Help Us Feel Our Responsibility

"This August I walked in the footsteps of our pioneers along the Mormon Trail through Wyoming and Utah. I wondered why our dedicated ancestors suffered so terribly and yet willingly faced such tremendous obstacles. Perhaps one reason they sacrificed and endured was to leave a legacy of faith for all of us to help us feel our urgent responsibility to move forward in building up the Church throughout the world. We need the same dedication today in every one of our footsteps as the pioneers had in theirs."President Joseph F. Smith, who walked the pioneer trail to Utah as a nine-year-old boy, said in the April 1904 general conference, 'I firmly believe [that] the divine approval, blessing and favor of Almighty God . . . has guided the destiny of His people from the organization of the Church until the present . . . and guided us in our footsteps and in our journeyings into the tops of these mountains' (in Conference Report, Apr. 1904, 1). Our pioneer ancestors sacrificed virtually all they had, including their lives in many cases, to follow a prophet of God to this chosen valley."
M. Russell Ballard, "Faith in Every Footstep," Ensign, Nov. 1996, 23

Topics: Example, Pioneers