Doctrine & Covenants Lesson # 35
“A Mission
of Saving”
Introduction
I keep harping on about the value of the additional
resources for our study of the Doctrine and Covenants this year. And no more so
than this week’s lesson. I spent the last 14 years of my working life at BYU
editing books on ancient scripture, so my foray into Church History was fairly
minor. This year has taught me a great deal, for which I am grateful. But going
into this lesson, I thought I knew about the Willey Martin handcart company—notice
the singular company which goes to show you how little I did know. There
were actually five, yes five, handcart companies en route during that harsh
winter of 1865. Here’s an excerpt from one of the resources:
Counting the Willie and Martin
handcart companies and the Hodgetts, Hunt, and Smoot wagon companies, close to
1,500 people became stranded on the high plains of present-day Wyoming.[1]
As I am writing this, it is 1st October and we already
have had a lot of snow on the mountains, which has pretty much dissipated. I do
not enjoy clearing snow from my driveway and sidewalks, but imagine having to
clear snow enough to wheel a handcart, and walking through it with nothing
waterproofing you. Or shielding you much. from the freezing snow and ice.
However, one commentary I read started off saying something like “pray your
Gospel Doctrine teacher doesn’t turn this into a history lesson.” I was a bit
miffed at that, because, as Pres. Hinckley said,
Stories of the beleaguered Saints and
of their suffering and death will be repeated again and again. … Stories of their
rescue need to be repeated again and again. They speak of the very essence of
the gospel of Jesus Christ” (Ensign, Nov. 1996, 86).
That being said, the overriding theme of this week’s
lesson is that of rescue. And surely rescue is an ultimate act of service. In
Saturday morning’s session of General Conference, both Pres. Uchtdorf and Sis.
Oscarson talked about service. Pres. Uchtdorf said, “Reach out, encourage,
heal, and support all who desire to feel and heed the yearning for our supernal
home.” And Sis. Oscarson urged “Begin your service in your own homes and within
your own families. These are the relationships that can be eternal. Even
if—maybe especially if—your family situation is less than perfect, you can find
ways to serve, lift, and strengthen.”
Yesterday on a social media site, a relative of a friend
of mine posted a vitriolic condemnation of General Conference and the Church in
general. Each reply to that post, obviously from family members, was one of
love, strength, and uplifting. Truly it was an embodiment of what our leaders
are asking of us.
1. President Brigham Young guided the rescue of the
Martin and Willie handcart companies.
Having just watched the Sunday morning session of
conference, I am struck with the similarity of those Saints driving down from
Georgia to Florida to help, and those who left their own devastation to drive
further south to help those harder hit than them. If we wanted a modern-day
parallel to the rescue of the 5 handcart companies, this would certainly
qualify. And hasn’t Conference been about rescue, not necessarily physical, but
spiritual? The handcart pioneers were up to 500 miles away from Salt Lake in
desperate need of food and struggling through impossible terrain, with winter
full upon them.
“It was in … desperate and terrible
circumstances—hungry, exhausted, their clothes thin and ragged—that [the
handcart companies] were found by the rescue party. As the rescuers appeared on
the western horizon breaking a trail through the snow, they seemed as angels of
mercy. And indeed they were. The beleaguered emigrants shouted for joy, some of
them. Others, too weak to shout, simply wept and wept and wept.[2]
Brigham Young had interrupted a meeting in the Tabernacle
to dispatch rescuers, and, once they started arriving, again urged the Saints
to care for those who had survived. It is interesting to note that this crisis
spurred the renewed organization of Relief Societies from Salt Lake to Provo to
Cedar City. They had been disbanded when the Saints left Nauvoo, but now the
need was greater than ever.
The pioneer Relief Society women
responded valiantly to President Young’s call for rescuers. For example, the Deseret
News reported in late October 1856 that “a Female Relief Society was organized
in Lake City [American Fork] for the benefit of the poor coming on this season;
and not only for the poor now, but as long as humanity needs relief.” As the
Lake City Relief Society sisters expressed, the 1856 relief effort was not
merely about collecting supplies to take to those on the plains. It included
caring for the Saints once they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. On Sunday,
November 30, the day the Martin handcart company finally arrived, Brigham Young
declared: “I do not want to see them put into houses by themselves; I want to
have them distributed in this city among the families that have good and
comfortable houses. . . . Prayer is good, but when baked potatoes and pudding
and milk are needed, prayer will not supply their place.”[3]
2. The Savior rescues us through His atoning sacrifice.
Can we put this in a spiritual perspective. Sometimes
what goes on between our ears needs rescuing. Elder Zwick talked about the
young man who was killed in an ATV accident and his daily reminder to put
Christ at the center of his life. That all goes on inside our heads, to be
translated into actions that will bring us closer to Him. And what goes on
inside our heads is often a product of what we input and how we process what we
input. Sorry for being a bit philosophical, and hopefully not obscure, but it
is the Holy Spirit who can help us make sense of the turmoil the world creates
in our minds.
President Hinckley again puts it into perspective
“In our own helplessness, [the Savior becomes
our rescuer, saving us from damnation and bringing us to eternal life. In times
of despair, in seasons of loneliness and fear, He is there on the horizon to
bring succor and comfort and assurance and faith. He is our King, our Savior,
our Deliverer, our Lord and our God.”
So we must first, ourselves, be rescued from that which
would turn us away from Christ.
3. As Latter-day Saints, we are to rescue those in need.
It’s like the safety instructions on an airplane—if you
are travelling with a small child, and the oxygen masks come down, first you
are instructed to put the mask on yourself and then help the child. This seems
counterintuitive, but if you pass out while you are putting the mask on the
child, who is going to help the child? We are most effective we our inner
vessel is clean. Sis. Oscarson quoted Sis. Linda Burton’s story about the
Relief Society President who gathered quilts and drove them from England to the
Saints in Kosovo. When she had returned home, the Spirit told her, “What you
have done is a very good thing. Now go home, walk across the street, and serve
your neighbor!”[4]
At the beginning of next year, the first Sunday, third
hour, will be dedicated to working out in our meetings what we can do to help
those in need in our own neighborhood. These rescue stories are on a grand
stage with many people pitching in to help. Harder, perhaps, is what we can do
as individuals on a daily basis. Sis Oscarson suggested we ask ourselves: “Who
needs me today; how can I contribute.”
A final quote from Pres. Hinckley
“Our message is so imperative, when
you stop to think that the salvation, the eternal salvation of the world, rests
upon the shoulders of this Church. When all is said and done, if the world is
going to be saved, we have to do it. There is no escaping from that. No other
people in the history of the world have received the kind of mandate that we
have received. We are responsible for all who have lived upon the earth. That
involves our family history and temple work. We are responsible for all who now
live upon the earth, and that involves our missionary work. And we are going to
be responsible for all who will yet live upon the earth” (Church News,
3 July 1999, 3).
Additional resources for this lesson
- “Five
Things You Might Not Know about the Handcart Rescue”: This gallery
highlights some key facts about the rescue of the Willie and Martin
handcart companies.
- Willie
and Martin Remembered: This online exhibit gives artistic
depictions of the two handcart companies’ experiences.
- “How
the Rescue of Handcart Pioneers Helped Revive the Relief Society”:
This article discusses the connection between the handcart rescue and
Relief Society history.
- “Time Line: Rescues
of the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies and the Hodgetts and Hunt
Wagon Companies”: This time line helps lay out the order of events for
the companies and rescuers.
- “Relief
Society and Revolution”: This short story highlights the work of
Relief Society sisters who made great sacrifices to care for others during
the Mexican Revolution.
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