"We came here of our own free will and choice, because we had to."

So said President George A. Smith, a counselor to Brigham Young from 1868-1875, in speaking of his fellow Mormon pioneers settling the Salt Lake Valley. (Quoted by Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 3:347.)Separated by time, distance and circumstances from the difficulties of pioneer life, we might smile or even laugh out loud at President Smith's tongue-in-cheek comment about the Mormon pioneers being free to do something they had to do. How grateful we are that they did what had to be done, that they crossed mighty rivers, barren plains and formidable mountains to establish a refuge in which The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could be nurtured and would flourish to bless the earth.

Victims of mobocracy, driven from their homes and from state to state, they had to choose whether they would give up what they held sacred to live near a people bent on their destruction, or choose to leave so they could obey the Lord's commands and follow paths that would lead to eternal life.

On this July 24, 148 years after the first trail-weary pioneers set foot in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1847, we celebrate their arrival and legacy, as have generations before us and as will generations yet to come.

To pay tribute to the pioneers, we hold parades great and small, and stage dramas sophisticated and simple, extolling the accomplishments of a people who carved from the wilderness a place of refuge where they could worship God in peace. We hold picnics, pot-luck suppers and barbecues. We play games, both pioneer and modern. We attend community events, art shows and sunrise services to pay homage to the pioneers who traveled on foot, in wagons or on horseback halfway across the nation, often with cold and hunger as companions.

Although hundreds of thousands of words have been printed and spoken about the pioneers, words alone cannot tell the story of their achievements and resolve.

Theirs is a story told only heart to heart, spirit to spirit.

In Brigham Young, the pioneers had a great leader. But their sights were set on a greater Guide. President Ezra Taft Benson said: "In the early days of this country, a special breed of men and women came from all over the world, seeking not only opportunity, but freedom. They were strong, proud, and fiercely independent. They believed that the surest helping hand was at the end of their own sleeves. They shared one thing in common - an unshakable faith in God and in themselves.

"As the nation developed, out of this same mold came a special group, who, in a dramatic exodus, pushed the frontier of America from the banks of the Mississippi to the valleys of these magnificent mountains. They were the Mormon pioneers. . . . The world knows that the Mormon pioneers were led here by Brigham Young; but the Mormon pioneers knew that they were led here by the hand of Almighty God." (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 416.)

President Spencer W. Kimball said of the pioneers: "They had the persistence of ocean tides, which led them on; the strength of virgin forests, which braced their minds; the quiet of prairie vastness, which stilled their souls; the majesty of mountains, which gave them inspiration. These indomitable spirits faced the unknown with eyes upward, and footsteps forward. There are men in this world who are made of adobe with a thin veneer carrying a high polish; but these men of the pioneer companies were of granite through and through. They did not shrink at difficult situations. . . . They went forth to conquer, and conquer they must and would, and did." (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p. 178.)

President Kimball further said: "Brigham Young and the pioneers demonstrated courage of faith. What great, stirring program could cause people to leave all that they had previously held dear - material possessions, family ties, friendships, and luxuries? Was there a pot of gold at the end of this newly found rainbow? A life of comfort, worldly acclaim, popularity, with wealth and affluence? Quite the contrary: There was to be hunger, and cold, and pain, and sorrow; there were insults, heartaches, despair, and privations. Only a great faith and an abiding testimony and assurance of divinity could lead men through such hardships." (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.431.)

From the end of the Mormon Pioneer Trail in Salt Lake City to far-flung reaches of the Church, let us continue to celebrate the arrival of the pioneers in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Let us remember the sacrifices, courage, commitment, loyalty and devotion that came together in a group of men, women and children who became known as the Mormon pioneers.