Mormon Battalion
Day two arrived and we found ourselves pulling the cart once again up steady grades and inclines. It was grueling again. We knew that the "Women's Pull" was going to be that day...I wasn't worried about whether or not I could do it...I knew I could, I was worried about how hard it was going to be after the trail we had been pulling on. We came around a corner and up a steady climb for about 15-20 minutes and I could see horses and the flag. I knew that the Mormon Battalion was near...we got to a resting point and waited for a bit until up came our flag, several men on horseback, and a man beating a drum for the soldiers to march to. Immediately I was apprehensive. The spokesman came to the front and read the decree that the government needed the Mormon men in the army...and it was time to heed this call. Travis leaned down and kissed me and off they went - all the men....there was, for me, an immediate void. I knew this was coming, I expected it. But as I watched them walk away and pull 1/2 the carts with them, I was upset. I could feel the absence of the the Priesthood. Away they went. All the women sat in the clearing under the trees and waited.The boys and men took 1/2 the carts up the hill ( a different route that the girls and women were going to take) they stopped at the top and had a devotional (the Stake YM pres. spoke). Travis said that he (the speaker) said some really powerful things about women and how men see them and can help them. It sounded like it was inspirational and uplifting.
WOMEN'S PULL
While the men took the carts and had their devotional - we had one of our own. Our Stake YW president was our speaker and talked about how we as women could do hard things. It was beautiful. We had no idea what was ahead of us, but since she spoke of how we were getting ready to do something really hard (since she had already done it when the staff came ahead of time) we knew it was going to be harder than we had expected. After our devotional we walked a bit up the hill to the 1/2 of the carts that were left for us to pull up. The task ahead looked daunting. It was almost vertical to the top. They teamed us up: 2 families of women per cart. So, my family went up with another "red" family - the Larson's...we were the last cart to go up the hill. We could hear cheering of them men as they stood on the sides and watched, we could hear them singing hymns, they weren't allowed to help us at all, except for to block the cart wheels should we need a break. By the time our cart went up there was no traction left...the ground was soft and beachlike - my legs burned, I was sucking in dust as I heaved up the hill. I couldn't breathe, my lungs were on fire. One of my girls (Georgi) as we approached the top started chanting "chesnuts, chesnuts!" it made me smile. I didn't realize how many people I knew - my head was down and I pulled with everything I had on the yoke of the cart....I could hear people I knew "...Go, Sister Chesley!, You got this Marie!, You're almost to the top..." etc. It was encouraging to hear this....I made the mistake of looking up along the sides of the mountain where the men were standing and caught a glimpse of Kevan Wheelock (the Bishop of 2nd Ward, and our good friend) - immediately I regretted it, I started to tear up and had to regroup...there was no time to cry- I needed my strength - so I didn't look up again until I got to the top and stumbled into Travis. I couldn't breathe, I was coughing up dust and sand and my legs felt like they were going fall out from under me. I was sure I was going to pass out. He hugged me and I cried - he cried. I was exhausted and it took all I had to just hold on to him - and try to breathe through my coughing and gasping for air. Travis just held me and walked me to the cart. Eventually, I got my balance back.
We are behind this group - waiting.
When we got to camp- there was a beautiful overlook for us to look at...it was amazing to see how far up we had climbed.
We took our supplies and set up our tents for night 2. Our tents had to be set up on top of this crazy brush - luckily Travis and I had taken a nice foam pad to sleep on. :)
That night, we had a devotional- and then a testimony meeting with our families. Ours was short and Travis and I wish that we would've just had a discussion of the day rather than testimony sharing...we had some of our kids that I think were uncomfortable with testimony bearing. Oh well...maybe next time.
As we went to bed, Travis and I were exhausted and we kept hearing chatter from one of the girl tents. We had already gotten in our beds and were openly speaking about how the parents of those girls needed to tell them to be quiet- we had our kids under control why didn't other parents?....eventually we heard a male voice (one of the other Pa's from our company) said they needed to be quiet...we were so grateful. The giggling quieted and we went to sleep. The next morning - we were telling our girls about the laughter and giggling that was keeping us awake...only to realize that it was our girls that were doing all the laughing and talking....turns out they kept hearing Jaden (one of our boys) in the boy tent keep complaining that he lost his toy(I had brought each of the kids a button spinner toy and Jaden was ALWAYS playing his). He kept saying outloud in his tent "Aw, man, I lost my toy, I can't find it..." the girls found this hysterically funny and just kept laughing about it. They termed the nickname "Toy Boy" for Jaden the next morning. :) Travis and I coudln't believe it was OUR GIRLS that were making all that noise. So so funny!
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