Brothers and Sisters, Aloha!
It is a joy to address you this beautiful morning in Paradise. Many of you attended the devotional a few months ago when my cousin, United States Senator Jeff Flake from Arizona, was the speaker. He did an excellent job, but I was quite surprised a few weeks later when President Wheelwright invited me to also give a devotional address. I asked the president if he was sure he really wanted to have two "Flakes" speak the same year. If you count the senator's wife and mine, who introduced their husbands, you actually have four "flaky" speakers.
I'm grateful for Sister Flake's introduction. I wish I could introduce her to you. That would take the rest of the hour, but I can assure you it would be time well spent. I will just mention one thing about Elaine that indicates what kind of a trouper she is. She and I took a little longer than we wanted finding each other after our missions. When we finally did get married, we worried that we might not have enough time to have as many children as we had hoped for. But just ten years later, when we were called to preside over the Missouri Independence Mission, we already had five of our children—but we were both getting older. So, during the next three years, while we served in Missouri, Sister Flake gave birth to three more babies—one each year we were there, giving us our eight great children—and she never missed attending a single zone conference!
I loved hearing you sing, “Come, Come, Ye Saints.” It is one of our most cherished hymns not only because of its pleasing music, or even its poignant words, but because of the feelings it evokes as we reflect on the nobility and courage of the first and second generations of valiant Latter-day Saint pioneers, who laid the foundation of this mighty kingdom. Some of us are direct descendants of those remarkable stalwarts. Like many other pioneers, my and senator Flake's great grandfather, William Jordan Flake, faithfully answered the call of President Brigham Young to leave his comfortable home in Beaver, Utah, and lead a colonization effort into the wilderness of northern Arizona Territory. One of the towns our great grandfather established there in partnership with Apostle Erastus Snow was named in honor of both of its founders—Snow Flake, Arizona. I’m told that the town of Snowflake once had a mayor named Jack Frost. When he told people he was Jack Frost from Snowflake Arizona . . . . .
As Senator Flake mentioned, over the years we Flakes have taken a lot of “flack” because of the name Flake . One of our six missionary sons found it hard enough being known as Elder Flake, but things got even worse when he was assigned a companion named Elder Looney! People really had to be honest in heart to accept the gospel from Elder Flake and Elder Looney!
Another name that means a great deal to us is the honorable name of Cannon. As you know this wonderful building we are meeting in today is named for the great George Q. Cannon. He was one of the first missionaries called to the Sandwich Islands, now known as the Hawaiian Islands. He later served as an apostle for more than forty years, and as a counselor to four presidents of the Church. Had he lived six months longer, he would likely have become the sixth president of the Church. When he died, the Boston Globe newspaper ranked him as the third most powerful Mormon, right behind Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.
Many years ago Sister Flake and I wrote a book detailing the five missions Elder Cannon served back-to-back over a fifteen-year period while still a young man. The second of these missions brought him to Hawaii 165 years ago. We fell in love with George Q. Cannon! As it happened, we were expecting a baby at the time we were getting well acquainted with Elder Cannon. When our little boy was born, we gave him the noble name Cannon William Flake. As you might imagine, Cannon got quite a few comments on his unusual first name. On one occasion someone asked his four-year-old sister, "Where did your brother get his name Cannon?" She proudly responded, "From George Q.—Washington!"
It is a wonderful blessing for me to have been raised hearing inspiring stories of valiant pioneer ancestors on both sides of my family. Not all of these stories were of major trials and tribulations. Sometimes they concerned funny little incidents from everyday life.
I remember my father telling of one of my pioneer ancestors confessing his folly. He was leading two rather large calves with ropes around each of their necks. He held the ropes, one in each of his hands. When he came to a gate, he needed both hands free to open it. Not wanting to let the calves escape, he had the bright idea of tying one rope around each of his legs. In his journal that night, he describes the resulting disaster: “Those calves had not dragged me 100 feet before I realized what I had done wrong.”
The scripture that was used to introduce today's devotional theme comes from a faith-promoting Book of Mormon story concerning Nephi's steadfast younger brother, Jacob. He was confronted by a charismatic, smooth-talking, devil-inspired anti-Christ named Sherem. Sherem tried in every way possible to shake Jacob's testimony and commitment to God's Kingdom. Without going into the details of their dramatic encounter, let me just emphasize Jacob's powerful words as he reports Sherem's utter failure in that endeavor:
"…he had hope to shake me from the faith . . . [but] I could not be shaken." [emphasis added] (Jacob 7:5)
I pray that what I say today will help each of us be able to proclaim with that same fervor, " I cannot be shaken."
As a young man, shortly after returning from my mission to New York, I had the opportunity of traveling in chartered busses to Palmyra with 150 wonderful young women from BYU Provo and other Utah schools. These young ladies served as special missionaries to help put on the spectacular Hill Cumorah Pageant. On our return trip across the United States we visited several Church history sites along the old Mormon pioneer trail. One of these sites was the historic Mormon cemetery at Winter Quarters near Omaha, Nebraska.
As the girls and I walked quietly up the hill containing the graves of many Saints who died there, our spirits were subdued. Located at the top of the hill is that impressive Avard Fairbanks monument with which you are no doubt familiar. It is a statue of a pioneer mother and father, a shovel in his hand, standing before the open grave of their baby. At the base of the monument embossed in bronze are listed the names of most of the 600 pioneers buried there. Those 600 graves are just a tithing of the 6,000 graves of other courageous Saints who lie along the rest of the trail to the Salt Lake Valley. Without a cue or suggestion from anyone, the girls spontaneously began to sing "Come, Come, Ye Saints."
At first their singing was very strong and resolute, but as the words and the spirit of that stirring hymn sank deeper into their hearts, their singing turned more into sobbing. By the last verse I think I was the only one still singing. As I voiced the words “And should we die before our journey’s through,” I was scanning the alphabetical list of names on the bronze plaque. In the ‘F’s, two names caught my attention—Samuel Flake, age five months, and Frederick Flake, age one day. Then I stopped singing, too. Despite unfathomable hardships, the pioneers' faith could not be shaken.
Another family with multiple names engraved on the monument is that of Stillman Pond. President James E. Faust details their sacrifice in these words:
“Like others, he and his wife, Maria, and their children were harassed and driven out of Nauvoo. In September 1846, they became part of the great western migration. The early winter that year brought extreme hardships, including malaria, cholera, and consumption. The family was visited by all three of these diseases.
Maria contracted consumption, and all of the children were stricken with malaria. Three of the children died while moving through the early snows. Stillman buried them on the plains. Maria’s condition worsened because of the grief, pain, and the fever of malaria. She could no longer walk. Weakened and sickly, she gave birth to twins. They were named Joseph and Hyrum, and both died within a few days.
The Stillman Pond family arrived at Winter Quarters and, like many other families, they suffered bitterly while living in a tent. The death of the five children coming across the plains to Winter Quarters was but a beginning…
‘On Wednesday, the 2nd of December 1846, Laura Jane Pond, age 14 years, … died of chills and fever.’ Two days later on ‘Friday, the 4th of December 1846, Harriet M. Pond, age 11 years, … died with chills.’ Three days later, ‘Monday, the 7th of December, 1846, Abigail A. Pond, age 18 years, … died with chills.’ Just five weeks later, ‘Friday, the 15th of January, 1847, Lyman Pond, age 6 years, … died with chills and fever. Four months later, on the 17th of May, 1847, his wife Maria Davis Pond also died. Crossing the plains, Stillman Pond lost nine children and a wife. He became an outstanding colonizer in Utah, and became the senior president of the thirty-fifth Quorum of Seventy. (See Leon Y. and H. Ray Pond, comps., “Stillman Pond, a Biographical Sketch,” in Sterling Forsyth Histories, typescript, Church Historical Dept. Archives, pp. 4–5.)
Having lost these nine children and his wife in crossing the plains, Stillman Pond did not lose his faith. He did not quit.” (James E. Faust, "The Refiner's Fire," Ensign, May, 1979)
He could not be shaken.
As the Church continues to expand, especially in foreign lands, the percentage of members who are actual literal descendants of the original pioneers decreases, but I believe that all those who bind themselves to this monumental work that the pioneers began, are somehow spiritually adopted into that remarkable heritage and become descendants of those noble forebears. This very real bond was touchingly displayed for me once when I listened to one of my students, with tears running down his cheeks, express love and gratitude for his heroic pioneer ancestors who crossed the plains. This would not have been so unusual except that his name was Dugarasue Sakaguchi, and he was a Japanese convert to the Church. In a very real way, I believe Brother Sakaguchi is just as much a descendent of the pioneers as I am.
All of you are also descendants whether literal or adopted of great latter-day pioneers—pioneers of the Pacific Islands, pioneers of Asia, pioneers of New Zealand, the Philippines, Australia, and many other places around the world where the pioneering is still going on.
Many years ago, a non-Mormon scholar, told an interesting story on the BYU campus in Provo. It deeply impressed me with the strong connection between the first and second generations of pioneers and the present generation of young people and converts in the Church.
Before World War II, the respected musician Bruno Walter was the conductor of the famous Vienna Symphony Orchestra. This symphony was a unique musical organization with a spirit and unity and synergism that produced glorious music, powerful and unmatched by any other symphony.
When the Nazis took over Austria, the conductor fled to America. It was not until 1947 that he was finally able to return to Austria. Upon his return, his first priority was to visit his treasured Vienna Symphony.
As he approached the concert hall where they were rehearsing, he could hear the strains of their glorious music. Mr. Walter said that if he had been anywhere on the face of the earth and had heard that magnificent sound, he would have been able to identify it as coming only from his beloved Vienna Symphony. When he entered the concert hall, to his amazement, he discovered that although the exquisite musical quality was still there, not a single one of the musicians playing with the symphony then had played with it before the war, when he was its conductor. All of them were new, but the quality and powerful spirit of that remarkable orchestra remained unaltered.
All of the first and second generations of the Mormon pioneers are gone. Our challenge is to keep alive that valiant spirit of sacrifice and courage that characterized their lives and service.
In a couple of weeks, we will mark the 171st anniversary of the assassination of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum. As I reflect on that tragic event, my mind is drawn to a copy of a newspaper clipping I have in my file containing an interesting, though somewhat garbled, account of the martyrdom reported two weeks after the fact in the New York Weekly Herald. The headline reads: “Important News from Nauvoo: Death of Joe and Hyrum Smith: Terrible Excitement in the West.” In part the article said, “We yesterday received by western mail the following particulars of the death of Joseph Smith the Prophet and his brother Hyrum. They were both shot. There was tremendous excitement in the west in consequence of their death” The article continued and then ended with this three-word conclusion and prediction: “Thus ends Mormonism.” (Thomas Ford. "19th Century Mormon Article Newspaper Index." Weekly Herald [New York, New York] 13 July 1844, 9.28th ed.: n. pag. Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University. By Jason Bosen. Provo: Harold B. Lee Library Brigham Young U, 2011. 220-21.)
This newspaper was not alone in that gloomy forecast. Many observers, both friendly and antagonistic, believed that with the death of its dynamic leader, the church Joseph founded would go the way of numerous other flash-in-the-pan religious movements of the time. That prognostication likely would have come to pass had Joseph Smith in fact been the founder of the Church, but he was not.
I bear my witness, with yours, that the establishment of this Church in the latter days is the very fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy that in the last days:
“shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.” (Daniel 2:44)
In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord proclaims the fulfillment of that marvelous prophecy,
“The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth.” (D&C 65:2)
Expectations that the Church would disintegrate had been voiced frequently before the Martyrdom and have been heard many times since. Even now, anti-Mormon writers engage in wishful thinking as they see what they believe are the foundations of Zion crumbling. When the authors of a book critical of the Church concluded, “The future of the Church is dim,” President Gordon B. Hinckley responded with his characteristic politeness:
"Without wishing to seem impertinent, I should like to ask what they know about that future. They know nothing of the prophetic mission of this Church. The future must have looked extremely dim in the 1830s. It must have looked impossible back in those Ohio-Missouri days. But notwithstanding poverty, notwithstanding robbing, notwithstanding murders, notwithstanding confiscation and drivings and disfranchisement forced upon the Saints, the work moved steadily on. It has continued to go forward. Never before has it been so strong. Never before has it been so widespread. Never before have there been so many in whose hearts has burned an unquenchable [ unshakeable] knowledge of the truth." (“Counsel to Religious Educators,” September 14, 1984, p. 7, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
May I share with you three short stories that may or may not be connected to each other but that underscore this theme of maintaining the continuity of the pioneer spirit by not being shaken.
In 1900, Thomas Yates, a Mormon student attending Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, had an interesting conversation with the cofounder of that institution, Andrew Dixon White. Dr. White had served as United States foreign minister in Russia several years earlier. He told Brother Yates of a visit he had had with the famous Count Leo Tolstoy.
Tolstoy, as you may know, is considered by many to be the greatest Russian philosopher, social critic, and novelist of all time. His best-known work, the very long classic, War and Peace. It has been read and viewed in movie form by millions the world over. The Russian movie version of it is six-and-a-half hours long. The film was so long, I’m told, they charged three different admission prices: one for those under twelve, one for those over twelve, and one for those who turned twelve during the movie! (I don’t know if that’s really true or not.)
According to Brother Yates’ recollection of what Dr. White told him concerning the exchange with Tolstoy, the renowned Russian scholar asked Dr. White to tell him about the American religion. Puzzled, Dr. White explained that we don’t have an American religion, “that each person is free to belong to the particular church in which he is interested.” Tolstoy is reported to have shown a little impatience in replying:
"I know all of this. . . . But the Church to which I refer originated in America, and is commonly known as the Mormon Church. What can you tell me of the teachings of the Mormons?"
"Well," said Dr. White, “I know very little concerning them”
"Then Count Leo Tolstoi . . . rebuked the ambassador. 'Dr. White, I am greatly surprised and disappointed that a man of your great learning and position should be so ignorant on this important subject. . . . If the people follow the teachings of this Church, nothing can stop their progress—it will be limitless. There have been great movements started in the past but they have died or been modified before they reached maturity.'
And then, according to Yates via White, Tolstoy made this remarkable prediction:
“If Mormonism is able to endure, unmodified, until it reaches the third and fourth generation, it is destined to become the greatest power the world has ever known.” (Thomas J. Yates, “Count Tolstoi and the ‘American Religion.’” Improvement Era, February 1939, as quoted by David B. Haight: "He is Not Here, He Is Risen", General Conference April 1980)
While some have questioned the accuracy of both White’s and Yates’ memories of this exchange, it is clear that Tolstoy had an interest in Mormonism and referred to it in his journal, in print, and in conversation. One of Brigham Young’s daughters, Susa Young Gates, corresponded with the count and sent him several books and pamphlets, including the Book of Mormon and The Life of Joseph Smith by George Q. Cannon. It is also clear that this bold prediction attributed to Tolstoy found its way into the speaking and writing of the Church in the early part of the 20th century.
After graduating from Cornell University in 1902, Brother Yates returned to Utah, where he apparently shared the Tolstoy prophecy with various interested members of the Church, possibly including the President of the Church, Joseph F. Smith.
The second story which, as I said, may or may not be related to the first, is told by President Spencer W. Kimball, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, in his October 1969 General Conference address:
"When I was a youngster, a stirring challenge came to me that moved me not a little I cannot remember who issued the challenge nor under what circumstances it came. I remember only that it struck me like a 'bolt out of the blue heavens.' The unknown voice postulated:
'The ‘Mormon Church’ has stood its ground for the first two generations—but wait till the third and fourth and succeeding generations come along! The first generation fired with a new religion developed a great enthusiasm for it. Surrounded with bitterness, calumnee of a hostile world, persecuted ‘from pillar to post,’ they were forced to huddle together for survival. There was good reason to expect they would live and die faithful to their espoused cause.
The second generation came along born to enthusiasts, zealots, devotees. They were born to men and women who had developed great faith, were inured to hardships and sacrifices for their faith. They inherited from their parents and soaked up from religious homes the stuff of which the faithful are made. They had full reservoirs of strength and faith upon which to draw.
But wait till the third and fourth generations come along,' said the cynical voice. 'The fire will have gone out—the devotion will have been diluted—the sacrifice will have been nullified—the world will have hovered over them and surrounded them and eroded them—the faith will have been expended and the religious fervor leaked out.'"
Then President Kimball declared.
"That day I realized that I was a member of the third generation. That day I clenched my growing fists. I gritted my teeth and made a firm commitment to myself that here was one 'third generation' who would not fulfill that dire prediction."
Young Spencer Kimball " could not be shaken."
The third story may identify the source of the "unknown voice" that spoke to young Spencer Kimball of the dangers of the third and fourth generations losing the faith of their pioneer fathers and mothers.
Sometime in 1904 or 1905, when Spencer Kimball would have been nine or ten years old, the president of the Church, Joseph F. Smith, gave a powerful address in General Conference entitled “The Third and Fourth Generations.” It is possible that this is where young Spencer heard the challenge that he said moved him “not a little.”
Another person who was deeply moved by President Smith’s stirring address was Professor Evan Stephens.
From the book Stories of Our Mormon Hymns I quote: "When Evan Stephens was conductor of the Tabernacle Choir he was thrilled on one occasion by a sermon delivered by the late President Joseph F. Smith on the subject of 'The Third and Fourth Generations.'
At the close of the service Professor Stephens strolled alone up City Creek Canyon pondering the inspired words of the President. Suddenly the muse came upon him and seated upon a rock which was standing firm under the pressure of the rushing water and happily symbolic of his theme, he wrote with a pencil the words of 'Shall The Youth of Zion Falter?'" (Cornwall, J. Spencer. Stories of Our Mormon Hymns. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 1963. Print.)
You know the words of this great hymn very well. It asks these challenging questions:
“Shall
the Youth of Zion FALTER?
Shall
we SHRINK or shun the fight?
Shall
the children of the promise cease to GRASP the Iron rod?”
All of these questions are answered with a resounding, " NO!" And then the song proclaims these firm resolutions:
“We will STRIVE to be found worthy
We will CLEAVE unto the truth
We will
WATCH and PRAY and LABOR
All followed with a resounding, ‘ YES!’”
Then the powerful chorus:
“TRUE
to the faith that our parents have cherished,
TRUE
to the truth for which martyrs have perished,
To God’s command,
Soul, heart, and hand,
FAITHFUL
and TRUE we will ever stand.” [Emphasis added]
Unshaken.
Whether these three incidents are closely related or not, I do not know, but I am intrigued by that possibility. I do know that as the youth of Zion refuse to be shaken, Mormonism has and will endure unaltered not only to the third and fourth generations, but to all generations of time, for it is the very eternal kingdom of God on the earth. Sister Vilate C. RAIL penned these stirring words regarding our valiant pioneer ancestors:
They cut desire into short lengths
And fed it to the hungry fires of tribulation.
Long after when the fires had died,
Molten gold gleamed in the ashes.
They gathered it in bruised palms
And handed it to their children
And their children’s children forever.
May we ever be true to the faith, and true to the truth, that with our noble pioneer ancestors we may ever stand unshaken, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.