In the early days of this country, a special breed of men and women came from all over the world, seeking not only opportunity, but freedom. They were strong, proud, and fiercely independent. They believed that the surest helping hand was at the end of their own sleeves. They shared one thing in common--an unshakable faith in God and in themselves. As the nation developed, out of this same mold came a special group, who, in a dramatic exodus, pushed the frontier of America from the banks of the Mississippi to the valleys of these magnificent mountains. They were the Mormon pioneers...The world knows that the Mormon pioneers were led here by Brigham Young; but the Mormon pioneers knew that they were led here by the hand of Almighty God.
(Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pg. 416)Victims of mobobcracy, driven from their homes and from state to state, they had to choose whether they would give up what they held sacred to live near a people bent on their destruction, or choose to leave so they could obey the Lord's commands and follow paths that would lead to eternal life.
On this July 24, 169 years after the first trail-weary pioneers set foot in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847, we celebrate their arrival and legacy, as have generations before us and as will generations yet to come.
(Some wording taken from a Church News Article, July 22, 1995)
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