As far as I know, this sort of thing was still going on in 2018. I remember the YSA ward I went to in Rexburg had this event before I went inactive.

Watched a few videos with Mormon Trek stories and I agree with those reading them out: this is a liability issue.

Does anyone know if anyone has made a fuss about the Mormon Trek over the years?

Over the years when my kids were teen aged, my stake did the trek at least three times. How did no one get injured?

Kids in my ward got blisters, heat exhaustion, and sprains. My youngest was thoroughly freaked out by the experience.

Still, no law suits?

The church intimidates its members not to sue. To sue the church would make you an apostate.

The church also enforces non-disclosure agreements. Even if a member sued or raised a fuss, they would not be able to speak of it.

The mormon church tells its members not to criticize the Lord's anointed, even if true.

In summary, the mormon church covers its 140 billion dollar a$$.

I've learned a lot about the church over the past few weeks that has been alarming and painful. Your post has actually terrified me.

I do not mean to make you feel bad.

It is weird stuff.

They don't mention this kind of stuff when they teach you or baptize you.

Good luck.

It is alright. I mean, it's one thing to awaken to the fact I was in a cult. It's another thing entirely realizing the magnitude and power that cult has. It's just a scary thing. I used to think growing up in the church was harmless to me, that walking away in disbelief would be easy. There are some parts of this process(such as learning of the legal and wealthy giant the church is) that make me wish I'd never been baptized.

I wonder if my daughter would be TBM if she had gone on trek. Hell, youth conference in the 1970s was bad enough. Some girls in my ward talked me into that once at BYU. What a waste of money and time!

One time when I was a leader in YW, I took the girls to the festival of the trees. They got permission and we took all the girls. On the way home, I stopped at NewGate Mall in Ogden (it was there then) to get my kids' portraits. I was called in to the bishop's office and told i was not allowed to do that. That if anything happened while we were at the mall, the church wasn't covered by insurance. But they could do trek?

One or both of my younger brothers almost drowned on scouting trips.

But my trip to the mall was a problem. Oh, the girls got their picture taken with Santa. They had a blast.

My Dad did it out of a deep need to know what our handcart ancestors had endured. He took the extreme hardship of the ordeal to be a testament to how strong our ancestor's testimonies were to tolerate such a trial. Increased his testimony immensely. Who would do that if the gospel weren't true?

Of course it wasn't taken into account all those that Brigham, inspired of God, told to come too late in the year and they all died. Hmmmmnnn.

I only attended one youth conference. I think my ward's new bishop who told me to give it a try. It was going to be FUN and at a beautiful location too; Lake Tahoe!

So all morning, there were doctrinal classes that we had to rotate through. I think the topics were the usual fare such as the law of chastity, serving a mission, studying the scriptures and serving others/church callings.

What I clearly remember was that the "conference/event center" did not have a working drinking fountain. I was parched and started to cough during one of the lectures. So I left and went out still coughing; even choking on my own saliva. The group of adult chaperones were talking amongst themselves and became annoyed that I was causing a scene.

One sister grabbed my hand and dragged me outside to the back where there happened to be a garden hose. They would not allow us to cross the street (with chaperone) to go to the market. "We do not have permission to go there."

Huh??

Later we performed community service by raking leaves and grass cuttings with rakes and pitchforks.

How is using dangerous pitchforks sanctioned by the church, but not crossing the street (with crosswalk-traffic signal) too dangerous?

Oh, we didn't have water at the park either.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2020 04:30PM by messygoop.

I remember a few years ago that there was a pretty sizable group of trekkers that had to have a fleet of ambulances show up because of incipient heat stroke or heat exhaustion (I never could keep those two straight!). I don't know that anyone was actually hauled to a hospital, but a bunch of ambulances at the top of the Wasatch made for a good tv visual.

If you do much of anything outdoors in hot, and especially hot, humid weather, it is not that hard for you to get out ahead of your body's ability to keep cool. Even in dry Utah it can get humid in August. Not New Orleans humid, but bad enough.

the news stories I've seen about "the Trek" showed the large flotilla of RVs that accompany the trekkers. Given that, I really don't think it is particularly dangerous. Shade, water, and even air conditioning is readily available.

I think what happened at the trek with all the ambulances is that they pushed a bit too hard in hundred degree weather, a few of the kids threw up (a common symptom of heat exhaustion) which freaked other kids out, inducing sympathetic nausea, and suddenly half the group is nauseous, and the call to 911 goes out.

Personally, I don't think the treks are all that dangerous. Statistically, probably safer than skiing, or church basketball. If anything, people no longer know what sweaty physical labor feels like anymore, so they don't know how to react to how they feel (like, really time to get out of the sun and sit for a while) or don't have the good sense to knock off for the afternoon and continue when the sun is lower in the sky. On top of that, their bodies are not used to dealing with serious overheating, and the body overreacts. You can have out-of-shape muscles, and out-of-shape thermal regulation.

"Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun."

In my youth, I worked for a county parks department, and was outdoors from spring through fall, and sometimes in the winter as well. Driving workers to the point of getting heat exhaustion or heat stroke would not have been tolerated. We always got adequate rest periods and plenty of water.

I've simply read too many horror stories about significant health problems happening on the Mormon Trek to think that it carries any educational or spiritual value that supersedes the health risks.

All of my kids participated in the trek.
The treks are held every 5 years and for our “ stake”, Wyoming was the destination of choice.
Each trek always was for 3 days.
There was a re-enactment of a pioneer family burying a baby who died along the way. They had a realistic looking baby doll that they cried and sang over and buried in the sand. What could possibly be more fun and spiritual than that?!
When our middle daughter was on the trek, they had come to a difficult hill. The guy in their “family” was crying and couldn’t help pull that hand cart, even though he was tall and strong. Our daughter wound up pulling the cart all by her onesie while another kid stood at the top of a hill, playing on his violin,”Come, Come Ye Saints”.
When our youngest daughter came home, she looked quite interesting: her shirt was all torn and she was covered in dirt. Apparently she had a close call being run over by a handcart.
When our son went, he needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. He couldn’t sleep because the whole camp was in the middle of a heard of noisy sheep, but at least it wasn’t too dangerous.
I’m just glad that they all made it home safe. There have been some tragedies with these treks.

I'm from the UK so never really experienced this. What is a trek mormon style?

and then some

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/youth/activities/bc/pdfs/stake/PD10052956_000_Handcart_Trek_Booklet.pdf?lang=eng

If you don't want to read the whole thing ( I wouldn't blame you), the pictures will tell most of the story.

Nope. The church isn't a cult.

Really.

The really need to have a caption that reads -

Mormons reviving idol worship in the desert not seen since days of the Egyptians

+thegoodman:
What's the Mormon Trek?


~~~~iceman9090

Google "Will Bagley Truth about Trek."

Bagley comes on at about 4:40 into the video.

IF getting frostbite and/ or freezing to death on the high plains of Wyoming is really so great and wonderful, as everyone has been told so many times by MORmON leaders, then LDS Inc should hold trek in January, so that MORmON youth can get a real taste of MORmON glory of the past.

dying for MORmON truth is well worth it. just ask MORmON leader Gordon BS Hinckley !!!! ......but just do not ask Gordon to suffer or die for for it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3A5QGj7ZaM

Brigham Young's folly has been recast as a heroic quest. Mormon self-indulgence is powerful wherever they gather. They see religion as a sport, and their team is number one.

Brilliant insight DonBagley

Tell a lie long enough and people will believe it

Below Zero to Hero - church history is fixed!