When trials like those experienced by the Martin and Willie handcart companies bring individuals' faith together, they weave a "warm tapestry of faith" that protects them from the chilling winds of iniquity and adversity.
That was the message Elder Marcus B. Nash of the Seventy and current assistant executive director of the Church History Department delivered Feb. 9 in the first of this year's "Men and Women of Faith" lecture series, sponsored by the Church History Library and held in the auditorium of the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City.
Elder Nash, who began by recounting the trials experienced by the Martin and Willie handcart companies as they trekked across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in devastating winter weather and with "starvation diets," asked why the handcart pioneers didn't all perish under such conditions.
"I suggest that it was because of the faith that the handcart pioneers, Brigham Young and the rescuers had in the Lord," he explained, "that there was a miraculous preservation of the lives of so many of the members of these handcart companies."
"The storms we encounter in today's world are both temporal and spiritual, and the winds of iniquity and adversity blast with increasing ferocity," he said. "Those without the fire of faith will find themselves chilled, then freezing, then perishing."
Elder Nash went on to teach that such sheltering faith develops and matures in three basic steps.
"First," he said, "we must believe or desire to believe in the words of the Savior or His servants."
Second, one must experiment upon the word by acting upon it, even if it requires repenting. He cited Alma 34:16 as a good example of this kind of maturation in faith that leads "unto repentance."
Third, Elder Nash said that faith — the kind the handcart pioneers, Brigham Young and the rescuers had — matures as one endures trials and then receives witnesses.
"In short, we trust the Lord and choose to be a disciple of Christ, even when the going gets tough," he said. "As we do so — even to the point of sacrifice — we see the hand of God manifest in our lives, because He always, always, fulfills His promises."
Elder Nash also said that in his study of the scriptures, he has found three things that can "shatter" the shield of faith: neglect, doubt and sin.
"Some of the handcart pioneers quit on account of unbelief, fear or sin," he explained.
Quoting from Millen Atwood, one of the surviving sub-captains in the Willie Handcart Company, he said, "The Saints found … a wide difference between singing about going to Zion, and actually going. You would almost have thought that they would take wings and fly like doves, … but when they really got into the work, the tune was a little different; but the great majority stuck to it."
Any of these three hindrances to faith — unbelief, fear or sinful behavior — if left unrepented of, will "destroy the shield of faith," Elder Nash declared, "and once faith evaporates, we are at the mercy of the unmerciful, fiery darts of the wicked. [But] through the blessing of repentance and the power of the Atonement, faith can be restored."
Elder Nash, who previously served as president of the South America West Area and as president of the South America Northwest Area, also recounted the faith of Sister Ysabel Ureta de Hooker in Lima, Peru.
Many years ago, "probably before the Church began officially in Peru," he said, "she read a newspaper article when she was a young woman. The title of the article queried: 'Did Christ come to America?' "
"When she read those words, it felt right, correct," he narrated. "So, Sister Hooker cut out the article and placed it in the family Bible."
Years later, when two missionaries knocked on her door and preached from a book that taught Christ had indeed visited the Americas, she showed the article to them and asked simply, "Are you telling me that this is true?"
When they replied "yes," he said, she invited them in, and soon thereafter the entire family was baptized and "have been faithful ever since."
"Yes, the Lord grants unto His followers great faith — both for their own benefit and for the eternal blessing of others, beginning with our own families," he said.
While Sister Hooker's honest faith in the word of God comes as a true story from the international Church, Elder Nash said, it applies to all.
During a short question-and-answer session following his remarks, Elder Nash concluded by saying, "What have I learned about faith? It is a principle that applies to all of us on this globe, wherever we are."
Elder Nash's remarks were the first of ten lectures on "Men and Women of Faith" that will be given at the Main Auditorium in the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City.
Each lecture will be held at 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month except in October, when it will be held on the third Thursday. More information on the lectures is found at history.lds.org.
