By Heather Hemingway Calabresi, Director of Public Affairs, Round Rock Stake
AUSTIN, Texas — Once school is out for summer, teens often spend free time hanging out at the pool, glued to a screen and eating their parents out of house and home. Youth from the Cedar Park and Round Rock Stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spent a week of their summer vacation making memories at historic sites in Illinois and Missouri.
The Round Rock Stake traveled from July 8 through July 13, while the Cedar Park Stake left the following week, July 15 through July 20, visiting Nauvoo, Illinois, Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri, Carthage and Liberty Jails, all with significant history in the Church of Jesus Christ. In an effort to make sure everyone was accounted for and felt included, teens were grouped into “families” in the Round Rock Stake and companies (as in pioneer wagon companies) in the Cedar Park Stake, each headed by adult leaders.
The Round Rock Stake gathered their 258 youth and 70 leaders in six charter buses. Five buses carried the 176 youth and 65 leaders from the Cedar Park Stake. Both stakes drove through the night to arrive on Tuesday. The Round Rock Stake’s first stop was at Adam-ondi-Ahman, where Latter-day Saints believe that Adam and Eve lived after leaving the Garden of Eden. Cedar Park went directly to Nauvoo.
In the “city beautiful,” Nauvoo, both stakes visited historical sites including the bakery, brickyard, blacksmith and even had an oxen-pulled ride. They also visited other sites, now owned by the Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints including Joseph Smith’s homestead, Red Brick Store and Mansion House. The Nauvoo Temple, a highlight for many, was once burned and later destroyed by a tornado. In 2000, the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple was dedicated and has been in use ever since. Youth had the opportunity to do baptisms by proxy for their ancestors.
Cedar Park youth, leaders gather at the Nauvoo Temple Youth admire the statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith leaving Nauvoo for Carthage Jail Trip planners of youth and leaders gather to celebrate a successful experience. Nauvoo Temple just before the tornado hit. Basement shelter during the tornado Cedar Park youth work to clean up debris following the tornado that occurred Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Testimony meeting at Adam-ondi-Ahman
The Tornado Miracle
On Wednesday afternoon on July 17 around 3 p.m., a tornado touched down in Nauvoo. Kristina Smith, the lead camp director from Cedar Park, said companies were spread out all over the city.
“It was a hot, hot sunny day until big, black storm clouds rolled in,” Smith said. “Kids were in pioneer homes with full-time missionaries who took them to the basements for safety. The kids sang songs and prayed.”
The tornado and harsh weather lasted about 20 minutes, Smith said. When sirens subsided and it was safe to go outside, everyone came out to find the city covered with debris. Cleaning it up the next day became the perfect service project.
While both geographical stakes stayed at Camp Nauvoo, a local campground with a lodge and cabins, the Cedar Park Stake was without power for 16 hours. The twister flattened nearby corn fields and snapped a power pole in half, knocking out the camp’s power. Showers were taken by the light of cell phones and leaders cooked with head lamps.
Fortunately, there were no injuries and the trip was not ruined. Power came back in time to see the Nauvoo and British pageants, theatrical productions that depict trials, persecution and joys that portray Latter-day Saints in history through music, dance and acting.
Testimony Builders
Following Nauvoo, the Cedar Park Stake stopped in Adam-ondi-Ahman for a testimony meeting, where any of the attendees could take a moment to share their feelings and spiritual promptings with each other.
“The testimony meeting was the most beautiful one I’d ever been to in my life,” Smith said.
Smith told of a boy in the testimony meeting who had not wanted to serve a mission, but said that he now wants to go. The main highlights of the trip for the youth in her stake were the tornado and the testimony meeting in Adam-ondi-Ahman.
Jennifer Harbour, who served with her husband as Stake Nauvoo Specialists, said that for the Round Rock youth, Carthage Jail was the predominant highlight of the trip. Unlike Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith escaped, Carthage was the place of Joseph and Hyrum Smith’s martyrdom.
“Many had special experiences there,” Harbour said. She went on to describe the trip as “magnificent.”
Smith, a labor and delivery nurse and mother of five shared this recap. “As Stake Young Women’s Camp Director, the honor of executing a youth conference trip to Nauvoo, Illinois, fell on my shoulders. This past week I was blessed to see all my hundreds of hours of planning, prepping, delegating and organizing come to life,” she said.
“It was a week I will never forget, blessed through it all and surrounded with many wonderfully amazing youth and leaders who helped create a trip of a lifetime,” Smith added.
(Photo credit for Cedar Park slideshow images/Jayson and Rachelle Wilkinson)