Pres. Uchtdorf talks with KSL about pioneer legacy

Pres. Uchtdorf talks with KSL about pioneer legacy


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SALT LAKE CITY — Leading up to Pioneer Day, there are fireworks, rodeos, and of course, the largest parade in the state. But July 24th in Utah is more than all that. It commemorates the arrival of Mormon settlers to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sat down with KSL to talk about how pioneers have meaning for us all, no matter our religious affiliation.

This is the Place Heritage Park is a place of significance for Pres. Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet.

"It was one of the places we visited very often because we got a feeling here of the pioneers," he said.

Though neither of them have pioneer ancestry, Pres. Uchtdorf said they both claimed the legacy of the pioneers.

In 1999, when the Uchtdorfs moved from Germany to Utah for Church service, they connected more with pioneers as they toured outlying areas of the state that were tough to settle.

"We visited many of those places like Manti, where they had the dugouts there and fought snakes and wild animals," he said.

Aside from their courage and faith, he said they also had charity for one another.

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"There were some very affluent (people) able to come across the plains in their own wagon," he said. "What did they do? They sold the wagon, they sold their goods and joined the simple, the plain ones in the handcarts and enabled others to do the same."

Despite their differences, they lifted one another, no matter their circumstances. That's something Pres. Uchtdorf said would serve us well to do today.

"When you're here in Salt Lake now days, it's a community very diverse and it reflects in some ways what you find on the monument here (at the park).

"I think today if we find the same way of inclusion, then our legacy and our anchoring of the future on the values and the principles of the pioneers will be secured," he said.

Pres. Uchtdorf said that the time of the pioneers is not over and that people today must be pioneers in meeting the challenges of the times.

"We should use that great example of them to make it our charge, our challenge, to live up to our example by the way we treat those same principles of faith, hope and charity and reaching out to others."

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Carole Mikita

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