All is Well!

So today we’re celebrating Pioneer Day with a non-competitive fun run, a fantastic parade, food, music, dancing and fireworks! Here’s a post in honor of the reason for our festivities today…

(2010)  This has been an epic summer for us.  We had the opportunity to walk through Nauvoo, Winter Quarters, Sweetwater Camp, Martin’s Cove and Rock Creek Hollow.  We spent much time on hallowed ground.  There is a spirit in each of those sites that settled into my heart and I felt the presence of our gospel forbearers.

 President Hinckley said of Rock Creek Hollow, “A spirit of peace and reverence and sacred remembrance will hover over this whole area as a beneficent cloud on a hot summer day.  The memories of those who here perished are deeply and indelibly etched, and this ground must forever hold for us a feeling of great sanctity.”

 While visiting those sacred places, I read and heard countless stories – tragedy and suffering almost impossible to describe.  The sacrifices of our beloved pioneers were greater than we understand.  Their reward, however, was just as substantial.  They slowly came to know the Savior in a very unique and deeply personal way.

The Willie Handcart Company suffered beyond imagination.  An early storm brought freezing temperatures and severe snow fall.  They were slowly freezing to death in their threadbare clothes and thin-soled shoes.  Exhausted from lack of food, they couldn’t push any further.  They stopped and waited to be rescued.  Thirteen Saints died that day and were buried in a common grave. The next day, two more died and were buried nearby.

Francis Webster was a boy in the Martin Handcart Company.  Looking back on his life, he wrote “We suffered beyond anything you can imagine.  Many died of exposure and starvation.  We became acquainted with God in our extremities.”

Brother Webster told of looking ahead to see a spot on the trail and saying, “I can pull the handcart only that far.”  And when he got to that point, his cart started pushing him.  It was then that he said he knew God and angels were helping him push.  Brother Webster wrote, “Was I sorry that I chose to come by Handcart?  No.  Neither then nor one moment of my life since.  The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was to come to Zion in the Martin Handcart Company.”  Brother Webster considered his suffering a privilege to bear.  Through his suffering he came to know God.

Years before the pioneers pulled their handcarts west, the Saints became well acquainted with grief.  Driven out of their beautiful Nauvoo, the Saints left behind all they had – only to face the bone-chilling cold and the unknown.

Pres Hinkley said, “Leaving Nauvoo was a remarkable act of faith. There was much of hardship ahead for these pioneers, but they had faith in their leaders and faith in the Lord and His goodness, faith that He would once again lead His people to the promised land, faith that they would not fail. So they walked out into a wild place, their journey showed  faith – in every footstep.”

Daniel and I walked a long gray dirt path in Nauvoo traditionally known as “The Trail of Tears”.  My eyes were drawn to a single yellow butterfly landing almost in the middle of the path like a tiny spark of hope.  I wondered if President Hinckley saw something similar when he renamed the path “The Trail of Hope”.

A series of quotes from the journals of these Saints now decorates the trail leading out of Nauvoo. To my amazement, I found in several of the quotes – not desperation and discouragement – but confidence and commitment and even joy!  They were filled with hope!

Sarah DeArmon Rich wrote “To start out on such a journey in the winter would seem like walking into the jaws of death but we had faith … [and] we felt to rejoice that the day of our deliverance had come.”

Zina Young said “There on the bank of the Chariton River, I was delivered of a fine son. Occasionally the wagon had to be stopped that I might take a breath. Thus I journeyed on. But I did not mind the hardship of my situation, for my life had been preserved, and my babe was so beautiful!”

Orson Pratt recorded,  “Our camp resounded with songs of joy and praise to God — all were cheerful and happy in the anticipation of finding a resting place from persecution.”

And Brother B. H. Roberts wrote, “With this advanced camp of the great exodus, there had come a brass band, led by Captain Pitt. After encampment was made and the toils of the day were over, the snow would be scraped away, a huge fire or several of them kindled within the wagoned enclosure, and there to the inspiring music of Pitt’s band, song and dance often beguiled the exiles into forgetfulness of their trials and discomfort.”

Hope is what filled the hearts of the Saints as they undertook their monumental journey.  Hope is what continued to sustain the Saints nearly ten years later when the handcart companies traveled west.

John Latey observed two companies as they arrived in Florence, Nebraska.  He wrote to Elder John Taylor:

“They were in fine health and spirits, singing as they came along Elder McAllister’s handcart song “some must push and some must pull…”  One would not think that they had come from Iowa City, a long and rough journey of 300 miles, except by their dust-stained garments and sunburned faces.  My heart is gladdened as I write this, for methinks I see their merry countenances and buoyant step, and the strains of the handcart song seems ringing in my ears – like sweet music heard at eventide or in a dream…In giving you this description of the feelings of the first companies, I give you, in effect, the feelings of the whole.”

These early Saints were no doubt in destitute and desperate situations, but they were not hopeless. Many of their hearts were broken, but their spirits were strong as they sang with full conviction “But with joy, wend your way” and “Happy day!  All is well!”

They learned a profound lesson. They learned that hope, with its attendant blessings of peace and joy, does not depend upon circumstance. They discovered the true source of happiness — hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His atonement.

Elder Ballard said “We all face Rocky Ridges with the wind in our face and winter coming on too soon.  Sometimes it seems as though there is no end to the dust that stings our eyes and clouds our vision.  Occasionally we reach the top of one summit in life, as the pioneers did, only to see more mountain peaks ahead, higher and more challenging than the one we have just traversed.”

 It is at the very moment we think we cannot take another step, that we so desperately need to “Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that [we] must build [our] foundation.  That when the devil shall send forth his mighty wind, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon [you], it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless woe, because of the rock upon which ye are built which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build,  they cannot fall.”  (Helaman 5:12)

The prophet Mormon was no stranger to difficult circumstances.  He understood and clearly taught this doctrine.  “And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope.  Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ, and this because of your faith in Him, according to the promise.” (Moroni 7:41)

Hope comes from faith in Jesus Christ. Your happiness now and forever is conditioned upon the degree to which you believe that.  He has already overcome the world, death, all pain, and all grief.  He promised that He will wipe away our tears if we will turn to Him and believe and follow with faith – in every footstep.

Tapping our reservoirs of hope and endurance that comes from faith in Christ, we can, as did our beloved handcart pioneers, push ever onward toward that day when our voices will join with theirs, singing, “All is well!  All is Well!”

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