NOM

I haven't heard of any of the stakes in my immediate vicinity doing Trek, what about you? Is it possible that the Rona has finally caused this painfully stupid exercise to end? (A woman actually DIED on trek a few years ago and that wasn't enough to end it.)

Trek is stupid for 2 reasons:

1) these kids are experiencing plenty of REAL hardship, they don't need manufactured hardship on top of that (I tended to think this was true even before the pandemic. I work with adolescents, they are going through PLENTY)

2) it's been going on for what, 10-15 years at this point? So the first cohort of kids who went on Trek are now young adults. What does the retention look like for those kids? Abysmal. It's almost like a testimony based on manufactured experiences and views of history that are misleading or downright false (the "Women's Pull"; no mention of polygamy) is not an ACTUAL testimony and it won't stand up in the real world.

I have extended family that is on Trek right now.

Their still sending senior couple missionaries to the Deseret Land and Livestock Mission to help support the kids on Trek.

So no, not cancelled.

3) teaching kids obvious lies and just plain ludicrous mythology. God might give you a pie if you're good enough but he'll let the rest of your family starve to death as a reward for being blindly faithful in following their priesthood leaders who got you into this in the first place (and arrived safely ahead of you because they had food and horses, and all of your stuff that they will sell for personal profit).

I just discovered that LD$-Inc. has a web-page dedicated to advertising the places where kids can be tortured on Trek. I'm not going to link it, google will tell you where it is if you really want to know. I guess that long-winded introduction is to say: NOPE, it doesn't look like Trek is going away.


I remember a visit to Martin's Cove when I was on the precipice of discovering the reality of what MORmONism really is... I have relatives who's names are inscribed on the plaques there; Even so, at some point during that visit it struck me how manipulative that entire scenario is. Pow! One more tiny nail in my coffin of belief. (This was before I knew the truth about how the entire disaster was literally caused by idiotic "leadership" in LD$-Inc.)

Celebrating the biggest human disaster of the westward migration in the United States? That's not weird at all! I wonder if descendants of the Donner party have giant celebrations every year, and re-enact that disaster? No? Why on earth not?!?!?!

I think Trek has never been a top down thing….it was a grassroots experience that has grown and grown. One ward or stake hears about it, so they do their own Trek. It would require a decree from the prophet for it to stop. Most Mormon leaders are too dumb to no longer have a trek due to potential of death or injury.

I know a stake near us did trek this year. It hasn't gone away, yet. There will have to be some more lawsuits to end it. Of course, that means that people have to be hurt. That's the tragedy.

Trek is just a big guilt/humility fest.
See kids, you need to feel the pain of your ancestors and feel guilty about how easy your life is; you should be more faithful like them and tow the party line!

Older generations love doing this to kids, pound on them about how we did things the right way or what sacrifices we made, like we are all entitled to the respect. Well there are certainly lessons to be learned there and behaviors that should be forgotten and left behind, not carried forward.

How about the lesson of not joining a cult and being asked to cross a vast wilderness with inadequate equipment and resources?

My wife and I went as a Ma & Pa about 20 years ago. I was pretty much a NOM at the time so combining that with being deeply introverted made it a miserable experience for me. I love hiking and backpacking so being outside wasn't a problem but pretending to be a goofy pioneer then having to be a leader to a bunch of kids I didn't know went against everything I prefer to do.

My kids went on trek, mostly because my wife wanted them to go. I think they enjoyed it, not for the pioneer cosplay but for the socializing. They came home laughing, telling funny stories about which kids fell in cow pies, etc.

About 5 years ago a Ma died from heat exhaustion. I would have thought the church would have put an end to it after that. When my wife went as a youth, in the late 80s, they weren't allowed any water the first day. That night they were only given 8 ounces of water, it was to show them how hard the pioneers had it. I'm surprised they didn't have several people drop dead back when that was how it was run.

Anyway, trek needs to end. I seriously doubt any kids found their testimonies while on trek, only to come home and become tithe paying zealots for the rest of their lives.

RubinHighlander wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 19, 2021 9:35 am

Trek is just a big guilt/humility fest.
See kids, you need to feel the pain of your ancestors and feel guilty about how easy your life is; you should be more faithful like them and tow the party line!

Older generations love doing this to kids, pound on them about how we did things the right way or what sacrifices we made, like we are all entitled to the respect. Well there are certainly lessons to be learned there and behaviors that should be forgotten and left behind, not carried forward.

How about the lesson of not joining a cult and being asked to cross a vast wilderness with inadequate equipment and resources?

Yep. I have a friend that realized the church is nonsense about the same time I did. She's still deeply enmeshed because "I can't turn back on the sacrfices of my family."

We had to agree to disagree about this discussion because I'm not going to sacrifice my future or my kids' to a cult just because a bunch of people made terrible decisions in the past.

RubinHighlander wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 19, 2021 9:35 am

See kids, you need to feel the pain of your ancestors and feel guilty about how easy your life is; you should be more faithful like them and tow the party line!

Allowing the teens to compete in a pushup contest, while on this trek, seems to be a lapse in judgment on the part of the adult leaders.

glass shelf wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:20 am

Yep. I have a friend that realized the church is nonsense about the same time I did. She's still deeply enmeshed because "I can't turn back on the sacrfices of my family."

I wonder how many people are staying in the church because of the fallacy of sunk costs.

Wonder what those ancestors would actually say if you could ask them. For one thing, the handcart pioneers wouldn't even recognize the modern church as being the same religion.

My aunt & uncle finished their 2nd mission to Martin's Cove in 2020, which was cut short because of Covid, so it's still happening.

Funny story: DW and I were Ma/Pa twice (because I wasn't smart enough to learn better after one time). Before the second one the neighboring Stake leaders gave us tips from their recent experience. Their #1 caution: DON'T give the kids a baby to care for (usually a 5-10 lb. sack of flour).

It seems that some smart*ss kid realized that lots of people died on the real trek so this kid declared their annoying flour-baby dead, the kids stopped and held a service and buried the flour-baby and the adults were helpless to stop it because it was pretty realistic and the kids kept straight faces just long enough. Well, the expected then happened - all of the families' babies died and the teenagers had successfully taken over Trek. The mockery grew, "the spirit" left, it was a mess but the kids had fun.

We left on Trek a few months later - no babies.

AdmiralHoldo wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:13 am

glass shelf wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:20 am

Yep. I have a friend that realized the church is nonsense about the same time I did. She's still deeply enmeshed because "I can't turn back on the sacrfices of my family."

I wonder how many people are staying in the church because of the fallacy of sunk costs.

Wonder what those ancestors would actually say if you could ask them. For one thing, the handcart pioneers wouldn't even recognize the modern church as being the same religion.

I think a lot of people do to some level. When I was in counseling discussing this stuff, the counselor helped me understand that different people value different things. Given the same information and situation, we won't all make the same choices. Enough people have told me that they questioned the church but eventually decided it was the best thing for them, that I have to believe some of them just weighed the pros/cons and decided to stick with it.

OK, trek is not a proper noun, unless you are talking about the bicycle brand. It is an intransitive verb, and a noun. When used as a noun like the church uses it, it requires an article in front of it, like "we are going on a trek" or "we went to the trek last week". Just like pageant. You go to "a pageant" not "I'm going to Pageant"

Oh, and you kids, get off my lawn!

The Summer of Trekking
Trek on Down the Road
Are You Trekking to San Francisco? (be sure to wear Raybans in your hair)
Trek to be Wild
Trek it Out
Up Against the Wall Mother Trekkers
Swiss Family Trekkers
Star Trek
Mississippi Trekking
The Taking of Trek 1 2 3
Dr. StrangeTrek
A Streetcar Named Trek
The Grapes of Trek