Pioneer Day

Today is Pioneer Day. If we lived in Utah instead of Idaho, we would be having a state holiday. As it is we will go to the St. Leon chapel yard and have a special dinner and program tomorrow evening. It should be fun and not as hot as it was last week. Saturday it hit 100 degrees here. It was hot!

Yesterday was a special day. We went to Sacrament meeting in the Groveland II Ward. Our mission there was two fold. Shani, our granddaughter and her husband, Jon were the main speakers and we wanted to see Karen, Kent and Kylie and hear about their three day trek in Wyoming. That is in trek as in handcart trek. Mercedes Howell and Sam Cannon two of the youth who went on the trek told of some of their experiences and tho'ts and feelings while they were doing it. It was very touching. Shani and Jon did a very good job and I was sooo glad that I was there to hear it. They were asked to speak about one of their ancestors. Shani spoke about Anson Call, my great-great grandfather and her 4th great grandfather. He was an early convert to the church and a body guard of Joseph Smith, the prophet. His whole family had joined the church, his parents and all of his siblings but he didn't want to be known as a "Mormon" and set out to prove that the Book of Mormon was false and so was the church. He studied the Book of Mormon hand in hand with the Bible for six months and found that The Book of Mormon was true. But because of his aversion of being a Mormon, he held off for three years when he was in such agony that he told the Lord that if He would remove that agony from him that he would be baptized. And He did and he was. She also told of how Anson and his wife woke up one morning and found their six-month old son had died in his sleep. And then later when they were preparing to cross the Missouri River their six year old son died. (I can't rememeber how.) Shani said, "Since I'm a mom now, I can hardy imagine how difficult it would be to bury your child in the ground, cover it in dirt, and leave it knowing that you would never return there again nor whether or not wolves or some other wild animal would dig up the body and ravage it." It was all very touching. Jon talked about his Grandpa Anderson who had died when his mother, Marie, was only nine years old. He said that he had no idea that he was of pioneer stock, the people who had crossed the plains to the Great Salt Lake Valley like other people were until he read it in his grandpa's history the day before. He said he could really see the importance of journal keeping because his grandpa hadn't kept a journal and he would really like to have known him better and his tho'ts and feelings that a journal would have helped him do. He mentioned that Macie is so young that if something happened to him or Shani or Karen or Kent that she isn't old enough that she would be able to remember them. And if they kept a journal that would help her to know them. He said he wasn't a journal keeper but he can really see the importance of it and was going to do better.

After sacrament meeting we went out into the foyer and listened to Karen and a mom from her ward who had children go on the trek and a high councilman from their stake who also went on the trek along with his wife discuss the different aspects of it. Karen, Kent and Kylie, all three, said that it was hard, it was the hardest thing they have ever done but it was well worth it and so rewarding that they would gladly do it again. Karen said that they really bonded with their "children" in their family. Kylie was in a different family. I was amazed how quickly they bonded and how strongly they bonded. She, in her wisdom, made the statement that altho' 23 youth from the ward (the largest group in the stake there, I think) that they would have to work extra hard with the youth who didn't go so they wouldn't feel left out because of this shared experience. She said it rained one day there and Kent told me that the dirt is clay so it clung to their shoes they had to keep kicking it off and they had to scrape it off the wheels of the handcart so they could turn. I could really identify with that because of my experience when the summer before I was a senior in hight school and we went hiking in Bryce's Canyon and it started to rain and all I had was thongs [flip-flops] on and the clay would weigh them down so that I couldn't move. It was very difficult because not only did it hurt my feet, we were trying to hurry because of the danger of a flash flood.) He said that it was very hard going but they were glad they had that experience because they knew that the real pioneers had to go thro' it too and more than just that much. It made me think of the way across Iowa when the Saints first left Nauvoo. It took them as long to go that far as it did the rest of the way to the Salt Lake Valley the next year because of the rain and the clay soil. The part that really touched me and it did so all day long was when Karen told of after they came and took all of the men away for the "Mormon Battalion" and she and her four "daughters" were struggling to get their handcart up the steepest hill on the trek. She said, "My chest was burning, my lungs were burning and I couldn't breathe. I had just tho't, 'how can I do this when I can't even breathe. I'll never make it up this hill and if I don't make it what will happen to my "daughters".' Then I looked up the hill to where Kylie had just completed struggling to take her 'family's' handcart up and saw Kylie running down the hill to help me. She didn't just walk, she ran! My heart was so full at that time and I so grateful for her. I tho't, 'Kylie really is a good kid and she really does love me.'" I was so touched as she told us this (and she did get emotional as she told us) that I couldn't have spoken then if my life had depended on it. (I can't talk and cry at the same time.) Sue, Kylie's Ma on the trek told Karen, "Kylie is a really good kid. She is so strong and capable." Karen said I knew that but it's so nice when other people recognize it too. Karen said that out of 150 youth Kylie was the first to stand and bare her testimony the night of the testimony meeting. She also said I know she is stubborn but...and I tho't "yes she is but she needs to be to be strong. She is one who will not waver and give in to peer pressure. She will do very well in this life." I am so glad that we went down for their meeting and stayed and talked to them. It helped us to share in some of their great experiences. I hope they all take the time to write them down so they will be able to remember all of them and share them too.

We had to come back to our sacrament meeting because I had told the Hatch family that I would accompany them on the piano as they sang. They sang "Our Savior's Love". It went very well. Then Seth Jenkins reported his mission. He went to Managua, Nicaragua. It was very good also. He has really matured both physically and especially spiritually. He gave us much to think about and be grateful for. All in all it was a very good day.