Experiences of a Pioneer Family

Well, this little family to which I referred, the mother who at one time lived in this little log cabin, came to Nauvoo, there to find not a home as she expected, because shortly after she came, she was to witness the Martyrdom of the Prophet [Joseph Smith] and his brother, [Hyrum] the patriarch. Then the family moved on, and they started across those boggy Iowa plains. … I doubt that you and I can visualize, can appreciate, the difficulties under which they traveled. As they began their journey, they met with discouragement, hunger, lack of things to keep them warm. The conditions were indescribable, yet there was no complaint. Oh, some of them felt and wondered why.

welfare, not of their own. I am wondering how many of us would want to turn back, but that mother wouldn't turn back. She had been caught in the "gospel net" (see Matthew 13:47), and she knew it was true, and so she said, "We will not turn back—we'll not turn back; we're going on!" That was my grandmother Riter, and her faith and indomitable spirit have always been an inspiration to me and that spirit should be a source of inspiration to all of us.