Crossing the Frozen Mississippi in Idaho

 

Seminary Class Picture from My Senior Year

My mother was a remarkable teacher; and I should know because I was her student for all 4 years of early morning (7 a.m.) seminary. She put her heart into preparing effective lessons that would touch and impact a class of drowsy, rowdy teenagers. As I think back, one particular one lesson stands out which she gave on a very cold, foggy February morning.

We were studying Church History and following the morning devotional she asked all of us to follow her through the building - and we didn’t need to bring anything with us. We all started down the hall behind her to the front foyer, and then through the front door and down the walk to the steps by the parking lot. Mother then told us to sit down on the steps. When kids asked about going back to get their coats because the temperature was close to freezing, she told them they wouldn’t be needed and to stay put.

Lucile then told us about the Saints who were being driven out and had to leave Nauvoo; and how the incredibly cold February temperatures froze the Mississippi River, allowing the saints to drive their wagons across the frozen river on the ice. She talked both about the challenges and miracle this provided for the Saints as we sat there chilled to the bone.

I don’t recall everything mother taught that day, but I remember being much more aware and appreciative of what those Saints endured as they endeavored to be faithful to what they knew was true. The exodus from Nauvoo was no longer just some abstract historical fact, because mother created an experience where we could feel and understand in a small way the harsh reality of what those early members suffered.

I have thought about that experience and how my mother used a referent, something in the physical, real world (freezing temperature) to which we could really relate in helping us understand the sacrifice and faith of those who went before us. She patterned her lesson in some manner after the Savior, who often used referents in His parables – like the mustard seed, talents, two debtors, prodigal son, etc., to which his disciplines could relate.

It would be 4 or 5 years later while serving my mission that I would actually see the mighty Mississippi river frozen over at Nauvoo. I realized then even better what I had first experienced when Lucile Goates helped her seminary class to appreciate and understand by figuratively crossing the frozen Mississippi in Idaho.