Walk in All the Ordinances of the Lord

To my son,

               This week in conjunction with our Come, Follow Me reading we talked about the pioneers and the great faith they had to cross the plains. The Saints traveled from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters in Nebraska during 1846. The journey proved to be much more difficult than they anticipated—“slow and miserable” as the manual describes. Their wagons consistently got stuck in the mud and they had a really hard time making any progress. Because the going was so slow, they weren’t able to make it that year to the Rocky Mountains where they were headed. As they wintered over there they were discouraged and surely wondered why the Lord had let them suffer and why so many had died. In the middle of this dark time, Brigham Young received the revelation that we now know as Doctrine and Covenants 136. In it the Lord gave His people this magnificent promise: “I am he who led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; and my arm is stretched out in the last days, to save my people Israel” (v22). Just as the Lord had miraculously led the children of Israel out of Egypt in ancient times and took them eventually to the promised land, so too He would lead His Saints in the latter days and save them from their enemies. Indeed He questioned them, “Have I not delivered you from your enemies?” Indeed, though they had suffered much, the Lord had delivered them from their enemies in Nauvoo and He was promising that He would take them to their promised land as they promised to “keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God” (v2).

               One of those pioneers who had incredible faith in the Lord at this time was Mary Fielding Smith, the widow of Hyrum Smith who had been killed in Nauvoo. After Hyrum’s death she had care of his five children from his first wife plus his two children of their own. She expressed her faith in a letter to her brother, “Though I have been left, for near six months, in widowhood, in the time of great affliction, and was called to take joyfully or otherwise the spoiling of almost all our goods, … yet I do not feel the least discouraged.” She went west with the pioneers and made it to Winter Quarters. During the winter she lost some of her oxen, and one man urged her to stay behind instead of coming with the first group, saying: “If you start out in this manner, you will be a burden on the company the whole way, and I will have to carry you along or leave you on the way.” She was not to be swayed, though, and responded, “I will beat you to the valley and will ask no help from you either.” That trek was indeed very difficult, and she had many trials of faith related to the few oxen she did have which were crucial to they travel. One day her oxen strayed from the camp and she lost them. They searched and searched for them, but they could not find them. Mary knelt down in prayer and asked the Lord for help. Soon after this she found the oxen by some willow trees.

Another famous story of her oxen was related this way: “One day one of her best oxen became very sick, lay down, and was apparently near death. Had this happened, she could not have continued on the journey to the Valley. Mary got a bottle of consecrated oil and asked two brethren to administer to the sick ox. Although administration to the sick had only been used for humans, Mary believed that the Lord would heal the animal that she needed so desperately. After the blessing, the ox got up and was soon ready to pull the wagon again. Two more times other oxen became ill, and twice more Mary asked the brethren to bless them. Each time, they were healed instantly. Despite all difficulties, Mary and her family arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 23, 1848, a full day before the rest of the company.” She wouldn’t let anything stop her from making it to the Valley, and with her faith in the Lord she was able to heal her animals and overcome all her obstacles. I hope that we can remember her devotion and that of so many others who did covenant to “walk in all the ordinances of the Lord” (v4).

Love,

Dad