Doctrine and Covenants 136:1–4 reflects two major events that occurred early in the exodus of the Saints to the western regions of North America. First, even as the Saints prepared to leave their homes in Nauvoo, they completed work on the Nauvoo Temple. Brigham Young and the other Church leaders who had already received their temple ordinances rushed to provide temple blessings to all the Saints who desired them. They were working against a deadline—they knew that the temple in Nauvoo would have to be abandoned when they left the area. By February 1846, when the first Saints began to leave Nauvoo, more than six thousand of their number received their blessings in the temple.¹ Their sacred temple covenants sustained the Saints in difficult years as the Church searched for a new home. Sarah Pea Rich later said that “if it had not been for the faith and knowledge that was bestowed upon us in that Temple,” the trip across the Great Plains “would have been like one taking a leap in the dark.”²

The covenant explained in verse 4, “to walk in all the ordinances of the Lord,” includes the sacred commitments Saints make in the temple to live the law of consecration. The commitment to live this law became both a vital part of the trek west and a large part of its success. Even while administering the temple ordinances, Brigham Young worked to prepare the Saints for the sacrifices that would be necessary for crossing the plains. During a general conference held in Nauvoo on October 6, 1845, the Saints made a covenant to “take all the Saints with us, to the extent of our ability, that is, our influence and property.”³ This covenant not only affected the Saints in Nauvoo but bound the Saints together in the ensuing decades as they helped converts from all over the world gather to the new home of the Church in the Rocky Mountains.

This principle of living the ordinances of the gospel by assisting others in the journey was illustrated in a dramatic way in 1856 when word reached Salt Lake City that the Martin and Willie handcart companies were trapped on the high plains of Wyoming with deadly winter weather closing in on them. Brigham Young arose in a general conference meeting, called for volunteers to rescue the stranded companies, and declared to the Saints, “I will tell you all that your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains. And attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties. Otherwise, your faith will be in vain. The preaching you have heard will be in vain to you, and you will sink to Hell, unless you attend to the things we tell you.”⁴

Temple covenants bound the Saints of 1847 together in a commitment to find their new home. These covenants also bound the Saints to rescue the suffering handcart pioneers of 1856. The same covenants bind Latter-day Saints in our time to consecrate their gifts to rescue their brothers and sisters.

1. Lisele G. Brown, “The Sacred Departments for Temple Work in Nauvoo: The Assembly Room and the Council Chamber,” BYU Studies, vol. 19, no. 3 (1979), 361–74.

2. Sara DeArmon Pea Rich Autobiography, 1885–1893, cited in “Nauvoo Temple,” ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

3. “Extract from the Minutes of a General Conference,” Circular, to the Whole Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1845.

4. LeRoy R. Hafen and Ann W. Hafen, Handcarts to Zion, 1960, 120–21.

Doctrine and Covenants 136 was received after the Saints had already made a difficult trek across the state of Iowa. This first phase of their exodus presented a steep learning curve for the Saints as they encountered the challenges of the trail. The main body of the “Camp of Israel” took 131 days to cover the three hundred miles of Iowa that made up the first part of the exodus. By contrast, a year later, the vanguard company to the Salt Lake Valley took only 111 days to cover the 1,050 miles from Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley.⁵ Unusually wet weather in Iowa, a lack of preparation, and general disorganization led to discouragement among the leaders of the Church. One journal entry from Brigham Young during this period captures the overwhelming burden resting on his shoulders: “Unless this people are more united in spirit and cease to pray against Counsel, It will bring me down to my grave. I am reduced in flesh so that my coat that would scarcely meet around me last Winter now laps over twelve inches. It is with much ado that I can keep from lying down and sleeping to wait the resurrection.”⁶

Before embarking on the next phase of the exodus, the Saints received specific and direct guidance about how the next phase of the trek would be organized. The work of assisting the poor, the fatherless, the widows, and the families of the men who left with the Mormon Battalion was equally distributed among different companies (D&C 136:8). The model used in Iowa—organizing the Saints into companies, with captains appointed over hundreds, fifties, and tens—was used over a decade earlier when Joseph Smith organized Zion’s Camp in 1834. One historian noted, “The revelation [D&C 136] helped transform the westward migration from an unfortunate necessity into an important shared spiritual experience.”⁷ The revelation also provided the basis for organizing the next twenty years of Latter-day Saint emigration to the western regions of North America. During the time from the first vanguard company in 1847 to the coming of the railroad in 1869, it is estimated that sixty to seventy thousand Latter-day Saint pioneers made the trek across the plains.⁸ All of these companies based their conduct around the principles found in Doctrine and Covenants 136.

5. Church History in the Fulness of Times, 2003, 309.

6. Elden J. Watson, Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1846–1847, 1971, pp. 150–51, emphasis in original.

7. Chad M. Orton, “‘This Shall Be Our Covenant,’: D&C 136,” in Revelations in Context, 2016, 308.

8. Christine T. Cox, “Mormon Pioneer Emigration Facts,” history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Latter-day Saint pioneers were known for their organization and piety on the trail. The rules given in Doctrine and Covenants 136:17–37 were adapted by different companies as they made the journey across the plains. In the early spring of 1847, Brigham Young led the Vanguard company of 143 men, 3 women, 2 children, 72 wagons, 93 horses, 66 oxen, 52 mules, 19 cows, 17 dogs, and several chickens out of Winter Quarters, Nebraska, on their way to the Rocky Mountains. Brigham was passionately committed to the principles found in Doctrine and Covenants 136 and used them as his guide on the trail. In fact, in late May, Brigham read the company “the Word and Will of the Lord” to caution them “that they were forgetting their mission.”⁹

For the most part, the journey passed peacefully. Near Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska, however, Brigham became irritated over the excessive levity in camp. He delivered a stern rebuke to the pioneers, telling the company, “If you do not open your hearts so that the Spirit of God can enter your hearts and teach you the right way, I know that you are a ruined people and will be destroyed.” He added, “Unless there is a change and a different course of conduct, a different spirit to what is now in the camp, I go no further.”¹⁰ Brigham’s words were perhaps a manifestation of his intense anxiety, for he commented privately, “We are the pioneers for the whole Church of God on the earth, seeking for a place to establish the kingdom, but we have not found it yet.”¹¹

A few weeks later, on July 24, 1847, Brigham Young and the main body of the Vanguard Company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Wilford Woodruff summed up Brigham’s reaction to seeing the valley by penning, “President Young expressed his full satisfaction in the appearance of the valley as a resting place for the Saints and was amply repaid for his journey.”¹² Wilford then recorded his own reaction: “This is an important day in the history of my life and the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After traveling from our encampment six miles . . . we came into full view of the great valley or basin of the Salt Lake and land of promise held in reserve by the hand of GOD for a resting place for the Saints upon which a portion of the Zion of GOD will be built.”¹³

9. Journal, May 28, 1847, in Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:186; spelling and capitalization modernized.

10. Journal, May 29, 1847, in William Clayton’s Journal, 1921, 191.

11. Norton Jacob Journal, May 28, 1847, as cited in Ronald O. Barney, Mormon Vanguard Brigade of 1847, 2005, 150.

12. Journal, July 24, 1847, in Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:233–34.

13. Journal, July 24, 1847, in Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 3:233–34.

During their difficult stay at Winter Quarters, the Saints still managed to find joy and fellowship in each other’s company. It is somewhat surprising that the Lord advised the Saints to “praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving” (D&C 136:28). In nineteenth century America, dancing was often thought of as an immoral form of entertainment. Brigham told the company: “There is no harm [that] will arise from merriment or dancing if brethren, when they have indulged in it, know when to stop” and “never forget the object of this journey.”¹⁴

The Saints also found strength in other spiritual experiences. At Winter Quarters, Brigham reported several dreams, or what he called “visions,” in which he conversed with the Prophet Joseph Smith. According to Brigham, in one dream Joseph told him “to be sure and tell the brethren that it is all important for them to keep the spirit of the Lord, to keep the quiet spirit of Jesus.” Joseph “explained how the spirit of the Lord reflected on the spirit of man and set him to pondering on any subject, and he also explained how to know the spirit of the Lord from the spirit of the enemy.”¹⁵

In addition to revelations and visions, temple ordinances were practiced among the Saints at Winter Quarters, including a peculiar iteration of the doctrine of eternal families called the law of adoption. Brigham, for instance, adopted several individuals into his family and held meetings to provide family instruction. In one such meeting, he declared, “Those that are adopted into my family . . . I will preside over them throughout all eternity and will stand at their head.”¹⁶ Other Apostles, including John Taylor, Willard Richards, and Heber C. Kimball, adopted large numbers of men and women into their families. The desire to gather as families in Winter Quarters provides a valuable insight into the mindset of the Saints in the winter of 1846–47.

14. Norton Jacob Journal, May 28, 1847, as cited in Barney, Mormon Vanguard Brigade of 1847, 150.

15. Hosea Stout Diary, as cited in Brooks, On the Mormon Frontier, 1:238.

16. Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri, 191–93.

It is often assumed that the exodus of the Church to western North America was filled with sorrow and tragedy. However, the number of deaths among the companies on the trail was less than three percent. The Vanguard Company, as well as fully one third of the companies that traveled the trail, experienced no deaths. Many Latter-day Saints today remember the exodus through reenactments of the handcart pioneers that focus on the tragedy surrounding the Martin and Willie Companies. However, there were ten handcart companies in total, and most of them suffered relatively few deaths. The leading cause of death on the trail was sickness, such as cholera and diarrhea. The second most common cause of death came from accidents and events related to the weather.¹⁷ While the loss of life was less than is commonly imagined, this does not undercut the valiant efforts and sacrifice of the pioneers. The suffering endured by the Saints at Winter Quarters and on the trail created a sacred narrative that still inspires and unites new generations.

John R. Young referred to Winter Quarters as “the Valley Forge of Mormondom.”¹⁸ Like George Washington’s army decades earlier, the Saints at the Missouri endured a crucible of testing and refining in harsh conditions. They emerged from the grim winter more confident, united, and secure. After receiving the “Word and Will of the Lord” in January 1847, Brigham Young announced that “he had no more doubts nor fears of going to the mountains, and felt as much security as if he possessed the treasures of the east.”¹⁹ On April 7, 1847, the day after general conference, Brigham organized the first wagon train of Saints to travel west and locate the new home of the Saints. Winter Quarters was soon abandoned as the Saints moved across the Missouri to create a new hub for their migration—Kanesville. In the end, Winter Quarters was just a stopping place for the Saints on their journey to the West. But the sacrifice, suffering, and sanctification of Winter Quarters lingered forever in their collective memory.

17. Christine T. Cox, “Mormon Pioneer Emigration Facts,” history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

18. Russell R. Rich, Ensign to the Nations, 1972, 92.

19. Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri, 159.