A couple if years ago my family and I finally got to make the pilgrimage to Nauvoo. The place fascinated me, and I especially loved walking down Parley's Street, the road the Saints walked down toward the Mississippi and their 1846 point of departure for the West. Along the way there are plaques with quotations from the journals of the Saints who had crossed there then. It was very moving to stand at the water's edge and imagine what it must have been like for them to look across the river at that time of year, with their homes and the temple behind them. I thought about that when I read this quotation from Eliza R. Snow in today's lesson materials:
One of the plaques along Parley's Street has this from Bathsheba Smith:
From time to time I forget that these were real people who had real lives, and made sacrifices that I'm afraid I wouldn't have the guts to make. Today's lesson was a good reminder.
“Mothers gave birth to offspring under almost every variety of circumstances imaginable, except those to which they had been accustomed; some in tents, others in wagons—in rain-storms and in snow-storms. I heard of one birth which occurred under the rude shelter of a hut, the sides of which were formed of blankets fastened to poles stuck in the ground, with a bark roof through which the rain was dripping. Kind sisters stood holding dishes to catch the water as it fell, thus protecting the new-comer and its mother from a shower-bath. …
“Let it be remembered that the mothers of these wilderness-born babes were not … accustomed to roam the forest and brave the storm and tempest. … Most of them were born and educated in the Eastern States—had there embraced the gospel as taught by Jesus and his apostles, and, for the sake of their religion, had gathered with the saints, and under trying circumstances had assisted, by their faith, patience and energies, in making Nauvoo what its name indicates, ‘the beautiful.’ There they had lovely homes, decorated with flowers and enriched with choice fruit trees, just beginning to yield plentifully.
“To these homes … they had just bade a final adieu, and with what little of their substance could be packed into one, two, and in some instances, three wagons, had started out, desertward” (in Edward W. Tullidge, The Women of Mormondom [1877], 307–8).
“Let it be remembered that the mothers of these wilderness-born babes were not … accustomed to roam the forest and brave the storm and tempest. … Most of them were born and educated in the Eastern States—had there embraced the gospel as taught by Jesus and his apostles, and, for the sake of their religion, had gathered with the saints, and under trying circumstances had assisted, by their faith, patience and energies, in making Nauvoo what its name indicates, ‘the beautiful.’ There they had lovely homes, decorated with flowers and enriched with choice fruit trees, just beginning to yield plentifully.
“To these homes … they had just bade a final adieu, and with what little of their substance could be packed into one, two, and in some instances, three wagons, had started out, desertward” (in Edward W. Tullidge, The Women of Mormondom [1877], 307–8).
One of the plaques along Parley's Street has this from Bathsheba Smith:
“My last act in that precious spot was to tidy the rooms, sweep up the floor and set the broom in its accustomed place behind the door. Then with emotions in my heart I gently closed the door and faced an unknown future, faced it with faith in God and with no less assurance of the ultimate establishment of the Gospel in the West and of its true enduring principles, than I had felt in those trying scenes in Missouri.”
From time to time I forget that these were real people who had real lives, and made sacrifices that I'm afraid I wouldn't have the guts to make. Today's lesson was a good reminder.
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