Do Things For Love

Some of the greatest examples we have of others who gave and sacrificed because of love are the Mormon pioneers.  The following is a touching story Elder James E. Faust told of one of those great people:

Stillman Pond was a member of the Second Quorum of Seventy in Nauvoo.  He was an early convert to the Church, having come from Hubbardston, Massachusetts.  Like others, he and his wife, Maria, and their children were harassed and driven out of Nauvoo.  In September 1846, they became part of the great western migration.  The early winter that year brought extreme hardships, including malaria, cholera, and consumption.  The family was visited by all thee of these diseases.

Maria contracted consumption, and all of the children were stricken with malaria.  Three of the children died while moving through the early snows.  Stillman buried them on the plains.  Maria's condition worsened because of the grief, pain, and the fever of malaria.  She could no longer walk.  Weakened and sickly, she gave birth to twins.  They were named Joseph and Hyrum, and both died within a few days.

The Stillman Pond family arrived at Winter Quarters and, like many other families, they suffered bitterly while living in a tent.  The death of the five children coming across the plains to Winter Quarters was but a beginning.

The journal of Horace K. and Helen Mar Whitney verifies the following regarding four more of the children of Stillman Pond who perished:  "On Wednesday, the 2nd of December 1846, Laura Jane Pond, age 14 years, ...died of chills and fever.  On Friday, the 4th of December, Harriet M. Pond, age 11 years, ...died with chills.  Three days later, Abigail A. Pond, age 18 years...died with chills.  Just five weeks later on Friday the 15th of January, Lyman Pond, age 6 years...died with chills and fever."  Four months later, on the 17th of May, 1847, his wife Maria Davis Pond also died.  Crossing the plains, Stillman Pond lost nine children and a wife.  He became an outstanding colonizer in Utah, and became the senior president of the thirty-fifth Quorum of Seventy.

Having lost these nine children and his wife in crossing the plains, Stillman Pond did not lose his faith.  He did not quit.  He went forward.  He paid a price, as have many others before and since, to become acquainted with God. (In Conference Report, April 1979, p. 79.)

We seldom realize that our kind deeds and the sacrifices we make on behalf of others affect not only the individuals with whom we surround ourselves but future generations as well.  I hope that during the coming Christmas Season we will reflect on our actions and see how far reaching they can become as we strive to move forward with faith.