Sacrifice

I've been pondering the sacrifice we are making by serving eighteen months in Nauvoo. There is a financial sacrifice, a sacrifice of family time, missing family events like baptisms, not doing what we want to do but doing what we have been called to do...stuff like that.  We have to paint buildings and do handyman work which is a little out of our first world comfort zones.

It pales in comparison to the sacrifices the pioneer saints of Nauvoo made.  The prophet Joseph gave his life.  His wife, Emma, gave her husband and lost numerous children.  His mother, Lucy Mack, lost four sons and a husband.  The saints were driven from place to place because of religious persecution...even being forced out of Nauvoo in the dead of winter to cross the frozen Mississippi...eventually to end up in the Salt Lake valley where they, once again, built a city.  This time never to leave.

I don't think our sacrifice is very great...in fact, hardly worth mentioning. I only do so to compare the blessings we enjoy today.  We are grateful to be here.