Relief Socity and Plural Marriage

In the early days of the Church, the practice of plural marriage was recealed to Joseph Smith. Although this practice was initially difficult for many to accept, the faithful Saints knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. They followed the Lord's will as it was revealed to their prophet. They made covenants with God and were strong and devout in keeping those covenants. When the Relief Society was re established in the late 1860's, plural marriage was still part of Church members' lives. however, many people in the US believed that women who lived the law of plural marriage were degraded and abused. As a result of a general misunderstanding about the Latter-day Aints and their beliefs, the national government passed legislation forbidding polygamous marriages.

A group of Latter-day Saint women gathered in Salt Lake City in January 1870 in response to this legislation. In the presence of newspaper reporters from across the United States, these women expressed their support for living prophets and for th epractices of the Church. They defended themselves and their husbands and proclaimed their faith and their covenants. Sister Eliza R. Snow said "It was high time to rise up in the dignity of our calling and speak for ourselves...The world does not know us, and truth and justice to our brethren and to ourselves demands us to speak...We are not inferior to the ladies of the world, and we do not want to appear so."

One Latter-day Saint woman expressed the feelings of many other when she said: "There is no spot on this wide earth where kindness and affection are more bestowed upon woman, and her rights so sacredly defended as in Utah. We are here to express our love for each other, and to exhibit to the world our devotion ot God our Heavenly Father; and to show our willing ness to comply with the requirements of the Gospel; and the law of Velestial Marriage is one of its requirements that we are resolved to honor, teach, and practise, which may God grant us strength to do."

Newspaper reporters said this was a "remarkable meeting." One reported wrote, "In logic and in rhetoric the so-called degraded ladies of Mormondom are quite equal to the...women of the East."

In 1890, President Wilford Woodruff, the fourth President of the Church, received a revelation that led to the Church's discontinuance of the practice of plural marriage. He wrote this revelation in a document known as the Manifesto. About writing the Manifesto, he said: "The God of heaven commanded me to do what I did do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me. I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write."

Because the people had accepted the prophetic counsel to enter into plural marriages and had made and kept their covenants, this new revelaiton was once again difficult for many, but faithful Latter-day Saints determined again to follow the prophet. On the day that the general membership of the Church heard the Manifesto and approved it, Sister Zina D.H. Young, (3rd General RS President) said, "Today the hearts of all were tried but looked to God and submitted."

The women of the Church who, by revelation, embraced plural marriage and who, by revelation, later accepted the Manifesto are worthy of admiration and appreciation. They were strictly obedient to their covenants and the counsel of the living prophet. Today these women are honored by their faithful posterity.

Helen Mar Whitney, who lived the law of plural marriage, wrote, "We may read the history of martyrs and mighty conquerors, and of many great and good men and women, but that of the nbole women and fair daughters of Zion, whose faith in the promises of Israel's God enabled them to triumph over self and obey His higher law, and assist His servants to establish it upon the earth,...I feel sure there was kept by the angels an account of their works which will yet be found in the records of eternity, written in letters of gold."

Daughters in My Kingdom p. 46-49

Relief Society and the Handcart Companies

At the October 1856 general conference, President Brigham Young announced that handcart pioneers were stranded hundreds of miles away. He declared "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 teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains, and attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties, otherwise your faith will be in vain."

Lucy Meserve Smith recorded: Those in attendance took action to provide relief for their brothers and sisters. Women stripped off their petticoats, stockings, and every things they could spare, right there in the tabernacle and piled them into the wagons to send to the saints in the mountains."

"We did all we could, with the aid of the good brethren and sisters, to comfort the needy as they came in with handcarts late in the fall.

"...As our society was short of funds then, we could not do much, but the four bishops could hardly carry the bedding and other clothing we got together the first time we met. We did not cease our exertions until all were made comfortable. When the handcart companies arrived, a building in the town was loaded with provisions for them. I never took more satisfaction and, I might say, pleasure in any labor I ever performed in my life, such a unanimity of feeling prevailed. I only had to go into a store and make my wants known, if it was cloth, it was measured off without charge. We wallowed through the snow until our clothes were wet a foot high to get things together."

They continued to gather bedding and clothings for the Saints who would arrive with only a few belongings in small handcarts.

Daughters in My Kingdom p. 36-37

Hope

In this dispensation many early members of the Church left their homes, their hearts full of hope and faith as they made their way west across the Great Plains to the Salt Lake Valley.

In 1851, Mary Murray Murdoch joined the Church in Scotland as a widow at age 67. A small woman at four feet seven inches (1.2 m) tall and barely 90 pounds (41 kg), she bore eight children, six of whom lived to maturity. Because of her size, her children and grandchildren affectionately called her “Wee Granny.”

Her son John Murdoch and his wife joined the Church and left for Utah in 1852 with their two small children. In spite of his family’s own hardships, four years later John sent his mother the necessary funds so she might join the family in Salt Lake City. With a hope much greater than her small size, Mary began the arduous journey west to Utah at age 73.

After a safe passage across the Atlantic, she ultimately joined the ill-fated Martin handcart company. On July 28 these handcart pioneers began the journey west. The suffering of this company is well known. Of the 576 members of the party, almost one-fourth died before they reached Utah. More would have perished if not for the rescue effort organized by President Brigham Young, who sent wagons and supplies to find the stranded, snowbound Saints.

Mary Murdoch died on October 2, 1856, near Chimney Rock, Nebraska. Here she succumbed to fatigue, exposure, and the hardships of the journey. Her frail body simply gave out under the physical hardships the Saints encountered. As she lay clinging to life, her thoughts were of her family in Utah. The last words of this faithful pioneer woman were “Tell John I died with my face toward Zion.” (See Kenneth W. Merrell, Scottish Shepherd: The Life and Times of John Murray Murdoch, Utah Pioneer [2006], 34, 39, 54, 77, 94–97, 103, 112–13, 115.)

Mary Murray Murdoch exemplifies the hope and faith of so many of the early pioneers who made the courageous journey west. The spiritual journeys of today require no less hope or faith than those of the early pioneers. Our challenges may be different, but the struggles are just as great.

It is my prayer that our hopes will lead to the fulfillment of our righteous dreams. I particularly pray our hope in the Atonement will strengthen our faith and charity and give us an eternal perspective of our future. May we all have this perfect brightness of hope, I pray.

Steven E. Snow

1916 Beehive Requirements

In 1916, every female over fourteen was a Beehive girl until she entered the Relief Society. There were no Mia Maids, Gleaners, or Laurels. The following are 20 out of 373 requirements possible for a Beehive girl to earn her awards:

1. Care successfully for a hive of bees for one season and know their habits. 2. Give the distinguishing characteristics of six varieties of hen and cattle and tell the good and weak points of each. 3. Exterminate the mosquitoes over an area of = mile square by pouring a little kerosene on the surface of all standing pools of water twice each month during April, May, and June.

4. Make two articles of underwear by hand.

5. Cover 25 miles on snowshoes in any six days.

6. Learn to float in Great Salt Lake and propel yourself 50 feet.

7. During three consecutive months, abstain from candy, ice cream, commercially manufactures beverages, and chewing gum

8. For one month, masticate your food so thoroughly that it slips down without any visible effort at swallowing it.

9. Successfully put a new washer on a faucet.

10. Care for at least two kerosene lamps daily.

11. For three month, take care of milk and cream from at least one cow and see that the pails, pans, strainer, and separator are thoroughly cleansed.

12. During two weeks, keep the house free from flies or destroy at least 25 flies daily.

13. Have your toilet moved to an isolated place in the garden. Have a frame of chicken wire built about three feet away and plant quick-growing vines such as cucumber or morning glories to screen it from observation.

14. Whitewash your toilet inside and out.

15. Know and describe three cries of a baby.

16. Without help or advice, care for and harness a team at least five times; drive them 50 miles during one season.

17. During two summer months, clean ice chest thoroughly twice a week.

18. Discover ten reasons why the Columbine should be the national flower.

19. Clear sagebrush off of = acre of land.

20. Know six blazes used by the Indians.

--June Conference; Beehive Dept., 1969

Clinging to the Doctrine

"I've often thought, and I've said to my own children, that those parents who kept going past Chimney Rock and Martin's Cove (and some didn't get farther than that) and those little graves that are dotted all across the historic landscape of this church--they didn't do that for a program, they didn't do it for a social, they did it because the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ was in their soul, it was in the marrow of their bones. That's the only way those mothers could bury that baby in a breadbox and move on and say 'The promised land is out there somewhere. We're going to make it to the valley.'

"Well thats because of covenants and doctrine and faith and revelation and spirit. If we can keep that in our families and in the Church, maybe a lot of other things start to take care of themselves. Maybe a lot of other things sort of fall off the wagon. I'm told those handcarts could only take so much. They had to choose what they took. And maybe the 21st century will drive us to decide, 'what can we put in this handcart?' It's the substance of our soul; it's the stuff right down in the marrow of our bones. We'll have blessed family and church if we can cling to the revelations."

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, World Wide Leadership Training Meeting; Building up a Righteous Posterity, Roundtable Discussion, section "Clinging to the Doctrine"

Angels Among Us

"And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed.

"Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

"And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him."

St. Luke 22: 41-43

Luke records that on the night of Atonement, following the Last Supper, Jesus bowed in awful alienation and grief in the Garden of Gethsemane beneath the load of the world’s sins. He uttered his soul-cry: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” (Luke 22:42–43.) An angel sent from the courts of glory. An angel sent to assist, to support, to sustain the sinless Son of Man in the depths of his greatest agony. “The angelic ministrant is not named,” Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote. “If we might indulge in speculation, we would suggest that the angel who came into this second Eden was the same person who dwelt in the first Eden. At least Adam, who is Michael, the archangel—the head of the whole heavenly hierarchy of angelic ministrants—seems the logical one to give aid and comfort to his Lord on such a solemn occasion. Adam fell, and Christ redeemed men from the fall; theirs was a joint enterprise, both parts of which were essential for the salvation of the Father’s children.” ^{"The Man Adam"}

"On a few occasions, I told the Lord that I had surely learned the lessons to be taught and that it wouldn't be necessary for me to endure any more suffering. Such entreaties seemed to be of no avail, for it was made clear to me that this purifying process of testing was to be endured in the Lord's time and in the Lord's own way. It is one thing to teach, 'Thy will be done' (Matt 26:42). It is another to live it. I also learned that I would not be left alone to meet these trials and tribulations but that guardian angels would attend me. There were some that were near angels in the form of doctors, nurses, and most of all my sweet companion, Mary. And on occasion, when the Lord so desired, I was to be comforted with visitations of heavenly hosts that brought comfort and eternal reassurances in my time of need. "

Elder Robert D. Hales Ensign November 2000, 6-9

"In a Sunday school class there was sharp criticism of the ill fated Martin and Willie handcart companies, which met with tragedy because of their late start on their trek to the Salt Lake Valley. An elderly man arose and said 'I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts.... give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife...too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died because of exposure and starvation, but we became acquainted with God in our extremities. I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand, and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I had looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there. Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then or any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart company.'"

Elder Robert L. Backman, Faith in Every Footstep. Ensign Jan 1997, 7

"My dear young sisters--you who stand for truth and righteousness, you who seek goodness, you who have entered the waters of baptism and walk in the ways of the Lord--our Father in heaven has promised that you will 'mount up with wings as eagles [you] shall run, and not be weary; and [you] shall walk, and not faint'. You 'shall not be deceived'. God will bless and prosper you . 'The gates of hell shall not prevail against you;... and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory.'" President Uchtdorf, "Your Happily Ever After" Ensign May 2010

"I had a woman who came to me who was an incest victim--the victim of a terrible family.She had been abused in about every way there was to be abused. She was not a member of the Church at that time, although this happens to members of the Church also. In high school she met a young man who was a Latter-day Saint and who started taking her to church. with him. Eventually they married. He was gentle and kind and patient...and loved her. They raised boys. Despite this, she had recurring bouts of depression and very negative feelings about herself because she had been taught by the people most important in her early life what a rotten person she was. It was hard for her to overcome that self-image. I worked with her to try to build her self-image. One day she said to me 'Your a stake president; you explain the justice of it....When I see little girls being hugged and kissed and taken to church and appropriately loved by their fathers and mothers, I just have to get up and leave. I say 'Heavenly Father, what was so terrible about me that, when I was that age, I didn't get any of that? What did that little girl do in the pre mortal existence that I didn't do so she is loved, so she is safe? Her daddy gives her priesthood blessings when she's sick. Her mother loves her and supports her and teacher her. What did I do? Can you tell me that God is just if he sends that little girl to that family and me to my family?'

"I would not have known how to answer her in my own capacity because that is manifestly unjust. Where, here or in eternity, is the justice of an innocent child's suffering in that way? But the Lord inspired me to tell her, and I believe with all my heart that it applies to many in the kingdom, that she was a valiant Christlike spirit who volunteered (with, I told her, perhaps too much spiritual pride) to come to earth and suffer innocently to purify a lineage. She volunteered to absorb the poisoning of sin, anger, anguish, and violence, to take it into herself and not to pass it on; to purify a lineage so that downstream from her it ran pure and clean, full of love and the Spirit of the Lord and self-worth. I believe truly that her calling was to be a savior on Mount Zion; that is, to be Savior-like, like the Savior to suffer innocently that others might not suffer. She voluntarily took such a task with the promise she would not be left alone and abandoned, but he would send one to take her by the hand and be her companion out in to the light.

"I think we do not understand the nature of ourselves. I think we do not understand who we are. Some people call the temple ordinances the 'mysteries' of the kingdom. When I went to the temple, I thought I was going to learn which star was Kolob, where the Ten Tribes were, and other such information. But those aren't the mysteries of the kingdom....The uses of adversity are the uses they put us to. May they hone us, and purify us, and teach us, and not destroy us, because of who we are, who God is, and what our relationship to him is. [because those are the mysteries of the kingdom]" "The Uses of Adversity" Carlfred Broderick. exerpt from his book, My Parents Married on a Dare

We have experiences where a heavenly being or guardian angel can come to assist and help us. We also have relationships with people who may be angels in our lives. People who have experienced challenges and made changes in their life so we may be protected from those challenges. People who choose to teach us truths and who choose to love us amidst our weaknesses. People who help us understand "who we are, who God is, and what our relationship to him is."

Martin and Willie Handcart Company

"In a Sunday school class there was sharp criticism of the ill-fated Martin and Willie Handcart companies, which met with tragedy because of their late start on their trek to the Salt Lake Valley.

"An elderly man arose and said 'I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts....give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife...too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but we became acquainted with God in our extremities.

"'I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other.I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go that far and then I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it....I have gone onto that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.

"'Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then or any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.'" Elder Robert L. Backman, "Faith in Every Footstep" Ensign, Jan 1997, 7

"Come, Come ye Saints" by Julie Rogers

Strength through the Lord

1 Nephi 3 :7 "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father; I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

"I confess that I wince a little when I hear that promise quoted so casually among us. Jesus knew what kind of commitment would entail and so now does Nephi. And so will a host of others before it is over. That vow took Christ to the cross on Calvary and it remains at the heart of every Christian covenant. 'I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded'? Well-we shall see."
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

How did the Savior find strength?

St. Luke 22: 41-43
41. "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
42. "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
43. "And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

Can angels strengthen us today?

"In a Sunday school class there was sharp criticism of the ill-fated Martin and Willie Handcart companies, which met with tragedy because of their late start on their trek to the Salt Lake Valley.

An elderly man arose and said 'I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts....give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the handcart company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife...too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but we became acquainted with God in our extremities.

"'I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot in front of the other.I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go that far and then I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it....I have gone onto that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.

"'Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then or any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.'" Elder Robert L. Backman, "Faith in Every Footstep" Ensign, Jan 1997, 7

"Come, Come ye Saints" by Julie Rogers

Can Prayer strengthen us?

Luke 22:44 "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

St. Mark 15:34 "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

St. Luke 23: 46 "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit; and having said thus, he gave up the ghost."

"The work of devil and of darkness is never more certain to be defeated than when men and women, not finding it easy or pleasant but still determined to do the Father's will look out upon their lives from which it may seem every trace of God has vanished, and asking why they have been forsaken, still bow their heads and obey." Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Can the scriptures strengthen us?

1 Nephi 5:21 "And we had obtained the records which the Lord had commanded us, and searched them and found that they were desirable; yea, even of great worth unto us, insomuch that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children."

1 Nephi 19:23 "And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning."

"...[The Book of Mormon] can help with personal problems in a very real way. Do you want to get rid of a bad habit? Do you want to improve relationships with your family? Do you want to increase your spiritual capacity? Read the Book of Mormon! It will bring you closer to the Lord and His loving power."
Elder Russel M. Nelson, "A Testimony of the Book of Mormon" Ensign, Nov. 1999

Additional Scriptures on receiving strength through the Lord

Genesis 18:14 "Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."

Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."

I Nephi 17:3, 50 "And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God, he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness."

Doctrine and Covenants 5:34 "Yea, for this cause I have said: Stop, and stand still until I command thee, and I will provide means whereby thou mayest accomplish the thing which I have commanded thee."