Primary Program 2009

Pioneer theme

United States 1839 - 1846

Nauvoo

SALT LAKE CITY

• Wagons

July 26 - Nauvoo

• Review songs with guitar/fire/blankets– On the trail to keep their spirits up they sang.

• Lesson on Pioneers – Focused on Beautiful Savior

• Closing song Baptism

Importance of Music

• "One of Father's [Brigham Young] most outstanding qualities as a leader was the manner in which he looked after the temporal and social welfare of his people along with guiding them in their spiritual needs. On the great trek across the plains when everyone but the most feeble walked the greater part of the way, the Saints would be gathered around the campfire for evening entertainment, if the weather was at all favorable. There songs would be sung, music played by the fiddlers, and the men and women would forget the weariness of walking fifteen miles or so over a trackless desert while they joined in dancing the quadrille. It was his way of keeping up 'morale' before such a word was ever coined" (Clarissa Young Spencer, One Who Was Valiant [1940], 162).

Review songs

– I Lived in Heaven• 1. Show map – our plan to get to Salt Lake City.• 2. Each of us has a plan.• We all lived in heaven and came down to be tested – some

people had more physical temptations.– How firm a foundation –

• Nauvoo Temple – our starting place• Church is built on firm foundation Built on faith in Christ’s

word – what more can you say – • What is a refuge? How can the Savior be our refuge? Story

about not being able to move any further – angels helping to make cart lighter.

– I Love to See the Temple • What do we do inside the temple?

Review songs

– My Eternal Family• Do you think the pioneers needed to be builders on the trail?

What sort of chores did they have? How can you build your home?

– Love is Spoken Here• What sort of things do your parents do for your home?

Mother Praying, Priesthood power, teaching how to trust and obey.

– Seek the Lord Early• What does it mean to seek the Lord? How do we do that?• Do you think along the trail the pioneers asked the Lord for

help? • They were following the prophet – See story…

Review songs– Did you know that Joseph Smith taught there was "a place of

safety preparing for [the Saints] away towards the Rocky Mountains". His death four years later, just motivated the saints to move sooner than they had expected. One year later by the fall of 1845, the people prepared for the move were well under way. Brigham Young was the prophet and he told everyone that they would start their journey "as soon as the grass grows" in the following spring.

– But the mobs wouldn't rest. On 4 February 1846, in the heart of a Midwestern winter so cold and bitter the Mississippi River froze over, the Latter-day Saints were driven from their homes and lands down a street which came to be known as the "Street of Tears" and into the unknown mystery of the western frontier.

– So you think that as they made this journey they sought the Lord’s help? It was an earlier move than expected. But what does the song promise us – He will be found.

Review songs

– When He Comes Again• I wonder a lot of things?• Will I be ready? Backpack of things

Lesson on Beautiful Savior

• Let’s talk about some things we will see on the trail ahead of us.– Fair is the sunshine, fairer the moonlight, and all the stars in

heaven above. • Did you know that before GPS and compasses people used the

stars to navigate? I have stars on my map to lead us to SLC.– Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines Purer, and brings to all the

world his Love.• Can Jesus also help us to know which direction to take?

• What else are we going to see on our journey?– Fair are the meadows, Fairer the woodlands, Robed in the

flowers of blooming spring• When someone is sad or has lost a loved one have you noticed they

give them flowers?– Jesus is Fairer, Jesus is purer, he makes the sorrowing spirit

sing

Lesson on Beautiful Savior

• Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations, – What does it mean to be a Lord?

• Son of God, and son of Man– Why is He the son of God (picture of birth),

why the son of man?

• He will I honor, Praise and give glory, Give praise and glory evermore, evermore.– How can we honor and praise Jesus?

Nauvoo temple

Aug – 2 Locust Creek• Our first stop on our Journey is Locust Creek – congratulations we

have traveled 103 miles. • This passage was from William Clayton’s Journal…• "This morning Ellen Kimball came to me and wishes me much joy.

She said Diantha has a son. I told her I was afraid it was not so, but she said Brother Pond had received a letter. I went over to Pond's and he read that she had a fine fat boy on the 30th ult., but she was very sick with ague and mumps. Truly I feel to rejoice at this intelligence but feel sorry to hear of her sickness. . . . In the evening . . . [several] persons retired to my tent to have a social christening. . . . We named him William Adriel Benoni Clayton. . . . This morning I composed a new song—'All is well.' I feel to thank my heavenly father for my boy and pray that he will spare and preserve his life and that of his mother and so order it so that we may soon meet again" (William Clayton's Journal [1921], 19).

Locust Creek• "Come, Come, Ye Saints“ – Play

Song• Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor

labor fear; But with joy wend your way.Though hard to you this journey may appear, Grace shall be as your day.'Tis better far for us to striveOur useless cares from us to drive;Do this, and joy your hearts will swell— All is well! All is well!

• Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard? 'Tis not so; all is right.Why should we think to earn a great reward If we now shun the fight?Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.Our God will never us forsake;And soon we'll have this tale to tell—All is well! All is well!

• We'll find the place which God for us prepared, Far away in the West,Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid; There the Saints will be blessed. We'll make the air with music ring, Shout praises to our God and King; Above the rest these words we'll tell— All is well! All is well!

• And should we die before our journey's through, Happy day! All is well!We then are free from toil and sorrow, too; With the just we shall dwell!But if our lives are spared againTo see the Saints their rest obtain,Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell—All is well! All is well!

Aug 9 – Garden Grove

• Our next stop is called Garden Grove – we have traveled a total of 128 miles.

• Parley P. Pratt• "All things being harmonized and put in order, the

camps moved on. Arriving at a place on a branch of Grand River we encamped for a while, having travelled much in the midst of great and continued rains, mud and mire. Here we enclosed and planted a public farm of many hundred acres and commenced settlement, for the good of some who were to tarry and of those who should follow us from Nauvoo. We called the place 'Garden Grove'" (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt [1985], 307).

Garden Grove• In the middle of the trip the Saints stopped and planted a garden not only for

themselves but for the next people that traveled through this country. • Even on the trail, everyone had chores… • Margaret McNeil and her family joined the Church in Scotland. They immigrated to

Utah when Margaret was ten years old. Margaret walked all the way across the plains, often with her four-year-old brother James on her back. Margaret’s mother was sick on the journey, so Margaret helped her as much as she could.

• Margaret made breakfast and dinner for the family each day, and she also cared for the family cow. The cow had to be well fed so she could provide enough milk for the family. Every morning Margaret would take the cow out ahead of the rest of the company and let the cow eat grass until the wagons had all passed by. Then Margaret and the cow would hurry to catch up with the rest of the company again. When they came to a river, Margaret wrapped the cow’s long tail around her hand and she and the cow swam across.

• The food the McNeils had brought with them ran out on the journey, so the family ate milk and wild rose berries. They finally arrived in Utah and were very grateful to Heavenly Father for helping them arrive safely. (See Margaret McNeil Ballard, “I Walked Every Step of the Way,” pp. 10–11; see also Susan Arrington Madsen, I Walked to Zion, pp. 125–26.)

• What chore can you do this week to help your family?

Aug 16 – Council Bluffs

• Welcome to Council Bluffs about 265 miles from Nauvoo.

• It was from here that the members Mormon Battalion began their long march - many women traveled alone like Mary (next page)

• US versus Mexico – fought and gained control of Utah – very important

Council Bluffs• The captain of the company told Mary it would be foolish for her to go west because she was not prepared. He said

she would never make it to the Salt Lake Valley and would be a burden on the rest of the company. He told her to return to Winter Quarters and wait to come to the Salt Lake Valley until she could get more help. Mary calmly told the captain that she did not need his help. Furthermore, she said, she would enter the valley before he did!

• Friends provided several more oxen, which were a great blessing to Mary and her family, and as they progressed across the plains, the untrained oxen learned to work together well. All the children helped on the journey. Martha, the youngest, gathered wood and brush for fires and helped herd the loose cattle (the cattle that were not pulling wagons). Joseph F., who was nine years old, drove a team of oxen, as did his older brother, John. Jerusha and Sarah helped with the daily chores and cared for the loose cattle. All the children walked barefoot most of the way.

• As the company was crossing Wyoming one day, one of Mary’s oxen suddenly lay down as if poisoned. It appeared the ox would die, and Mary had no spare ox with which to replace him. As the ox began to stiffen, the company captain exclaimed, “He is dead, there is no use working with him, we’ll have to fix up some way to take the Widow [Mary] along. I told her she would be a burden on the company.”

• Mary said nothing, but she took a bottle of consecrated oil from her wagon and asked her brother, Joseph Fielding, and another man to administer to her ox. “It was a solemn moment there under the open sky. A hush fell over the scene. The men removed their hats. All bowed their heads as Joseph Fielding … laid his hands on the head of the [dying] ox, and prayed over it. The great beast lay stretched out and very still. Its glassy eyes looked nowhere. A moment after the administration the animal stirred. Its huge, hind legs commenced to gather under it. Its haunches started to rise. The forelegs strengthened. The ox stood and, without urging, started off as if nothing had happened.” Soon another ox fell ill and was administered to, and it also recovered.

• The day before the company was to enter the Salt Lake Valley, several of Mary’s oxen were missing again. She knelt in prayer, asking Heavenly Father’s help in finding them. She was certain that Heavenly Father would help her.

• The captain and the rest of the company started off while Mary and her family were still searching for their oxen. Suddenly a storm cloud appeared, thunder rolled, lightning flashed, and rain poured down. Everyone was forced to wait. Sixteen-year-old John was able to find the lost animals during the storm and had them hitched up ready to go as the storm cleared. Mary’s family left while the others were still gathering up their teams. They entered the valley hours before the captain and the rest of the company. (See Corbett, pp. 223–49.)

Aug 23 – Winter Quarters• Winter Quarters is just on the other side of the river from Council Bluffs – it

was here that many of the companies organized themselves.• Each company was organized in 100, 50, and 10’s with captains and group

leaders.– In January of 1847 Brigham Young announced that those crossing the plains

were to be organized into companies of hundreds, fifties, and tens, with their respective captains. Individuals without families (women without husbands and children without fathers) were adopted into a family for the journey.

– "Special committees were designated for hunting, trail marking, and road improvement. Everyone had an assignment, everyone felt personally essential to the company's higher purpose. Taking everything into account, the Pioneer Company was probably the best-supplied, best-armed, and most trail-experienced group to go west up till then. Even so, being led by a determined man armed with a dream probably made all the difference"

• If you are the oldest member of primary in your family will you raise your hand. You are the group leader of your family.

• I want you to go home and for FHE – read the assignment we will give to you. Then talk in your family how you can answer the question assigned. Write down your answers. These answers will be your part in the primary program. Then have you or your parents report your answers back to me or one of the members of the presidency.

Aug 30 – Fort Kearny

• Welcome to Fort Kearny. You have traveled close to 469 miles!

• Do you remember your assignment from last week? How many of you were able to complete the task?

• Collect any answers that are there – Great! Can I tell you a story of a little girl named Ella that traveled this same spot a long time ago.

Aug 30 – Fort Kearny (469 miles)

• “As a young girl, Ella’s most treasured possession was a pretty cloth or rag doll, whose face and hands were made of china. She always cuddled it beside her as they journeyed in their wagon, and she would put it to bed at night in a special place nearby.

• “One morning the family was awakened early before daybreak and urged to break camp as quickly as possible because of the long journey and hot weather that lay ahead that day. Still half asleep, Ella was placed in the wagon and continued sleeping for the next several hours. By the time she was fully awake and aware of what had happened, they were already several miles into their journey. It was then that she realized her treasured doll was missing. ‘We’ve got to go back and get my dolly,’ she told her mother, who knew that it was out of the question. It was too far and the men and animals were already getting tired. Ella continued to plead for some time, but to no avail. ‘We’ll get you another doll,’ her mother said, but that didn’t stop the tears.

• “When Jacob finally heard the crying child in the wagon, he rode up on his horse and asked what was wrong. He listened quietly as Ella explained where she had put the doll to rest on a bed of pine needles at the foot of the big rock where they had camped the night before. He told her he would try to find it and not to cry any more. She watched as he turned his horse and rode back down the long trail from whence they had come.

• “The party set up camp that afternoon at the top of a long grade, and Ella sat down to watch the trail for any sign of her father’s return. When Jacob finally appeared in the distance and eventually got close enough to tether his horse in some trees at the bottom of the grade, she still couldn’t see whether or not he had found her doll. He walked up the grade toward her, with his hands behind him. After kneeling down in front of her and looking into her eyes, he brought his hands from behind his back and there was her precious dolly!”

Sept 6 – Chimney Rock

• Our next stop is Chimney Rock – about 718 miles from Nauvoo.

• Is there anyone that has their parts that I can collect?

• Here is another story of a brave pioneer named Jane…

Sept 6 – Chimney Rock• Fifteen-year-old Jane Allgood and her parents came from England in 1864

and crossed the plains to the Salt Lake Valley. Jane later told her granddaughter how tiring the journey was. The young people in the company had to walk the entire way. Their only food was flour, beans, and dried peaches. One day Jane and her friend Emma were so tired from walking that they sat down to rest. They watched the wagons go on without them, but their feet were so sore that they did not care about being left behind. They felt they just could not go any farther. Jane said, “While sitting there so tired, a young man came to us on a horse. We didn’t see where he came from nor after talking to us, where he went. But he talked to us very nice and encouraged us to go on. He promised us if we would try we would make it alright, and would not be harmed.” Jane said they were so tired at that point that “we didn’t care whether we died or lived,” but the man was kind and encouraged them to continue the journey. The two girls began to feel better and stronger, and they got up and went on. It was after dark when they caught up with the wagon train. (See Julie A. Dockstader, “Children Entered Valley with ‘Hearts All Aglow,’ ” pp. 8–9.)

Sept 13 – Fort Laramie

Welcome to Fort Laramie – it was a great trading post were we can get new supplies. You have been traveling over 788 miles.

Does anyone have any more parts that I can collect?

Sept 13 – Fort Laramie• Here is another story of a brave woman, Isabella

“We started on and traveled about two miles, when we stopped to take some refreshments. … After stopping one and a half hours we hitched up our teams. As the word was given for the teams to start, old Sister Isabella Park ran in before the wagon to see how her companion was. The driver, not seeing her, hallooed at his team and they being quick to mind, Sister Park could not get out of the way, and the fore wheel struck her and threw her down and passed over both her hips. Brother Leonard grabbed hold of her to pull her out of the way, before the hind wheel could catch her. He only got her out part way and the hind wheels passed over her ankles. We all thought that she would be all mashed to pieces, but to the joy of us all, there was not a bone broken, although the wagon had something like two tons burden on it, a load for 4 yoke of oxen. We went right to work and applied the same medicine to her that we did to the sister who was bitten by the rattlesnake, and although quite sore for a few days, Sister Park got better, so that she was on the tramp before we got into this Valley, and Sister Bathgate was right by her side, to cheer her up” (as quoted in LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion [1960], 216–17).

Sept 20 – Independence Rock (965 miles)

• Rachel Emma Wooley Simmons• "We heard so much of Independence Rock long before we got

there. They said we should have a dance on top of it, as we had many a dance while on the plains. We thought it would be so nice, but when we got there, the company was so small it was given up. We nooned at this place, but Father staid long enough for us children to go all over it. I went with the boys and with Catherine. It is an immense rock with holes and crevices where the water is dripping cool and sparkling. We saw a great many names of persons that had been cut in the rock, but we were so disappointed in not having a dance. Our company was so small, and we had not a note of music or a musician. I was told afterwards by some of the girls that we had travelled with that they had a party there, but President Young had all the music with him" ("Journal of Rachel Emma Wooley Simmons," Heart Throbs of the West, Kate B. Carter, comp., 12 vols. [1939–1950], 11:162).

Sept 20 – Independence Rock

• We have almost been traveling 1000 miles and there are only four more stops left. We need to pass back your parts so you can start memorizing them for your part in our program.

• PASS BACK PARTS TO MEMORIZE

Sept 27 – Rocky Ridge

• This is Rocky Ridge, about 1,038 miles from Nauvoo.• East of Rocky Ridge, at the sixth crossing of the

Sweetwater, the ill-fated Willie Company became snowbound. Captain Willie and another company member forced their way through the snow and found the rescue party riding out the storm. After relating the desperate conditions of the company, the rescuers pushed east with supplies. The Willie Handcart Company finally made it into Salt Lake City on 9 November, minus more than seventy members who had died along the trail.

Sept 27 – Rocky Ridge (1,038 miles)

• Story of the Willie Handcart Company

Oct 4 – Fort Bridger

• Next week we are going to practice our program here in church – please keep memorizing your parts.

• Welcome to Fort Bridger – 1,183 miles from Nauvoo.

• This has been a tough journey and many people did not make it this far…

• Here is a story of one man who lost some of his family members – look how it made him stronger.

Oct 4 – Fort Bridger (1,183 miles)

• Jedediah M. Grant was a member of the First Council of the Seventy and captain of one of the pioneer companies. He was also the father of Heber J. Grant, who became the seventh President of the Church. While the Grant family was crossing the plains, Jedediah’s wife and infant daughter became sick with cholera, a disease many people caught on the way to the Salt Lake Valley. As she was dying, Jedediah’s wife asked that she and the baby be buried in the Salt Lake Valley. However, the baby died first and had to be buried in a shallow grave in Wyoming. Jedediah’s wife died near the end of the journey and was buried in the Salt Lake Valley. On a later trip back to Wyoming, Jedediah visited the baby’s grave, only to find that wolves had dug the grave up.

• It must have been difficult for Brother Grant to lose his wife and child, but he continued to follow the Church leaders. Several years later he was permitted to see a vision of the spirit world. He saw his wife with their little daughter in her arms. She showed the child to Brother Grant and said, “Here is little Margaret.” Brother Grant saw that although the child had died on the plains and the grave had been disturbed by wolves, his daughter was safe in the spirit world with her mother. (See Church History in the Fulness of Times, pp. 337–38.)

Oct 11 – Big Mountain (1,279 miles)

• Practice program in primary

• This summit, really just a hill among the surrounding Wasatch mountain peaks, was nevertheless, at 8,400 feet, the highest elevation of the entire Mormon Trail.

Oct 17 – Salt Lake City

• WELCOME TO THE SALT LAKE VALLEY PIONEER PARTY – at church from 10:00 – 12:00

• Activity: When the kids first arrive welcome them and have them make buzz saws

• Practice program • At the end have each class make their own

butter and have it on bread. – Heavy whipping cream and mason jars – shake,

shake, shake, shake until finished.

Oct 17 – Salt Lake City

• Buzz Saws Materials: Cardboard, scissors, hole puncher, crayons/markers and about 40 inches of thin but strong string.– On the cardboard draw a circle with teeth – you can

use a cup or glass jar.– Cut out the disc and punch two hole in the middle– Feed string through both holes and tie end together– With index fingers on each end of string and the

cardboard in the middle. Wind up string. Move index fingers back and forth to create sound.

Oct 18 – Centerville, UT

• Present primary program

• In primary have a fun song day – pass out pioneer pencils for a job well done.