17. Remembering the Past

A bishopric message written on Monday, June 23, 1997, for publication in the August 1997 issue of the Newsette, the monthly newsletter of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward. Some of our children, 18-year-old Anna, almost-16-year-old Camilla, and 14-year-old Eliza, represented our family June 11–14 in the stake Pioneer Trek referred to in the second paragraph. (Michael and Rebecca had participated in a similar trek experience six years earlier, when they were 17 and 16.) Our family visited the Wyoming handcart sites mentioned in the third paragraph in mid-July, just a week before the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first pioneer company into the Salt Lake Valley. And all of us participated in the 150 hours of service our ward donated on July 19 (my 48th birthday) at Bountiful Elementary School, paying back in very small measure for the twenty years the school has benefited the children of our family.

This sesquicentennial year has been a wonderful season of remembrance for us. We have been enriched, strengthened, and inspired by the examples of faith, courage, and perseverance of those who have gone before.

The youth who participated in the stake Pioneer Trek in early June had life-changing experiences that will, if they keep them in remembrance, forever alter the way they think about themselves, their families, their ancestors, and (most important of all) the long-suffering goodness and tender mercies of their God.

Others have had the privilege of standing on the desolate and windswept highlands of Wyoming—at places like Martin’s Cove and Devil’s Gate and Rocky Ridge, places that are hallowed because of what the Martin and Willie handcart companies experienced there in late 1856. Many gave their lives for the cause they had espoused, while the survivors in the hour of their extremity came to know their God.

Many of us also participated two weeks ago, in concert with fellow Saints across the face of the earth, in giving community service as a part of the worldwide Pioneer Heritage Service Day. In the words of the First Presidency, inviting us to this effort, “As modern-day beneficiaries of the sacrifices made by pioneers who have gone before, we [were able to] show our gratitude by unitedly rendering charitable service to others in our community.”

A common theme in all the Lord’s dealings with His people in every age of the world’s history has been the importance of remembering the past and, in particular, remembering Him and His doings.

• For example, from the beginning of time a book of remembrance was kept among those who called upon the name of the Lord (see Moses 6:4–5).

• The scriptures help enlarge the memory of the people (see Alma 37:8).

• From the days from Moses until the coming of Christ the children of Israel were to keep the Passover and the other revealed feasts as a two-way remembrance: The types and shadows and signs, the ordinances and commandments and performances were all designed to remind them, first, of their past deliverance from Egypt, and second, of their future deliverance at Gethsemane and Golgotha.

• In the meridian of time, at the hour of that promised deliverance, the Savior instituted the sacrament as a memorial—in remembrance of His body and His blood—to help us “always remember him” (D&C 20:77, 79).

• Alma posed challenging questions to the church in his day: “And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in remembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has delivered their souls from hell?” (Alma 5:6).

• Helaman gave his sons the names of their ancestors, telling them “that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works” (Helaman 5:6).

And so in that same pattern of remembrance, stretching from the very beginning of recorded time, we in 1997 have been remembering our pioneer forebears.

“We have been reminded that ours is a great inheritance,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley at the April general conference. “The past is behind us. It is the future with which we must be concerned. We face great opportunities and great challenges. . . . We have nothing to fear and everything to gain. God is at the helm. We will seek His direction. We will listen to the still, small voice of revelation. And we will go forward as He directs” (Ensign, May 1997, 83).

Seventeen years ago—as we celebrated another sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the organization of the Church—another prophet, President Spencer W. Kimball, declared in similar fashion concerning the future, “One of the best ways to celebrate righteous history is to make more of it, make more righteous history!” (Ensign, May 1980, 4).

In a spirit of love and appreciation for all that you already do, that would be our invitation to each of you: Look to the future, go forward, and make even more righteous history.

16. Put Our Trust in God

A bishopric message published in the May 1997 issue of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward Newsette.

There is much to be grateful for as we look around and count our blessings—starting with our very lives, our health, our friends and families, our homes, this peaceful community in which we live, our citizenship in this great land of America, our faith, the talents and gifts and blessings a gracious Father has showered down upon us. The list could go on and on.

Appropriately, we are pausing this year to commemorate the sacrifices of our pioneer ancestors. As we reflect on the faith and courage of those who have gone before, we realize that in all the history of the earth, never has a people been blessed with such temporal and spiritual opportunities as we are.

Yet, for some people (and for nearly all of us at certain times in our lives) life can also be full of heartache, disappointment, and hassle. Sometimes there is injustice and hurt. And even death. And things may not seem fair. That’s simply the way life works. It is clearly a part of the test we agreed to before we came here to this earthly school. And, oh, what a test it is at times!

We find a nugget of insight in the Book of Mormon: “For I do know,” Alma taught his son Helaman, “that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day” (Alma 36:3).

Note that our trust in God does not eliminate our trials, troubles, and afflictions. The people of God have always had their full share of them. They are indeed a fact of life. But our trust in God and His purposes allows Him to support us in those very trials, troubles, and afflictions we are called upon to endure. And, if we endure them well, that same trust allows Him to lift us up at the last day.

“My son, peace be unto thy soul,” came the tender words to the Prophet Joseph Smith, who knew more of trials, troubles, and afflictions than any of us will ever likely know. “Thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high” (D&C 121:7–8).

Our challenge then is to endure and to trust and, at times, to simply hold on. And to be filled with kindness and gentleness and love unfeigned. And to help and lift and bless those around us. And to live in thanksgiving daily.

15. Faith in Every Footstep

A bishopric message published in the February 1997 issue of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward Newsette. The year 1997 was the sesquicentennial celebration of the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

Throughout this year we have a marvelous opportunity to celebrate the pioneer sesquicentennial, which marks the 150th anniversary of the July 1847 arrival of the first pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. “Faith in Every Footstep” is the theme of the year-long celebration.

Reflecting that tens of thousands of those hardy pioneers walked virtually half-way across the continent to reach the Great Basin, the “Faith in Every Footstep” theme reminds us that the pioneering spirit is alive and well across the earth today as hundreds of thousands of new converts each year take the courageous steps necessary to leave the world behind—often at great sacrifice, sometimes alienating family and friends—by taking the name of Jesus Christ upon themselves in the waters of baptism.

Whether or not we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whether or not our own ancestors came across oceans and plains during that pioneer era, each of us here in our own little corner of Bountiful is blessed by the legacy of faith the pioneers left for us. Each of us is benefited by the great inland commonwealth they established here in the tops of the mountains for us now to enjoy.

One of my wife’s distant ancestors—in a letter written to his son nearly two hundred years ago, more than a decade before the restoration of the gospel—wrote an important admonition that every righteous parent would wish for his or her children and grandchildren: “See that you outstrip us in purity of heart and holiness of life.”

This admonition reflects the Apostle John’s sentiment: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4).

What greater way could we honor our pioneer heritage than making sure that we walk in truth, with faith in every footstep, and that we outstrip those who have gone before in purity of heart and holiness of life?