Westward Ho! Bumps and all.

Pics at bottom.

Our week—overall great; but we definitely had some bumps along the way. We welcomed our new missionary, Elder Templeton, who is 4 months away from completing his mission. He just arrived from Switzerland, which he loved but he also said he was eager to come back to France one last time.

We normally have our new Missionary over for dinner; but because this week was “Pioneer Day” preparations (sewing pioneer bonnets, aprons and neckerchiefs and constructing a model Conestoga Wagon), so we invited the Elders over to our Indian Restaurant, literally next door to us. Preparing a multi-course meal as is customary in France was feeling like a tall order this week—a model Conestoga Wagon was sitting on top of our coffee table waiting for its last stitches and our dining room table was very hard to find as it was now a sewing workshop table strewn with threads, pieces of soon-to-be pioneer bonnets and neckerchiefs to be hemmed.

Anne was over twice this week helping sew pioneer aprons and bonnets; she was a life-saver…both with her help and her sewing machine. Previously, Meg was sewing everything by hand. Not a bad way to go, just time-consuming.

Chevez was out teaching with the Missionaries so he came along as well.

Everything was going smoothly until one by one we had FOUR speakers cancel during the week for Sunday’s talks. We arranged a substitute speaker for the first cancellation but by Friday, that person cancelled. Then our Youth Speaker was ill. No sooner had we found out about that that the Stake High Councilman that comes once a month…with a talk for Sacrament Meeting and a lesson for second hour Sunday School had to cancel at the last minute. Then, our “anchor” speaker didn’t get the emails that were sent during the week with his assigned topic about the Pioneers. So now we had all the Pioneer Day items, special invitations that had been hand-delivered (by foot) to those now taking the lessons….and we were without speakers. Yikes!

Enter in prayer, 2 missionaries and a bit of “pinch-hitting” from our last speaker (who, by the way, thinks really well on his feet). In the end, all ironed out and the program came across smooth as silk. We credit prayer, 2 willing missionaries and a great impromptu speaker.

Missionary humor—hopefully this will translate well. The young missionaries in the France Lyon Mission have adopted and coined 3 types of contacts off the French word “rendez-vous”. Rendez-vous means a meeting. A “rendez-vous” is essential for them to fulfill their missionary purpose….to bring others to Christ through the lessons they set up as a rendez-vous or a teaching appointment. As missionaries, we all live for those moments. There’s nothing comparable than to watch someone embrace the message of the Restoration.

The missionaries get creative during all those miles they walk between appointments. To “rendez-vous” they (particularly the Elders…young men) have added “mangez-vous”. “Mangez” means to eat….and they’ve added “vous” to make it rhyme with Rendez-vous. Second to a teaching appointment is definitely an eating appointment!! But alas the day does come, along with their least favorite "vous"…..and that's a “tomber-vous”. Tomber means to fall, as in a scheduled appointment/meeting has fallen through. So….

Rendez-vous…….Mangez-vous……..Tomber-vous

We now know that « tomber-vous » (sinking) feeling. We can complain; we’ve been here 6 months now and this was our first “tomber-vous”. Not a bad record really with our relatively small numbers. Unfortunately it was the entire Sacrament Meeting. By Saturday mid-day, it was all patched up and none the less for wear. As the well-known Pioneer Hymn says, "All is well, all is well".

Below is a summary highlighting what we celebrate this week. It’s a bit long; but then, so was the Trek West.

So what is Pioneer Day? Pioneer Day is the celebration of 24 July 1847, the Historic Day when the Prophet Brigham Young first arrived in what is now known as the Salt Lake Valley. This is where the Lord would establish His Church, increase the population of HIS People and send forth the Gospel into ALL the world.

July 24^th celebrates the culminating day when Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake valley after leading thousands of Saints thousands of kilometers across almost an entire continent by Conestoga Wagon and on foot covering a distance of 1300+ miles/2,200+ km.

The very survival of the Church depended on the Pioneer’s crossing—What constitutes “Pioneer Day” is the modern-day equivalent of Moses parting the Red Sea. Both Pioneer Day and crossing the Red Sea was a mass Exodus of God’s People. In both cases, God’s People were delivered both temporally and spiritually. Both times, God saved His People.

Through Moses, the Lord delivered the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Through Brigham Young, the Lord delivered the Latter-Day Saints out of the hands of mobs and their endless persecutions as they began to carry out the Mormon Extermination Order.

Background—Even though the Church began in Palmyra, New York, the Saints shortly thereafter moved West to the state of Ohio, 260mi/417km away. They were in Kirtland, Ohio long enough to build homes, businesses and the Kirtland Temple. But after a short while, persecutions began. Eventually, the Saints migrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, another 600mi/979km away.

In 1839, the first saints arriving in Illinois purchased a swampland area called Commerce. The land was poor, non-farmable and therefore inexpensive. They cleared and drained the swampland disease-ridden with Malaria, Cholera and Typhoid. By drying up the water acting acting as a breeding ground for the diseased mosquitoes, the Saints reclaimed the land.

“Commerce” and was then renamed “Nauvoo” by The Prophet Joseph Smith. In Hebrew, “Nauvoo” means Beautiful Place or City Beautiful City. There were several happy years in Nauvoo. Children were born. They had built permanent homes, successful businesses and the beautiful Nauvoo Temple was built.

But mobs and persecutions, stirred up by Satan’s attempts to thwart God’s growing infant Church, rose again. They would be forced out of Nauvoo, the Beautiful—the city they had built with their own hands.

In 1844, culminating mob events resulted in the Martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum. Angry mobs once again drove the remaining Saints out of Nauvoo, forcing them out in the dead of winter in February of 1846.

As a result of the particularly harsh winter that year, the Mississippi River froze over, allowing the Saints to cross the river. Had the river not frozen over, and with no ferries to carry their wagons and food supplies, the Saints would not have survived that winter. Like the Children of Israel, the Lord provided a way.

The trail—The Saints would travel 2,092 km, 1300 miles. The terrain was flat (The Plains) on the first leg of the journey. But on the flat Plains there was no firewood and Indian attacks were always a threat. The second leg of the trail was the most difficult because of the steep, mountainous terrain (the Rocky Mountains).

The Rocky Mountains—are located in the Western portion of the US, separating East from West, like the Pyrenees separating France and Spain. The Pioneer Saints would need to cross over the Rocky Mountains to reach Utah. The Rocky Mountains are very rugged, snow-covered range high reaching 4,000m/13,100ft with many peaks 4,400m/14,436ft and vary in width from 110-480 km/70-480 miles. Between 1846-1869, 70,000 Mormon Pioneers crossed the Rocky Mountains. Because of the steepness, the Saints had to push their heavy Conestoga Wagons in many meters of snow up over the entire range of mountains and during the harshest time of WINTER. Most wore cotton clothing and worn out shoes while carrying their children and their elderly because of the deep snow.

Crossing the Rocky Mountains came at the end of the long miles they had already walked—when wagons and shoes were worn out; when the Saints and their oxen were already fatigued, when food supplies were low and when oxen had no grass to forage.

Conestoga Wagon—A wagon was 5.4 m/18 ft long including the tongue; 3.3m/10 ft high and 1.2 m/4 ft wide. Wagons could carry up to 5,400kg/12,000lb of cargo.

Those who could afford a Conestoga Wagon and oxen team hauled their food with them by Conestoga Wagon, walking alongside of it so they did not add to the weight the oxen would need to pull.

Hand-carts—Those not able to afford a Conestoga Wagon and ox team pulled a hand-cart with their entire food supply of dry goods, enough to last them several months. Newly-converted members coming from England often spent their entire life’s savings to earn passage for their family to sail to NYC.

So they pulled a “hand-cart” with their dry goods. Some 3,000 Mormon Pioneers pulled hand-carts carrying between 200-250kg/440-550lb of goods and 7.7kg/17lb of blankets. Because hand-carts were smaller, they offered no covering at night or shelter during the many blizzards in the Rocky Mountains.

Utah In 1847. Utah was a Territory vs a State. It was an untapped wilderness with no established towns. It has a desert climate with little rainfall. All crops would need to be planted then watered by hand. The Pioneers would build their homes, their businesses and their towns and live off their food supplies brought with them that first year.

Renewed strength—Each year on July 24^th, we are reminded of the incredible legacy of faith, courage and spiritual heritage that is ours. We are both converts but feel an undeniable sense of gratitude for the incredible faith that accompanied each footstep. We marvel at the legacy they have left each of us as they mustered great courage and fortitude in the face of unimaginable hardships.

On April 6, 1830, there were 6 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. At the close of 2017, there were 16,118,169. We have many to thank. This week, we celebrate the Pioneers.

A la prochaine.