Doctrine & Covenants Lesson 34 Doctrine & Covenants Lesson 36
Doctrine And Covenants Lesson 35 Resources
A Mission of Saving
Willie Handcart Company
The following account as told by President Gordon B. Hinckley:
"I take you back to the general conference of October 1856. On Saturday of that
conference, Franklin D. Richards and a handful of associates arrived in the valley.
They had traveled from Winter Quarters with strong teams and light wagons and
had been able to make good time. Brother Richards immediately sought out
President Young. He reported that there were hundreds of men, women, and
children scattered over the long trail.... They were in desperate trouble. Winter had
come early. Snow-laden winds were howling across the highlands.... Our people
were hungry; their carts and their wagons were breaking down; their oxen dying.
The people themselves were dying. All of them would perish unless they were
rescued.
"I think President Young did not sleep that night. I think visions of those destitute,
freezing, dying people paraded through his mind. The next morning he came to the
old Tabernacle which stood on this square. He said to the people:
"'I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may
speak.... It is this.... Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with
handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and
they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be, "to
get them here.". . .
"'That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to
save the people....
"'I shall call upon the Bishops this day. I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until
the next day, for 60 good mule teams and 12 or 15 wagons. I do not want to send
oxen. I want good horses and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have
them. Also 12 tons of flour and 40 good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams....
"'I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never
save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just
such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the
plains' (in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [1960], 120-21).
"I take you back to the general conference of October 1856. On Saturday of that
conference, Franklin D. Richards and a handful of associates arrived in the valley.
They had traveled from Winter Quarters with strong teams and light wagons and
had been able to make good time. Brother Richards immediately sought out
President Young. He reported that there were hundreds of men, women, and
children scattered over the long trail.... They were in desperate trouble. Winter had
come early. Snow-laden winds were howling across the highlands.... Our people
were hungry; their carts and their wagons were breaking down; their oxen dying.
The people themselves were dying. All of them would perish unless they were
rescued.
"I think President Young did not sleep that night. I think visions of those destitute,
freezing, dying people paraded through his mind. The next morning he came to the
old Tabernacle which stood on this square. He said to the people:
"'I will now give this people the subject and the text for the Elders who may
speak.... It is this.... Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with
handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and
they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be, "to
get them here.". . .
"'That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to
save the people....
"'I shall call upon the Bishops this day. I shall not wait until tomorrow, nor until
the next day, for 60 good mule teams and 12 or 15 wagons. I do not want to send
oxen. I want good horses and mules. They are in this Territory, and we must have
them. Also 12 tons of flour and 40 good teamsters, besides those that drive the teams....
"'I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never
save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just
such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the
plains' (in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [1960], 120-21).
| lesson_35-a_mission_of_saving.pdf |
| hinckley_lord_is_our_rescuer.pdf |
| hinckley_pioneers_a_mision_of_saving.pdf |
| map-westward_trek.pdf |
| president_hinckley_shared_this_accountof_the_rescue.pdf |
