To All Our Good Trek Family Children,
Daughters: Hope, Faith, Charity, Grace, Mercy, Harmony and Felicity
and Sons: Lehi, Ammon, Mormon, Mosiah and Nephi
This month marks the six month anniversary of our happy trek together! I trust this letter finds each of you in good health and condition. We have watched over your progress from time to time both here in our fair town and in the social media. Whenever we get to see or talk to any of our treklings or their extended families - you or your own family members – it brings us joy and we smile.
Daughters: Hope, Faith, Charity, Grace, Mercy, Harmony and Felicity
and Sons: Lehi, Ammon, Mormon, Mosiah and Nephi
This month marks the six month anniversary of our happy trek together! I trust this letter finds each of you in good health and condition. We have watched over your progress from time to time both here in our fair town and in the social media. Whenever we get to see or talk to any of our treklings or their extended families - you or your own family members – it brings us joy and we smile.
Some of you have moved far away for school or with your families. We miss seeing you here but understand you are progressing in your own journeys. Some of you we see here and there about town in school or at work and in church and we love being able to share in your busy Magrath lives. Many of you still here have been able to share in some excellent recent stake youth activities and events. I saw many of you as I helped out at the fall 'MTC' youth conference – another amazing experience preparing you for opportunities of service which are quickly approaching. Most of you also participate in Seminary, some with Hope's mother as their instructor, along with my own youngest daughter. From time to time I get to speak in many of your wards and whenever I attend any meeting I find myself scanning the audience for your faces. In your school activities you have also excelled this past year, with award winning sports teams for both the boys and the girls, in choir and band concerts, and other worthy activities. I hope you feel you are progressing and doing 'good' in these activities! Along with the happy events, there have been some sad as well. We attended the funeral of Sister Patricia Dudley last month. I recall her happy smile at trek as she walked with her husband, President Dudley, and even remember her taking the reins on a trek pony for a while. We have also lost touch with our Faith after she returned home to her family in BC and fell off Facebook, anyone have a contact?
For our part, we have kept busy as well. In July we wrote you our first trek letter and then followed up with our Pony Express FHE trek package, which took some time to travel along from family to family. In October we wished you all Trek or Treat with your trek treat bags and I posted our trek pumpkin pictures online for you to enjoy. At our stake conference we watched the new trek recap video and got to recall some of our happy trek memories then as well. For Hometown Christmas we created a 'wonderful one-of-a-kind' Trek Gingerbread Handcart display for the Chamber Contest – but I have no idea why we were shut out by the judges! We had fun making it though – it all started with a 'Wagon Wheel' and rolled on from there. Those pictures were also posted for your enjoyment on facebook.com/magrathtrek ..
So, Happy Anniversary to Everyone! Please let me take a moment to explain my concept of trek time for you .. conversion from earth time to trek time can be accomplished as follows. In July 2014 we spent 3 or 4 glorious days trekking together with Old Chief mountain smiling over us. When the saints crossed the plains it took them 3 to 4 months. So each of our trek days was equivalent to about a month of their trekking. [ six months is 365 days / 2 x 30 days per month = 5475 days / 365 = 15 trek years ] Therefore, this 6 months since trek anniversary is equivalent to about 15 years in trek time .. explaining quite nicely why it seems so long ago, how we all have managed to keep so busy lately, and why you and I might be having a hard time remembering all the details from our trek so long ago.
And now a few more words on just what a [trek] family is made up of. As a youth, I started out with a pretty fixed idea of what constituted my family, at first just me .. and I guess my parents too. And then just a small circle including my Mom, my Dad, my two sisters, my two brothers, plus one still-born brother I never met. Then, after my mission, I decided it might be nice to expand that definition a bit to include my own lovely spouse and later a few children of our own, first four daughters and then we adopted our youngest dear daughter. Later still, we unofficially adopted another daughter – and some cats. Today we have many in-law's, several grandchildren, even good friends as 'family' and, you treklings, we count in our circle as well. One day the grandchildren will start to expand our family with their own as well. You see how my initial concept of who my family was has been expanded? Much like how our trek family was unexpectedly expanded with the addition of Faith after the Sunday morning rescue. My talk in Del Bonita [see rogerdavies.net/talk-archive] last November touched on this subject a bit – with the story of Lehi and his family in the Book of Mormon and why they focus so much on getting the Lamanites back on track .. hint: they (and we) are family.
We hope you are safe and happy and we wish you all a very merry and productive new year!
Best wishes and much love from your trek Ma and Pa. Safe journeys and be Good!
PDF version here
For our part, we have kept busy as well. In July we wrote you our first trek letter and then followed up with our Pony Express FHE trek package, which took some time to travel along from family to family. In October we wished you all Trek or Treat with your trek treat bags and I posted our trek pumpkin pictures online for you to enjoy. At our stake conference we watched the new trek recap video and got to recall some of our happy trek memories then as well. For Hometown Christmas we created a 'wonderful one-of-a-kind' Trek Gingerbread Handcart display for the Chamber Contest – but I have no idea why we were shut out by the judges! We had fun making it though – it all started with a 'Wagon Wheel' and rolled on from there. Those pictures were also posted for your enjoyment on facebook.com/magrathtrek ..
So, Happy Anniversary to Everyone! Please let me take a moment to explain my concept of trek time for you .. conversion from earth time to trek time can be accomplished as follows. In July 2014 we spent 3 or 4 glorious days trekking together with Old Chief mountain smiling over us. When the saints crossed the plains it took them 3 to 4 months. So each of our trek days was equivalent to about a month of their trekking. [ six months is 365 days / 2 x 30 days per month = 5475 days / 365 = 15 trek years ] Therefore, this 6 months since trek anniversary is equivalent to about 15 years in trek time .. explaining quite nicely why it seems so long ago, how we all have managed to keep so busy lately, and why you and I might be having a hard time remembering all the details from our trek so long ago.
And now a few more words on just what a [trek] family is made up of. As a youth, I started out with a pretty fixed idea of what constituted my family, at first just me .. and I guess my parents too. And then just a small circle including my Mom, my Dad, my two sisters, my two brothers, plus one still-born brother I never met. Then, after my mission, I decided it might be nice to expand that definition a bit to include my own lovely spouse and later a few children of our own, first four daughters and then we adopted our youngest dear daughter. Later still, we unofficially adopted another daughter – and some cats. Today we have many in-law's, several grandchildren, even good friends as 'family' and, you treklings, we count in our circle as well. One day the grandchildren will start to expand our family with their own as well. You see how my initial concept of who my family was has been expanded? Much like how our trek family was unexpectedly expanded with the addition of Faith after the Sunday morning rescue. My talk in Del Bonita [see rogerdavies.net/talk-archive] last November touched on this subject a bit – with the story of Lehi and his family in the Book of Mormon and why they focus so much on getting the Lamanites back on track .. hint: they (and we) are family.
We hope you are safe and happy and we wish you all a very merry and productive new year!
Best wishes and much love from your trek Ma and Pa. Safe journeys and be Good!
PDF version here
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