19 days to live it, eternity to think about it...

CHURCH HISTORY TRIP!!! Oh my goodness! It was the best thing I've ever done in my entire life! I made some really amazing friends! It's just too bad that a couple of them live in Nebraska and North Carolina... What's up with that?!?!?! Whoa! I just got side tracked...(happens a lot...)Okay! Back to the trip! So this was a 19 day trip on a bus with 53 youth and chaperons combined. We started out in Salt Lake City and drove all the way across the country visiting every church history site you can imagine along the way. At each place we stopped, we learned about what happened there and took notes.

Our director, Brother Tesch really encouraged us to write in our journals every chance we had. And, man! I have never written so much in my entire life! I love reading the things that I wrote down. It brings me right back to all those wonderful places. On the trip, Brother Tesch would often say, "You have 19 days to live it, and eternity to think about it." That has become one of my favorite quotes in the history of all quotes! It can apply to anything. If you have a grand spiritual experience, and you write it down, then you can think about it forever. You will never forget it! You might have only 10 minutes to live it, but you still have eternity to think about it. If you don't take the time to write it down, you'll probably forget it after a while. I wish I could have learned this concept much earlier in life.

Back to the trip! (again...) So on the last day, we ended up in Salt Lake again. We had a huge nearly 3 hour testimony meeting with all of us. And man! Every single person from our group got up there and said what they know to be true and shared their feelings about the trip with us and how much they have learned and grown to love the gospel and Joseph Smith. It was spectacular! At the end of that special meeting, we sang a song together for the last time. (We sang a lot of hymns together on the trip!) God Be With You Til We Meet Again. But we changed the words just a tad. God Be With "Us" Til We Meet Again. I cannot describe the feelings and emotions that came over us. Of course the overwhelming spirit was with us as we cried, but we also knew that we might not see some of these amazing people that we had grown SO close to for a very long time! It was a very sad/happy time. Sad saying goodbye, happy knowing that we would all be able to keep in touch with one another. Happy knowing that everything we've learned on the trip is absolutely TRUE. Happy having a clear understanding of the word friendship. The word, love. The word, peace. The word, forever.

This trip changed my life for good, and I will never be the same. I can now testify that everything Joseph Smith ever said, is completely true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and His church is on the Earth today. I am so blessed to be a part of it. If you ever have an opportunity to participate in a church history trip, do NOT let it pass you by. It will be the most incredible 19 days of your life!

~Christie Gifford~