A celebration in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1849 — two years to the day after the Latter-day Saints entered the valley — was recounted by President Boyd K. Packer to illustrate that in perilous times, "if we are to be safe individually, as families, and secure as a church, it will be through 'obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."'

President Boyd K. Packer

President Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve, spoke in the closing session of the conference.

On the day of celebration, he recounted, the Saints finally were free from years of mobbing and persecution. "It called for a great celebration."

Just a few years earlier, he noted, the Prophet Joseph Smith had suffered in Liberty Jail for months while mobs drove the Saints from their homes in Missouri. The Prophet had earlier sought direction, President Packer said, and the Lord told the Saints to seek redress from the judges, the governor and then the U.S. president.

"Their appeals to the judges failed.... When they sought redress from Gov. Boggs of Missouri, he issued a proclamation: 'The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary for the public good.' That unleashed untold brutality and wickedness."

They were rebuffed in their appeal to President Martin Van Buren of the United States.

President Packer read from the final paragraphs of their third petition to the U.S. Congress:

"We have groaned under the iron hand of tyranny and oppression these many years. We have been robbed of our property to the amount of two millions of dollars. We have been hunted as the wild beasts of the forests. We have seen our aged fathers who fought in the Revolution, and our innocent children alike, slaughtered by our persecutors. We have seen the fair daughters of American citizens insulted and abused in the most inhuman manner, and finally, we have seen 15,000 souls, men, women, and children, driven by force of arms, during the severities of winter, from their sacred homes and firesides to a land of strangers, penniless and unprotected."

President Packer said, "There was no pity for them, and they were turned away."

He spoke of the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith while supposedly under the avowed protection of Gov. Thomas Ford of Illinois.

He told of the Saints coming to the Salt Lake Valley.

For the celebration, "they built a bowery on Temple Square. They erected a flag pole 104 feet tall. They made an enormous national flag 65 feet in length and unfurled it at the top of this liberty pole."

"It may seem puzzling," President Packer remarked, "incredible almost beyond belief, that for the theme of this first great celebration they chose patriotism and loyalty to that same government which had rejected and failed to assist them. If you can understand why, you will understand the power of the teachings of Christ."

He described the celebration: a brass band playing as President Brigham Young led a grand procession onto Temple Square, followed by the General Authorities; 24 young men in patriotic costume, each carrying a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States; 24 young women dressed in white, each carrying a copy of the Bible and the Book of Mormon; 24 men over age 60 as a symbol of the priesthood.

"The Saints knew that the Lord had told them to be 'subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law,"' President Packer said. "That commandment, revealed then, is true now of our members in every nation. We are to be law abiding, worthy citizens."

He cited Doctrine and Covenants references pertaining to the Lord establishing the U.S. Constitution by the hands of wise men.

"One would think," he remarked, "that, compelled by the force of human nature, the Saints would seek revenge, but something much stronger even than human nature controlled what they did.

"... The Spirit defined those early members of the Church as followers of Christ.

"If you can understand a people so long-suffering, so tolerant, so forgiving, so Christian after what they had suffered, you will have unlocked the key to what a Latter-day Saint is. Rather than being consumed with revenge, they were anchored to revelation. Their course was set by the teachings still found in the Old and the New Testaments, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price."

He said: "That same Lucifer who was cast out of our Father's presence is still at work. He, with the angels who followed him, will trouble the work of the Lord and destroy it if he can.

"But we will stay on course. We will anchor ourselves as families and as a Church to those principles and ordinances. Whatever tests lie ahead, and they will be many, we must remain faithful and true."