Australian Mormon Youth Anticipate Elder William R. Walker's Conference Talk On Mormon History, Stage Handcart Trek Reenactment Near Melbourne

During the Sunday Afternoon General Session of the just-concluded 184th Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder William R. Walker delivered a pitch for Mormon history. Elder Walker, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy who is also the Executive Director of the church's Temple Department, wants us to become and remain aware of the sacrifices made by early Mormons which laid the foundations for the 15-million member international church we have today. If you missed his talk, the video is embedded below in playlist format, so you can toggle the small arrows on the bottom line to access other Conference talks if desired:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_xnwsw7OPI&list=PLClOO0BdaFaNWGTdSq0_EgcD8yrwsutTO&feature=share&index=57



A complete written transcript will be available HERE by the end of this week; until then, read this Deseret News story.

But it looks like a group of Mormon youth in Melbourne, Australia must have anticipated Elder Walker's talk. The Age reports that on Tuesday April 8th, a group of LDS teens ranging in age from 14-18 formed up at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne to head for a state forest near Meredith in order to re-enact the handcart trek which was part of the Mormon migration across the Great Plains from 1856-1860.

Of course, it will merely be a taste of the privations endured by those pioneers. They will cover only 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) instead of 2000 (1242 miles), and their trip involves sleeping out for only two nights instead of four months. The youth will be organized into "families", each one headed by a responsible adult couple. They will sleep under a tarp strung between trees, and entertainment in downtime will consist of pioneer games like "stick pull" (which is basically a two-man seated tug of war). They will sleep rough, eat rough and hike rough, meaning period meals cooked in cast-iron pots, and provisions as basic as hessian sacks filled with turnips, potatoes, carrots and a bit of flour. They will enjoy a few modern conveniences such as sleeping bags, a modern first-aid kit, and a port-a-potty. The Mormon Handcart Trek Reservations website and the LDS website provide helpful information for others wanting to organize similar treks.

But still, it will be a tough trek dragging wooden carts filled with supplies, weighing around 250 kilograms (550 lbs). While eight of the original 10 handcart companies accomplished their journeys will minimal problems, the Willie and Martin Companies were disastrous primarily because of a late start, which resulted in them being caught in early winter storms while still in Wyoming, and by using green wood for many of their carts.

Of course, staging handcart treks is only one way to honor the pioneers who helped lay the foundations for our modern Church. Many of them sealed their testimonies with their blood and their lives. But as Elder Walker pointed out on Sunday afternoon, our own faith can be fortified by learning of the remarkable dedication of our spiritual forebears who accepted the gospel and lived true to the faith. The more connected we feel to our righteous forefathers, the more likely we are to make wise and righteous choices. There is a difference between jumping into a climate-controlled SUV and driving 10 minutes to a temple vs. dragging a handcart across 1242 miles of sometimes-unforgiving territory with no motorways or rest stops.

Mormon Girl's Modesty Club Campaign At South Pasadena High School In California Goes Viral: The Story Of Saige Hatch

A high-school freshman who was tired of seeing her classmates dress like tarts at school each day has started a Modesty Club in a bid to teach her peers a lesson, and it's now gone viral, reaching the pages of the Daily Mail. The courageous crusader is 15-year-old Saige Hatch (screenshot at left), who felt overwhelmed by the crop tops, exposed cleavage and unnervingly short shorts at South Pasadena High School in California, and is now crusading for a more traditional dress code. She told ABCNews "From elementary to middle school, and then to high school, I noticed immodesty. I really wanted to start a club to bring awareness to it and bring remembrance to what modesty is".

Saige defines immodesty is showing cleavage, stomach or shoulders, as well as shorts, dresses, and skirts that are too short or too tight. The existing dress code is liberal enough as it is, requiring students to only cover the range of skin from armpit to The Bottom Line, which is further defined as at least "a hand's width below the bottom of the buttocks", but Saige says that's not even being enforced. Her Modesty Club currently has 17 members, but her website, ModestyClub.com, reaches a wider audience, with more than 1,000 members from the United States and 14 other countries. And while it may appear she's preoccupied with female dress standards, she appeals to boys to help out. One way boys can help out is to respectfully decline dates with girls who dress too provocatively.

Saige also employs feminist arguments to persuade more people. On the home page of ModestyClub.com, she writes "...Our bright heroic women are being made the fool. A fool to think that to be loved they must be naked. To be noticed they must be sexualized. To be admired they must be objectified". Smart move, because some feminist Mormons have expressed concern about these modesty campaigns being disproportionately focused upon women. Any feminist woman who is truly concerned about women being overly sexualized and objectified should support modesty campaigns.

In the Los Angeles Times version of the story, it was revealed that Saige Hatch is the daughter of Brent Hatch, further identified as a cousin of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was also revealed that one of her siblings, McKay Hatch, made national headlines and appeared on The Tonight Show after founding a No Cussing Club at the same school in 2008, which subsequently led to a California resolution establishing Cuss Free Week in 2010. Since neither the Daily Mail nor the Times mentioned their religious affiliation, I immediately did some Googling to find out if they are Mormon. And sure enough, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported on September 19th, 2012 that McKay Hatch is now serving a mission in Salt Lake City and talks about Saige attending church. This LDS Church News article also confirms that the family is Mormon. There's your answer.

Saige's campaign has attracted variable reaction. While she receives considerable support, her father's van was egged and vandalized with graffiti, and some people called their house making threats. But South Pasadena Mayor Michael Cacciotti paid tribute to Saige's efforts by proclaiming December 3-7 as "Modesty Week" in South Pasadena. And Saige is just getting started; in the long term, she plans to put together an online petition to members of the film and magazine industries for more modest attire, and to write to clothing designers to urge them to make more modest clothing for women. In the short term, she wants to arrange a vote in school to either enforce the existing dress code or switch to uniforms.

Two LDS Girls From Quincy, Illinois Performed Humanitarian Mini-Missions Under The Auspices Of Alliance For Youth Service This Past Summer

While LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson attempted to further kindle the desire to serve missions during the Saturday morning session of the 180th Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, two teenage girls from the Quincy, Illinois area caught that spirit this past summer -- and decided they didn't want to wait until they turned 21 to serve a mission. So they volunteered for humanitarian mini-missions under the auspices of the Alliance for Youth Service.

The Quincy Herald-Whig reports that Sarah Arnold of Liberty High School and Tatiana Holdiman of Quincy High School are best friends who are both Latter-day Saints. They decided they wanted to do something more than the normal service projects around town. So they contacted the Alliance for Youth Service and volunteered. But they were sent to different locations. Both girls raised money for their trips and paid their own way, just like full-time LDS missionaries do.

Sarah Arnold spent two weeks in Brazil, where her team of volunteers rebuilt homes destroyed by mudslides. The group, consisting of five teenage boys, 12 girls and three adult leaders, also painstakingly dug ditches by to help divert water from key housing sites. Tatiana Holdiman was a member of a group that traveled to the Central American country of Belize. The team built an addition onto a school so the children of Corozol could receive government funding to have a computer in the school for the first time.

The girls later got together to compare notes and gave a joint presentation to church members about their experiences. While their mission trips had difficult moments, they characterized them as "fulfilling".

Alliance for Youth Service, based in St. George, Utah, organizes humanitarian missions each year for American youths to developing countries such as Peru, Fiji and Tonga. While it caters specifically to LDS teens, it is not an official organ of the LDS Church, and non-LDS teens are welcome to apply, although they are required to commit to and sign the code of conduct and follow LDS principles and standards. The group also participates in LDS scripture study and Church services. In 2010, more than 300 youths ages 16 to 19 took part in two-week trips. They plan to accommodate up to 450 youths on mission trips in 2011 and are now taking applications. More information on their website.