As we reflect

"May we all be faithful in doing the day to day ordinary things that prove our worthiness,

 for they will lead us to and qualify us for great things."

James E. Faust

"There is room for improvement in every life. Regardless of our occupations, regardless of our circumstances, we can improve ourselves and while so doing have an effect on the lives of those about us."

Gordon B. Hinckley

…..the pioneer parents looking down at the body of their baby, soon to be left in its grave at the side of the trail. Then, as now, a pioneer who got separated from the company and off the marked trail walked a lonely and dangerous path until he could rejoin the group. So it is today.

Dallin H. Oaks

Mother had her photograph picture taken and gave one to each of us, and it was a prize to me,

for it was five long years before I saw her again

Quotes from the Handcart Pioneers

"Brigham Young's words concerning his own death and burial are worth noting. After giving instructions concerning where he should be buried, he said, 'There let my earthly house or tabernacle rest in peace, and have a good sleep, until the morning of the first resurrection; no crying or mourning with anyone as I have done my work faithfully and in good faith.' As we reflect on those who have gone before us, and as we consider our present labors for the good of ourselves and others, would that we all might say each day, 'I am doing my work faithfully and in good faith.'

 Gordon B. Hinckley

My dear mother had a little baby to nurse, and only having half enough to eat and to pull on the handcart all day long, day after day, she soon got so weak and worn out that she could not help Father anymore. Nor was she able to keep up with the Company. Sometimes when we camped, she was so far behind the Company we could not see anything of her for quite a while, so that I was afraid she might not be able to get to the camp.

Quotes from the Handcart Pioneers:

I have never forgotten how when I, a nine-year-old boy, would be so tired that I would wish I could sit down for just a few minutes. How much good it would do to me. But instead of that, my dear, nearly worn-out father would ask me if I could not push a little more on the handcart.

Quotes from the Handcart Pioneers

 

There were a great many ant hills along the road raised to a considerable height, where we often found beads which were, no doubt, lost by the Indians and collected by those indefatigable little workers along with the gravel of which their mounds were composed. If we were hardy enough to risk a bite now and then, we found much amusement in searching for the beads to string into necklaces

Quotes from the Handcart Pioneers

I was only 13 years old.  The company had gone ahead, and my mother was anxious to have me go with them; so she strapped my little brother, James, on my back with a shawl. He was only four years old and was still quite sick with the measles.  I walked every step of the way across the plains and drove a cow, and a large part of the way I carried my brother, James, on my back.

Quotes from the Handcart Pioneers

    

When one of the teamsters, seeing two buffaloes near the oxen, shot one of them, the meat was divided among the whole handcart company. My parents also got a small piece, which my father put in the back end of the handcart. That was in the fore part of the week. Father said we would save it for our dinner next Sunday. I was so very hungry all the time, and the meat smelled so good to me while pushing at the handcart, and having a little pocketknife, I could not resist but had to cut off a piece or two each half day. Although I was afraid of getting a severe whipping after cutting a little the first few times, I could not resist taking a little each half day. I would chew it so long it got tasteless.
When father went to get the meat on Sunday noon, he asked me if I had been cutting off some of it. I said,

"Yes, I was so hungry that I could not let it alone." Then, instead of giving me the severe scolding or whipping, he did not say a word but started to wipe the tears from his eyes.

Quotes from the Handcart Pioneers

 

"The early pioneers came from a great diversity of circumstances. All faced the universal trials and heartaches of life. Their determination born of faith to serve the Lord and others seemed to take them not around the storms of life but directly into them. Some were young and some old. They were from many lands and peoples, as you are today.

But they were of one heart, one mind, and with one intention.

They were determined to help the Lord build His Zion."

Henry B. Eyring

Mormon Trail of Tears Southern Wyoming

Mormon Trail of Tears Southern Wyoming

Mormon Trail of Tears Southern Wyoming

Mormon Trail of Tears Southern Wyoming

Mormon Trail of Tears Southern Wyoming

"My mind has turned to those early Saints who are too often lost to history, those who quietly and faithfully bore the kingdom forward through far more difficult days. So many of them seem almost nameless to us now. Most went unheralded to their graves often early graves. Some few have made it into a line or two of Church history, but most have come and gone with neither high office nor history's regard. These folks, our collective ancestors, slipped into eternity as quietly and anonymously as they lived their religion. These are the silent Saints of whom President J. Reuben Clark once spoke when he thanked them all, 'especially,' he said, 'the meekest and lowliest of them, largely unknown and unremembered, except round the hearthstones of their children and their children's children who pass down from generation to generation the story of their faith'

"Whether longtime member or newest of converts, we are all the beneficiaries of such faithful forebears... I have sensed how much I owe to those who had so much less than I but who seem in virtually every case to have done more with it to build the kingdom than I have done."

Jeffrey R. Holland