Doctrine and Covenants Lesson #36 "The Desert Shall Rejoice and Blossom as the Rose"

 
Write "M & M" vertically on the board.  If you live in a location where you can easily get them, you can pass around M&M's chocolate candies as a treat.  Tell the class you are going to talk about two factors which contributed to the desert's blossoming as a rose, which both start with M.  Ask the class to guess what they might be.  Sing "Hark All Ye Nations" from the hymnbook (no. 264) which is another clue to the answers.

M #1:  MISSIONARIES
(If you have a world map to display, add colored tacks on the map for each place mentioned below.)

On August 28, 1852 at a special conference, just over 100 elders were called to missions throughout the world.  Remember, the saints have only been in the Salt Lake Valley for 5 years at this time.  Do you want to guess where these missionaries were called?

• United States (Washington, Iowa, New Orleans, Texas)
• Canada (Nova Scotia)
• Europe (England, Wales, Ireland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Denmark, Norway)
• Oceania (Sandwich Islands [Hawaii], French Polynesia, there were already missionaries in Australia)
• South America (Chile and Peru)
• Africa (South Africa)
• Asia (4 to Hong Kong [China], 4 to Siam [Thailand], 9 to India)

(Source:  R. Lanier Britsch, From the East, p. 14; Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 356-365; Laurence E. Cummins, "The Saints in South Africa," Ensign, March 1973; Mormon Newsroom Facts and Statistics)

Of course the early missions to Europe and Canada were hugely successful and brought many new saints who were skilled craftsmen from the Old World to the new Mormon colonies.  Others of these early missions were not very successful at the time, but seeds were planted that germinated slowly or sat dormant, some for hundreds of years.

I will share just a little about a few of the more remote locations:

Australia
Actually, missionary work had already been started in Australia 12 years earlier by an English convert, who was joined a year later by a Scottish convert.  There was a congregation there as early as 1844!  (The year the Prophet died.)  Two American missionaries came in 1851, the year before this conference.  Today (2017) there are nearly 150,000 members in 6 missions in Australia with 5 temples (See Mormon Newsroom for the most current statistics).

Siam (Thailand)
Of the four missionaries called to Siam, only 1 made it because of the war there, Elder Luddington.  His only converts were the captain of the ship that brought him and the captain's wife.  He was only in Siam for 4 months, and was stoned twice during that time.  Today (2017) there are over 21,000 members in 40 congregations in the Thailand mission (Britsch, From the East, p. 30-32; see Mormon Newsroom).

China (Hong Kong)
Three missionaries were called to China.  "The mission to China cannot be assessed as anything but a complete failure," Britsch writes.  The Tai-Ping Rebellion prevented any work, and the missionaries returned to the U.S. after just a few weeks.  Missionaries did not return to China until 1949, when they were called again to Hong Kong.  Today (2017) there are over 24,000 members in 41 congregations and 1 temple in Hong Kong.  Mainland China is not open to missionary work. (Britsch, p. 33, 37; see Mormon Newsroom)

India
These were not the first missionaries called to India.  The previous year, Lorenzo Snow, mission president in Great Britain, sent one European brother to Bombay and another to Calcutta.  They initially had great success and baptized about 180 people, 170 of them native Indians.  The nine missionaries called to India in 1852, then, sailed from California on Christmas Day expecting to reap a great harvest, but they were very disheartened when they found that, of those 180 converts, only 6-8 were still faithful.  (Britsch, p. 14, 18)  Elder Nathan Very Jones wrote of his discouragement: "To all human appearance, there is scarcely a redeeming quality in the nation."  (Britsch, p. 24)  The mission was shortly closed.  It reopened again in 1993 with a native Indian as its president.  Today (2017) there are 2 missions in India with 13,000 members (check Mormon Newsroom for most current statistics).

Pakistan
These missionaries to India also planted seeds in Pakistan.  On their way home (1856 or earlier), they left some literature with a man named Robert Marshall, which included the prophecy of Joseph Smith on the Civil War.  Ten years later, when the war erupted, it was brought back to this man's mind.  He read it all.  There was no one to baptize him, but he was the first real missionary in Pakistan.  He became known as a Mormon and spread the gospel to twelve family members and friends.  Finally, when he was an old man and near the end of his life, his sons petitioned the Church in his behalf, and someone was sent from another mission to baptize him and the other twelve (Britsch, p. 29; also Keep a Pitchin In, Mormon History Blog which has some awesome pictures, the first of which "Karachi," features the Indian and Pakistani saints--also read the comments on that post for a little more info; "From India's Coral Strand," Improvement Era, April 1909).  According to an article in The Salt Lake Tribune published in September of 2011, there were about native Pakistanis serving missions, with 2/3rds of them serving in Pakistan (the entire Pakistani missionary force), although I can't find documentation from the Church on that information.  It is possible that the work there has stopped due to the war. Here is some older unofficial information about Pakistan.

And now for the second M that helped the desert to blossom as a rose:

M #2: MUSICIANS
Music was very important in the settling of the LDS communities in the west.  Some groups leaving Salt Lake City to settle other areas would delay a little while to see if incoming emigrant wagon trains might have a good baritone or soprano they could enlist for their community.  One bishop advertised 10 acres of his town's best land to any good tenor who would settle and agree to sing in his ward's choir (Charles J. Calman, The Tabernacle Choir, p. 22).

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
The Tabernacle Choir first sang on August 22, 1847, 29 days after the pioneers had entered the Salt Lake Valley, at the first General Conference held in Utah at the bowery.  At that time, there were fewer settlers in the valley than there are singers in today's choir, and very few of them were women.  The singers were Welsh immigrants.  They had  no name, no tabernacle, no organ, and no conductor.  The choir performed only twice each year for conference, but even with that, and with no organ, they greatly impressed visitors from France who wrote in 1855, "We feel bound to say that the Mormons have a feeling for sacred music, that their women sing with soul, and that the execution is in no notable degree surpassed by that which is heard either under the roof of Westminster, or the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel" (Calman, p. 21-22, quoting from A Journey to Great Salt Lake City).

The Tabernacle
The first tabernacle was built in 1851 of adobe.  It seated 2,500.  The present-day Tabernacle was built in 1867 (Calman, p. 22).  (For more on the Tabernacle, see History of the Tabernacle at Mormon Newsroom.)


The Organ
Joseph Ridges was 24 when he immigrated from England to Australia with his family.  He met some Latter-day Saints on the ship and eventually joined the Church.  As a boy in England, he had lived across the street from an organ factory.  When he came into money from gold mining in Australia, he started to build the first organ built in Australia.  The Church in Utah needed an organ, though, so at the suggestion of the Australian mission president the Ridges family disassembled it, packaged it in tin shipping cases, and immigrated with it to Utah via California.  On October 11, 1857 the organ was played for the first time in the old adobe Tabernacle.

On October 6, 1867, a new tabernacle organ built in Utah by Brother Ridges was played for the first time.  Parts of that organ still remain with the present-day Tabernacle organ, including the central organ case with the famous 32-foot golden pipes.  These pipes are actually made of wood, and it is still a mystery how they were made.  Perhaps they were made on the keystone principle, with the canvas lining glued to the inside acting as the keystone before the last strip was placed in its slot.  They are the only round wooden pipes of this size in the world (Calman, p. 33; also James R. Moss, "The Kingdom Builders," Ensign, December 1979).

The Organist
Joseph Daynes was born in England and began playing the piano at the age of 2.  He performed an organ concert for Queen Victoria at age 11.  Shortly thereafter, he crossed the plains with his family to join the Saints (about 1862) and was welcomed by Brigham Young who said, "There is the organist for our great Tabernacle organ" (L.W. Snow, "History of Joseph J. Daynes, written for the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers; also Calman, p. 33). When he first sat at Ridge's organ, his feet would not reach the pedals so he add blocks of cork to the soles of his shoes.  At the dedication of the new organ, 16-year-old Joseph Daynes was at the console.  His composition, "As the Dew From Heaven Distilling" is the closing number of each Tabernacle Choir television broadcast still today (Calman, p. 33-35.  See also The Friend, October 1987).

The Conductor
George Careless was also born in England and displayed a great musical talent, which his father thought was a waste of time.  So George was apprenticed to a shoemaking company.  Unfortunately for George's father, the foreman loaned George a violin and told him to think of nothing but music as his career.  He was baptized at age 11.  At age 13 his father presented him with an ultimatum: not to choose between the church and his family, as you might expect, but to choose between music and his family.  So George left the family for good.  The factory foreman lent George the money to attend the Royal Academy music school at age 20.  In 1864, at age 25, he emigrated to Utah to join the saints.

As they crossed the ocean, George led the LDS emigrants in a choir, impressing the captain so much that when they landed he begged for a piece of George's music.  All of it was packed away, even the blank note paper, so George sat down on a crate and drew out the lines of the staff on a piece of paper from his pocket and, on the spot, wrote a little tune for the captain which he named "Hudson," after the ship.  He then assembled the choir and they sang the tune "Hudson" with the words of Parley P. Pratt's well-known hymn "The Morning Breaks" for the captain.  In those days, hymns would be sung to any number of different tunes, but that particular tune and lyric combination still exists as hymn number 1 in our hymnbook today.

When he reached Salt Lake City, George was greeted with the news that there were already too many professional musicians in town (three) and they were unable to make a living with music.  He answered, "I'll stay with my music for two years--if I starve, you will have to bury me."  Within a month, he had 24 paying students (100 pounds of flour for a series of lessons), and his abilities attracted President Young's attention.

President Young called him to lead the Tabernacle Choir.  He agreed, promising, "I will do the best I can with the material I can get."  And he led that "material" to greatness.  He was a terrific organizer and assembled the first large-scale tabernacle choir for general conference from the core choir members, joined by saints who rehearsed throughout Utah and came to Salt Lake for the event.  (See David Maxwell, "The Morning Breaks: George Careless, Musical Pioneer," Ensign, February 1984.  Also found in Calman's book, p. 39-43)

You may want to close the topic with a recording of "When in Our Music God is Glorified" from the hymnbook, or simply recite the first and third verses. Or, of course, you could play a recording the Tabernacle Choir singing, "The Morning Breaks" or "As the Dew From Heaven Distilling."

Doctrine and Covenants Lesson #35 "A Mission of Saving"

With the conversion of many Europeans to the church, the necessity of gathering them to Zion was a great problem.  The conditions in the big cities of Europe were deplorable.  Evacuation was essential to the salvation of these saints, yet many of them were very poor and could never afford the tremendous expense of a covered wagon and team of oxen.  Looking for a less-expensive solution, the idea of traveling by handcarts was presented and approved. 

This painting is from True West Magazine

Handcarts were not invented for pioneers, but were common in big cities, used by the street vendors in big cities.  It was a crazy idea to use these for crossing the plains, but it was an inspired crazy idea.  It made it possible for many desperately poor Saints to gather.

January 12, 1856, The Millennial Star (the Church magazine in England), published instructions for gathering, and subsequent later articles elaborated.

Traveling by handcart was, however, a knife-edge plan at best, with no room for error.  It was based on the bare minimum.  Each company of saints would charter a ship to America and then cross by rail to Iowa City, where handcarts would have been prepared for them.  The companies were to be led by the missionaries who had served in Europe and who were now traveling home.  There were 5 people to a handcart, with 17 pounds baggage each.  20 people (or 4 handcarts) were assigned to one tent.  100 people (or 20 handcarts) were assigned to one Chicago wagon which carried their tents and their food.  90 days' rations (rations being the operative word here—the bare minimum) were to be brought.  Each person was allowed one change of clothing plus their own bedding and cookware.  The estimated travel time was 70 days and was quite optimistic, although one of the first companies, full of converts from Wales, did it in 65.  Handcart companies were to be met and resupplied with food and provisions at Fort Laramie provided by the saints in Salt Lake City.

Mission President Franklin D. Richards published this advice to those who would join the handcart companies:  “It is our constant desire not to mislead the Saints concerning the difficulties of the journey to Utah.  We wish them calmly to make up their minds that it is not an easy task, and to start with faith, trusting in Israel’s God for success…”  (LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion: The Story of a Unique Western Migration, 1856-1860, p. 42-43).

The prospect of affordable travel to Zion overjoyed the poor Saints of Europe so much that hundreds of them signed on.  Things went quite well for the first two companies.  They crossed the plains more quickly than oxen could.  They arrived in Salt Lake destitute, but they had left Europe destitute, and here their brothers in the gospel could help them, and opportunity for improvement abounded.

The next two companies however, led by missionaries James Willie and Edward Martin, had a multiplicity of problems.

The system was flooded with potential immigrants and it was difficult to book passage for them all.  During the 7-month sailing season of 1855-1856, almost 5,000 Mormon converts crossed the sea, some with wagon companies, most with handcart companies.  Many of the saints joyously, but not wisely, quit their jobs as soon as they heard of the handcart plan.  Now they had no choice but to move ahead, and no funds with which to purchase supplies.  President Brigham Young was alarmed at the late departure of some of these ships when he received the report by mail on July 31, and wrote to new mission president Orson Pratt, “They should be landed early in May, and not much, if any after the first of that month, in Boston or New York.  You will please to attend to this matter in the season there of.”  The good ship Thornton hadn’t left England until May 3, and the Horizon didn't leave until May 25!

When they reached Florence, Nebraska, some of the saints stayed behind, waiting for better passage.  It was well-known that to cross the plains safely, you must reach Independence Rock in central Wyoming by Independence Day, July 4 (hence the name of the rock).  But the majority of the intrepid converts felt they should push on.  Unfortunately, rather than sticking with the sound advice of their Church president, as well as that of the travel guide books available, they decided to make a democratic decision and vote on whether to cross.  Of course, not having ever crossed the plains, and being mostly city-dwellers, they were not in a position to make an objective decision.  Their faith carried the vote and there was only one vote of descent:  Levi Savage.  Having crossed the plains many times, and seeing the poor health and old age of many of the company, he advised them to stay back for the winter, but when they refused and questioned his faith, he famously stated, “Brethren and sisters, what I have said I know to be true; but seeing you are to go forward, I will go with you, will help you all I can, will work with you, will rest with you, will suffer with you, and, if necessary, I will die with you.  May God in his mercy bless and preserve us” (Hafen, p. 96-97).

There were not enough handcarts ready for them, so they built more hastily and didn’t wait for seasoning of the wood.  By the time the Willie Company embarked on the trek it was August 18^th!  The Martin Company left August 25^th!  And the Hunt wagon train left September 2^nd, particularly dangerous for a wagon train as wagons were much slower.

President Richards, having been released from his mission, caught up with them just before they left and said, “From the beginning we have done all in our power to hasten matters pertaining to emigration, therefore we confidently look for the blessing of God to crown our humble efforts with success, and for the safe arrival of our brethren the poor Saints in Utah, though they may experience some cold” (Hafen, p. 98). That turned out to be quite an understatement!

In addition to their terribly late start across the plains, the companies crossed more slowly than others.   The Willie Company did not arrive in Salt Lake until Nov. 9 (84 days of travel), the Martin arrived Nov. 30 (97 days) and the Hunt and Hodgett wagon trains arrived on Dec. 11-15 (104 days)! They had many equipment difficulties, hastily-constructed handcarts falling apart, oxen dying or getting lost, fatigue striking and causing them to discard their warm clothing and bedding in the warm weather in order to make their carts lighter, and no resupply at Fort Laramie because Brigham Young assumed they would have followed counsel and wintered in Nebraska. 

But the Lord did bless them and rescue them, despite their follies, and because of their faith.  Although they suffered exposure, fatigue, illness, starvation, and injury and came across an early winter storm (early, but not at all unusual for Wyoming where still to this day there are actually large gates that are used to block entrance to the Interstate highway during blizzards), approximately 82% of the saints in these four companies survived and arrived in Zion.  82%!  They should have all died!  This percentage is by my own calculation, using the rosters provided in the book, Remember: The Willie and Martin Handcart Companies and Their Rescuers—Past and Present, compiled and edited by the Riverton Wyoming Stake.  In fact, I counted on those rosters 22 families with from 4 to 7 children each who arrived intact, not having lost a member! (My own ancestor, Elizabeth Simpson Bradshaw, with her children is among that number.)

The story of the handcart pioneers should be a great encouragement to all of us, whatever our trek through life may be.  Many times we make foolish, although well-meaning, decisions.  Sometimes we disregard important counsel because it doesn't meet our agenda. Sometimes we don't have the faith to wait, but forge ahead. Often we are ill-equipped for the storms that come upon us.  But in every instance, if we are true to our faith, the Lord will see us through.

Additional Resources

T.C. Christensen has undertaken the project of chronicling these saints on the silver screen.  Those of you in Utah are familiar with his movies, but those of you elsewhere may not be.  I highly recommend both of them: 17 Miracles, about the ordeals of the handcart companies, and Ephraim’s Rescue, retelling the story of their rescue.  The movies are now out on DVD and sometimes on Netflix and most accurately and beautifully depict the events of 1856.  Children will enjoy counting the miracles in 17 Miracles, which are all well-documented, but bear in mind, these 17 are by no means all the miracles that the handcart companies experienced.  They are too many for one feature-length film!  

Another nice resource is the website http://tellmystorytoo.com/, where books, stories and artwork are available.  Julie Rogers is the artist, and has painted many of the individual pioneers, including my own ancestors, Sarah Ann Haigh and Elizabeth Simpson Bradshaw, carrying her youngest son Richard (pictured above) which painting now hangs on my wall.

The Rest of the Story

There is another fascinating aspect of the handcart pioneer story that is less well-known: that of the intrepid Daniel Webster Jones (not the Welsh missionary Dan Jones) and his group of 20 men who came as part of the rescue team, and then volunteered to stay the winter at a tiny fort on the trail near Martin’s Cove in order to guard the belongings of these poor Saints, since all wagon space was used to carry people back to Salt Lake City and anything left along the trail would be considered abandoned and free for the taking.  Theirs is a story of tremendous loyalty, kindness, obedience and bravery, as they suffered on guard duty all through the long winter.  They were organized into a small branch of the Church before they were left behind, and they carried on with church meetings and fast days, although they had a lot of extra fast days as well.  They nearly starved to death on several occasions, and even learned to boil cowhide to create a gelatin that they could subsist upon until the next miracle arrived.  Fortunately, Dan Jones' personal recollections are available online (Forty Years Among the Indians). This particular adventure begins in Chapter XIII.  Wallace Stegner, a non-Mormon historian who specialized in Mormon history, chronicled the story in an interesting narrative, and that is also available at that site as "The Man That Ate His Pack Saddle."

Learning Aids for LDS "Hymns Made Easy"

 
Since posting my Graded List of LDS Hymns For Piano Students, a senior missionary sister serving in Jamaica e-mailed me and requested a list of the easiest simplified hymns, from the Hymns Made Easy book, to help the local members learn to play.  This is something that I have wished I had over the years and have been unable to find, so I decided to make one for her.  There is an index in the back of the book that groups the hymns into three groups, easiest to hardest, but in my 20+ years' experience as a music teacher, and in almost every one of the many method books and leveled student pieces I have used, there are certain elements that make a piece easy to play for a beginner, which do not match this indexing.  These are:

--being in the key of C (no sharps or flats in the key signature)

--having no or very few hand position changes, especially in the left hand

--having no accidentals (sharps and flats in the music)
--having simple rhythms such as quarter notes and half notes only
--having no or few large jumps from one key to another

So here are the ten pieces that I think are the easiest ones in the Hymns Made Easy book and my suggestions for making them easy to learn.  If they are helpful to the saints in Jamaica, maybe they will helpful to others, too.  At the very least, they'll be helpful to my students.

"We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet"
Key of C
No accidentals
Dotted rhythms, but they are not very tricky.
L.H. stays in the same position except twice finger 5 needs to reach down one note for a chord on "days" and "hand."
R.H. only moves a few times:  On Line 2, circle the 1 on "sending" where the thumb crosses under finger 2; On Line 3, circle the 2 on "We" and the 1 on "Bestowed."  The last line is the same as other lines in the piece.

"God's Daily Care"

Key of C

No accidentals

Only one set of eighth notes

L.H. changes position three times:  Circle the finger number 1 on "begun," Line 2 circle the finger number 2 on "I" and the finger number 1 on "That."

R.H. uses a stretched position for most of the first line, with finger 1 on E and finger 2 on G.  Note that it contracts at "has just begun."  It's back to the stretched position on the second line, and then changes altogether on "That" where you should circle the 4/1 fingering notation.

"Now Let Us Rejoice"

Key of C

Two sharps on line 4.  Highlight them.

Dotted rhythms, but if the student is familiar with the hymn, she can probably play them.

L.H. never changes position.  (Hooray!)

It's a longer hymn, but there are only about three and a half lines to actually learn since it repeats itself so much:

"Now let us rejoice in the day of salvation" and "Good tidings are sounding to us and each nation" and "And earth will appear as the Garden of Eden" are all exactly alike.

"No longer as strangers on earth need we roam" and "And none will molest them from morn until ev'n" are exactly the same.

"And shortly the hour of redemption will come" and "And Jesus will say to all Israel, 'Come home'" are exactly the same.

"When all that was promised" and "the Saints will be given" are almost the same.

The R.H. uses a stretched out position at first:  Line 1 circle the 2 on "us."

The R.H. changes position several times:  Line 1 circle the 2 on "the" and the 1 on "of"; Line 2 circle the 4 on "strangers."  The rest of the line is the same as line 1.  Line 4, circle the 3 on "when."  The rest of the piece is the same as parts that have already been learned.

"Lord, I Would Follow Thee"

Key of C

One accidental, an F# on the second line.  Circle it or highlight it.

Point out the parallel motion (both hands moving the same direction) on "learn to love thee" (both times) and on "follow thee" at the very end of the piece.

L.h. position change at the beginning of second line (circle the 2/3 fingering mark), again at the beginning of the third line (the 1/3 fingering), and one more time on the third measure of the last line (1/3).
Cross out the A-flat on the second-to-last measure in the l.h.  It is completely unnecessary.  Just hold the chord and skip that A-flat.

Circle the following finger numbers or notes where the r.h. changes position:  Line 1 "learn" and 4 on "the," Line 2 the 1 on the last syllable of "another," and the last syllable of "beyond," Line 3 the 5 on "Savior", the 4 on "to, and the 3 on "I".

"Count Your Blessings"

Key of C

No accidentals

The eighth notes make it trickier, but if the student can play eighth notes, it's easy in many other ways.

Unlike most hymns this one has a lot of repetition.  Point out to the student that the first six measures of the first line are exactly the same as the second line.

Point out the parallel motion between the hands on the last two measures of every line.

Practice the first five notes in the l.h. which are in a stretched-out hand position.

In the 3rd and 4th lines, the l.h. does not move from C position at all.

The r.h. has to stretch one note for the B played with finger 5 on "discouraged" and "surprise".  Circle that note.

Circle the following finger numbers where the r.h. moves:  Line 2, the 2 that crosses over on "Lord has done;" Line 3 the 3, 5, 3 on "count...blessings", Line 4 the 5 on "Count" and the 3 on "God."

"Jesus, Once of Humble Birth"
Key of C
No accidentals
The l.h. stays mainly in a C position, but if you circle the A and F chord on the word "humble" and again on "grief", that will signal to the student the only place where she has to reach up just one key to get to that A.
The only tricky rhythms are the tied chords in the l.h., but it seriously wouldn't matter at all if the pianist accidentally played them twice instead of holding them.
The r.h. doesn't change position a lot.  Just circle these finger numbers to note changes: the 2 that crosses over the thumb on the second line on "comes," the 1 on "grief," and 3, 2, and 1 that have to stretch on "on earth to."

"Hark, All Ye Nations"

Key of C

The dotted eighth note rhythm is the trickiest thing about this piece, but most students would be able to play it if they hear it played for them.

The r.h. moves a lot, but the first, second and fourth lines are exactly the same for the first three measures of each, so once they learn line one, they've learned most of the piece.  Circle the 4 on "hear", the 1 on "voice, and the 1 on "all" (these are all on line 1)

Then the third line has a sequence:  the second two measures are exactly the same as the first two measures but are played one note lower.

Point out Line 3 uses a stretched-out r.h. hand position.  Circle the places that finger 4 is notated.

The best thing about this piece is the l.h. moves so very little.  There is no change from C position in the first, second and fourth lines.  In the third line, circle the middle C at the beginning of the line, the 1 on "shines" and the 2 on "gospel".  Those are the only deviations.

"I Know That My Redeemer Lives"

This is in the key of F which makes it slightly more difficult, but if you take a highlighter pen and highlight all of the B's in the piece, that will help the student remember to play the black note.

The l.h. plays only a few different chords.

The rhythms are a little tricky with the dotted notes and the eighth notes, but if the student is familiar with the tune, he'll be able to get them right by ear.

There are a few position changes in the r.h.  Circle the finger numbers:  2nd line the 2, 3, 4 on "lives, who once" and 4 on "everlasting."  Third line, the 2 on "He."  Fourth line, the 5 on "He", the 3 on "hungry" and the 3 on "feed."

"O God, the Eternal Father"

Key of C

There are two accidentals in the piece, both on the third line.

The l.h. moves a few times.  Circle the finger numbers when there is a move:  Line 2 the 2 on "bless," line 3 (no finger number marked, but it would be a 5) on "bread", line 4 the 1 on "all" and the final chord.

"I Am a Child of God"

Key of C

Some tricky dotted rhythms and eighth notes, but because most people are very familiar with the tune, they probably won't be thrown off by these.

The L.H. doesn't move a lot.  Circle the 2 on the second measure, and the 1s on the last line.

There are two sharps on the second line.  Highlight them.

R.H. moves a little.  Line 1 circle the finger 2 on "And" and the 4 on "has"; line 2 circle the B, Line 3 circle the 5 on the "help", and Line 4 circle the 5 and 4 on "I must" and the 4 on "live."

You can download all the hymns from lds.org. On lds.org, choose "Resources" at the top of the page. Then choose "Library at the upper left. Then all the hymnbooks appear. I have linked them directly below.

Here is a link for the "Hymns Made Easy" book: https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/english/pdf/callings/music/hymns-made-easy/Hymns_000_HymnsMadeEasy_eng.pdf?lang=eng

Here is a link for the regular hymns.

https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns?lang=eng

​If you are a beginning piano student, you may want to start with the Keyboard Course, which has even easier hymns than the "Hymns Made Easy."

https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/english/pdf/callings/music/KeyboardCourse_33620_eng.pdf?lang=eng​

Happy Hymn-Playing!

Doctrine and Covenants Lesson #33 President Brigham Young Leads the Saints

ALTERNATIVE LESSON
I have prepared another lesson about the miracles of the Mormon migration, with an accompanying PowerPoint. That lesson is available at this link.

PREPARATION

Scrap of paper at each place

6 pint jars with the following amounts of M&Ms (or other small items) in them: 14, 117, 195, 197, 351, 410

Write names on board: John Brown, James Brown, Hark Lay, Oscar Crosby, Green Flake

Note:  The succession of Church leadership will be address in Lesson #37: “We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet”

MOVING ON FROM TRAGEDY

When the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed, most of the apostles were on missions to the eastern United States, including Parley P. Pratt. The only two in Illinois were Willard Richards and John Taylor, both of whom had been with Joseph and Hyrum at Carthage. Parley was the first to return, having been “constrained by the Spirit” to head back to Nauvoo from New York before he had planned to. While on a canal boat, enroute,

“…a strange and solemn awe came over me, as if the powers of hell were let loose. I was so overwhelmed with sorrow I could hardly speak. I was so over-whelmed with sorrow I could hardly speak; and after pacing the deck for some time in silence, I turned to my brother William and exclaimed—'Brother William, this is a dark hour; the powers of darkness seem to triumph, and the spirit of murder is abroad in the land, and it controls the hearts of the American people, and a vast majority of them sanction the killing of the innocent.' ……This was June 27^th, 1844, in the afternoon, and as near as I can judge, it was the same hour that the Carthage mob were shedding the blood of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and John Taylor, near one thousand miles distant.”

All of the other members of the quorum reported feeling a terrible sadness on that day. In Wisconsin, passengers boarded the boat Parley was on, gloating over the news that Joseph and Hyrum had been killed. When Parley got off in Chicago, he found a great hubbub as the press was issuing extras “announcing the triumph of the murderous mob in killing the Smiths.”

“I felt so weighed down with sorrow and the powers of darkness that it was painful for me to…speak to any one, or even to try to eat or sleep. I really felt that if it had been my own family who had died, and our beloved Prophet been spared alive, I could have borne it…I had loved Joseph with a warmth of affection indescribable for about 14 years. I had associated with him in private and in public, in travels and at home, in joy and sorrow, in honor and dishonor, in adversity of every kind…But now he was gone to the invisible world, and we and the Church of the Saints were left to mourn in sorrow and without the presence of our beloved founder and Prophet.

“As I walked along over the plains of Illinois, lonely and solitary, I reflected as follows: …in a day or two I shall be there. How shall I meet the sorrowing widows and orphans? How shall I meet the aged and widowed mother…? How shall I console and advise 25,000 people who will throng about me in tears, and in the absence of my President and the older members of the now-presiding council, will ask counsel at my hands? …When I could endure it no longer, I cried aloud, saying: O Lord! In the name of Jesus Christ I pray Thee, show me what these things mean, and what I shall say to Thy people? On a sudden the Spirit of God came upon me, and filled my heart with joy and gladness indescribable, and while the spirit of revelation glowed in my bosom with as visible a warmth and gladness as if it were fire, the Spirit said unto me: ‘Lift up your head and rejoice; for behold! It is well with my servants Joseph and Hyrum…Go and say unto my people in Nauvoo, that they shall continue to pursue their daily duties and take care of themselves, and make no movement in Church government to reorganize or alter anything until the return of the remainder of the Quorum of the Twelve. But exhort them that they continue to build the House of the Lord…’

“This information caused my bosom to burn with joy and gladness and I was comforted above measure; all my sorrow seemed in a moment to be lifted as a burden from my back.” (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p. 292-294) (A timeline of Parley's life with brief and interesting notes is available at Jared Pratt Family Website.)

At a time of great trial, the commandment to Parley was to “lift up your head and rejoice,” and the comforting presence of the Spirit made it possible to obey that commandment. “Lift” is a verb, requiring action. To lift your head would imply that you would be looking upward, towards heaven, or seeing with an eternal perspective. It would also imply that you would be looking forward at what to do next, rather than backward in regret. When you lift up your head symbolically, rejoicing then will naturally follow.

WE ARE COMMANDED TO CHOOSE JOY

Candy Jars Guessing Game:  Ask class members to write on their paper scraps how many times they think the words below are found in the scriptures. Then tell them the jars of M&Ms correspond to each word. The closest guess to each word count wins the jar with that number of M&Ms.  For extra insight into latter-day church history, I have included in parentheses how many of those are found in the D&C.

Sad/Sadness --13 (1 in D&C)

Sorrow--195 (8 in D&C*)

Weep--117 (9 in D&C**)

Glad/Gladness—197 (21 in D&C)

Joy—351 (34 in D&C)

Rejoice—410 (42 in D&C)

*Half of these refer to the wicked. The others counsel saints regarding sorrow, promise no sorrow, or are prayers offered in behalf of the sorrowing saints.

**One of these 9 refers to weeping for joy. 7 of them refer to the wicked.

The message is clear: The gospel is a message of gladness.

2 Nephi 2:25 – “Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy.” Ours is a doctrine of rejoicing.

D&C 133:42-44 – “O Lord, thou shalt come down to make thy name known to thine adversaries, and all nations shall tremble at thy presence— When thou doest terrible things, things they look not for; Yea, when thou comest down, and the mountains flow down at thy presence, thou shalt meet him who rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, who remembereth thee in thy ways.” This scripture gives a definition of saints caught up to meet Christ in the last days:  They are 1) rejoicing, 2) working righteousness, 3) remembering Christ and his ways.

D&C 112:4 – “Let thy heart be of good cheer before my face; and thou shalt bear record of my name, not only unto the Gentiles, but also unto the Jews; and thou shalt send forth my word unto the ends of the earth.” This scripture implies that you must be of good cheer to be a missionary.

D&C 107:22-24 – “Of the Melchizedek Priesthood, three Presiding High Priests, chosen by the body, appointed and ordained to that office, and upheld by the confidence, faith, and prayer of the church, form a quorum of the Presidency of the Church. The twelve traveling councilors are called to be the Twelve Apostles, or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world—thus differing from other officers in the church in the duties of their calling. And they form a quorum, equal in authority and power to the three presidents previously mentioned.”  This revelation told the saints that the Quorum of Twelve Apostles had all the authority needed to run the Church in Joseph's absence.

THE MISSISSIPPI PIONEERS

And so Brigham Young led the saints west. Although he fully intended to make the trek in 1846, they actually began April 8, 1847, for reasons noted below.

Brigham Young started out from Winter Quarters with 143 men, 3 women and 2 children, but he ended up in the Salt Lake Valley with more than that, and it has to do with some amazing converts from a largely unproductive mission to the Southern States. This is their very little-known (although well-documented) story and it’s very interesting to hear.

 Picture from Orson Pratt Brown Family website

In 1843, John Brown, a convert from Tennessee who had gathered to Nauvoo, was called on a mission to the South. Generally speaking, the South was very infertile ground for missionary work, but in one place, he and the other missionaries found a motherlode: Monroe County, Mississippi. 150-200 people were converted, most of them related to each other. John married one of them.

He was called back to Nauvoo after the martyrdom to work on the Temple. When the 1846 exodus began, John was sent back to Mississippi to gather the saints there into the fold and help them cross the plains. He left for Mississippi (a 1,000-mile trip) in January in snow and storm. He collected 43 people and 19 wagons and they left their homes on April 8^th. His father-in-law, William Crosby, led the train.

In Independence, they heard wild rumors about Mormons committing atrocities on the Oregon Trail, so they assumed the saints had gone west. They joined with a six-wagon party of Oregon Trailers at Independence and picked up a few other Latter-day Saints and headed out across the plains to meet  Brigham Young. They got to the Platte River and there was no Brigham Young. They stopped for one day to think it over, and decided he must have gone on and they pressed full speed ahead to catch up. They suffered all kinds of difficulties, but made it nearly halfway to the Great Basin before they found out that there were no Mormons ahead of them on the trail (Leonard J. Arrington, “Mississippi Mormons,” Ensign, June 1977; also Richard E. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place, p. 172-173).

Now, of course, Brigham Young had fully intended to go west that year, 1846, in an advance wagon train, but the saints didn't want him to leave them; they tried to keep up with him, and by doing so, they slowed him greatly. “Our president don’t stick [hesitate] at anything that tends to advance the gathering of Israel, or promote the cause of Zion in these last days,” wrote Thomas Bullock, clerk to the twelve. “He sleeps with one eye open and one foot out of bed, and when anything is wanted, he is on hand and his counselors are all of one heart with him in all things” (quoted in Richard E. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place, p. 59). Brigham and the other leaders, Heber C. Kimball, etc., had a year’s supply of food in their wagons, but it was quickly depleted since many others had not taken that counsel in their zeal. In addition, the terribly muddy weather slowed their travel unbelievably. The Mormon Battalion had been called up for a year’s duty, and the use of the funds they would be paid for their service would be very beneficial to the trek.  So they had camped at Winter Quarters, with groups of saints strung out in encampments all along the trail in Iowa.

So when John Brown and his company were beyond Chimney Rock, they met John Richards (pronounce REE-shaw), a French trapper who told them there were no Mormons on the trail ahead. They decided to winter on the trail rather than go back. John Richards invited them to stay at Fort Pueblo, Colorado with him. Fort Pueblo was occupied by 6-8 mountain men and their Spanish and Indian wives. The Mormons built a little community of log homes outside the church/school. With their Southern gentility, they hosted dances there and invited the mountain men, but they didn’t forget to be missionaries: When the mountain men arrived to dance with the fair Southern belles, they found they had to listen to a gospel sermon first! 

John Brown headed back east to meet with President Young and reached Winter Quarters in October. That same month, 154 Mormon Battalion members, discharged because of illness, arrived from the southwest to winter at Fort Pueblo. Their captain was none other than another of the missionaries who had converted many of the Mississippi saints, James Brown. They built 18 more cabins for the Battalion.

Arriving back at Winter Quarters, John Brown received word from Brigham Young not to bring the whole group that year but to handpick a few men to join Brigham’s vanguard company which would be traveling west that spring. So John headed south, in January again, where he picked 4 white men and 4 black slaves. Two of the black men died along the way (Arrington). The two remaining were brothers Oscar Crosby, 32, and Hark Lay, 22. They had different last names because they had different masters. Oscar “belonged” to John’s father-in-law, William Crosby, and had been converted through James Brown’s missionary efforts (the Battalion Leader). William Crosby had shared the gospel with the Lays, Hark’s masters (Margaret Blair Young and Darius Aidan Gray, One More River to Cross, p. 257).

At Winter Quarters, the two were joined by another black slave, 19-year-old Green Flake, who was a friend of theirs, and had gone to Nauvoo with his master, James Flake. Green had been baptized at the age of 16 by John Brown. “It may strike you as funny that a Brown baptized a black named Green, but that’s how it was—colorful.” (Young/Gray,  p. 249)

 

Green Flake remained a faithful Latter-day Saint

all his life 

At this point I need to interject that some of the early saints felt that slave-owning was acceptable if the slaves (or what they euphemistically called “colored servants”) were treated kindly, since there was counsel in the Bible on how slaves and masters should treat each other. It was a confusing time in the pre-Emancipation Proclamation United States in that respect. Utah was not a state, and was neither slave nor free.

Actually, it was quite remarkable for that time that the missionaries even taught the gospel to some slaves, considering them children of God. Sadly they generally were not considered as quite the same class, though, even after they joined the church. For instance, while white saints were called by their last names (Sister Smith), black saints were called by their first (Sister Jane), following the manner of address given to slaves. Still, many Church members loved their “servants” almost as dearly as family members.

When Green Flake’s master left the south for Nauvoo upon his baptism, he offered freedom to all of his slaves, but Green chose to remain with him as a slave, along with two of his friends. Later in life, Green Flake became a (free) servant of Brigham Young’s (Young/Gray, p. 256).

Hark, true to his name, had a beautiful singing voice, and he and Green would often sing together. The Negro Spirituals floated across the plains, along with “Come, Come, Ye Saints?” Hark would also dance a mean jig to the music of the fiddle playing in the evenings (Young/Gray).  

The names of Green Flake, Hark Lay and Oscar Crosby are immortalized as members of the first Mormon pioneer company on the Brigham Young monument which was first displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair (Wikipedia) and now resides in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah at the intersection of Main and South Temple Streets.

Brigham Young's wagon train left Winter Quarters on April 8, 1847, and reached Fort Laramie on June 3. Seventeen of the Pueblo saints had been there waiting and watching for them for 2 weeks and were ecstatic to recognize from a distance the apostles leading the wagon train. Apostle Amasa Lyman was sent to gather up the rest of the members still in Pueblo and bring them to the Great Basin. The body of Mississippi saints arrived in Salt Lake 5 days after Brigham Young’s vanguard group, but the three black men were in Brigham Young's party.  The main group arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, and Brigham (since he was in the sick group that went a little slower) on July 24 (now celebrated as a state holiday, Pioneer Day).

After helping plant and build and settle, John Brown and his party headed back east on August 26 to get the rest of the Mississippi Saints, traveling with Brigham Young as far as Winter Quarters. Once again, John Brown arrived in Mississippi in the dead of winter--December this time--and immediately made preparations to cross the plains for the fifth time in less than two years. He and his converts left Mississippi on March 10, 1848. There were 13 families, including 56 white saints and 34 black. They arrived in Salt Lake City in October, bringing the total population of the Valley to about 200 white and 37 black Mississippi saints.

The first Mormon community in Utah outside of Salt Lake City was settled by these saints. It was called Cottonwood and is presently called Holladay after one of the Mississippians who was bishop there. In March of 1851, the Mississippi saints were sent to colonize Southern California with Charles Rich. They founded the city of San Bernadino. Later, many of them helped colonize Southern Utah and Arizona as well.

The Mississippi saints were classy, as well as being hard workers. They raised the level of frontier society with their Southern drawl, hospitality and etiquette. They were also excellent record keepers and even recorded funny incidents. “One of the children at the school in San Bernardino asked the teacher how to spell rat. The teacher replied ‘R-A-T.’ The child said, ‘I don’t mean mousy rat. Anybody knows how to spell that! What I mean is like in “do it rat now!”’”

Very likely the first black teacher of white children in the United States was a Mormon, Alive Rowan, who taught in Riverside, California, and was the daughter of two of the slaves who had come west with John Brown (Arrington).

CHOOSING JOY

The road west was rough for the Mormon pioneers, no doubt. But “while many wept at the inexplicable tragedy of it all, others chose deliberately to wear a happier face.  ‘How can I go without you?’ inquired Irene Hascall of her non-supportive parents in New England. “Or how can you stay behind?...Do not worry anything about it, there will be some way.  I suppose father would not like to travel across the Rocky Mountains but I should think he might like it real well for he can hunt all the way. I think probably [we] will cross the Rocky Mountains to a healthier climate. What good times we will have journeying and pitching our tents like the Israelites” (Bennett, p. 23). Irene was a happy camper.

Helen Mar Whitney was buoyed by the beauties of nature as she trekked.  “This day the sky was cloudless and beautiful, and I was happy…Our tent was pitched on a gentle slope, and below, some distance away, was a crystal stream of water babbling over the rocks down through a little grove of trees and willows, where I accompanied [my husband] Horace the next day, Sunday, to fish, taking along our books to read.  This was his favorite pastime, and in which he indulged every opportunity.  This was the most delightful spot we had seen, the whole landscape around us was lovely, they called it rolling prairie, and it had such a variety of hills and dales, all dressed anew in their bright velvety robes of spring.

“The first morning I took an early stroll to enjoy the scene, and I was almost enchanted as I stood there alone gazing at the glorious sight as the sun was peeping over the hills—and to lend more to the scene of enchantment here came a beautiful fawn and also an antelope, skipping fearlessly over hill and dale and out of sight, with naught to disturb them nor the peace and tranquility of my thoughts…” (Helen Mar Whitney, A Woman’s View,p. 363-364).

Once Irene Hascall arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, she wrote to her parents again, “This is our place of residence.  It is in the midst of the rocky mountains surrounded on every side by impassable mountains and just one passage in and another on the west side which will not take much labor to stop an army of ten thousand.  Now let the mobbers rage.  The Lord has provided this place for us and if we are faithful the trouble and calamities of the Gentile nation will not harm.” [Truer words were never spoken, as the expulsion from Missouri completely removed the saints, both black and white, from the one of the greatest hotbeds of destruction in the Civil War.  For a fascinating tangent, see The Civil War in Missouri and Illinois.]  “When all is past we will step forth from our hiding place…I wish you would come and stay with us.  You would if you could see the future” (Bennett, p. 351).

Parley P. Pratt chose joy and the presence of the Spirit at the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, when he was “weighed down as it were unto death.”

Hark Lee and Green Flake sang and danced their way across the plains, though they were slaves.

Helen Mar Whitney chose to rejoice in nature, rather than whine about sore feet.

We would do well to carry the optimism after tragedy that these saints possessed.  Paraphrasing the words of Irene Hascall, “[We] would if [we] could see the future.”