Rescuing those on the Plains

Rescuing those on the Rescuing those on the PlainsPlains

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Big Lou’s HeroBig Lou’s Hero

Sent in by Sarah Malcolm

Three RescuesThree Rescues

1. Rescue the Saints

Levi SavageLevi Savage

"Brethren and sisters, what I have said I know to be true; but, seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you, will help you all I can, will work with you, will rest with you, will suffer with you, and if necessary I will die with you. May God in his mercy bless and preserve us. Amen"

October 5October 5thth, 1856, 1856

I will now give this people the subject and the text for the elders who may speak today and during the Conference. It is this: On the fifth 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 this people. We must bring them in from the plains, …

"I shall call upon the bishops this day—I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until 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.

"You may rise up now, and give your names”

Brigham YoungBrigham YoungAddress November 30Address November 30

The afternoon meeting will be omitted, for I wish the sisters to go home and prepare to give those who have just arrived a mouthful of something to eat", and to wash them and nurse them up. . . . Were I in the situation of those persons who have just come in, . . .

I would give more for a dish of pudding or a baked potato and salt, . . . than I would for all your prayers, though you were to stay here all afternoon and pray. Prayer is good, but when baked potatoes and milk are needed, prayer will not supply their place.

QuestionQuestion

Who do you know who needs to be rescued?

Psalm of AmmonAlma 26:12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I

am weak…13 Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has

he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us…

15 Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light…

17 Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state?

19 …why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal despair?

20 Oh, my soul, almost as it were, fleeth at the thought. Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his great mercy hath brought us over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls.

21 And now behold, my brethren, what natural man is there that knoweth these things? I say unto you, there is none that knoweth these things, save it be the penitent.

Just one story…Mary GobleJust one story…Mary Goble"My mother never got well. . . . She died between the

Little and Big Mountains. . . . She was forty-three years of age. . . . We arrived in Salt Lake City nine o'clock at night the eleventh of December, 1856. Three out of the four that were living were frozen. My mother was dead in the wagon. . . .

"Early next morning Brigham Young came. . . . When he saw our condition, our feet frozen and our mother dead, tears rolled down his cheeks. . . . The doctor amputated my toes . . . while the sisters were dressing mother for her grave. . . . That afternoon she was buried.

"I have often thought of my mother's words before we left England. 'Polly, I want to go to Zion while my children are small so that they can be raised in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.' "

The Last Crossing of the Sweetwater



2. Rescue the Rescuers

Capt Capt Edward Edward

Martin’s CoMartin’s Co

Rations reduced to 3 oz of flour a day

Devil’s Devil’s GateGate

Handcart company’s personal belongings were left at the base with brethren to guard them, and retrieved the next spring

Daniel JonesDaniel JonesIn Feb, the first Indian came to our camp…At the time of his arrival

we were out of everything, having not only eaten the hides taken from the cattle killed, but had eaten the wrappings from the wagon-tongues, old moccasin-soles were eaten also, and a piece of buffalo hide that had been used for a foot mat for two months…

-A few weeks later-

When [another] company arrived, some of our boys were getting the pack saddle soaked up ready for cooking the hide covering. Boyd always calls me the man that ate the pack saddle. But this is slander. The kindness of him and others prevented me from eating my part of it. I think if they had not arrived, probably I would have taken a wing or leg, but don’t think I would have eaten the whole of it.. As it was, the saddle was allowed to dry up again, and may be in existence yet and doing well so far as I know…

Arza Hinckley and Ephraim Hanks



2. Rescue the Rescuers

3. Provide the saving ordinances of the Temple

33rdrd Rescue RescueWithin the boundaries of the Riverton stake is Rock Creek, where the

bodies of 15 members of the Willie Company are buried. "A few years ago the spirit of the Willie people began to rest upon

me," Pres. Lorimer said at a stake-wide meeting… He said he had asked stake members to pray about the Willie Project. At first, he thought the inspiration he had felt was to petition the Lord for help in acquiring the site at Rock Creek, where the graves are located…

Speaking at the stake-wide meeting, Pres. Kim W. McKinnon, second counselor in the stake presidency, told the events that made them understand what it was they were to accomplish. They had heard about Family Search, a set of computer tools the Church has developed for family history research, …

The stake presidency felt an urgency to acquire Family Search for the two family history centers in the stake. The urgency was so great that Pres. McKinnon made a trip to Salt Lake City to iron out obstacles and expedite procedures so the stake could acquire the computer software…

Riverton Stake Cont.Riverton Stake Cont.Pres. McKinnon related, "I asked Pres. Lorimer, 'Why have I felt so

pushed about these computers? Why the great sense of urgency?'"Pres. Lorimer looked at me and said, 'It is the Willie people.'"The response of the presidency was, 'What made you think of that?'

Pres. Lorimer indicated that the words had come into his mind in a distinct and unconfused manner that he had never before experienced. The entire stake presidency then knew that the Willie Handcart Site at Rock Creek was only a small portion of the urging they had felt over the years."

They found that of the 15-plus one additional Willie pioneer who died just prior to entering the Salt Lake Valley-all needed some type of temple work to be done.

"We were embarrassed and humbled that these people had been waiting for over 135 years for all this to come together," Pres. McKinnon said.

"The sad question came: why hasn't the work been done for these brave people who died on the high plains of Wyoming trying to get to a temple? Our research indicates that many of them did not have families who were members of the Church, and as such became lost souls with no kin to do their work. It is worthy of note that 100 percent of those that died need to be sealed to their parents."

The “Third” RescueThe “Third” RescuePres. John Levi Kitchen, first counselor in the stake presidency, told of a 10-year-

old girl from Denmark who was traveling with a family in the Willie Company to join her sister in Salt Lake City. She had been gathering sagebrush at Rock Creek to help keep the family warm and to cook the evening meal. Weary from her work and cold from the freezing temperature, she sat down by the handcart wheel with her arms full of sagebrush. Her frozen body was found the next morning and was buried along with 12 others who died during the night along Rock Creek.

Her name had not been listed on the register of the handcart company, and no record of temple work for her had been found prior to the research undertaken by the Riverton stake leaders.

"We asked the brethren in Salt Lake, 'Why now?' and 'Why us? They said this apparently wasn't possible until the resources were developed to allow it to happen. 'They died within the confines of your stake, and Pres. Lorimer is their stake president. Now that the time is right it should appropriately come to him

Pres. Lorimer told of a telephone conversation he had with President Hinckley regarding the project. "He became quite upset and asked me why the work for these people has not been done. And I said, 'President Hinckley, I don't know.' And he said, 'President, don't you stop until it's finished.'

Bro WebsterBro Webster"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…

I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company."

Rescuing those on the Plains

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