We are all Pioneers.

Today, on July 24th, we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints celebrate our ancestors and remember their sacrifice made so many years ago. But also to celebrate those of us who are pioneers in our own right. Everyone is a pioneer in their own way, shape or form...you may have been the first in your family to join the church, the first to go on a mission, the first to stand up for what you believe in...no matter the cost...those are all examples of being a pioneer.
I love this video and the talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks about us...the Modern-day Pioneers.



I love that each and every one of us is a part of the unfolding history of the world. Large or small...we are a part of it.

I love history. I love reading about my ancestors...while writing this post, I googled "John Pack Sargent"...on my dad's side, he's got quite the claim to fame...being one of the men with Brigham Young when he found the Salt Lake Valley. He is even on the "This is the Place" monument. Well...I goggled, and Google did not fail me....I found The John Pack Family Association website. Which is just totally rad...thru this website, I found that John Pack and his 8th wife (yup, that's right...and another discussion all together) had several children...one of which is Silas Mosher Pack, who married Sarah Amelia Lambert...who had several children, one of which was Mercy Amelia Pack who married Lorenzo Sargent, son of William Sargent and Sarah Elizabeth Spriggs. Mercy and Lorenzo are the parents of John Pack Sargent...who is my grandfather. This may not seem like much, especially since my mother is like a Family History guru. But finding out this information...and seeing these "Sarah's" going so far back...makes me so excited and HAPPY!!!!

Ruth Mosher Pack is one of my favorite ancestors...probably because she's the only one that I have stories on ;). So it's easy for her to be my favorite. She was a tough cookie. I love this story, from a Family History Devotional in 2004:
The second story I would share with you may be classified as folklore, defined in part as "legends, tales, traditions, myths, and widely held but unsupported notions." This story of my great-grandfather John Pack and my great-grandmother Ruth Mosher Pack may be a widely held but unsupported notion. Ruth Mosher was the third of eight wives sealed to John Pack. John Pack had various business interests in Salt Lake and the Bountiful area and also a farm and ranching operation in Kamas, Summit County. As the story goes, most of the wives and families lived in Bountiful. But Ruth Mosher and her family spent most of their time in Kamas. It is said that Ruth was the only one of the wives tough enough to deal with the Indians and the cold Kamas winters. On one of John Pack's visits to Kamas, he was preparing to leave to return to the Salt Lake Valley. He had pulled his wagon into the barn where there was hanging a recently butchered beef. Some of the children saw that he was loading the beef into his wagon. They ran and told their mother who grabbed a butcher knife and marched to the barn. There she confronted her husband and with the knife delicately placed under his chin said, "John Pack, you take one strip of that beef to those frizzies in the city, and I will cut you limb from limb." Needless to say, the beef stayed in Kamas. And, so did Ruth!

And also:
My great-grandmother Ruth Mosher Pack has shared with her posterity one such "across-the-veil" meeting, which I think appropriate to share in this setting. Ruth Mosher was baptized when she was 20 years old in a hole that was made in the ice in the St. Lawrence River. When she was 10, her family heard that Mormon elders were to speak in the vicinity. Her parents were greatly opposed to this and forbade any of the children to go to hear them. Nevertheless, Ruth ran away and attended the meeting. She later said that even though she was only 10 years old, she would never forget the feeling that came over her. She was so filled with the Spirit of the Lord that the words of the elders just thrilled her. She knew from that moment on that the gospel was true. May I read from her account of a very special "meeting" she had much later. "When I was 19 years old, I was visited by my sister, who had died a short time previous. Not having the courage to speak, I covered my face. This happened several times and it was often in my mind. After I became a member of the church, I prayed earnestly that if it were necessary for my sister to speak with me, she might return and I might have the courage to speak to her. Soon she came again to my bedside just after daylight. I said to her, 'Hannah, in the name of the Lord, what do you want of me?' She said, 'I want to speak with you about the Gospel. You and your posterity are the only ones to do work for our kindred.' I said, 'Have you heard it preached and by whom?' Yes, she answered, 'by the elders who have died. I have received it. I want you to promise to do my work.' All fear had left my mind as soon as the first words were exchanged. I asked, 'Are you happy?' As happy as I can be,' she replied, 'until you do my work. I am in prison with spirits who are waiting for their work to be done for them' " (History of Ruth Mosher Pack, 1–2).