How examples of our Pioneer Ancestors can help us with our problems.

I found the following essay written by my father while I was cleaning out my files. It ends abruptly and as such lets one draw his own conclusion as to how our life compares to that of the pioneer ancestors that we descend from. So this is a letter to each of you from your great grandfather. I have edited the essay and any explanation I have enclosed in brackets[]. I have also italicized all the quotations. 

Of course we have our free agency so no matter how applicable the principle is it will not help unless we decide to make it a part of our lives.

Honesty, thrift, abiding faith in God and His goodness, industry, a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and devotion to its principles against all odds characterized the pioneers of Utah and the inter-mountain west, and sets a goal for us at this time.

The youth of the church today are among God's most choice and valiant spirits, held in reserve to come forth at this time to meet some of the greatest challenges the world has ever faced. Drugs, immorality, abortion, dishonesty, cheating, infidelity, pornography, profanity, blasphemy and the break up of the family are everywhere portrayed as the in thing[to do].

Our youth need all the help, encouragement and role models they can have to meet and overcome the problems of a world that has almost lost its sense of moral and ethical values.

Compare our 40-hour workweek with the entry in the journal of Marriner Wood Merrill: “I mowed grass by hand, as there was not such a thing as a mowing machine in Utah in those days. I cut the [wild] grass, which was very light, for one-third in the stack. [This means that it was someone else’s hay that he was cutting and for payment he got to keep one-third of the hay that he cut.] I cut an average of one ton a day and mowed every day except Sunday for 30 days, thus securing 10 tons of good wild hay in the stack. It was worth $100 if I had wanted to sell it. But I did not earn it by working from 7 A.M. in the morning until 6 o’clock in the evening, but I started at 5 o'clock in the morning and worked until dark with time out only for meals which consisted of bread and milk for breakfast, milk and bread for dinner with some greens and mush and milk for supper.”

When I see what many newly wed couples think they need for their first home I am reminded of Marriner Wood Merrill and what he wrote in his journal: "I commenced to build my house. It was in dimensions 16 x 24 feet. I continued working on it until it was finished, working all the daylight hours with Sarah my wife helping me with all her power. On the 16^th of September I had my house so we could move into it, with the roof on and the floor down but I needed to make and hang the doors and put in the windows after we had moved into our house. On October 24^th, Phoebe Ann was born in our own house.

David S. Stiles with his wife and one child moved into our house on October 26^th to stay during the following winter."

From another history: "Marion Joseph Kerr was born 6 Nov. 1864 in Richmond, Cache County, Utah, son of Robert Marion Kerr and Nancy Jane Rawlins. They were among the first settlers in Richmond. Their home was a carpet covered wagon box where Marion Joseph, their first child was born.”

Education has been a matter of interest not only locally, but also nationally and is playing some part in the presidential campaign. From an early history: “One of the first concerns of the parents in Ora, Idaho was a school. There was no county [school] district, so a tuition school was held. William E. Gee was one of the early teachers, He took fence posts, pigs, chickens, garden produce and wheat for pay. There were times when the snow was 4 feet deep and the teacher and pupils had to get to school on skis.”

 

Many of the early schools had just one room and one teacher and all grades. Textbooks were limited to what was available. In some of the better off schools there was a series of 5 readers [The McGuffey readers]. Pupils did not go from one grade to another but from one reader to another, but somehow they managed to do a much better job of teaching reading, writing and arithmetic than our present school system. Have you recently tried to read the handwriting of high school graduates or had them figure out a simple arithmetic problem without a computer [or calculator]?

From Marriner Wood Merrill's journal we read: "The county where I was born and spent my early childhood was sparsely settled and nearly all the people were very poor. My parents being very poor and schools being scattered and far between is some excuse for my neglect of my early education.”

However his second wife was a daughter of Alexander Scoby Standley, a well educated man and one who was interested in seeing that his children had the best education available. She became Mariner Merrill’s teacher and taught him what he needed to know to be a very successful businessman, apostle of the Lord and first president of the Logan temple.

One of the primary concerns of many of the youth is clothing. They have to have a new dress for every dance, the latest fashions of clothes no matter how unattractive they may be, the latest styles of foot wear or name brand shoes.

Listen to Charles W. Nibely's account of early days in Cache County. “Mother and I gleaned wheat every day so we could have flour for bread. Walking in the wheat stubble gleaning wheat all day bare footed was not altogether a picnic. [To glean wheat one would walk through the field and pick up the individual kernels of wheat or perhaps a head with more kernels that were left after the men with the sickles and scythes had finished cutting and bundling the wheat field.] I had an old pair of home made shoes that first winter but how I got them I cannot remember. I think I was 16 before I got a coat. Previous to that I had nothing but a shirt and pants or overalls. My first pants were made from a tent which we used in crossing the plains and which had grown so stiff and hard being weather-beaten in so many storms and a shirt made of the same material that when it touched my back or sides, it nearly took the skin off but it was the best I had and all that I had.”

Contrast present day entertainment with this entry: “At the time we couldn't get out of town for entertainment. We had to make our own. It was customary at that time for boys and girls to form their own groups of crowd as we called them. Usually on Sunday we would get together at one home. Sometimes it was just the girls and sometimes the boys would join us. We would play the piano and sing, play games and sometimes have a candy pull. Hendricks had a dance hall above their confectionery store and a player piano that would play a few tunes for a nickel. Often after school we would stop there and dance and then go to Maud Stoddard's and have a 5-cent hot dog.”

Here the letter stops. I will let you ponder the comparison. You may yet go through tough and austere times. Remember that if they did hard things you can do them as well.

Love,

Grandpa

Why I Believe

By Laurence Gee - Written March 2003

After receiving the book masterminded by Elder Neil A. Maxwell and reading many of the chapters therein I felt impressed to add my voice to those already published. Not to have this published, but as a gift to my children and my posterity.

My ancestors have been in the church since the early days of the restored church in their countries of origin. Each has contributed to my gene pool and they have paved the way for my membership and ultimate faith in the church. I have read a few of their histories, but what I was looking for from them, I have not found. I wanted a statement of testimony from them as to their belief and why they came into the church and a bit about their life as a disciple of Christ. Thus this is the impetus for my writing at this time. I hope that my children and grandchildren and all of my posterity will read this and know that I do believe, even know of the surety of the facts pertaining to the life of Christ, his divinity and the restoration of His church in these the latter days.

If I had written this a few years ago, that which was written would have been different than what I pen today. That which I would write in ten or twenty years would also be different than that which is set forth in these paragraphs. The reason for this is not that the testimony of the basic facts has changed, but that the experiences that I have had and will have adds to the detail of the picture painted.

I was born a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My parents were both members of the church and as such were active participating members of the church. I do not ever remember a time when my parents were not actively engaged in the restored gospel. My earliest memories were of the family and church.  

As most young people I accepted what my parents taught me and did not question the veracity of their statements. The instruction given at church reinforced those teachings. I learned the stories from the Bible, and particularly those from the Old Testament. I knew them as well as the other stories that I heard in my youth and accepted them as true while the other stories such as ‘Little Black Sambo” and others like it I realized were fiction. I was able to believe and discern by some power or gift that was beyond my youthful ability to comprehend. I was fortunate that I did not have friends or people around me who questioned my belief or mocked me because of my beliefs.

During my teenage years I lived in predominately non-LDS communities. I was active in the church and enjoyed the social aspect, which the church afforded. In Denver, Colorado the young people of the ward used to get together often after the evening meeting and play games and socialize. I thus gained an appreciation for the social role that the church plays in the lives of people. For me, it filled a need in my developing personality.

After we moved to Lander, Wyoming I did not have that circle of friends of like faith and values. My brothers and I, along with a few girls from the Alexander, Ririe, Farthing and Yack families, made up the members of the church in the schools and community. Small units of the church tend to foster cohesiveness and so I belonged to a small, but intimate group of believers. We made the church the center of our life and I never felt excluded from that environment. 

Up to this point I relied on my family and the church for my assurance of the truthfulness of the doctrine and the church that proclaimed that doctrine. I was fortunate to live in Lander at that time. We had full time missionaries in Lander and they came to our house for dinner often on Sunday, as well as other times of the week. I do not remember them coming to church, but I am sure that they did. My memories were of dinner with the missionaries and playing basketball with them as well as learning how to play chess from them. We would often discuss the doctrine of the church and read appropriate scriptures. We would bring up answers to the questions that were posed by those not of our faith and reason what would be convincing to them.

Because there were so few members of the Aaronic Priesthood in our branch, all of us met together for priesthood meeting. During the last year or two of my high school time we studied a series of lessons by James Barker on the Great Apostasy. This was a detailed examination of the early Christian church and the historical documents of the early church. I became very interested in the early Christian writings and the Apologetic writings of that time. I read the priesthood manual and learned about the falling away from the true church. The teacher was brother Harold Farthing, who had no education in the subject, but prepared the lessons and led the discussions.

After I was ordained to the office of an Elder, I went to the quorum meetings in Ogden. I was attending Weber College and living with my aunt Alta. The teacher there was a very learned man and gave what I thought were very interesting lessons, but most of the class members could have been less than interested in the subject.

I enjoyed attending church and went to all the meetings. My aunt Alta told me, when I went to live with her, that my parents expected me to attend church. After I had been there a while she said that I didn’t have to go to all the meetings if I didn’t want to, but I did and I attended all the meetings. After I was ordained to be an Elder, I missed the opportunity to bless the sacrament that I had when I was a Priest.

I wanted to go on a mission and never do remember a time when that was not my desire, although at the time of this writing I do not remember much about the process of submitting my application. I was very pleased to be called to the East German Mission with headquarters in Berlin. It was on my mission when I began to earnestly study the gospel and read the scriptures. We had read the Book of Mormon as a family at home sitting around the dinner table after supper. I remember that, for me, it was a chore to be endured and not cherished. 

I did attend the Institute of Religion at Weber College when I was there, but do not remember much about it other than the fact that Joseph Fielding Smith spoke at the graduation.

While I was on my mission I read The Articles of Faith, Jesus The Christ and The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Perhaps the most impressive thing that I read was a series of articles in the Improvement Era written by Hugh Nibley on the apostasy. I don’t remember how I came upon them, but I was so intrigued by them that I could not get enough. I read and reread them and also read the footnotes. I determined to be knowledgeable in the scriptures and the gospel. I read the bible from cover to cover in German and also the Book of Mormon as well as the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. I read the Old Testament Apocrypha as well and tried to find some of the books that Hugh Nibley referred to in his writings. I found an old bible with the parallel translations in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and German, but I did not have enough money to buy the set.

I was exposed to some anti-Mormon literature while on my mission, but I did not seem to be influenced by it. Although I could not answer all of the arguments, I had enough faith not to let it bother my belief. I had reassurances from the spirit to let me know what my understanding and learning did not know. Time has confirmed this position.

After I returned from my mission I had the opportunity to take classes from Hugh Nibley at BYU. I enjoyed the experience and realized then that I would have to make a choice between medicine and academic pursuits and I chose the former.

When Alice and I were married we lived in Salt Lake and attended the University student ward. Oscar McConkie was the bishop and Elder Neal A. Maxwell was a counselor. We learned a great deal from our exposure to these men. It was here that we learned many of the principles of church administration. We learned about father’s blessings and the importance of a righteous priesthood bearer in the home. I suppose that this period of time was as important to my belief as it was to my medical education.

The period of my service as a stake president only served to deepen my understanding of the gospel and of priesthood leadership. I was privileged to know and understand how personal revelation is received and to experience first hand the workings of the spirit. As I grew spiritually so did my understanding of the church and my knowledge of the divinity and reality of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I have had too many experiences to deny the existence of God or the truthfulness of the restoration of Christ’s church in the latter days through the prophet Joseph Smith. I have been in the presence of all of the prophets of the church since David O. McKay. I have known some of the general authorities of the church. I know that this church is founded upon modern day revelation through ordinary men who have been called of God. I know that in spite of the fact that they are men, they have claim to the revelations of God if they will be humble enough to receive them. 

I have written previously about my testimony of the Book of Mormon, which is the word of God to us in these days if we will but read and heed it’s teachings. I want all of my posterity to know that I know these truths and will testify to them before the “pleasing bar of the great Jehovah” in the future. You will hear from my own lips that I did indeed have a knowledge of the truth and hope that my actions will justify and ratify that knowledge.

Amen