The story of the Mormon pioneers is a saga like no other in American history. Beginning in 1847, tens of thousands crossed the Great Plains and scaled the Rocky Mountains on a journey fraught with searing heat, cold winds, hunger, snow, and even buffalo stampedes. They wore out not only their shoes but their very lives seeking a new start in a forlorn desert.
Johanna Winters recalled of the trek, “Every day was about the same only the farther we got, the more rough and rocky the roads seemed to be.”1
If our own road ever seems to fit this description, we can take inspiration from the spirit of the pioneers. British pioneer Patience Loader described finding such inspiration on a frigid morning after a snowy night, when her mother asked Patience and her sisters to get up and start a fire. They each responded that they couldn’t—that it was too cold and they didn’t feel well.
“Mother said, ‘Come, girls. This will not do. I believe I will have to dance [for] you and try to make you feel better.’ Poor, dear mother, she started to sing and dance [for] us, and she slipped down as the snow was frozen. In a moment we were all up to help [her,] for we were afraid she was hurt. She laughed and said, ‘I thought I could soon make you all jump up if I danced [for] you.’ … She said that she was afraid her girls were going to … get discouraged, and … that would never do.”2
As we walk our own rough and rocky roads, we may be surprised to find within us the faith, spirit, and strength that characterized the pioneers long ago. At day’s end we can look at the ground we have covered, see the promise that lies ahead, and remember those words that have sustained generations of pioneers: “Happy day! All is well!”3
1 In Carol Cornwall Madsen, Journey to Zion: Voices from the Mormon Trail (1997), 577.
2 In Andrew D. Olsen, The Price We Paid: The Extraordinary Story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Pioneers (2006), 366–67.
3 “Come, Come, Ye Saints,” Hymns, no. 30.
Program #4271
Musical Selection:
1. They, the Builders of the Nation
Alfred M. Durham; arr. Mack Wilberg; Jackman Music
2. My Song in the Night
American Folk Hymn; arr. Mack Wilberg; Oxford University Press
3. Shall We Gather at the River (Organ solo)
Robert Lowry; arr. Richard Elliott; Arrangement Unpublished
4. Faith in Every Footstep
K. Newell Dayley; Jackman Music
5. Spoken Word
6. Come, Come, Ye Saints
American Folk Song; arr. Mack Wilberg; Oxford University Press
Music & the Spoken Word
A program of inspirational music and spoken word.