Can you Endure like the Pioneers?

“I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I said I can go only that far and there I must give up for I cannot pull my load through it. I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there." - Francis Webster

When speaking of the handcart pioneers, Elder Rasband said, "It is important to join forces and pull together.  You are not out on the mountainsides in the winter….You need your strength to withstand the buffetings that will continue to come at you and at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Why?  Because these are the last days and Satan is running out of time.  He is throwing everything he has out there to catch the attention of God's children, to draw them and us off, to stymie their progress, to conflict their very souls."

When it comes to endurance I can't help but think of our pioneers.  They not only left their homes but their country!  All because of their testimony in God and our Savior and their hope in a new world.  I can't imagine the sacrifice.  Many left their families because they simply didn't have the money to send everyone.  For some, it was the last time they saw their families here on earth.  What a heartbreaking scene on those foreign docks.  Then, they arrive in the United States to be hated and driven out, forced to flee across the continent to an unknown desert.  The trials they must have faced are unimaginable.  They had nothing but sheer grit and determination as they placed one foot in front of the other and ENDURED hardship after hardship to arrive in the Salt Lake valley.  Let us honor their legacy by placing one foot in front of the other and enduring our trials until we make it back to our Heavenly Father.  If we can join forces and pull the load together, then our burdens will be lighter and enduring together will make us stronger.  

- Love Sister Landers