Pioneer Day?

Apparently in Utah, there is a day where no one works, and everyone parties and gets together, and barbecues, etc. It's not celebrated anywhere else. It's Pioneer Day. Growing up in Arizona, I knew about Pioneer Day, but we didn't throw any huge celebrations. 

Pioneer Day is the commemoration of the day that the Latter-day Saints, being led by Brigham Young, entered the Salt Lake Valley on 24 July 1847. The Latter-day Saint Pioneers traveled thousands of miles across prairies, through rivers, and over mountains to obtain their promised land. The place where they would erect "the temple of our God." The place where the church would fluorish and find solace and refuge from those who wished and tried to tear them down and destroy them. 

After over 160 years, the Saints still have peace and solace along the Wasatch Front of the Rocky Mountains. Spreading clear up and down the Mormon Corridor and eventually around the world, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to grow and fluorish.

Living in Provo, Utah and being a member of the LDS Church, I observe the day that the Pioneers entered what would become their home. Such events would ultimately allow for millions of people including myself to one day join the Mormon Church and enjoy the blessings of the restored gospel. 

As I drove back from Phoenix last week, I looked at the mountains up close and from afar. How amazing it is that the Pioneers were given the strength to cross such dangerous terrain and climb such intense mountains to reach their future home. Clearly, the journey was not easy, and from records and evidence it was very hard. Oh, but how grateful I am and how grateful many are for the sacrifice of the Saints. For their diligence in obtaining a home, that the church might be built up and spread throughout all the world. That families might have joy in safety, in peace, and in the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

This is His church. They didn't travel thousands of miles just to leave behind terror and the face of adversity. They moved west for us. They knew that what they loved and what they would ultimately die for was real. They yearned to see their children taught in the ways of righteousness. They yearned to see their grandchildren take the gospel to the ends of the earth. They in no way crossed the plains for themselves, but for us. They suffered, for us. Many of them died, for us. They wept and struggled, for us. I would consider myself a modern-day pioneer, but I don't dare put myself in the same category as them. Their adversity is much and their faith is great. How grateful I am for the courage and faith of the Latter-day Saints in that day. Because of them, I found the truth.