Two recent, historic events — the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City and the June dedication of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple — enhanced President Gordon B. Hinckley's long-felt respect and appreciation for the Mormon Pioneers.
The entire world looked upon the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding areas during the Olympics last February, said President Hinckley during the Pioneer Day Commemoration held July 21 at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
"When I walked through the vast and intricate broadcasting facilities, which transmitted pictures of the many events to living rooms across the earth, my mind went back to those thousands of exiles of another era threading their way across the plains and mountains to this sunbaked and forlorn area that others had shunned," he said. "What a miracle has come to pass from that pioneer day to our own."
President Hinckley offered his comments following a concert by the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square that was rich with pioneer hymns and other musical numbers, some of which were sung during the Nauvoo Illinois Temple dedication June 27-30. The podium where the orchestra performed was framed by several Nauvoo-themed props such as an old wagon and replicas of the temple sunstone and windows. A trio of singers donned pioneer-era clothing.
During the 2002 Winter Games, Salt Lake City assumed a new familiarity with millions around the globe and became a gathering point for government, business and sports leaders, President Hinckley added. The Olympic visitors were welcomed in Utah by magnificent scenery and events.
"But most impressive were the people they met here," President Hinckley said. "They were friendly and open and accommodating. For the most part they were volunteers who cheerfully gave of their time. They spoke with ease many of the languages to the amazement of those with whom they conversed."
The Winter Games marked a "glorious and wonderful time" that was widely regarded as perhaps the best ever of its kind.
"I feel profoundly grateful for all who did so much to make of this a truly remarkable and once-in-a-lifetime occasion," President Hinckley said. "I was proud of all who participated in any way, of all of us working together, unitedly, to accomplish a great purpose. I believe there developed among us a new spirit, a new spirit of respect and cooperation that brought about a truly remarkable result. It was an occasion that I hope we shall never forget."
The dedication of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple forever left its mark on the Church president, who said he experienced "overpowering emotions" of gratitude for the courage, tenacity and faith of those who lived in Nauvoo and then left in 1846.
"I sensed in a new and wonderful way the magnitude of the thing they did in building that community and then leaving it," President Hinckley said. "I came to believe that there is not another episode in the history of this great land to compare with the movement of the Mormon Pioneers from Nauvoo to the valley of the Great Salt Lake."
Following the temple dedication, President Hinckley said he went to the Hill Cumorah in New York to dedicate the new visitors center there. He visited the Sacred Grove and was reminded of the beginnings of the restored gospel. He pondered the sacrifices of those early Latter-day Saints, many of whom gave their lives on their westward pioneer journey.
"I thought much of the cost of that which we have today," he said. "That cost cannot be reckoned in dollars, but it is spelled out in terrible sacrifice, in hunger and cold, in sweat and tears, in desperation and quiet death."
The persecution and bitterness that drove early Church members from Nauvoo in 1846 could not happen again today — yet it happened then, President Hinckley said.
"The following spring of 1847, the pioneer company began the long journey west, ending on July 24 with Brigham Young's declaration: 'This is the right place,' " President Hinckley said. "Here, in this lonely wilderness, those first settlers laid out a city where we live in comfort today."
President Hinckley was joined on the Conference Center stand by members of the First Presidency, President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust. President Monson conducted the program, while Elders David E. Sorensen of the Presidency of the Seventy, and F. Melvin Hammond of the Seventy, offered the commemoration's invocation and benediction, respectively.
E-mail: jswensen@desnews.com