day Saint Pioneers who pulled handcarts some 1,200 miles across the American West, 120 youth from the Coomera Australia Stake participated in the stake’s first-ever pioneer trek.
The teens, with the help of 60 youth leaders, spent three days in early October walking 47 kilometers, or roughly 29 miles, through the bush in regional Queensland while hauling handcarts.
The youth donned period costume and learned pioneer games, dances and songs. The trekkers also encountered actors dressed as Brigham Young, mountain men, trappers, soldiers and Native Americans from the 1840s, who told their stories along the trail.
The theme for the trek was “faith in every footstep,” which the trekkers demonstrated as they persevered throughout their journey, organizers reported to the Church’s Pacific Newsroom.
Janet Arthur, an organizer who also attended, said, “The youth were amazing! Tired and sore, they soldiered on.”
She added, “I was glad to have the experience of walking with the youth. It wasn’t easy at all. Miracles occurred, like I saw youth comforting other youth to help them keep going. I saw youth carrying some of the injured youth on their carts. I saw youth singing together, playing authentically reproduced games together, putting up their tents, eating, having fun together, dancing together, bearing their testimonies.”
David Ubeda, second counselor in the Coomera Australia Stake presidency, helped organize the trek, which took roughly nine months to plan.
The journey of the Mormon Pioneers, he said, “was a forced migration” where Church members traveled to a remote place where they could settle in peace. “Many died and were buried in shallow graves. These youth honored that sacrifice by their endurance in completing the trek,” President Ubeda said.
Maioha Orth documented the trek as a photographer and created a video of their experiences on YouTube.
Orth said trek was “an incredible experience” for many reasons. “I look forward to sending my own children when they are old enough so they can gain even just some small appreciation for the pioneers and to strengthen their bonds with their own peers,” Orth said.
As the trekkers pulled their handcarts through the final gate they cheered and sang “Come, Come, Ye Saints.”
