Observe Their Covenants by Sacrifice

Recently in the temple I was excited to run into a friend from high school who I hadn’t seen in about two decades. For the past ten years we have lived within ten minutes from each other and didn’t know it. Yesterday we got our families together and had a chance to catch up, and he told of how he often travels internationally for work. He was even in Israel when the recent war broke out which must have been a frightening experience for him and his family. With five children, his frequent departures are surely challenging for his wife in particular. I occasionally also travel for work which I know places a burden on my wife caring for the children and keeping the peace at home. But these short separations are small compared to the sacrifice of Louisa and Addison Pratt that Elder David P. Homer spoke about in the most recent general conference. He summarized their story this way: “On June 1, 1843, Addison Pratt left Nauvoo, Illinois, to preach the gospel in the Hawaiian Islands, leaving his wife, Louisa Barnes Pratt, to care for their young family. In Nauvoo, as persecutions intensified, forcing the Saints to leave, and later at Winter Quarters as they prepared to migrate to the Salt Lake Valley, Louisa faced the decision of whether to make the journey. It would have been easier to stay and to wait for Addison to return than to travel alone. On both occasions, she sought guidance from the prophet, Brigham Young, who encouraged her to go. Despite the great difficulty and her personal reluctance, she successfully made the journey each time.”

Louisa arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 20, 1848, having traveled over 1200 miles with her four daughters without her husband. A week after their arrival, Addison too arrived at the end of his missionary service. The Saints book describes their reunion: “As sixteen-year-old Ellen scrubbed the Rogerses’ floor on her hands and knees, a family friend stepped into the cabin. ‘Ellen,’ he said, ‘here is your father.’ Ellen sprang to her feet as a rough, sunburned man entered the room. ‘Why, Pa,’ Ellen said, taking his hands into hers, ‘have you come?’ After more than five years, she almost did not recognize him. Frances and Lois soon burst into the room, and Addison’s unkempt appearance surprised them. They called for Ann, who was playing outside. She entered the cabin, eyeing Addison warily and keeping her hands behind her back. ‘That is Pa,’ one of her sisters said. They tried to get Ann to shake his hand, but she ran out of the room. ‘It is not,’ she cried. Louisa soon came in and saw Addison’s travel-worn face. He looked almost like a stranger, and she hardly knew what to say. Sadness swept over her as she realized how much her family had changed in his absence. Nothing short of building the kingdom of God, she thought, could justify such a long separation.” What a sacrifice! They gave up five years together so he could preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Hawaii.  

                   Elder Homer summarized his feelings about the story of the Pratts this way: “Louisa’s story has deeply inspired me. I admire her willingness to set aside her personal preferences, her ability to trust God, and how exercising her faith helped her to see the situation differently. She has reminded me that we have a loving Father in Heaven, who cares for us wherever we are, and that we can trust Him more than anyone or anything else.” Gratefully we do not generally have to separate families like that today for the gospel, but the Lord still requires us to make sacrifices and give up our “personal preferences” for Him. The Savior said in modern revelation: “Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me” (Doctrine and Covenants 97:8). We keep our covenants with Him by making sacrifices of our time and means and ultimately our wills to serve Him. To be accepted of Him we must be willing to put our trust in Him enough to give up time to serve in our callings or give up money to pay our tithing or give up the world’s entertainment to keep ourselves clean before Him. Most importantly, He wants us to give up our sins so that we can come to know Him as Aaron promised the Lamanite king: “If thou desirest this thing, if thou wilt bow down before God, yea, if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest.” The father of Lamoni prayed what we should all pray: “O God… if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day” (Alma 22:18). As we make whatever sacrifice He requires, we can indeed come to know Him.