This is a Pioneer Day memorial post, though at first it may not seem like it. I’m going to start with Harry Potter.
At one point while rereading the Harry Potter series, I noticed something that had escaped me before: how much time passes in just a couple of pages, paragraphs, or even sentences. Even in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the longest book in the series, we often pass several weeks with words like “for two whole weeks,” “the following two weeks,” and “January seemed to be passing alarmingly fast.”
I noticed the same effect as I was reading the book series Adventurers Wanted for the second or third time awhile back. Phrases such as “The days passed switfly,” “As the days passed,” and “The days passed by with little to tell them apart” really stood out to me as I read.
One passage from the first book in the series (Slathbog’s Gold) has stuck in my mind since I noticed it. The main character, Alex, was invited to join an adventure, a quest to slay a dragon and obtain his treasure. After traveling for a few weeks (including a battle), Alex had a conversation with his traveling companions.
“I thought there would be more than just riding and camping,” answered Alex.…
“Adventures aren’t all about excitement and finding treasure,” said Tayo with a slight smile.
“Most adventures can be very common, even boring,” laughed Skeld.
M. L. Forman, Adventurers Wanted: Slathbog’s Gold, 121–122
As I’ve reflected on my life the past few years, especially since COVID-19 started, I’ve noticed how much my life is like this: weeks or months go by without anything notable happening, and it feels like I’m on a life adventure that is mainly just “riding and camping.” As the old saying goes, “Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.”
This reminds me of what President J. Reuben Clark Jr. said of the pioneers:
Day after day, they of the last wagon pressed forward, worn and tired, footsore, sometimes almost disheartened, borne up by their faith that God loved them, that the restored gospel was true, and that the Lord led and directed the Brethren out in front. Sometimes, they in the last wagon glimpsed, for an instant, when faith surged strongest, the glories of a celestial world, but it seemed so far away and the vision so quickly vanished because want and weariness and heartache and sometimes discouragement were always pressing so near.…
So through dust and dirt, dirt and dust, during the long hours, the longer days—that grew into weeks and then into months, they crept along till, passing down through its portals, the valley welcomed them to rest and home.
“To Them of the Last Wagon,” reprint, Ensign, July 1997
I am then reminded me of one of my favorite verses in the Book of Mormon is Jacob 7:26. The relevant part reads:
The time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days.
But the Nephites and the pioneers pressed on, they overcame their difficulties, and prepared themselves for a brighter day. As Alma reminded us:
Just as surely as this director [the Liahona] did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.
Alma 37:45
“Beyond this vale of sorrow,” “a far better land of promise.” These are hopeful words. Just like Mormon’s words concerning the faithful:
Yea, thus we see that the gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—and land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.
Helaman 3:29–30
But that hope isn’t limited to just the next life. I conclude with President J. Reuben Clark’s words about those faithful pioneers:
So to these humble but great souls, our fathers and mothers, the tools of the Lord, who have, for this great people, hewed the stones and laid the foundations of God’s kingdom, solid as the granite mountains from which they carved the rocks for their temple, to these humble souls, great in faith, great in work, great in righteous living, great in fashioning our priceless heritage, I humbly render my love, my respect, my reverent homage. God keep their memories ever fresh among us, their children, to help us meet our duties even as they met theirs, that God’s work may grow and prosper till the restored gospel of Jesus Christ rules all nations and all peoples, till peace, Christ’s peace, shall fill the whole earth, till righteousness shall cover the earth even as the waters cover the mighty deep.
“To Them of the Last Wagon”
Happy Pioneer Day.
Musings 