#35 "A Mission of Saving"

D&C 4:3-7; 18:10-16; 52:40; 81:5-6; 138:58 Our Heritage p 77-80

*pass out paper and pencil to everyone.
Write down on one side of your paper a time when someone helped you and underneath that I want you to write what qualities you saw in the person who helped you as they were helping you.
Then on the other side of the paper write a time when someone thanked you for doing something for them-write what you did that solicited that ‘thank you’ then write the feelings you felt as you were being thanked.

If you can’t think of a time when you helped someone-IT HAS PERHAPS BEEN TOO LONG SINCE YOU DID SO! THEREFORE-GET BUSY!!!!

Seriously though if you can’t think of a time when you did something and were thanked think of something you could do for someone that someone might be grateful for.

While you are doing that I want to read a couple of scriptures that may help you put words to those feelings you had about the person who helped you or you had about the person that you helped.

D&C 4: 5-6 Faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work. Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
Moroni 7:45-4845 And acharity suffereth long, and is bkind, and cenvieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily dprovoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But acharity is the pure blove of Christ, and it endureth cforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, apray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true bfollowers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall cbe like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be dpurified even as he is pure. Amen.


President 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” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1996, 118; or Ensign, Nov. 1996, 86).

Think of what he meant, when he said, “the stories speak of the very essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ”; as I read the account of the general conference where Brigham Young sent out the rescue party for the handcart companies, I want you to think of how you would’ve reacted, or how you would react today if the same call was to be issued in this upcoming conference.
*Also as I read this account think of some of the things that happened, ponder the attitude of the people, look for the qualities the people showed throughout this ordeal. Write them at the bottom of your paper see if they don’t coincide with your own experiences.

The following account as told by President Gordon B. Hinckley:
“I take you back to the general conference of October 1856. On Saturday of that conference, Franklin D. Richards and a handful of associates arrived in the valley. They had traveled from Winter Quarters with strong teams and light wagons and had been able to make good time. Brother Richards immediately sought out President Young. He reported that there were hundreds of men, women, and children scattered over the long trail. … They were in desperate trouble. Winter had come early. Snow-laden winds were howling across the highlands. … Our people were hungry; their carts and their wagons were breaking down; their oxen dying. The people themselves were dying. All of them would perish unless they were rescued.
“I think President Young did not sleep that night. I think visions of those destitute, freezing, dying people paraded through his mind. The next morning he came to the old Tabernacle which stood on this square. He said to the people:
“ ‘I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may speak. … It is this. … Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with handcarts, 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 tomorrow, nor until the next day, for 60 good mule teams and 12 or 15 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 12 tons of flour and 40 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. Go and bring in those people now on the plains’ (in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [1960], 120–21).
“That afternoon, food, bedding, and clothing in great quantities were assembled by the women. The next morning, horses were shod and wagons were repaired and loaded. The following morning, … 16 mule teams pulled out and headed eastward. By the end of October there were 250 teams on the road to give relief” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1996, 117–18; or Ensign, Nov. 1996, 85–86).
President Hinckley shared this account of the rescue:
“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.
“There was now food to eat and some warmer clothing. But the suffering was not over, nor would it ever end in mortality. Limbs had been frozen, and the gangrenous flesh sloughed off from the bones.
“The carts were abandoned, and the survivors were crowded into the wagons of the rescuers. The long rough journey of three hundred, four hundred, even five hundred miles between them and this valley was especially slow and tedious because of the storms. On November 30, 104 wagons, loaded with suffering human cargo, came into the Salt Lake Valley. Word of their expected arrival had preceded them. It was Sunday, and again the Saints were gathered in the Tabernacle. Brigham Young stood before the congregation and said:
“ ‘As soon as this meeting is dismissed I want the brethren and sisters to repair to their homes. …
“ ‘The afternoon meeting will be omitted, for I wish the sisters to … prepare to give those who have just arrived a mouthful of something to eat, and to wash them and nurse them. …
“ ‘Some you will find with their feet frozen to their ankles; some are frozen to their knees and some have their hands frosted … ; we want you to receive them as your own children, and to have the same feeling for them’ (quoted in Hafen, Handcarts to Zion, p. 139)” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1991, 76–77; or Ensign, Nov. 1991, 54).
Does this story illustrate accurately what our religion is all about?
Does Christ’s life exemplify what our religion is all about?
Think about your experiences again. Do your experiences resemble the attitude, and sacrifice similar to the one our Savior gave to us, continually gives to us? Or is yours attitude sour and grumpy when you think of the “to do list”?
I have always truly loved the story of the 3 YM who sacrificed their lives to carry most of the handcart members across that river.
‘The handcarts moved on November 3 and reached the [Sweetwater] river, filled with floating ice. To cross would require more courage and fortitude, it seemed, than human nature could muster. Women shrank back and men wept. Some pushed through, but others were unequal to the ordeal.
“ ‘Three eighteen-year-old boys belonging to the relief party came to the rescue; and to the astonishment of all who saw, carried nearly every member of that ill-fated handcart company across the snow-bound stream. The strain was so terrible, and the exposure so great, that in later years all the boys died from the effects of it. When President Brigham Young heard of this heroic act, he wept like a child, and later declared publicly, “That act alone will ensure C. Allen Huntington, George W. Grant, and David P. Kimball an everlasting salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God, worlds without end” ’ (LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [Glendale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1960], pp. 132–33).
Don’t you just love that statement, “that act alone will ensure…them and everlasting salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God!”
What act have you done lately that exemplifies that same sacrifice? Home/visit teaching for 6 months straight? Reached out to the ‘one’ in any of your meetings? Loved just one of your neighbors unconditionally?
Think about your religion, have you lived it lately?
President Hinckley said,“I am grateful that those days of pioneering are behind us. I am thankful that we do not have brethren and sisters stranded in the snow, freezing and dying, while trying to get to this, their Zion in the mountains. But there are people, not a few, whose circumstances are desperate and who cry out for help and relief.
“There are so many who are hungry and destitute across this world who need help. … Ours is a great and solemn duty to reach out and help them, to lift them, to feed them if they are hungry, to nurture their spirits if they thirst for truth and righteousness.
“There are so many young people who wander aimlessly and walk the tragic trail of drugs, gangs, immorality, and the whole brood of ills that accompany these things. There are widows who long for friendly voices and that spirit of anxious concern which speaks of love. There are those who were once warm in the faith, but whose faith has grown cold. Many of them wish to come back but do not know quite how to do it. They need friendly hands reaching out to them. With a little effort, many of them can be brought back to feast again at the table of the Lord.
“My brethren and sisters, I would hope, I would pray that each of us … would resolve to seek those who need help, who are in desperate and difficult circumstances, and lift them in the spirit of love into the embrace of the Church, where strong hands and loving hearts will warm them, comfort them, sustain them, and put them on the way of happy and productive lives” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1996, 118; or Ensign, Nov. 1996, 86).

The Lord asks us in 3 Nephi 18:32 to be the means of bringing salvation to someone…anyone. He only asks us to do what He himself has done for each of us and continues to do for us daily. I love my Savior, I love those who have acted for the Savior in helping me with so many things, thereby becoming my Savior when I needed them most. I love the feelings I get when I help others, especially when I realize, that must be how the Lord feels when He helps me. I am thankful for this gospel and how it is all about saving lives, and hope we can all continue to live this way, in the name of Jesus Christ amen.