About 14 months ago, Spencer and I were asked to meet with one of the Members of our Stake Presidency. At this meeting President Opdahl talked about how our Stake would like to participate in a Youth Pioneer Trek during the summer of 2012. I instantly thought, Oh!...he's going to ask us to be a Ma & Pa, but to my utter shock he asked for our service as Trek Coordinators, which means we plan the whole thing. That is a HUGE responsibility! Of course we accepted and so for the past 14 months we have been living and breathing Pioneer Treks. During this prep-time I have felt such a varied amount of emotions; excited, inspired, anxious and overwhelmed, but most of all humbled! I have been humbled by the amount of service so many people freely give to make events like this happen. I am humbled by the respect and trust that others have in us, even though they are older and wiser, I feel their confidence in us and I appreciate that. During our Trek Kick-Off Fireside I gave the following talk to our Stake youth which expresses my thoughts on the up-coming Trek.
"Steps of Reflection,
Faith in Tomorrow"
I have to admit that between the
age of 12-18 I had absolutely no interest in Pioneers!
I never had a great-great grandfather cross
the plains pulling a handcart with the hope of finding religious freedom, so I
had never felt a personal connection to the early pioneer history so widely
regarded in our church.
I had the
mentality that if it didn’t apply to me, why should I care.
But the truth of the matter is, it
does apply to me. And it applies to all
of you too. And I regret to say that for
years I was oblivious to the roots that blessed me, and continue to bless
me. We all have pioneers in our
family. Every single one of us here have
at least one ancestor that chose to listen to the missionaries and join the
church so that their children could have the gospel in their lives. For some of us here, those pioneers may date
back to the early settlers of the church; those who sacrificed all they had
because of their faith in the gospel.
For others it may have been your parents or grandparents who were
introduced to the gospel, or even yet, maybe your roots in the church began
with you.
However long your roots in the
gospel have been planted, one thing that rings true for all of us is that those
roots are a part of our spiritual strength.
The first part of our theme we
entitled, “Steps of Reflection”.
We
chose this phrase because we feel that it’s important to reflect on where we
came from.
We need to take the time to
learn about what our ancestors did and what they sacrificed for us.
Personally, and collectively.
It’s extremely important that we
not forget what the Restoration really means and what it cost.
I had
an opportunity a few years ago to learn about my great-grandma on my Dad’s
side.
She was born and raised in
Norway.
When she was 18 years old
she worked for a man who was a Mormon.
The religion intrigued her and she wanted to be taught the gospel.
She asked to be baptized, but because of
her parents’ disapproval the missionaries told her they would rather she
had a strong testimony, strong enough to stand on her own before she be
baptized.
Her family practically
disowned her.
In public her
siblings even refused to be seen with her.
My Great-Grandma belonged to a club
that the church in Norway had.
In this
club each member would pay a certain amount of money a month into a fund and
the most active member was given the money to come to America.
Once they got to America and secured a job
they would then repay the money to the club.
Despite several threats from her family that bad things would happen to
her if she left, she decided it was the right thing to do and arrived in
America in Feb. 1910.
She only knew just
a handful of people who had traveled previously and that is all.
It takes a lot of faith to leave
something behind, even if you’re moving on to something better, but Faith helps
us to have courage in pursuing our dreams.
The gospel of Jesus Christ would not be what it is today if not for the
faith of the early pioneers.
But do we
truly understand
WHY the pioneers did what they did?
Just like my Great-Grandma, the
Saints in a lot of cases could have stayed where they were. But they looked
beyond the here and the now.
Which leads
me to the second part of our theme.
“Faith in Tomorrow”
The Pioneers movement west was for
us, the future members of this church, so that we could have the gospel in our
lives, and a temple to worship in.
The
hardships that the Pioneers had to endure were severe.
I bet in a lot of cases the pain felt endless.
But they were determined.
They KNEW that tomorrow would be better.
“Tomorrow” might have meant days or weeks, or
even months before relief came but they believed with all of their heart that
that relief would come.
Many gave their
lives trying.
By experiencing some of the
hardships that the early Church pioneers had to go through, we hope that you
will learn to appreciate, and value, all that they did for you.
And recognize the faith they had in order to
do it.
One of my favorite quotes from the
movie 17 Miracles is, “All this will be worth it if my posterity will keep the
faith”.
It is my hope as we go on this
trek that we can all begin to recognize the roots that have blessed our
lives.
That our faith in the gospel will
grow.
And more importantly, as we
exercise our faith, we will all come to realize that we too can overcome any
hardship in our life.
I leave this with
you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
