We turn admiring glances back across the generations to pay tribute at this time of year to the Mormon Pioneers.

Few have paid or will pay a higher price for what they valued than those Pioneers who entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, and those who followed in their steps. Some paid with their lives. Others sacrificed homes and family ties, worldly goods and secure jobs, friends and prestige. Comforts and luxuries were traded for hardships and privations, hunger and sorrow, pain and suffering.We will never know how many tears those pioneers spent for what they valued. There isn't any earthly accounting system that can tally the cost of the westward trek they made because of their faith in Jesus Christ. In making that trek, they let go of worldly possessions in order to hold onto what they valued most - their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

As we let our thoughts wander the pages of history, some of us wonder if we would have made good pioneers, or even if we would have been pioneers at all. We might evaluate our lives, weighing our accomplishments against our failures. We might take stock of our past as we try to put it in perspective with our present in order to gain a clearer understanding of what we hope to achieve in the future. This might be a good time to check up on what we value, those principles and tenets that guide our actions and shape our characters.

One question we might ask ourselves is: "What am I willing to pay, or to sacrifice, for what I value most?"

Everything has a price. We may not pay in dollars, pounds, pesos, marks or francs, or any other currency exchanged in the world market. But pay we will, either with time, toil or trouble, with dedication or with sacrifice.

We sponsor parades, go on picnics, give speeches, attend firesides and sing of "the builders of nations" who went before us, "blazing trails along the way." These are our feeble efforts to pay homage to the "Blessed, honored Pioneer." (Hymn No. 36.)

Such tributes are not limited to Utah, the earthly destination of the Mormon Pioneers. Just about everywhere the Church is established Latter-day Saints commemorate the Pioneers' heroic efforts. Worldwide, members recount or re-enact the true life drama of a generation of men, women and children who stepped beyond the security of their known world to follow not only roadways and trails to a desolate desert but also to walk paths of righteousness and devotion.

The way was not easy. We read the Pioneers' own accounts - their journals and letters to loved ones - and articles from the newspapers of that era and learn something of their hardships. We are quick to praise the example the Pioneers set. But are we also quick to follow that example? At the dedication of the Swiss Temple in 1955, Elder Spencer W. Kimball, then a member of the Council of the Twelve, said:

"All through Europe the past five months I have been encouraging the saints to prepare their lives and put their houses in order and find the way to the holy temple. I told them in Germany the other day, `You can go to the temple.' I knew their poverty and some of them, I know, would have difficulty going. And then I said to them, as they had a look of questioning on their faces, `You could walk to the holy temple.' There was a little laughter. . . . And then I said, `I am not facetious. You could all walk to the holy temple and it wouldn't be nearly as far as many of our ancestors walked to go to a place where there was not a temple, but where there was a barren, desert ground on which a temple could be built, and then they worked forty years to build the temple so they might enjoy all these privileges.' " (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pp. 535-36.)

Are we willing to "walk to the temple," either literally or spiritually? If we had no other mode of transportation, would we be willing to spend months on a trail for the blessings of eternal life? Would we be willing to endure the dust and oppressive heat under searing skies, as well as the frozen rivers and paths of winter's fiercest storms in order to do our part in building the kingdom of God?

We say we would. Cliche though it may be, it's true: talk is cheap.

But action often is costly. As we commemorate the pioneers and their adherence to what they valued, let us realize we also must be willing to pay a price for what we value. We can put our feet on the path and step forward as modern-day pioneers to lead the way for others to find greater blessings.

As we lead out, we need to be aware of the detours along the paths of our lives and make every effort to shun the lures of the world so we can move, step by step, closer to our eternal home. Imagine the joy each of us would feel to be considered a "Blessed, honored Pioneer."