Last night (February 23) my daughter and I attended a fireside where Mormon film maker T.C. Christensen was the featured speaker. Christensen showed clips of his films and then explained interesting anecdotes that happened behind the scenes as they were filmed. He showed a clip from Ephraim’s Rescue that showed the handcart pioneers crossing a frigid river. T.C. discussed the scene and then opened it up to the audience for Q&A.

After a few questions, he said, “I haven’t been asked a question yet that I usually get. The question I’m usually asked is Why did God put these faithful handcart pioneers through this ordeal?”

T.C. then asked any descendants of the Martin and Wille handcart companies, and the Hunt and Hodges wagon companies to please stand. A large number stood. He said, “Thank you, you can sit down now.” He went on to say that he asks this question at many firesides around the Wasatch Front and gets similar numbers standing for crowds of this size.

He then related how he spoke at an LDS youth event in Hemet, California, Before the meeting started he thought that it wouldn’t be fair to ask that question in a place so far from the Salt Lake Valley, but during the course of his talk he asked the same question and was amazed by the results. T.C. said that there were more people who stood at that event that had just stood at our fireside with only one-third the number in attendance.

His point in this exercise was that his belief at to why the Lord put these faithful saints through this trial, “Why weren’t they given manna to eat?”

“There was something that happened within those people that drove testimony into their hearts,” he said. “They were able to pass that on to their children and their descendants.” T.C. also said that even those members who aren’t the descendants of the handcart pioneers are “adopted” descendants. “A women being baptized in Chile today can count these pioneers as her ancestors,” he said.

It is funny because I feel the same way about the Mormon Colonies pioneers. After the first Las Colonias magazine issue release I had someone email me asking to be taken off the list because he had no ancestors from the Colonies (I happen to know that his wife does). I thought to myself, “I don’t have ancestors from the Colonies either, but my kids do.”

This is why I want to share the stories and histories of the Colonies pioneers. Not only do my daughters need to have their Colonies ancestor’s testimonies burned into their hearts, but as an adopted son — I do too.