President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke to a group of 200 missionaries from the Arizona Tucson mission and told them to look to the members of the Mormon Battalion for a "great model" in their lives.

"They had a terrible time," he said during a special meeting on Dec. 14. "They walked all the way from Council Bluffs to San Diego. They were without water much of the time. They were hungry. They were cold. They were hot. They were miserable. But they kept going ever westward until they reached the Pacific and that becomes a model for each of you to carry on and keep up the good work," he said.President Hinckley, in Tucson to dedicate a Mormon Battalion monument (see article on this page), used the Mormon Battalion as a theme for all his speaking engagements during his whirlwind day-long trip to Arizona.

While talking to a group of nearly 2,000 Boy Scouts and their leaders from 18 stakes, he recalled the arduous journey of the battalion and the many trials that they faced. "They were scouts in a very, very real sense," he said. "They didn't give up. They did not whine. They did not complain. They just kept marching ever westward. . . ."

The prophet urged the Scouts to read the history of the battalion.

The meeting with President Hinckley capped off a Mormon Battalion sesquicentennial celebration hike and encampment for Scouts who came from throughout southern Arizona and New Mexico. Their two-day hike covered almost 15 miles of some of the original battalion trail.

"You think you had a hard time hiking yesterday and today. They hiked for five and a half months without any let up. They left Council Bluffs on the Missouri [River] and went to Fort Leavenworth and came down to San Pedro and turned west and came here to Tuscon. . . . Then they went on to California."

Hundreds of the Scouts were direct descendants of battalion members. Many of these Scouts later participated in the monument dedication ceremony, which included a special color guard that was composed of direct descendants of the three men represented on the monument.

President Hinckley also recited the Scout Oath and challenged each boy to know it and to live it.

Later in the day President Hinckley spoke at a youth fireside in the Tucson North Stake Center where 2,000 young men and women came to hear the prophet.

He told the youth to stay away from drugs and challenged them to get an education. He also told the group that it is "very, very important that you are true to yourselves."

Finally he counseled them to pray. "There is a power greater than you who can help you. Call on that power," he said. "Call on that power in prayer. He will answer your prayers. He is the great God of the universe, but He will listen to you if you will approach Him is prayer."

President Hinckley told the youth that if they would follow his counsel, "the Lord will bless you and magnify you and make your lives great for good wherever you may go and whatever you may do. You will go on missions, you will preach the gospel to the world, and that will be a marvelous and wonderful thing. You will marry in the temple. You will have all the blessings that your hearts can desire if you do these things."

The prophet continued, "God bless you, each one, with great happiness in your lives, with great peace in your lives. Isaiah said: `All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.' (Isa. 54:13) That is a fact. If you are taught of the Lord, you will have peace in your lives."