Ok, so this blog is going to be a little about my past. I have been thinking about what I am going to say in this post for a long time now, and I just decided to share one of the most touching and testimony building experiences of my life!

About 3 years ago I had the chance to go to a youth conference for my church in Wyoming; this youth conference was rather special for all of us kids that had the chance to go because we would be doing a pioneer trek through Martin's Cove, a place where many LDS pioneers died because they started their journey late in the year and suffered innumerable mishaps along the way. The handcart companies were caught in early snows. It was one of the greatest tragedies in pioneer history. Hundreds died of exposure and starvation.

Knowing that many had lost their lives for their belief in our Savior, Jesus Christ, meant so much to me, and so, in some way, I wanted to show respect to these great people; then, it came to me how I could do that! I decided that I would go those 25 miles with out shoes and while I was there, at Martin's Cove, I would not put on any shoes. At first there were many that thought I was crazy, and some of the adults were not very happy that I had chosen this path. However, I knew that in my heart this would change the whole way I looked upon the pioneers that went to Utah, and boy was I right!


After the first mile there were kids joining me in my barefoot trek. They wanted the same experience that I wanted. Before the end of the trek we had about 10 people that were bare foot. Each of us had sore feet at the end, but we knew that no one would ever do that in the winter unless they knew that there was a prophet again on the earth, and that they needed to do what the lord wanted them to do. My testimony grew every time i stepped on a sharp rock or got a little sliver in my foot. They knew that the gospel had once again been restored on the earth, and I now knew it too.

Each one of us kids came out of that youth conference with a stronger testimony and a stronger relationship with one another. One of the other kids that walked barefoot even became my brother-in-law. The others have become my best friends for life because, together, we discovered something amazing that week, something we will never forget.