Daddy! Abba! Father!

A week ago in sacrament meeting, a young father in the row ahead of us took a crying baby out into the foyer. Some minutes later, his son, perhaps two or maybe three years old, noticed his father was gone and started calling out, “Daddy! Daddy!”

The thought came to me that as grown-ups we have occasion to call out to our Heavenly Father, “Daddy! Abba! Father!” He is pleased when we do so, particularly if we do it more regularly than just in moments of exigency or crisis. Just as senior couples serving missions love to hear regularly from their children and grandchildren, our Heavenly Father delights to hear from His children. He is all about us. Everything He does is for our benefit. He likes when we call home.

As we get caught up in the thick of thin things, dealing with the everyday busyness of life, it is well to remember that life here on earth is temporary. It is not our real home. We are simply away at school, hopefully having the experiences and learning the lessons that will fit us for the life that comes after this one. Our chances for making it successfully through this mortal classroom increase as we keep in touch with home.

A verse from one of my favorite hymns focuses on what the tenor of our prayers should be:

O’errule mine acts to serve thy ends.

Change frowning foes to smiling friends.

Chasten my soul till I shall be

In perfect harmony with thee.

Make me more worthy of thy love,

And fit me for the life above. [1]

And a verse from another favorite hymn suggests a foretaste of what our welcome will be if we have kept in touch through our mortal sojourn:

Oh, what songs we’ll employ!

Oh, what welcome we’ll hear!

While our transports of love are complete,

As the heart swells with joy

In embraces most dear

When our heavenly parents we meet!

As the heart swells with joy,

Oh, the songs we’ll employ,

When our heavenly parents we meet! [2]

So, call home. “Daddy! Abba! Father!”

---

[1] “Savior, Redeemer of My Soul,” Hymns [1985], no. 112

[2] Oh, What Songs of the Heart,” Hymns [1985], no. 286

Temple Dedication [Apr 22, 2001]

The Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple was dedicated on Sunday, April 22, 2001, about six weeks before I was released as bishop of the Bountiful 20th Ward. The next morning I recorded in my journal:

“Last night at our stake center Claudia, Eliza, Mary, and I attended a broadcast of the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple dedication. Quite a few others from our ward were also there. (Many people in the stake attended a broadcast at 5:00 this afternoon; fewer of us attended the 8:00 broadcast.)

“President Gordon B. Hinckley was in rare form; I have never seen him as publicly emotional as he seemed to be on this historic occasion. It was a moving experience. Elder L. Tom Perry of the Twelve and Elder Donald L. Staheli of the Seventy also spoke. Following President Hinckley’s dedicatory prayer, Elder Perry led us in the Hosanna Shout. Then, as the choir sang the ‘Hosanna Anthem,’ we joined in singing the first two verses of ‘The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning.’ Winter Quarters is the 104th operating temple in the Church.”

This is the text of the Prophet’s dedicatory prayer (from the Church News, Apr. 28, 2001, 4):

O God our Eternal Father, Thou Great Elohim, we bow before Thee in humility and with gratitude to dedicate this Thy holy house. The ground on which this sacred structure stands was hallowed a century and a half ago by the suffering of Thy Saints. Here they stopped temporarily, hundreds and thousands of them on both sides of the Missouri River, while moving westward from their homes in Nauvoo, or from the British Isles and Europe to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Many of them died here and are buried in the cemetery adjacent to this holy house. Great were their trials. Tremendous their sacrifice.

As we meet together, we envision the wagons and the boats pulling in from the East and the South, while others were leaving these grounds to make the long march up the Elk Horn, along the waters of the Platte, up the valley of the Sweet Water, over the Continental Divide, and finally to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. All of this area, including Council Bluffs across the river and Florence on this side, was once a place of great industry. Here wagons and handcarts were built. Here oxen, cows, and other animals, seeds and plants were gathered together to move to the West. There was, at times, much of levity here. There was also much of sorrow.

Now the generations have come and gone. Our people left here. Then for reasons of employment they slowly returned. Today we have stakes and wards with large congregations. Songs of thanksgiving fill our hearts. Crowning all is the presence of a temple on this hallowed ground.

Acting in the authority of the holy priesthood in us vested and in the name of Jesus Christ, we dedicate this the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We dedicate it unto Thee and unto Thy Son as Thy holy house for the accomplishment of Thy work. We dedicate the ground on which it stands, ground which has already been made holy by those who long ago were buried here. We make the cemetery a part of these grounds, together with all of the vegetation growing thereon. We dedicate the temple from the footings to the top of the steeple with its figure of Moroni.

We dedicate the walls and roof and pray that they may be strong and firm against the storms of nature.

We dedicate the interior of the building, the beautiful baptistry, the endowment rooms, the Celestial Room, and the sealing rooms with their sacred altars. We dedicate all of the halls and spaces and offices within this sacred structure. We pray that Thou wilt accept of them and that Thou wilt visit them with Thy holy presence. Let Thy Spirit dwell here and touch the hearts of all who enter these portals. Save this building from the hands of any disposed to mar or destroy. May it stand through the years as a place of holiness, a house sanctified unto Thee, a place of eternal ordinances.

We pray for all who will serve here, whether they be workers or patrons. May the hearts of all who live within this temple district turn to this sacred structure. May Thy people so live as to be worthy to labor here. We pray for those who will serve in the presidency of the temple and those in the office of matron and assistants to the matron. We pray for all who serve here in any capacity and ask that Thou wilt touch the hearts of Thy people with a great desire to come frequently to Thy holy house.

We thank Thee for faithful tithe payers throughout the world, whose contributions have made possible the construction of this and the many other temples now enjoyed by Thy people. Pour out Thy blessings upon the faithful Latter-day Saints wherever they may be. May blessings come down from heaven upon them. May their lives be enriched. May they be prospered in their affairs. May they be cradled in Thy strong arms as they walk in faith before Thee.

We thank Thee for the Prophet Joseph Smith to whom the temple ordinances were revealed. Let Thy blessings rest upon the Presidency of Thy Church, the Quorum of the Twelve, the Seventy, the Presiding Bishopric, and all who serve in any capacity whatever throughout the world.

Bless the officials of the City of Omaha, who have worked cooperatively with us in this sacred undertaking. Bless all of the citizens of the States of Nebraska and Iowa. Bless this nation of which we are a part that it shall remain ever free and that its people may always be blessed with liberty to worship according to the dictates of conscience. 

Dear Father, accept of our thanks for every blessing. On this sacred and historic day, we resolve within our hearts to serve Thee with greater dedication. We ask it as Thy humble children with thanksgiving and gratitude in the name of Thy Beloved Son, even the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, amen.

A Third Visit [April 14, 2001]

Our early visits to Winter Quarters all seem to have been because of our daughter Rachael. We had flown to Kansas City on April 6, 2001, to accompany her and the young man who ultimately became her husband as they each received their endowment in the St. Louis Missouri Temple on Saturday, April 7, 2001—the 86th anniversary of my father’s birth. Robert had been baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just over a year earlier.

We had anticipated Robert would talk to us about marrying Rachael. We all knew it was looming on the horizon, but by the time we returned home to Utah on Sunday he had not done so. The following Tuesday, just two days later, Robert asked Rachael to marry him.

On Thursday, two days later, we were back on a plane once again flying to Kansas City. (Rachael worked for an airline and was able to get us almost free fares if we were willing to endure stand-by flights from Salt Lake City to St. Louis to Kansas City and vice versa.)

And another two days later, on Saturday, April 14, we attended the final day of the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple open house. I wrote in my journal at the time:

“This morning we drove in caravan with a lot of the people from Rachael’s and Robert’s singles branch up to Omaha to go through the last day of the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple open house. It is a gorgeous temple with a definite pioneer theme. After we had gone through the temple and while we were eating refreshments on the grounds of the Mormon Trail Center, we ran into Kevin and Jody Taylor, who were up from Kansas to go through the open house. Incredible that we would run into them among the thousands of people who were there! Kevin grew up in Bountiful as one of our next-door neighbors. We also saw Ross Williams and his wife. Ross had been our bishop in Rose Park many years ago.”

We absolutely fell in love with this lovely little temple that was built as a House of the Lord in tribute to the faithful pioneers of the nineteenth century whose sacrifices and lives hallowed the ground upon which it now stands. Little could we foresee then what an integral part of our lives this temple would become more than a decade later.

A Second Visit [July 26, 2000]

Seven years later, almost to the day, three of my daughters and I visited Winter Quarters once again. On that earlier occasion we were delivering one of our daughters to school in Raleigh, North Carolina. On this trip we were moving that same daughter to Kansas City, Missouri. Since our last visit a new visitors’ center had been built on the west side of the Missouri River and a reconstructed Kanesville Tabernacle built in Council Bluffs on the east side of the river. My journal entry for Wednesday, July 26, 2000, documented our visit:

"This morning we visited the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters, a lovely new visitor center built since our last visit here seven years ago when we were taking Rachael to Peace College in North Carolina. In the center we met a Sister Wakefield, a niece of Garth Wakefield, who works with me in the Missionary Department. We also met an Elder and Sister Ross Williams, whom we knew in Rose Park 24 years ago. After taking the tour of the center and watching a film about the Latter-day Saints’ stay at Winter Quarters in 1846–47, we walked through the peaceful pioneer ceme­tery and saw the new temple under construc­tion next to the cemetery. It is supposed to be completed by the end of the year.

"Back on I–680, we drove across the Mormon Bridge into Iowa, joined I–29 and headed south into Council Bluffs, where we found the reconstructed Kanes­ville Taber­nacle, where Brigham Young was first sus­tained as the second President of the Church, with Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards as his counselors in the First Presi­dency, at a special confer­ence on December 27, 1847. Elder Williams, whom we had seen over in Winter Quarters, was our tour guide at the Tabernacle. He let Camilla and me play an old organ—over a hundred years old, he said—in the Tabernacle."

Although this was our second visit to the historic Winter Quarters area, it was our first time to see the new visitors' center just east of the old pioneer cemetery, our first time to see the temple then under construction just south of the cemetery, and our first time to see the reconstructed Kanesville Tabernacle on the other side of the river.

Our First Visit to Winter Quarters [July 24, 1993]

I remember well our first visit to Winter Quarters. It was a part of a two-week, fifteen-state road trip to deliver a daughter to school in North Carolina. My journal entry for Saturday, July 24, 1993, recorded the event:

Today is Pioneer Day, a state holiday in Utah celebrating the 1847 arrival of the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. Appropriately, having spent much of the night more or less following in reverse the route of the Mormon Pioneer Trail across Nebraska, we arrived at Winter Quarters before breakfast and just after the night’s rains stopped and the skies cleared. We were here to visit the pioneer cemetery and visitors’ center at Winter Quarters. By evening we would reach Nauvoo, Illinois, where the pioneer trek originally began.

Winter Quarters was a temporary settlement built on Indian lands on the west bank of the Missouri River. The town site was surveyed in October 1846 and laid out in a grid with streets and blocks and individual lots. The houses ranged from two-story log homes to sod huts. Most were single-story log cabins. The settlement housed almost 4,000 Latter-day Saints by December 1846.

Upon orders from government officials concerned about settlement on Indian lands, the Saints vacated Winter Quarters in 1848 to go either to the Salt Lake Valley or back east across the river.

On January 14, 1847, President Brigham Young received at Winter Quarters the revelation now pub­lished as section 136 of the Doctrine and Covenants, which contained “the Word and Will of the Lord concern­ing the Camp of Israel in their journeyings to the West” (D&C 136:1).

There was a peaceful, sacred feel­ing in the lovely little hillside cemetery where many of the pioneers were laid to rest. Historians tell us that some 2,000 Latter-day Saints died near these settlements on both sides of the river between June 1846 and October 1848—with still more on the pioneer trail as it snaked its way west from here. What a terrible price was paid for the legacy of faith that we now so comfortably enjoy!

Ten-year-old Eliza wrote of our visit to Winter Quarters: “We went to this place. We saw a 20-minute video, then we went to a grave yard. It was weird! They listed all the names of people who died and were buried there. There were two Elizas. One was 3 years old and the other 27 years old. We saw a wagon and a handcart and a log cabin. (Oh, this was all in Nebraska.)”

Sixteen-year-old Talmage added, “We went to Winter Quarters and saw a little cabin, wagon, and handcart. More importantly, we saw the memorial for all the people who died at Winter Quarters for their faith. It was heart touching. We also saw a 20-minute film about Winter Quarters and the Mormon pioneers.”

After we finished breakfast on the picnic tables at the visitors’ center, we got back on Interstate 680 and immediately crossed the Mormon Bridge over the Missouri River and entered Iowa. In nearby Council Bluffs, on the Iowa side of the river, there had also been pioneer settle­ments during the early years of the exodus to Utah, home to another 8,000 or more Saints. It was in this area that the Mormon Battalion left in 1846 on its historic trek to Santa Fe and San Diego and the First Presidency was reorganized in December 1847 with Brigham Young as the second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.