Or walk a hundred, thousand miles...

When we first moved to Texas, we were without the internet for over a week! Many times during that week, I thought to myself, "How did the pioneers do it?!?" I felt completely unconnected with the outside world.

Now that everyone knows my crutch, I submit that I am learning to keep company with the pioneers who crossed the plains.

They who left their families and loved ones, never mind many loved ones came with them.

They who left their new-built temple and strongholds of the Church, never mind they were traveling with members of the Church.

They who wandered through the plains and the deserts, never mind they had relocated several times before that.

They who faced bitter winters and summer storms and critters in the wild and rough, new terrain, never mind their initial living arrangements where subject to the very same.

Do I face the same sacrifices as the members of those wagon teams and hand cart companies?

I, too, have left family members, never mind I still live near family members and can write emails and call on cell phones to others.

I, too, have left certain strongholds of the Church, never mind I now attend a wonderful ward.

I, too, wander through Texas highways and new places, never mind I have moved several times before.

I, too, face new challenges of ridding the house of roaches and keeping the electricity bills down and learning the difference between tornado warnings and watches and raising a child in a very worldly world. Do these things make me a pioneer?

I like to think that I am a pioneer in my own life. I can't go through the same trials that the early Saints endured, but I do have trials of my own--things that are difficult for me personally. If I dig my heels in the dirt and enter the yoke with my Savior and my husband, I can cross deserts and plains.

Please don't think that I am putting myself above the early, pioneer Saints. On the contrary, I honor and respect their faith and fortitude and as inwardly search out the same in my own soul. May I ever sing as I walk and walk and walk and walk.