Sacrament Meeting Talk 7-19-09 Church History – Pioneers and Us

To create a powerful Samari sword you put the raw metal into a smelter for a defined period of time to burn out the dross to purify it … then once that purified metal is prepared it goes to the swordsmith and then is judged is it right for the job… once judged ready it begins the process of heat, bending and pounding again and again to make the molecular structure realign over and over again until the swordsmith judges it is perfect and will hold an edge forever… then to make the sword itself it is shaped and organized and opened up for the other prepared softer more bendable metal that becomes it’s core.. that allows it to bend otherwise the perfect edge parts would break ..now it can bend with the forces that come against it in the use it is put to.. And finally when it has been repeatedly put into the fires and pounded upon.. it is judged ready for the final acts of adding just the right carbons to put the edge and the design and polished.. now it is polished and polished and rubbed until it is a beautiful creature and then the swordsmith will right upon it with his designs…and sign his name

• 1 Ne. 20: 10 For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of ^aaffliction.

• D&C 50: 28-29 But no man is possessor of ^aall things except he be ^bpurified and ^ccleansed from all sin. And if ye are ^apurified and cleansed from all ^bsin, ye shall ^cask whatsoever you will in the name of Jesus and it shall be done.

• Titus 2: 14 Who gave ^ahimself for us, that he might ^bredeem us from all iniquity, and ^cpurify unto himself a ^dpeculiar people, ^ezealous of good works.

• D&C 88: 74 And I give unto you, who are the first ^alaborers in this last kingdom, a commandment that you assemble yourselves together, and organize yourselves, and prepare yourselves, and ^bsanctify yourselves; yea, purify your hearts, and ^ccleanse your hands and your feet before me, that I may make you ^dclean;

Refiners fire

• Zech. 13: 9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will ^arefine them as silver is refined, and will ^btry them as gold is ^ctried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my ^dpeople: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

• 3 Ne. 24: 2 But who may ^aabide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a ^brefiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap.

• D&C 128: 24 24 Behold, the great ^aday of the Lord is at hand; and who can ^babide the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appeareth? For he is like a ^crefiner’s ^dfire, and like fuller’s soap; and he shall sit as a ^erefiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of ^fLevi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an ^goffering in righteousness. Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the ^hrecords of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation.

Scripture – 5 times in the D&C

• Heb. 4: 12 For the ^aword of God is ^bquick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged ^csword, ^dpiercing even to the dividing asunder ^eof soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a ^fdiscerner of the ^gthoughts and ^hintents of the heart.

To create beautiful pottery it also is a work of art that takes the potter to search out the perfect clay for what he wishes to make..He then washes out the impurities and then pounds it again and again to bring it to the right malleability.. the right ability to be shaped into what he wants to make .. and then he puts it on his potters wheel or hand shapes it.. carefully until he creates what he wants it to be.. and if it does not shape right.. he has to pound it and wash it again and again.. until it is further purified.. and when he has the right pot.. or design. He then has to fire it.. to harden it to keep the shape forever he wants it to have.. and when it is fired he paints his designs upon it.. and then he further fires it.. and puts a final shiny finish upon it.. and fires it again and again until he has it exactly what he wants it to be..

• Isa. 64: 8 But now, O Lord, thou art our ^afather; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the ^bwork of thy hand.

God wants a powerful peculiar people

• Ex. 19: 5 Now therefore, if ye will ^aobey my voice indeed, and keep my ^bcovenant, then ye shall be a ^cpeculiar ^dtreasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

• Deut. 14: 2 For thou art an ^aholy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a ^bpeculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

• Deut. 26: 18 And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his ^apeculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments;

• Titus 2: 14Who gave ^ahimself for us, that he might ^bredeem us from all iniquity, and ^cpurify unto himself a ^dpeculiar people, ^ezealous of good works.

• 1 Pet. 2: 9 But ye are a ^achosen generation, a ^broyal ^cpriesthood, an ^dholy ^enation, a ^fpeculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of ^gdarkness into his marvellous ^hlight:

So what does our Church History have to teach us about how God has prepared a chosen peculiar people for himself.. what fires of adversity has he put them thru so he could write his name upon them and seal them his…

Most of the following material is from “The Pioneer Story”

Companion to controversy wherever it appeared in the early days, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nevertheless grew at a phenomenal rate. Hundreds of converts were baptized each month in 1850s England and Wales. But Brigham Young's Zion—and the new proselytes' surest refuge—was in America. As noted by Arthur King Peters in his Seven Trails West, "the Mormon Trail of those years stretched all the way from Liverpool to Salt Lake City, making it by far the longest of any trail west" ([1996], 137).

• D&C 45:71 "And it shall come to pass that the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy."

The Lord always tells his people how to prepare before he puts them thru the trials and adversities.. some heed and others either do not listen or cannot prepare due to their circumstances…

He told the people by letter and announcements in Nauvoo what to prepare as to wagon, beasts and supplies

He told the people traveling from Europe and other places what to expect.. to help them to not have grand expectations… but to realize it was a difficult journey. But with Faith they came.. prepared or not.

A verse to help them prepare

Think not when you gather to Zion, your troubles and trials are through, that nothing but comfort and pleasure are waiting in Zion for you. No, no tis designed as a furnace, all substance all textures to try – to burn all the wood, hay and stubble, the gold from the dross purify ( hymn #21)

They Organized well for the help of the immigrating Saints.. such things as they organized into wards and thus they had leadership in place on each voyage and trek to succor the poor and the widows, they would send wagons back for those without.. and bring them forth.. They would organize work groups and music.. got to have diversion and joy.. or we are not a People of God.. They created the Perpetual emigration fund to assist those without funds

Jane Robinson

12 February 1856

"I believed in the principle of the gathering and felt it my duty to go although it was a severe trial to me in my feelings to leave my native land and the pleasing associations that I had formed there, but my heart was fixed. I knew in whom I had trusted and with the fire of Israel's God burning in my bosom, I forsook home"

Jens Christian Andersen Weibye

27 May 1862

"Some of the emigrants carried the measles with them [from] home which soon spread around all over the ship. . . . Most of the emigrants suffered from diarrhea, . . . which exhausted us a lot. And besides almost all of us lost the taste for the crackers. . . . At the close of the journey we soaked them in cold water or tea water. After 8-12 hours we intended to eat them and they would be soft like a loaf of bread. . . .

They danced on deck almost every day . . . so we had much joy when we don't think about the many deaths from measles. Up to this time 3 grown ups and 43 children have died, almost all of them from measles"

In all of United States history, few people have suffered for their religious convictions, as did the early Latter-day Saints. Because of the rapid growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and what many contemporary religionists viewed as the heretical doctrine of living prophets and modern revelation, many outsiders viewed Latter-day Saints with suspicion and contempt. During the first two decades of the Church's existence, Latter-day

Saints repeatedly experienced the cycle of migration, settlement (including purchasing the lands they settled in), and expulsion. Within the span of 17 years, the fast-growing body of Latter-day Saints moved en masse from the Finger Lakes region of western New York state (1830-1831), to Kirtland, Ohio (1831-1838), Jackson County, Missouri (1831-1839) and Commerce/Nauvoo, Illinois (1839-1848), where their prophet, Joseph Smith, was murdered by a mob.

But the mobs wouldn't rest. On 4 February 1846, in the heart of a Midwestern winter so cold and bitter the Mississippi River froze over, the Latter-day Saints were driven from their homes and lands down a street which came to be known as the "Street of Tears" and into the unknown mystery of the western frontier.

"For Brigham Young and his associates, the 1846 exodus from Nauvoo, far from being a disaster imposed by enemies, was foretold and foreordained—a key to understanding LDS history and a necessary prelude for greater things to come. From a later perspective too, scholars of the Mormon experience have come to see the exodus and colonization of the Great Basin as the single most important influence in molding the Latter-day Saints into a distinctive people" (Reed C. Durham Jr., "Westward Migration, Planning and Prophecy," in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols. [1992], 4:1563)

Winter Quarters
Distance: 266 miles from Nauvoo

An instant city on the plains, Winter Quarters served as the headquarters of the Church for less than a year, until the leadership moved west in 1847. By Christmas 1846, Church members had constructed a large stockade and about 700 homes ranging from solid two-story structures to simple dugouts in the bluffs. For many, however, the rigors of the Iowa crossing, exposure, and poor nutrition and sanitation proved too much, and several hundred saints died during the winter of 1846–1847.

Due to many not having the fund to buy teams and wagons handcarts pulled by people were set up..

Ten Handcart Companies

Ten companies of handcart pioneers walked the 1,300 miles from Iowa City (the end of the rail line) to Salt Lake City between 1856 and 1860, pulling and pushing all that they owned. Of the total of 2,962 handcart immigrants, about 250 died along the way, 220 of them in companies four and five, the Willie and Martin companies of 1856.

"Many a father pulled his cart, with his little children on it, until the day preceding his death" (LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion: The Story of a Unique Western Migration 1856–1860, [1960], 102).

"This heroic episode of Mormon history exemplifies many of the enduring qualities of Mormonism itself: through organization, iron discipline, unswerving devotion to a cause, and limitless self-sacrifice. . . . The true Mormon Trail was not on the prairie but in the spirit

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From the October 2008 conference talks

President Boyd K Packer – Stay the Course

..The Spirit defines those early members of the Church as followers of Christ. If you can understand a people so long suffering, so tolerant, so forgiving, so Christian after what they had suffered, you will have unlocked the key to what a Latter-day Saint is. Rather than being consumed with revenge, they were anchored in revelation. Their course was set by the teachings still found in the Old and New Testaments, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

That same Lucifer who was cast out of our Father’s presence is still at work. He, with the angels who followed him, will trouble the work of the Lord and destroy it if he can. But we will stay the course. We will anchor ourselves as families and as a Church to those principles and ordinances. Whatever tests lie ahead, and they will be many, we must remain faithful and true.

Brothers and Sisters where are you in your faith and testimony.. are you able to be put through the fiery furnace of afflictions to be tempered and to be designed as God has in mind for you. For there will be more and more trials.

If you wish to become God’s and have all powers allowed for you use.. you must be tested and tried.

Many have not had the strength to bear their trials and become bitter and leave the church.. they expect when they join the church that all their answers will happen with joy and all their needs met… but it is not so as you can see by Church History..

Many have had their metal proved in those fires of adversity.. and they have stayed true to the faith.. and have become what the potter want them to be.. they serve always as they are called upon.. with joy in their Spirits… with thanksgiving for their trials because they know they are doing what is needed…

What can we learn for our Pioneer ancestors? That if we want to be a peculiar people for our God.. we must be faithful, must endure to the end… always …

I pray that you will study the history of the Church and find joy in serving and embrace your trials as the tempering that must be needed to make you the jewel that you can be.. You knew before you came to earth that trials awaited… stay true to the faith

In the Name of Jesus Christ

Amen