Go thy way and do as I have told you, and fear not thine enemies; for they shall not have power to stop my work."
— Doctrine and Covenants 136:17
These words to President Brigham Young at Winter Quarters in January 1847 mirror the life and endurance of early Church member Stillman Pond, as spoken of by then-Elder James E. Faust of the Quorum of the Twelve during the April 1979 general conference. Elder Faust, now second counselor in the First Presidency, related how Stillman Pond and his wife, Maria, buried three children on the way to Winters Quarters in 1846.
"The Stillman Pond family arrived at Winter Quarters and, like many other families, they suffered bitterly while living in a tent. The death of the five children coming across the plains to Winter Quarters was but a beginning. The journal of Horace K. and Helen Mar Whitney verifies the following regarding four more of the children of Stillman Pond who perished:
" 'On Wednesday, the 2nd of December 1846, Laura Jane Pond, age 14 years, . . . died of chills and fever.' Two days later on 'Friday, the 4th of December 1846, Harriet M. Pond, age 11 years, . . . died with chills.' Three days later, 'Monday, the 7th of December, 1846, Abigail A. Pond, age 18 years, . . . died with chills.' Just five weeks later, 'Friday, the 15th of January, 1847, Lyman Pond, age 6 years, . . . died with chills and fever.' Four months later, on the 17th of May, 1847, his wife Maria Davis Pond also died. Crossing the plains, Stillman Pond lost nine children and a wife. He became an outstanding colonizer in Utah, and became the senior president of the thirty-fifth Quorum of Seventy. (See Leon Y. and H. Ray Pond, comps., "Stillman Pond, a Biographical Sketch," in Sterling Forsyth Histories, typescript, Church Historical Department Archives, pp. 4-5.)
"Having lost these nine children and his wife in crossing the plains, Stillman Pond did not lose his faith. He did not quit. He went forward. He paid a price, as have many others before and since, to become acquainted with God."
Speaking of what can be the results of adversity, Elder Faust continued: "Out of the refiner's fire can come a glorious deliverance. It can be a noble and lasting rebirth. The price to become acquainted with God will have been paid. There can come a sacred peace. There will be a reawakening of dormant, inner resources. A comfortable cloak of righteousness will be drawn around us to protect us and to keep us warm spiritually. Self-pity will vanish as our blessings are counted."