Pioneer Day

On Friday, July 24 our ward celebrated Pioneer Day with a ward ice cream social.  I love that we celebrate this holiday to honor those that sacrificed so much for us to have the gospel in our lives.  There were several kinds of ice cream to try-all homemade!  I didn't eat much for most of the day so that I could eat ice cream.  Someone brought mint chocolate chip and that was my favorite as well as a amazing strawberry ice cream from another sister.  The Relief Society helped set up and made sure there were bowls and spoons and of course tablecloths.  Kyle helped us fill the big water cooler as pictured below.  After all the ice cream tasting the kids played some games like potato sack races and hula hoops and the traditional stick pull.  Dad thought it would be fun to swing Kyle around in the potato sack.  Kyle loved it until he bonked his head into dad's elbow!  After the games the Primary kids sang some pioneer songs.  Kyle was all for it and holding his friend Jandro's hand but then he saw me coming to take pictures and he didn't want to do it anymore.  I picked him up and held him in the back of the group and finished singing the songs with them.  On Sunday, Brother Whipple spoke about the pioneers and told some great stories.  If you ever want to know anything about church history, he is the man to listen to.  While he spoke I felt a renewed gratitude for those saints that suffered and persevered and sacrificed for our benefit.  He compared the pioneer trek as symbolic of the atonement.  These pioneers did for us what we and others could not do for ourselves.  They forged trails and crossed rivers.  They built homes they would never live in and grew crops they would never harvest for those that came behind.  They did not do if for themselves or for their glory just like our Savior did not do what he did for himself or his glory.  That was very profound to me.  I don't know if I had ever seen it that way.  Of course I saw what the pioneers did as service and sacrifice and for the common good but to have it symbolize the atonement made a lot of sense.  While I am not descended from those hale and hearty pioneers that crossed the plains in handcarts, I am descended from another group of hard working, obedient and sacrificing pioneers on both sides of my family.  I am grateful for them.  I am grateful for what they did for me so that I can have claim on the eternal nature of families through sealing power.