(Bill Neal) This day, July 24, is a significant date in the church. Throughout the month of July, but particularly today, there are pioneer celebrations with parades, picnics, pioneer dresses and gear, singing this great opening hymn and other songs of pioneers, all in honor of the Utah-bound Saints who headed from Nauvoo across the Mississippi River and beyond, “wending their way” to their new home in the west, arriving in the Salt Lake valley in July of 1847.
Perhaps you have some courageous pioneers in your heritage or those who followed behind shortly thereafter in covered wagons or in handcart companies. We celebrate with you today their noble history and faith in every one of their footsteps.
(Dianna Neal) Or, perhaps you, like us, are pioneers in your own way, your journey included converting to this faith, and perhaps you feel you have crossed your own wilderness as the only LDS person in your family, truly a modern-day pioneer. Please know it is your faith and fortitude we also include in our minds as we commemorate this Pioneer Day.
Regardless of our pioneer heritage, one thing we all have in common, we are all wending our way, back to our home, our heavenly home, to live again with our Heavenly Father.
As we consider this heavenly journey home, we contemplate our own trek: first, as converts, and how far we’ve come on our journey, progressing step by step, and second, how far we still must go to achieve this supernal goal, with each step requiring faith.
(Bill) Six months after we were married, we moved to Virginia where I enrolled in graduate school. Our progress in the gospel grew after several steps over a period of the next four years.
The first step in our journey was that we resolved to find a church together. Up to that time, we attended several different denominations.
(Dianna) The second step was meeting our first LDS members, another graduate student and his wife from Utah. Through their friendship and examples, several misconceptions about the LDS church were dispelled. We appreciated their strong values, religious involvement, commitment to family, and their deeper understanding of life. They were not only member missionaries, but also patient friends.
(Bill) Which led to the next step. It was during one of our visits in their home that they shared a copy of the “Book of Mormon” with us which had their testimony written inside.
(Dianna) They also introduced us to the missionaries. In fact, for the next two years we met most of the missionaries assigned to that community. After my husband accepted a position at Utah State University, we invited the missionaries to share the discussions. Needless to say, this was a big jump—even a giant leap of several steps.
(Bill) Another significant step occurred before our baptism when I received my first priesthood blessing, following a car accident which broke some bones in my hand. When the doctor learned I played the piano, he scheduled surgery to make the repairs. I received a priesthood blessing that all would heal well. During one of my final checkups, he commented that he was amazed that I was already playing the piano when another of his patients with a similar injury that occurred about the same time was still in a cast.
(Dianna) There were a series of other steps as well, including conversations with some of Bill’s curious and missionary-minded students at Utah State. As a nonmember, I was often asked by my second-graders about my membership in the church and I was invited to their baptisms. We were blessed with supportive friends and neighbors. But when we learned we were expecting our first child, we knew we needed to make a decision—four years after meeting our first LDS friends. We had procrastinated our spiritual progress long enough.
(Bill) These final steps included going to Heavenly Father in prayer and fasting, meeting with the bishop in the ward we had been attending, and then, with faith, setting a baptism date. Soon after that huge step, I received the Aaronic priesthood. Six months later, Lindsey, the oldest of our four daughters, was born and I received the Melchizedek priesthood and was ordained an elder so I could give her a name and a blessing.
(Dianna) Then we both received our patriarchal blessings, outlining some of the plans the Lord had in store for us in this life and the next.
(Bill) One year after our baptism, we prepared to go to the temple, received our endowments and were sealed to each other for time and all eternity. And Lindsey was sealed to us.
You can see there were a series of many steps —some small ones, some giant leaps—that we needed to take and each occurred. . . line upon line. . . and we progressed in our journey with faith in our relationship with Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.
(Dianna) At that point, we also realized our journey was not yet completed. In fact, we recognized we had a long way to go and we still had a lot to learn to “endure to the end.”
Now, if I were sitting out there and seeing this, this stairway would look mighty intimidating to me. I might be thinking: Will I ever make it up to this heavenly home? Or you might even be wondering, “There wouldn’t happen to be an elevator or escalator by chance to zoom to the top?”
Unfortunately, there’s no elevator or escalator. Elder Neal A Maxwell makes that clear:
"...the strait and narrow path, though clearly marked, is a path, not a freeway nor an escalator. Indeed, there are times when the only way the strait and narrow path can be followed is on one's knees!" (Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "A Brother Offended", Ensign May 1982).
(Bill) We’d like to share some thoughts on ways we have tried to climb these steps, a series of steps which we are calling today the Seven C’s, that may help us progress forward with faith in every footstep:
• Always remember Christ, the Atoning One
• Keep our covenants
• Obey all the commandments
• Communicate with our Father in Heaven
• Magnify our callings
• Seek ways to show compassionate service and charity
• And honor our commitments
(Dianna) All of these principles, repeated time and time again, help us climb the stairs to our heavenly home through this mortal existence. If we adhere to these, we can ultimately transition from this life to the next, endure—even thrive—to the end, to achieve eternal happiness with our Father in Heaven.
Our goal today? As we briefly review each of these 7 C’s, we are each encouraged to identify one idea from among them, as a focus during the next week. We’ll begin with “Always Remember Christ, the Atoning One.”
(Bill) Always Remember Christ, the Atoning One
We know that it is in and through Christ we may have eternal life, and this is a recurring theme of all that we will share today.
Dianna and I love to listen to and play the hymns of Zion because their messages speak to us so well; in fact, I often listen to sacred music in my office, in the car, and of course at home. This is one way we strive to always remember Him.
There are so many beautiful hymns in the Church. For example, we recall the words of Sister Eliza R. Snow who captured thoughts about the Redeemer and His role in reaching our heavenly home in the hymn, “How Great the Wisdom and the Love.”
“He marked the path and led the way
And every point defines to light and life and endless day
where God’s full presence shines.”
And also, the sacrament hymn, God Loved Us So He Sent His Son captures the essence of the atonement, by which all of this is possible, for there would be no staircase without it!
“Oh, love effulgent, love divine! What debt of gratitude is mine, That in his off’ring I have a part And hold a place within His Heart”
Perhaps listening to hymns or sacred music is a way you can feel closer to the Savior as well and to always remember Him—these can be added to some of the options you listen to as you walk between classes, work, work out, or just relax.
As we listen to and sing these hymns in our meetings, as we partake of the sacrament, as we read His words, we are reminded indeed that the Lord and Savior, Our Redeemer, is what made us with human imperfections capable of setting forth on this journey, our own trek, toward eternity.
The first C: always strive to remember Christ.
(Dianna) Keep Our Covenants
The second C: keep our covenants. We are a covenant people. Our leaders have said, if there is a distinguishing feature about members of the Church, it is that we make covenants. We need to be known as a covenant-keeping people as well.
A typical stop for us on visits to Salt Lake City is the Family History Library on Temple Square. Entering the library, the first thing you see is a huge mural, 23 feet wide by 7 feet high painted by Judith Mehr. What do you see here?
We see the Lord Jesus Christ surrounded by a multitude of families. This beautiful and meaningful painting is titled, The Eternal Family through Christ, and reflects the main theme of family history—families are forever—and also illustrates the call to come unto Christ through genealogy and family history work. It illustrates for us that family is the earthly laboratory through which we seek the Savior and life beyond this one.
To the right of the center of this mural, Jesus Christ is pictured with the temple behind, the Lord standing at the intersection of two circles, symbolizing mortal and heavenly worlds joining together, representing covenants we make and strive to keep so we can ascend into His ultimate heavenly home of all that is light.
I cherish this entire painting, but I think this portion of the painting means so incredibly much to me, as it shows that the temple is where two worlds meet, earth and heaven. How near can we get to heaven? Where can we be reminded of where we are headed on this stairway? It is in the temple.
We see you at the temple, we serve with you there, and there we recommit to living a more righteous life.
Elder Russell M. Nelson reminds us: “Each temple stands as a symbol of our membership in the Church, as a sign of our faith in life after death and as a stepping stone to eternal glory for us and our family.”
The 2nd C: covenants. Making covenants, keeping covenants and recommitting, all are necessary for us as we ascend our stairway.
(Bill) Obey all of the Commandments
Third, obey all the commandments. Commandments are what actually allow us to experience joy in our journey upward. We like Elder Oaks’ definition of them:
“We give thanks for commandments. They are directions away from pitfalls and they are invitations to blessings. Commandments mark the path and show us the way to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come” (April 2003).
Through commandments we hear the Lord’s voice. President Monson said it this way:
“The Ten Commandments are just that—commandments. They are not suggestions. They are every bit as requisite today as they were when God gave them to the children of Israel. If we but listen, we hear the echo of God’s voice, speaking to us here and now” (Thomas S. Monson, Oct 2011, “Stand ye in Holy Places,” Ensign/Liahona).
We also realize that to dwell again in our heavenly home we must become like Him. President Monson counsels further that when we obey, our lives can be more fulfilling, less complicated. Our challenges and problems will be easier to bear. We will receive the Lord’s promised blessings.
The Lord has high expectations for us, His children--clearly defined ones. We learned how important these were in this faith when we were investigating. In fact, this idea was very appealing to us.
In President Spencer W. Kimball’s first public interview when he became President of the Church, he reaffirmed the ageless advice that would come from a prophet when he said, “Keep the commandments of God. Follow the pathway of the Lord. Walk in his footsteps” (Elder David B. Haight).
The third C: obey all the commandments as we make our journey throughout this life.
(Dianna) Communicate with Our Father in Heaven
Communicating with our Father in Heaven is necessary in our daily course toward eternity. This two-way channel may take the forms of fasting and prayer, the scriptures, and revelation from the Holy Ghost. Through these, we seek the Lord’s counsel in our journey, while sharing with Him our needs, and then learn of His direction and guidance in our lives by His granting to us what we need most.
The words of our prophet tell us: “Communication with our Father in Heaven—including our prayers to Him and His inspiration to us—is necessary in order for us to weather the storms and trials of life. The Lord invites us, “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me” ("Stand in Holy Places").
The good news of the Gospel, as described for us in the scriptures, is truly something we are invited to partake of and savor each day. The ultimate fruit His words invite us to enjoy, of course, would be tasting the sweetness of eternal life.
Another comparison about the scriptures was given by Elder Richard G. Scott. “Scriptures are like packets of light that illuminate our minds and give place to guidance and inspiration from on high. They can become the keys to open the channel of communion with our Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.”
The Lord communicates with us through these channels or conduits of inspiration, by scriptures, other people, church leaders, and especially and always through the Holy Ghost. Sometimes the revelation or answers come quickly, but most often they require more time--and patience and learning--in the process of receiving answers.
In our stair climb, we continue to require this day-to-day, two-way communication to direct our paths to our divine destination. Once again, the counsel is clear and simple: Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing (D&C 19:38).
The fourth C: communicate with our Father in Heaven.
(Bill) Magnify our Callings
President Gordon B. Hinckley declared that every new member of the Church needs three things: a friend, a responsibility, and constant nourishment “by the good word of God” (Moroni 6:4).
We were given a responsibility, a calling, when we first joined the church and we have continued to have opportunities to serve ever since. In fact, we still remember our very first calling as co-editors of the ward newsletter, a calling in which we served shortly after our baptism.
Soon after joining the church, we also participated in a request that each member of the church submit pedigree charts listing four generations of their ancestors. We were impressed how many life-long members had generations going back 5, 6, 8 or even more! As new and the only members in our family, it was a challenge for us to complete even four generations on ours.
Struggling to find her ancestors, you can imagine Dianna’s surprise when the bishop called her to be the ward family history consultant. Except for that exercise, she had little experience in compiling family history information. Though her background was limited, yet she was expected to help others, and herself included, to know how to do the research for locating ancestors and to prepare names for the temple.
However, we learned that many blessings come from serving in Church callings to those who walk with faith to fulfill callings for which they feel unqualified, even discovering new talents while prayerfully going about fulfilling their calling.
From that calling has come growth, and a continuing passion to research her family history and she has been teaching family history on campus for the past 12 years. Later we were also called to serve as the directors of the Laie Family History Center. Family history has become a real avocation for us. In fact, maybe perhaps too much in our children’s minds, since most of our family trips included visits to libraries and cemeteries. Consequently, they now request pictures of the living along with our pictures of burial plots when we return from one of our trips!
“The Lord has a great work for each of us to do. You may wonder how this can be. You may feel that there is nothing special or superior about you or your ability. … The Lord can do remarkable miracles with a person of ordinary ability who is humble, faithful, and diligent in serving the Lord and seeks to improve himself. This is because God is the ultimate source of power.”
Our callings enable us to prove our faithfulness in small things. We will then be ready for greater things as we climb these stairs.
The fifth C: magnify our callings.
(Dianna) Seek Ways to Show Compassionate Service and Charity
The next C: seek ways to show compassionate service and charity. We are witnesses of this truth: the way one lives can influence others. We are so mindful of this, through examples of members, our students, caring leaders, and others whose consistent kind actions and words have been observed since our days of initial exposure to the Church.
Compassion, charity, love, and service all are necessary for us to approach home in our heaven-bound journey. In order for the Father to recognize us, we need to become like Him. And thus the definition of charity as the pure love of Christ is made clearer and, along with the other C’s mentioned already, serves as a foundation for our stair climb to eternity.
From D&C 64:33 we read: “Be not weary in well doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”
Think on those small things, small acts of kindness in your life, which you’ve either been given or have extended yourself. Holding open a door behind you, smiling, making a roommate’s bed, picking up that litter you didn’t put there, saying “yes” to a favor or request, remembering someone’s name, saying “thank you” to those in our everyday lives, such as our own family members or those we meet each day on campus. We don’t have to search far to find these opportunities, do we?
I love this inspiring quote about charity given by then general Relief Society president, Sister Julie B. Beck, a year ago at BYU Women’s Conference. I have it posted in plain sight and ponder it often; is this one you might also wish to contemplate?
Charity is a purifier. It is the atonement working in us, purifying us, changing us. It is covenant keeping at its purest. It requires repentance and change.
The sixth C: seek for opportunities for compassionate service. Truly, compassion, or charity continues as a foundation for our lives, here and beyond.
(Bill) Honor Our Commitments
As Church members we commit to do many things. We agree to serve one another, to mourn with those that mourn, to comfort those that stand in need of comfort. We promise to visit each other. We make covenants. We agree to be missionaries and share the gospel and do vicarious work for the dead. Each of these opportunities can help us move forward. But we sometimes fail to do what we have agreed to do.
When we were investigating the church, we recognized that where much is given much is also expected. So we actually tried paying tithing, attending church meetings, living the Word of Wisdom, for a prolonged period before we were baptized to make sure that we could be 100 percent committed. And we assumed that anyone who was LDS was also 100 percent committed.
You can imagine our surprise when as a new member of an elders quorum presidency I met with an elder to discuss his home teaching and learned he hadn’t scheduled visits with any of his families, or my wife’s surprise when as a newly called primary leader she asked a parent to invite her child to speak on a future Sunday and learned they had already schedule a day at an amusement park near Salt Lake City!
In contrast, we recall a temple president’s challenge to commit to attending the temple each week. He suggested that if we attend once a week it’s a pattern, a part of our routine; if we attend once a month it’s an inconvenience. We’ve tried this. It’s true.
Elder F. Burton Howard reported, “As I travel the Church I often ask stake presidents what their concerns are and what they perceive to be their greatest need. Frequently the reply is, ‘We have wonderful people. Some of them just need to be more committed and more dedicated. They need to be more anxiously engaged in the work.’”
Elder Dallin Oaks commented, “Truly, our lives of service and sacrifice are the most appropriate expressions of our commitment to serve the Master and our fellowmen.”
The seventh C: honor our commitments.
(Dianna) Each of these 7 C’s helps us progress along the path, to ascend the stairs, and to endure to the end. We should:
• Always remember Christ, the Atoning One
• Keep our covenants
• Obey all the commandments
• Communicate with our Father in Heaven
• Magnify our callings
• Seek ways to show compassionate service and charity
• And honor our commitments
It may help to remind us that when we promise to follow the Savior, to walk in His footsteps, and be His disciples, we are promising to go wherever that divine path leads us. Elder Holland stated this reminder that we may experience rough wilderness on our journey. Even adversity may accompany us on our pathway.
“ And the path of salvation has always led one way or another through Gethsemane. So if the Savior faced such injustices and discouragements, such persecutions, unrighteousness, and suffering, we cannot expect that we are not going to face some of that if we still intend to call ourselves His true disciples and faithful followers” (Nov 2011 Ensign).
Enduring to the end is frequently the way this is described, but it is our hope we can have faith and strength enough to not only endure but even to FLOURISH and, even with joy, wend our way!
(Bill) LDS Author Dean Hughes recently wrote about pioneers of yesterday and today: he says, “It occurred to me long ago that maybe, as the pioneer children walked and walked and walked and walked — and walked, they didn't really always sing and sing and sing and sing — and sing. Sometimes, maybe, they complained a little or even said, "Are we there yet?"
I have a feeling that people were people in the 19th century, and not very different from us. And yet, we know what they had to suffer.
We've developed a stereotype for those hearty Mormon pioneers. We speak of them almost as though they were superhuman. We say, "I just couldn't survive all the things they went through." But let me ask, is that the right lesson for us to learn?
Why speak of our noble forebears if we're only going to use them to convince ourselves that we aren't up to much by comparison? I think the right conclusion is that pioneers were regular people who did what they were called upon to do and we honor those who triumphed. But the point is, they did what they did, still possessing all the human weaknesses we deal with. Many of them rose to the occasion and did the hard things. That ought to be a lesson to us: We can do the same. We, too, can do hard things.”
Brother Hughes continues with this caution and invitation. “We are currently passing through a very hard time. Though we see far fewer infant deaths than the pioneers did, we deal with worse social ills than most of those families ever had to face. So what can we do? We can be pioneers for the next generation and for those after that. We, in spite of our humanness, can be stalwarts.”
So with faith in every footstep, whether it’s a trek across the wilderness, or our journey as we ascend to our eternal home.
In the end, brothers and sisters, average people can do amazing things, and they arrive at their destination with faith in every footstep, and we can, too!
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.