Pioneer Day

As some of you may know, members from the LDS church celebrate Pioneer Day on July 24. It's a day that we can commemorate the pioneers of the church in these latter days for all their hard work and the sacrifices they made so we could have the gospel of Jesus Christ. I, like all members of the church, have much to be grateful for on this day.

I have a strong heritage of pioneers in my family and look forward to rereading their journals every year. Here is a story from some of my Lewis ancestors that I stumbled across this week:

"David Lewis and his 3 brothers, Enoch, William, and Elias were converted in Wales and left their homes and some of their families their to join the Saints in Utah in 1856. The four Lewis brothers along with their families sailed from Liverpool on April 18, 1856. When they reached America, they took a train to Iowa City. The long journey across the ocean, the crowded unfavorable conditions on the railroad (meaning lack of food and unsanitary conditions) was more than their youngest child, John, could stand. He passed away in Iowa and was buried there. The rest of the family pulled handcarts across the plains for 4 ½ months before they reached the Salt Lake Valley. Some went barefoot to save their shoes for later. Elias’s wife, Ellenor, was very proud and particular about her shoes. She always kept them shiny and clean. When they reached the Missouri River, she took them off, set them on the bank of the river, and when she got on the other side, she discovered she had left them. She walked the rest of the way bare-footed."

The pioneers sacrificed everything for what they believed. Taking the time to study their stories every year has given me the desire and strength to try a little harder day after day. I'm amazed by their faith and the sacrifices they so willingly made. I pray that we can all become a little more like them.