The Hard Questions of the Trek

President Sabey

The Martin and Willie handcart companies were made up primarily of good, faithful, obedient converts trying to gather to Zion and follow the prophet’s counsel.  They had love of God and a testimony of the Restoration in their hearts.  They had every reason to expect God’s blessings on their journey.  But, they had a number of unfortunate delays and left late in the season to cross the plains.  If winter had come late, say in mid-November as it sometimes does, they might very well have arrived in SLC without extreme difficulties.  As it was, however, winter came early that year and over 200 people died on the plains of utter exhaustion, exposure to bitter cold, and starvation.  I want to ask and discuss the hardest questions that this history raises.

Hard Question 1:  If God loved the handcart pioneers and was helping them, why were the winter storms not delayed?

Speaking to families of those with physical disabilities, Elder Boyd K. Packer said:

The very purpose for which the world was created, and man introduced to live upon it, requires that the laws of nature operate in cold disregard for human feelings. We must work out our salvation without expecting the laws of nature to be exempted for us. Natural law is, on rare occasions, suspended in a miracle. But mostly, our handicapped, like the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, wait endlessly for the moving of the water.

“The Moving of the Water,” May 1991 Ensign.  In other words, we wait and hope for miracles, and they come from time to time, but mostly the laws of nature must function without alteration. We do not know why Heavenly Father provides a miracle sometimes and not others.  God’s ways are not man’s ways.  God’s ways are higher than man’s ways.  He sees a much bigger picture.  What we do know is that, mostly, we will not be spared from the tribulations and trials of nature, including natural disasters and storms, sicknesses and disabilities, cancer and genetic defects.  Nature operates in cold disregard for human feeling.  Why is that important?  What purposes are served by having nature operate in cold disregard for human feelings?  Since the answer is as old as mankind, let’s start from the very beginning.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan tempted Adam and Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit by appealing to an inherently good desire, the desire for growth and becoming, the desire to realize one’s potential. Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die, but . . . .in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”  Genesis 3:4-5.  Satan told a half truth and implied that there was a shortcut. Just eat this fruit and you will become like Gods, just like that.  It is [snap fingers] that easy.

In response to Adam and Eve’s partaking of the forbidden fruit, God prescribed and imposed the conditions for real growth, real becoming, with no shortcuts.  God cast them out of the Garden of Eden and said: “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; … In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.”  Genesis 3:17-19.  Did you catch the ironic truth in that first line?  Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In essence, God is saying, “this may sound like a bad thing because it is hard, but ultimately it will be a good thing.”   Cursed is the ground for thy sake.  Rather than a life of comfort and ease in the Garden of Eden, where the earth automatically produces whatever you need, you will now have to work to eat.  And the earth is cursed now.  It will bring forth thorns and thistles to afflict you and make life more difficult.  Now the earth will be indifferent to human feelings.  But all of this is for your sake.

Heavenly Father knew that if we were to achieve our potential, we needed opposition and tribulations.  We needed hard work.  It is by lifting weights that we grow stronger. Where life is too easy, there is little growth and little learning.   

Tribulations provide another benefit to those of us who struggle with pride, which is all of us, because, as President Benson taught, pride is the universal sin.  Tribulations tend to humble us and bring us closer to our Heavenly Father.  See, Helaman 12:1-3 (except the Lord doth chasten his people with many afflictions, . . . , they will not remember him).  Francis Webster of the Martin Company said:   “We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but… Every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives, for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities!”  Our thorns and thistles, trials and tribulations, sorrows and suffering, tend to humble us, open our hearts to God’s help, and deepen our souls.  In our extremities, we connect with God in important ways.

Heavenly Father does not see death the same way we do.  To Him, death means that a beloved child returns home. Elizabeth Jackson’s husband, already weak and chilled to the bone, collapsed in the middle of crossing of the Platte River and had to be rescued and then wheeled into camp on a handcart.  In the middle of a freezing night, Elizabeth Jackson felt with her hand and realized that her husband was stiff and dead.  She had no choice but to remain alone by the cold corpse till morning.  She said:  “Of course I could not sleep.  I could only watch, wait, and pray for dawn.  But oh, how the dreary hours drew their tedious length along.”  In the morning, she was finally able to vent her feelings.  A tent-mate recorded:  “Her face was suffused in tears, and between her bursts of grief and wails of sorrow, she would wring her hands and tear her hair.  Her children blended their cries of ‘Father’ with [those] of the mother.  This was love; this was affection—grief of the heart and bereavement of the soul—the like of which I have never seen since.”  But Elizabeth continued to pray in her grief.  One night, when there were no men with enough strength to raise a tent, she spent a bitterly cold night sitting on a rock with one child on her lap and one on either side.  She became despondent, but then she had a “stunning revelation.”  Her dead husband appeared to her and said:  “Cheer up, Elizabeth, deliverance is at hand.”  The rescuers arrived the next day.  As to her loneliness as a widow, Elizabeth was given grace to see things from God’s perspective.  She said:  “I [appealed] to the Lord . . . He who had promised to be a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless. I appealed to him and he came to my aid . . . Aaron was left there to sleep in peace until the trump of the Lord shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall awake and come forth in the morning of the first resurrection. We shall then again unite our hearts and lives, and eternity will furnish us with life forever more.” Today, right now, Elizabeth is with her beloved Aaron and she has been with him for about the last hundred years.  From an eternal perspective, the separation of loved ones from family members is so very short.

Too often we erroneously think that, if we just try to do what it right, we will be spared from life’s tribulations.  The experience of the pioneers and our own life experiences prove that hard things happen to good people.  But, when we exercise faith and receive grace, difficult experiences result in closeness to God, real learning, changes of heart, and empathy for others.

The Pond family was traveling to Utah.  A winter storm caused an ice slick on I-80.  The father, Preston, lost control of the vehicle as it slid and then rolled.  The vehicle ended up partially on top of his seventeen year old daughter, Lindsay.  It was crushing the life out of her. Her father looked into her eyes with love as she slipped away and he remembered the first time he looked into those same eyes just after she was born.  Why did there have to be ice on the road?  Why was Lindsay not thrown free?  Why did the vehicle roll so as to end up on top of Lindsay?  The laws of nature functioned in cold disregard for human feelings.  The randomness of nature took a beloved child from a family and returned her to God.  The family responded with such faith, willingly submitting to God’s will, not rebelling from the extremely difficult challenge that was inflicted upon them.  About a year later, Preston Pond was called to serve as our Bishop.  That event had softened him and prepared him.  He performed great service in God’s kingdom.  And we have in our midst the blessed Emily Pond Ricks, who went through that experience with her family.  Through their faith, they received God’s grace and a more eternal perspective which has been blessing people ever since.  With God’s help and through their faith, a tragedy was turned into a triumph for God’s purposes.

If God constantly fixed the weather for the Saints, stopped all natural disasters for the Saints, protected the Saints from all accidents, prevented winter storms for the Saints, and sent them cool breezes on hot days, people would join the church in droves out of pure selfishness.  But the test is whether we will choose truth and righteousness for its own sake, not for selfish rewards or safety.

Our Heavenly Father is more concerned about our growth and our connection with Him, than He is about our comfort and safety.  For our sake, He does not exempt us from the difficulties and challenges of nature.  God is not a fix-it God who deprives us of learning by fixing everything for us.  He is not a helicopter God who swoops in to save us from all of life’s complications and consequences.  That approach would not serve his glorious purposes for us and would not be for our good.  And so, for the pioneers, the laws of nature were not exempted.  Early winter came in full force and hit handcart pioneers who were completely unprepared for it.  And in their extremities, they came to have an absolute knowledge of God’s existence, his mercy and his love for them.  And they left a legacy of faith and triumph from which we all can learn.

I started this talk by asking why God did not postpone winter.  President James E. Faust, in General Conference (April 6, 1997), addressed the same question.  He said:

           Why did God not postpone winter for the Martin and Willie handcart companies?  Why did he not heal everyone or miraculously provide food to starving Saints?  It is not ours to understand why miracles are provided in some cases and not in others.  God’s ways are not man’s ways.  We must avoid the tendency to ask why bad things happen to people who are trying to be good.  We should trust that trials are a beneficial part of our existence.  Like the pioneers, we should not complain but should submit as a child doth submit to his father in all things.  Pray for help and miracles, but always be willing to submit to God’s will.  We must learn to see God’s love in and through our hardships.  We must be patient in waiting upon the Lord.  His saving power does its work well beyond this life.  We must endure our challenges and maintain the faith throughout this life. Because Christ submitted completely to Heavenly Father, He can help us learn to submit to hardships.   

According to Elder Faust, “We should trust that trials are a beneficial part of our existence,” and “We must learn to see God’s love in and through our hardships.”  Therefore, when we face a new hardship, perhaps the most accurate response would be to say: “Thank you for the brand new weight machine, Heavenly Father.  I am going to be so spiritually buff.”  Because Christ submitted completely to Heavenly Father and overcame all tribulations, He can help us learn to submit to hardships and can strengthen us.

Now, as a lead in to the second hard question, I want to go back to the matter of our safety.  We like safety.  We want to be safe.  Although God does not exempt us from the forces of nature, we do like to think that, if we are close to God, we will receive some prior warning of impending disaster.  Many of us have heard the story of Wilford Woodruff who was warned to move his wagon and, shortly after he did so, a storm knocked over a large tree that fell right where his wagon had been.  Similarly, the Lord could have warned the Saints not to cross the plains that late in the season.    President Boyd K. Packer taught, “No member of this Church--and that means each of you--will ever make a serious mistake without first being warned by the promptings of the Holy Ghost” (“How to Survive in Enemy Territory,” New Era, Apr. 2012, 3).

Hard Question 2:  If the purposes of earth life required that the early winter of 1856 not be altered, why did Heavenly Father not inspire the pioneers, give them warning, and somehow prevent them from leaving to cross the plains so late in the year?

The answer is that God did give clear instruction and warnings.  I am not suggesting that God should always give the warnings necessary to prevent all tribulations in our lives.  As we just discussed, that would not serve God’s purposes for us and would not be for our good.  In light of God’s greater purposes, warnings are not always given, and when they are given, they are not always heard or understood.  And although Wilford Woodruff was protected on that occasion and fulfilled an important mission, he did eventually die. None of us are getting out of here alive.  Tribulations and death will always be with us in this life.  But, in the case of the Martin and Willie handcart companies, God did provide clear instruction and warnings.

The church leaders who oversaw the immigration of these two companies had surely read Brigham Young’s epistles about immigration which counseled that emigrants should start across the plains early in the summer, by mid-June or earlier.  When a prophet provides counsel, it should be heeded.  When the Willie Company arrived in Florence, Nebraska in mid-August, a full two months past that recommended deadline, they held meetings to decide whether to winter over there or to cross the plains.  During one of those meetings, Levi Savage gave explicit, inspired warnings.  He told the Saints that they would likely have to wade through snow up to their knees and he “declared positively that to his certain knowledge [they] could not cross the mountains with a mixed company of aged people, women, and little children so late in the season without much suffering, sickness, and death.”  George Cunningham wrote of Levi Savage’s remarks:  “The tears began to flow down his cheeks, and he prophesied that if such undertook the journey at that late season of the year . . . their bones would strew the way.”  Although about 100 members of the Willie Company decided to wait until spring, the rest made the decision to go forward.

The Martin Company arrived in Florence and was considering whether to leave about a week after the Willie company left.  President Franklin D. Richards, an apostle who had served as mission president in England and had been largely responsible for overseeing the emigration, was on his way back to SLC with a group of returning missionaries, and met with the Martin company in Florence.  In a meeting about the decision whether to stay or go, he specifically mentioned the possibility of early winter storms and that many infants and elderly might fall by the way.  He told them, if they stayed, he would provide additional supplies to help them through.  If they proceeded, he indicated his belief that God would help see them through safely.  Then he said they had to decide whether to take the risks and chances of these possible and probable fatalities, or remain there until spring.  He allowed others to speak their views, but only Chauncey Webb urged the company not to cross the plains, but to winter over in Florence.  All other speakers favored moving forward.  President Richards advised all to vote with their free agency and responsibility.  The vote was almost unanimous to go forward.

In a letter President Richards wrote the day he left Florence, Nebraska, he said:  “From the beginning we have done all in our power to hasten matters concerning the emigration; therefore, we confidently look for the blessing of God to crown our humble effort with success, and for the safe arrival of our brethren . . . in Utah, though they may experience some cold.”  He was not overly worried.

Through the counsel of a prophet and through the warnings of brethren such as Levi Savage and Chauncey Webb, God had warned these companies not to cross the plains that late in the year.  They were fully aware of the dangers that they might face.  Although some 100 or so decided to wait until spring, most of them made the decision to move forward.

I do not suggest that this was an easy decision.  The pioneers had a great desire to arrive in Zion as soon as possible.  They wanted to be with the prophet, to enjoy temple blessings, and to enjoy a unity of faith.  Some people decided to continue because they felt that they had no real choice.  Emma James of the Willie company wrote this:

I can remember that when [Brother Savage] finished, there was a long time of silence.  I was frightened.  Father looked pale and sick.  I turned to Mother to see what she was thinking, and all I saw was her old determined look.  She was ready to go on tomorrow. There were many others like her.  We really didn’t have much choice.  There was no work here for us to keep ourselves through the winter and our family had to live.  ‘We must put our trust in the Lord, as we have always done,’ said Mother, and that was that.

   Some of the church leaders in charge of the emigration, who were zealously supportive of Brigham Young’s handcart plan, encouraged the Saints of go forward.  They predicted that the company would arrive safely and that God would even temper the elements and modify the weather for their good.  The oldest son of Heber C. Kimball sternly rebuked those of little faith and promised that he would stuff into his mouth and eat all the snow that would fall on them between Florence and Salt Lake City, a rash statement, as it turned out.    I assume he came back the next summer to fulfill his promise, but fortunately for him, the deep snows and drifts had all melted.

After leaving Florence, President Richard’s company encountered the Willie Company on the Nebraska Plains.  John Chislett of the Willie Company reported that President Richards “gave us plenty of counsel to be faithful, prayerful, obedient to our leaders, etc., and wound up by prophesying in the name of Israel’s God that ‘though it might storm on our right and on our left, the Lord would keep open the way before us and we should get to Zion in safety.’”  Later on, after the suffering of the handcart pioneers became known, Brigham Young said that the emigration officials should have known better than to send the pioneers out onto the plains in the autumn months.  He said:  “[If] they would have stopped and considered for one moment, they would have stopped those men, women, and children there until another year.” He suggested that it was not a spirit of faith, but a spirit of pride and arrogance, to think that God would protect them from the consequences of taking known, serious risks.  He said, in essence, that faith is good, but faith combined with good judgment is better.      

Although God provided good, inspired counsel and warning, He allowed the handcart pioneers to make their decision.  It was an extremely difficult decision.  In hindsight, many or most, like Brigham Young, would say it was a mistake, a wrong decision.  Once they decided to go, God still could have stopped them by blocking their path with a pillar of fire.  But, God respects agency.  He does not countermand our erroneous decisions.  A crucial part of our learning and experience in life is that God allows us to make good and bad decisions and to experience the consequences of our choices.  Our agency would not really be free if God said you may make decisions, but not really bad ones that might result in serious problems.  We live in a world where we really are free, and where the risks and dangers are real.  Our choices really do make a difference.

In this case, the winter storms hit earlier and with more force than usual that year.  Charles Decker, a member of the rescue company who had previously crossed the plains 48 times said he had never before seen so much snow on the Sweetwater at any season of the year.  The Wyoming wind was fierce.  The handcart pioneers did not have the clothing needed for such weather.  They had very little food, and they suffered immensely.  These were good people, inexperienced in the outdoors, who made a difficult decision to cross the plains late, encouraged by a number of their leaders, leaders who Brigham Young said should have known better, and that decision brought them to extreme difficulty.

Hard Question 3:  Since the handcart pioneers and their leaders made the choice to take a known risk, did God simply honor their free agency by allowing them to suffer the full consequences of their decisions?  What was God’s response to the circumstances of the pioneers?

Before discussing these questions, I want to draw the parallels between the handcart pioneers’ predicament and our own.  Just as the counsel of Brigham Young was ignored, the counsel of our current prophets is sometimes ignored and we or our loved ones can get into trouble.  Just as some of the emigration leaders who were trusted by the Saints made the mistake of encouraging them to go forward, sometimes people we trust, good but imperfect people, make mistakes or make decisions that cause us to suffer.  When parents decide to divorce for example, it often causes sadness and suffering for their children.  Sometimes, like the decision of the pioneers, our life decisions are confusing and difficult, and don’t always turn out as we had hoped.  The handcart pioneers faced serious challenges and were starving for lack of food.  In our day, we have less physical challenges, but more explicit temptations and live in a more corrupt society than did the pioneers.  Elder Neal A. Maxwell has written: “Though we have rightly applauded our ancestors for their spiritual achievements (and do not and must not discount them now), those of us who prevail today will have done no small thing. The special spirits who have been reserved to live in this time of challenges and who overcome will one day be praised for their stamina by those who pulled handcarts” (Not Withstanding My Weakness, 18).  We may rightly feel that we are trying to move forward against huge snow drifts of temptation or opposition.  Not surprisingly, we sometimes make poor decisions or make mistakes or commit sins.  Life does not always go as smoothly as we would like.  While we may not be physically sick or starving, we may feel spiritually or emotionally sick or starved.  We may be hurting or suffering.     

Therefore, the way that God responded to their situation holds important lessons for us.  How did Heavenly Father respond?  We know He respected their agency and allowed them to cross the plains in violation of Brigham Young’s counsel and clear warnings.  Did He then simply turn his back and say, let them learn by experience?

           In order to understand these events more fully, we need to look at them from a Salt Lake City perspective.  I had always thought of Franklin Richards arriving in SLC, rushing to Brigham Young and telling him that the handcart pioneers were stuck in winter storms, that they were freezing, starving, and dying in Wyoming, and that an immediate rescue must be mounted.  As I read more history, however, I learned that I was much mistaken.  At the time Franklin Richards arrived in SLC, winter had not yet hit the handcart pioneers, so he could not have given the report I had always imagined.  This is what did happen in SLC.

On September 26 and October 2, the first three handcart companies arrived in SLC fatigued but in good health, with a lower mortality rate than a typical wagon train.  Brigham Young and the Church leaders met the first two companies at the foot of Little Mountain and accompanied them into the city.  The handcart plan was celebrated as a great success.

Just two days later, on October 4, the day before general conference, Franklin Richards arrived in SLC and informed Brigham Young that there were more companies of pioneers on the plains.  The weather was warm and sunny, in the upper 70’s.  Summer was only two weeks past and there was hardly a hint of autumn, much less a threat of early winter.  In fact, it was still two weeks before the first winter storm would hit the handcart companies in Wyoming.  The handcart companies were low on food but were also enjoying warm weather.  Brother Richards reported that the pioneers were in good shape, but that re-supply wagons would be needed.  He said the handcart companies were making good progress and were likely at South Pass (far beyond where they actually were on Oct. 4).  He estimated that re-supply wagons would meet the Willie handcart company somewhere between Fort Bridger (113 miles away) and Green River (169 miles away).  The actual meeting point was over 100 miles farther than that.  He gave no dire warnings or predictions of disaster.  He believed that God would protect the Saints from adverse weather and see them through.  The minutes of the meeting where Franklin Richards gave his report showed no great alarm.  They merely outlined how many tons of flour and how much clothing the late companies would need.

But Brigham Young was a prophet.  Instead of simply sending out some resupply wagons in the near future as Franklin Richards suggested, the next morning at General Conference, Brigham Young’s tone was one of great urgency.  He said that the dictates of the Holy Spirit to him were that the people on the plains must be saved and that the rescue must be mounted immediately.  It seems quite clear that he was inspired by God to sense the dire urgency of the situation that had not yet even occurred and to understand that immediate action was needed.  He forcefully called on the Saints for an immediate all-out rescue.  Brigham Young said:

I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak to-day and during the Conference, it is this, on the 5th day of October, 1856, many of our brethren and sisters are on the Plains with hand-carts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be--to get them here! . . .

That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess, it is to save the people. . . .

I shall call upon the Bishops this day, I shall not wait until to-morrow, nor until the next day, for sixty good mule teams and twelve or fifteen wagons. I do not want to send oxen, I want good horses and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have them; also twelve tons of flour and forty good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams. . . .

I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you.

What a powerful call to rescue!  In contrast to this urgency, when Franklin D. Richards spoke, he expressed his ongoing view that winter would be delayed for the handcart companies:

The Saints that are now upon the plains, about one thousand with handcarts, feel that it is late in the season, and they expect to get cold fingers and toes.  But they have this faith and confidence towards God, that he will overrule the storms that may come in the season thereof and turn them away, that their path may be freed from suffering more than they can bear.  They have confidence to believe that this will be an open fall.

In the next morning’s conference on October 6th, Brigham Young countermanded any complacency and accelerated the urgency of his plea:  “I feel disposed to be as speedy as possible in our operation with regard to helping our brethren who are now on the plains.  Consequently I shall call upon the people forthwith for the help that is needed.  I want them to give their names this morning, if they are ready to start on their journey tomorrow.  And not say, ‘I will go next week, or in ten days or in a fortnight hence.’  For I wish to start tomorrow morning.”  He asked for clothing donations and explained:  “Our brethren and sisters could not bring much [clothing] with them, even if they had it.”  He then stated:  “I now want the brethren to come forward, for we need 40 good teamsters to help the brethren on the plains.  You may rise up now and give your names.”  Many men came to the pulpit.  President Young excused the blacksmiths from the meeting to go shoe horses and repair wagons for those who would be leaving.  The sense of urgency was so great that some of the sisters “stripped off their petticoats, stockings, and everything they could spare, right there in the tabernacle” and donated them to be packed into the wagons.  I just hope the sisters disrobed in a discrete manner such that general conference did not become R-rated.  I’m sure they did because they were much more sensitive about modesty than we are today.  In fact, that’s probably why they had plenty of clothing to spare.   

The first rescue company left the next day, October 7th.  It included 27 men and 16 wagons, with many more to follow.  Until the handcart companies were safely in Zion, Brigham Young’s mind would not rest.  Over the next days and weeks, he continued to call for more volunteers, wagons, animals, and supplies.  Speaking in the Tabernacle about a month after the rescue began, he said:  “Every minute or two my mind reverts to them, my brethren and sisters on the plains, and what is their condition.”  By the end of October, at least 250 relief wagons had headed East as part of the rescue effort.  This was the greatest rescue in history of the American West.

Heavenly Father not only inspired Brigham Young, he also inspired the rescuers and all of the saints in Zion to make the sacrifices necessary for the rescue to be a success.  Following two years of drought and famine in Utah, the harvest of 1856 was somewhat better, but resources were still very scarce.  The book, Handcarts to Zion, says this:  “Families of moderate means and [even] the poorest individuals contributed from their meager stores.  One lent a horse, one a wagon, one a tent; another two bales of hay and a sack of barley. . . .  Families brought out from their own scant cellars sacks of flour, sides of home cured bacon, bags of beans, dried corn, packages of sugar and rice.”  Six members of the first rescue company were missionaries who had just three days before returned to their families from years of missionary service.  All of the rescuers left their own farms and families, where they otherwise would have been preparing for winter and planting wheat for the next season.  As a result the Utah saints were deprived of thousands of acres of early harvest wheat, which meant they would have to live on roots and weeds again, until the late planted wheat would be ready.  Despite the sacrifices, the Saints supported the rescue effort, and the rescuers embarked on an extremely difficult mission to save the pioneers’ lives and bring them to Zion.

As a result of Brigham Young’s inspired urgency, the rescuers arrived just in time to save many, many lives.  The advance scouts of the rescue party met the Willie company at Willie’s Sixth Crossing (where we will be camping the first night of trek) on the day the first major winter storm hit, the same day they completely ran out of food.  People were freezing and starving.  Although the advance scouts were traveling light, they were able to administer some relief, and they brought the happy news that that main rescue company with the provision wagons was near.  The next morning, the scouts had to continue east to find the Martin Company.  Starving and weak, Captain Willie, with Joseph Elder, went west in a blizzard and over Rocky Ridge to try to find the rescue company to inform them of the dire circumstance and urge them forward in all haste.  They were committed to find the rescue company or die in the attempt.

The rescue company with wagons was camped and waiting for the storm to break three miles off the main trail in a grove of trees that provided some shelter.  Captain Willie and his companion expected to find the rescuers on the main trail and, therefore, would have missed them and continued down the trail searching in vain until they died in the storm, but for another miracle.  Harvey Cluff was inspired to walk in the storm three miles back to the main trail to place a sign so that the advance scouts would know how to find them when they returned.  He walked uphill into a northern blast of bitterly cold wind and was nearly frozen to death in the effort.  The timing of Harvey Cluff’s placement of the sign was so miraculous that, just after he arrived back in camp, Captain Willie and Joseph Elder, having seen the sign board that had been placed minutes before, rode into camp to inform the rescuers that the Willie company was completely out of food and in dire straits.  After hearing this, the rescue company urgently forged ahead in the storm through deep snow.

John Chislett of the Willie company wrote: “Just as the sun was sinking . . . behind the distant hills, … several covered wagons … were seen coming towards us. The news ran through the camp like wildfire. … Shouts of joy rent the air; strong men wept till tears ran freely down their furrowed and sun-burnt cheeks. … That evening, for the first time in quite a period, the songs of Zion were to be heard in the camp. … With the cravings of hunger satisfied, and with hearts filled with gratitude to God and our good brethren, we all united in prayer, and then retired to rest.”

If the rescuers had arrived even a day or two later, many more lives would have been lost.  As it was, they buried nine the next morning.  If they had arrived a week later, most of the pioneers would have died.  If there had been no rescue at all, they all would have died.  Brigham Young could not have known what weather the Saints would experience.  He could not consult Channel 9 News meteorology department.  Only Heavenly Father knew what was in store.  And Heavenly Father inspired great urgency and a great rescue.

Knowing that the pioneers’ own decisions had gotten them into trouble, did Heavenly Father abandon them in their time of need?  No.  Not for an instant.  God allowed nature to take its course, but did not abandon the pioneers to the consequences of their decisions.  Heavenly Father was doing all he could—without compromising free agency and the purposes of earth life—to reach out and rescue these Saints.  He inspired His prophet located in Salt Lake City during summer weather to mount an urgent rescue weeks before the storms hit so that rescuers would arrive just in time to save them.

And the rescue was just one of many manifestations of God’s grace.  The word “grace” means divine help, support or strength.  The pioneers experienced many instances of grace, and tender mercies, and miracles.  There were not just the 17 Miracles highlighted in the last year’s movie about the Martin and Willie pioneers, but there were hundreds or thousands of miracles and blessings on the trail to Zion.  Let me share a few brief examples of grace.

Mary Ann Mellor was ready to give up.  After falling behind the handcart company, she just plopped down on a boulder and wept. Her daughter Louisa, who had stayed behind to help, went a few yards away, knelt and prayed that God would help them, that He would protect them from the ever-threatening wolves, and that He would let them reach camp. Louisa wrote:   “As I was going back to where Mother was sitting, I found a pie in the road. I picked it up and gave it to mother to eat, and after resting awhile we started on our journey, thanking God for His blessings. . . . [After that, whenever] Mother felt like giving up and quitting; . . . she would remember how wonderful the Lord had been to spare her . . . , and she offered a prayer of gratitude instead.”

Sister Rowley, a widow, had no food to feed her seven children.  She asked God's help as she always did and remembered two small sea biscuits left over from the sea voyage [that] were so hard they couldn't be broken. She put them in a dutch oven, covered them with water, asked for God's blessing, and set the pan on the coals. When she took off the lid a little later, she found the pan filled with food. Despite great hunger, she and her family knelt down and thanked God for his goodness, before eating a bite of that miraculous meal.

In addition to miracle food, there were numerous healings.  Francis Webster became so sick he sat by the side of the road and could not go on.  He asked the elders to administer to him, and thereafter was able to continue pulling his handcart with renewed strength.   Ephraim Hanks was asked to administer to a young man who was so weak he could hardly turn over in his bed and whose family feared he would die in the night.  After the blessing, the young man was immediately healed, got up, dressed himself and danced a hornpipe jig on the end-board of a wagon.     

In addition to physical help and healing, there was spiritual help.  Susannah Stone, a 25 year old young woman who had been disowned by her family when she joined the church, wrote:

“We waded through cold streams many times, but we murmured not, for our faith in God and our testimony of His work were supreme.  And in the blizzards and falling snow we sat under our handcarts and sang, ‘Come, Come Ye Saints.’. . . .”

Only once did my courage fail.  One cold, dreary afternoon, my feet having been frosted, I felt that I could go no further, and withdrew a little from the company, and sat down to await the end, being somewhat in a stupor. After a time, I was aroused by a voice, which seemed as audible as anything could be, which spoke to my very soul of the promises and blessings I had received, and which should surely be fulfilled, and that I had a mission to perform in Zion. I received strength, and was filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and arose and traveled on with a light heart.”

The blessings of grace included great love and willingness to sacrifice.  With regard to the food situation in late October, Patience Loader wrote this: "I don't know how long we could have lived and pulled our handcarts on this small quantity of food. Our provisions would not have lasted as long as they did had all our company lived, but many of them died causing our provisions to hold out longer." Patience continued:

"I remember well poor Brother Blair. He was a fine, tall man, had been one of Queen Victoria's [body] guards in London. He had a wife and four children. He made a cover for his cart and put his four children on the cart. He pulled his cart alone, his wife helped by pushing behind. The poor man was so weak and worn down that he fell several times that day but still he kept his dear little children on the cart all day. This man had so much love for his wife and children that instead of eating his morsel of food himself he would give it to his children. Poor man, he pulled the cart as long as he could, then he died and his wife and children had to do the best they could without his help, . . . , but they got to Salt Lake City alive."

Unlike animals that fight for food, Brother Blair, and others, gave up their food to help loved ones.  Levi Savage used his meager flour allotment, the only food he would have all day, to make gruel and feed a friend who was very sick.  What pure love and sacrifice!  Wallace Stegner, a non-LDS author and historian, wrote this:  “Perhaps their suffering seems less dramatic because the handcart pioneers bore it meekly, praising God, instead of fighting for life with the ferocity of animals and eating their dead to keep their own life beating, as both the Fremont and Donner parties did. . . . But if courage and endurance make a story, if humankindness and helpfulness and brotherly love in the midst of raw horror are worth recording, this . . . episode of the Mormon migration is one of the great tales of the West and of America.” These pioneers were committed to unity, to Zion, even in their extremity.  Those who died, died well, and those who lived, lived well despite their tribulations, with goodness and grace in their hearts.  The dead were treated with respect and the starving pioneers spent precious energy in the effort to bury or otherwise protect their loved one’s remains from wolves.

One of the greatest manifestations of grace is the humility with which the handcart pioneers viewed their experience.  Survivor John Jacques wrote, "I blame nobody. I am not anxious to blame anybody ... I have no doubt that those who had to do with its management meant well and tried to do the best they could under the circumstances."  Instead of filing lawsuits against the emigration officials who encouraged them to cross the plains, the pioneers who had suffered immensely submitted to their tribulations and saw the good in them.  Many years later in a Sunday School Class, Francis Webster listened to criticism of the Church leaders for permitting the handcart pioneers to cross the plains late in the season.  He responded:

I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes! But I was in that company . . . . We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Every one of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with Him in our extremities!

I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up for I cannot pull the load through it. I have gone to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me! I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the Angels of God were there.

Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No! Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.

           What do we learn from these experiences?  While God does not spare us from all difficulties and tribulations of life, He always wants to connect with us and provide grace to help us on our way to Zion.  Many miracles and blessings were provided in response to fervent individual prayers.  These miracles did not eliminate the winter storms and other difficulties.  Most of these miracles were granted on a personal level.  Each one confirmed a connection to God.

Wherever we are on our own personal trail to Zion, whatever our life experience has been, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want a connection with us and they are always there and always ready to provide forgiveness, rescue and other types of grace.  Two different verses of scripture say:  God giveth grace to the humble.  Those who in real humility submit to life’s experiences and tribulations and seek for divine assistance will always receive some form of grace.  Grace is provided in a variety of different ways—including miracles, angels to help us, increasing one’s strength, and inspiring our hearts with goodness, kindness, hope, courage, patience, or whatever is needed.

When we make mistakes and find ourselves in difficult circumstances, Heavenly Father does not abandon us.  His arm of mercy is extended to us always.  He and His Son are our rescuers. Rather than Heavenly Father constantly rescuing people on His own, He usually inspires rescuers to work with Him and to sacrifice to bring about the rescue.  He does so, because greater good is accomplished that way.  Both the rescued and the rescuers are blessed.  In fact, we are rescued by God as we help rescue others.  The trek is a powerful analogy for life.  It is a powerful testament of the grace that is proffered to us because of tender mercies and love of our God and His Son.

Because of His great victory in the atonement, Christ is uniquely qualified to help us adopt the most beautiful and difficult of attitudes—submission to Heavenly Father’s will and selflessness in suffering.  Many present day pioneers through a lifetime of seeking goodness and through their daily sincere prayers along the trail are granted the grace to be submissive and selfless, to suffer well, and to become incredibly refined and golden people.   

Following a poignant visit to the very location of the joyful rescue of the Willie Company, Elder M. Russell Ballard said this:

At that moment, standing on the same hill from which the Willie Company first saw their rescuers, I contemplated the joy that will fill our hearts when we fully come to know the eternal significance of the greatest rescue—the rescue of the family of God by the Lord Jesus Christ. For it is through Him that we have promise of eternal life. Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the source of spiritual power that will give you and me the assurance that we have nothing to fear from the journey. I know the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and our unwavering faith in Him will see us safely along our journey through life . . . .

Ensign, May 1997 “You Have Nothing to Fear from the Journey.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley stated:  “Stories of the rescue need to be repeated again and again.  They speak of the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”  May we receive the rescue that Christ offers us, and may we join Him in His mission to rescue others.  Ironically, when we feel burdened, our best response is to take on more work, to take upon us Christ’s yoke, to connect with Him and join His work.  Then He pulls with us and our burdens become light through His grace.

Christ says:  “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  May each one of us realize that, on our trail to Zion, it truly is by grace we go.  May we with all our hearts praise our Savior and Redeemer for His understanding, love and grace.