Resources

Mutual Activity Ideas

Family History

• Heritage Night – youth invite their grandparent or another older person close to them to attend. Each brings an antique or heirloom item to tell about. The evening is spent talking about their younger days and learning about their lives.
• Get acquainted with the Youth Family History website
• Find your pioneer ancestors (those who came before you & converted to the gospel, making it possible for you to have the gospel in your life)
• Find a name you can bring to the temple
• Index a batch of names to bring the Spirit of Elijah into your heart & bless people who have gone before you
• Record personal history videos of older people in your ward telling about their lives. The youth can interview them.
• Pioneers in Every Land – learn about some of the pioneers in other countries
• Have a sewing activity to make clothing items, haversacks, padded buckets and bags. Invite ward members to donate fabric if necessary.

Movies

• Ephraim’s Rescue
• The Sweetwater Rescue
• Legacy
• American Prophet
• A Legacy More Precious than Gold
• 17 Miracles

Articles

• Ultimate Guide to the Pioneer Trek
• The Faith of the Pioneers
• Go Bring Them in from the Plains
• They Came by Handcart
• Courage – the Unfailing Beacon
• To Them of the Last Wagon
• No Toil nor Labor Fear
• These Noble Pioneers
• True to the Faith

Church Magazines

The sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the pioneers arriving in the Salt Lake Valley was in 1997. Throughout 1997, the church magazines hosted articles talking about pioneers in the church. Two magazines that were especially devoted to the pioneers are listed below.

• July 1997 New Era
• July 1997 Ensign

Websites

• The Pioneer Story – The Mormon Pioneer Trail is a great interactive website that takes you along the trail of the Mormon pioneers. Along the way, you can stop and read personal accounts of pioneers who traveled west from Nauvoo, Illinois to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
• Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel, 1847-1868 is the most complete listing of individuals and companies in which Mormon Pioneer emigrants traveled west to Utah.
• Trails of Hope – A Brief Overview of the Mormon Trail Experience – Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869 is the first digital publication jointly sponsored by Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and Utah State University and covers the period of time from the first pioneers to the joining of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads at Promontory, Utah, thus ending the era of overland pioneers.
• BYU Speaches

Books

Especially pertaining to handcart travel are listed below:

• Fire of the Covenant by Gerald N Lund
• I Walked to Zion by Susan Arrington Madsen
• Handcarts to Zion by Leroy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen
• The Price We Paid: The Extraordinary Story of the Willie & Martin Handcart Pioneers by Andrew D. Olsen
• Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies by Rebecca Bartholomew and Leonard J. Arrington
• We’ll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus, 1846-1848 by Richard E. Bennett
• 111 Days to Zion by Hal Knight
• Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860: A Woman’s Life on the Mormon Frontier by Mary Ann Hafen
• Against All Odds: Amazing Pioneer Stories of Courage and Survival by Shirley A. Bahlmann
• True Stories of Mormon Pioneer Courage by Lucy Parr
• The Story of the Mormon Pioneers by Mabel Harmer
• The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail by Wallace Stegner
• Remember – The Willie and Martin Handcart Companies and Their Rescuers – Past and Present by Riverton Wyoming Stake