More than 140 years ago, thousands of Mormon pioneers used western Iowa and eastern Nebraska as a staging area for launching their westward migration to the Great Salt Lake Valley.

Now, Church members have returned to this area rich in Church history, and they plan on staying permanently. But these "spiritual pioneers" haven't forgotten the sacrifice of their forebears. They show a similar kind of willingness to sacrifice, said Pres. Roy V. Sneddon of the Lincoln Nebraska Stake.Pres. Sneddon grew up in Utah but came to Nebraska 22 years ago. Nebraska had only one stake at the time, headquartered in Omaha, near the site of the historic Mormon settlement of Winter Quarters. The stake covered most of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, and Pres. Sneddon recalled traveling 150 miles to Sioux City, Iowa, one night to attend an MIA activity.

As he drove home in the early-morning hours with the rest of the people in the car asleep, he asked himself, "What am I doing this for?"

"Almost immediately I felt impressed by the Spirit, and the thought came to me - `How could you say that? On the very place you're driving, your ancestors walked.' "

The Lincoln Nebraska Stake is one of three stakes covering the historic staging area for the Mormon pioneers. Other stakes are headquartered in Omaha, and the Omaha suburb of Papillion. Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska, is a city of about 250,000 located about 50 miles southwest of Omaha, Neb. It's the home of the University of Nebraska. Several Church members, including Pres. Sneddon, work at the university.

Pres. Sneddon is an associate professor of engineering and a past winner of the school's distinguished teacher award, which is voted on by faculty and students. An avid runner, the slight, 5-foot-8 stake president exudes an enthusiasm for life and people.

One of his former counselors in the stake presidency, Wayne Mangelson, who is now president of the Papillion Nebraska Stake, said the strength of the Lincoln stake starts at the top. He describes Pres. Sneddon as man committed to the Lord, his family and the people he serves.

"Pres. SneddonT believes in trying to help the other members of his stake lengthen their strides and draw upon reserves they may not have known they had," Pres. Mangelson explained. "He believes that if you do what you're asked to do and exercise your faith, great things will happen in your life."

To see this philosophy in action, one only has to listen to stake members tell stories of blessings coming from paying tithing, giving to a welfare project or heeding the counsel of Church leaders.

"If anyone doesn't know about miracles, they can come here," Pres. Sneddon declared.

For the last eight years, the stake has made annual temple trips. First the members went to Provo (Utah), and now

to the Chicago Illinois or the Denver Colorado temples. Members in each unit in the stake are expected to go on one temple trip a year and stake leaders are expected to make two temple excursions each year.

Last fall, a bus load of leaders from the Lincoln Nebraska Stake arrived at the Denver Colorado Temple and were greeted by the temple president. A man, Pres. Sneddon related, saw the people get off the bus and asked who they were. When he found out they had come from Nebraska to attend the temple, he contacted the motel where the Nebraska members were staying and told the clerk to put their bill on his credit card.

"The sequel to that is that we've taken that money saved from the motel billT and are going to use it to help the people from a branch in southeastern Iowa attend the temple," Pres. Sneddon said. "That branch is located in one of the poorest areas in the United States because of the struggling agriculture economy. For one reason or another, the branch hasn't been able to get to the temple as a group. This year in October or November, I told them that they would be able to go and all of their costs paid. All they would have to do is qualify themselves for a temple recommend. They are planning to go this spring."

Pres. Sneddon said the temple trips were started by an earlier stake president, Warren Nielson, in an effort to find a way to bring stake members closer together and increase spirituality. Because of the temple trips and the faithfulness of the members, Pres. Sneddon believes spirituality has become one of the stake's strengths.

Underscoring the faith of some members is a feeling they were sent to Nebraska to help build the kingdom, said Pres. James K. Randall, second counselor in the stake presidency. He came to Lincoln 17 years ago. At that time, the Church in the city had a strong nucleus but had suffered from the closure of a major Air Force base a few years earlier. The loss of the LDS servicemen and their families resulted in the consolidation of Lincoln's two wards into one.

But, Pres. Randall believes, that's when the Lord seemed to take charge of the situation.

"During a three- or four-year span in the early 1970s, about seven strong, young LDS families were recruited by the university or were transferred in by their employment," Pres. Randall recalled. "It was a long time before I realized what was happening."

The addition of these families helped provide a source for leadership and strength as the ward and stake grew. Originally, Lincoln was a part of the Winter Quarters Stake, organized in 1960 and headquartered in Omaha. The stake's name was changed to the Omaha Nebraska Stake in 1974. The Lincoln Stake was formed in November 1986.

The stake now has three wards in Lincoln and wards in Plattsmouth (near Omaha) and Nebraska City, and branches in Shenandoah, Iowa; Fairbury, Neb.; and Beatrice, Neb. The stake's 2,000 members are spread out over an area 150 miles long and 75 miles wide. After years of traveling much further to attend meetings, Pres. Sneddon said distance is not a problem. Some families living in the stronger wards are often called to serve in the small branches.

One LDS couple with a large family and not a large income accepted a call to strengthen a branch in Beatrice, about 60 miles to the south of their home in Lincoln. Each Sunday, Pres. Sneddon said, the family would crowd into an older car and drive to branch meetings, where the father was the Melchizedek Priesthood leader and the mother served in the Young Women organization.

"They performed that calling for two years," Pres. Sneddon said. "Their old car broke down the day they were released."

Another family blessed for their service was that of stake patriarch, Otis Bond. He and his wife recently returned from a mission to San Francisco, Calif. However, they had been reluctant to go because of a grandson's life-threatening health problems. During their mission, their grandson underwent a difficult surgery, and Bond prayed through the night and received the reassurance the boy would be fine. The boy's surgery was successful.

"We just take these kind of experiences as part of life," said Pres. Sneddon's wife, Kathleen.

But the stake also has many challenges, especially in missionary work.

"The people here are the finest people you'll ever find," explained Pres. Randall, who teaches agricultural broadcasting at the university. "In my building on campus a good 50 or 60 members of the staff are fully active in churches."

"They're comfortable in what they're doing," added Pres. Sneddon.

But more missionary work is being done than has been done in years, said Fred Hunting, the former mission president for the Lincoln Nebraska Stake. "There seems to be a special spirit of missionary work in the stake," he continued.

"When we have high expectations of our members," Pres. Sneddon said, "we have found that our members have accomplished significant things. I had one of our members tell me, `If you say I can do it, I'm sure I can do it.' What he was saying was that if Lord said he could do it, then he could."

The members feel an obligation to build the kingdom here. They feel they are living on land hallowed by the trials and triumphs of their Mormon pioneers forebears. They're faith, commitment and willingness to sacrifice to attend the temple are partly inspired by those who passed this way on foot many years before.