Good morning!
We are so happy to be with you this lovely day and pray the Lord’s blessings to be with every one of you.
Today I want to tell you the story of a beloved ancestor.
Mary Price Howells Adams was my maternal grandmother’s grandmother.
She was born in England in 1833 just after the Church was organized in America. She was a twin, but her sister died when she was very young. As a youth she worked in a cheese and butter factory. While she was working there, she found the missionaries, and they taught her and her family the gospel. They believed the missionaries’ message and were soon baptized. They then began the difficult task of earning enough money to “come to Zion.” On March 28, 1857, Mary sailed from Liverpool on the sailing ship George Washington with a group of saints.
It must have been exciting for her to be on such a grand adventure, leaving her family and her native land behind—and having such high hopes of living with people who believed just as she did—but she tells us that she also felt lonesome among strangers while aboard the ship.
I would imagine that many of you have had those same feelings of loneliness and being among strangers as you have left home to go on your grand adventure in search of your “Zion” here at BYU Idaho, and for those of you sheltering at home during this pandemic.
Here is what Mary did: she sought out the companionship of other young ladies who were on-board ship who were of her same faith. She writes that “as a result of this seeking, there grew an eternal love among Mary Howell, Sarah Cross, and Ann James which lasted throughout their lives and into eternity.”
When we are lonely it is easiest to sit back, feel the sadness, and hope our situation will change, but it rarely does. We need to take a more active role in our happiness.
I hope that you will look outside yourselves and try to find friends who will be a blessing to you your whole lives long. Please attend all the activities you can—even if they are on Zoom. Be a gatherer of happy memories. That means doing lots of uncomfortable things like talking to people you don’t know (at first). If you will do this, you will find that, in time, it does get easier.
Mary arrived in New York, and the immigrants continued West onto Council Bluffs, where they were outfitted with handcarts. Mary had only meager means, and handcarts were the best option for her. She and her friends were assigned to the Israel Evans Handcart Company.
Heaven stands eager to pour blessings upon you, and here at school you are positioning yourselves so that Heavenly Father can use every blessing He has blessed you with to bless others.
I imagine many of you have worked hard in your schooling and worked relentlessly to save money so that you can attend this university to better your life with the best education you could get. I am so happy you chose to come here to not only get an education that will help you find your way in the world but that by coming to BYUI your education is enhanced with a gospel perspective that will help you see the world clearly. You have all made great sacrifices, and you should be commended. And I expect that your hopes are high, and I pray that you will be rewarded. I know you will.
Mary was a very small person. Pushing handcarts was very physical work. There were straps attached to the handcarts that made it possible to “put your back into it,” as you might say.
For Mary and her dear friends, the journey was a series of miracles. While pulling and pushing the handcart, Mary would become so exhausted and disheartened that when the camp would stop at noon and again at night she would fall to the ground in a weakened condition, and her companion Ann James would pray over her, asking God to give the frail little body the physical power and courage to reach Zion. These prayers were answered, for each time Mary was rejuvenated, and miraculous strength was added so that she could continue to another stopping place. It was actually as great a miracle in the eyes of these three struggling women as the daily supplying of manna to the children of Israel. They each bore testimony of these events for the rest of their lives. They arrived on September 12, 1857, weary, ragged, hungry, and footsore—but so grateful to have finally made it.
In the Gospel Library app, it says, “If [we] have a difficult task before [us], Heavenly Father is pleased when [we] get on our knees and ask for help and then get on [our] feet and go to work. He will help [us] in all [our] righteous pursuits, but He seldom will do something for [us] that [we] can do [ourselves].” [1]
Alma teaches us that “if [we] turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those who stand in need—I say unto you, if ye do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the faith.” [2]
This experience of my great-great-grandmother was just the opposite of what Alma warned against. Ann James, who prayed over my ancestor, was like the angel that Elder Carlos A. Godoy talked about in this past general conference. [3] Ann saw someone in great need who had no one to help her. Ann James very easily could have thought to herself, “I am also tired and alone—who is going to help me?” But instead, during the time she could have been taking rest that she needed, she tended to someone else in dire need.
You may feel tired and alone, but there are others around you that could also use an angel.
You are in a unique situation. The mold that shows you the way has been disrupted; it is upon you to find a new way to do things. How do you reach out to serve others, to make friends?
I hope that you will make this a matter of prayer. Ask Heavenly Father to guide you in all your doings, listen carefully, and then get up and go to work.
Perhaps you too will talk of these experiences that you will have serving others, with great reverence as we do in our family of Mary and Ann and Sarah.
For many of you, the effort that Mary exerted is very similar to the effort it will take you to attend your classes, to memorize the materials before you, to develop your talents in such a way that they will be a blessing to you and to others the rest of your life, and to finally receive your diploma.
When Mary died, as they were preparing her body for burial, they noticed she had deep scars on her shoulders from the straps that she used to push and pull her handcart. This earth life is challenging—we may even pick up a few scars—but if we follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost those scars will be something to be proud of.
I am so thankful for my husband Steve who has been my very best friend for the past 40 years. When I first met him, I was impressed with how dedicated he was to the gospel and to bringing others along with him. He has been so faithful and trustworthy and so fun to be with.
We pray that as you search for truth that you will be prayerful and that you will be kind as you reach out to others in need of your gentle care.
The gospel has been restored, God lives and loves us and has a plan for us, and Jesus, our Savior, shows us the way, and I love Them.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[1] “Prayer,” True to the Faith.
[2] Alma 34:28.
[3] See Carlos A. Godoy, “I Believe in Angels,” Ensign, Nov. 2020.