{"id":4876,"date":"2012-06-25T16:44:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T16:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/?p=4876"},"modified":"2012-11-26T21:21:54","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T21:21:54","slug":"thought-062512-pb-we-can-do-hard-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/uncategorized\/thought-062512-pb-we-can-do-hard-things","title":{"rendered":"Thought 06\/25\/12 PB We can do hard things!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \n \"Fb-Button\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>
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We Can Do Hard Things<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost July! If you are like me, your thoughts turn to the amazing stories of the pioneers and their heart-wrenching stories of sacrifice. The story of Ellen Breakell Neibaur is one of my favorites\u2026..it\u2019s worth telling to the kids in Family Home Evening!<\/p>\n

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Ellen Breakell Neibaur<\/p><\/div>\n

Ellen was the daughter of a wealthy farmer in England.\u00a0 She married Alexander Neibaur, a French and Polish Jew. \u00a0He also belonged to a very wealthy family and had been educated to become a Rabbi in the Jewish faith. \u00a0They lived in Preston, England when Heber C. Kimball served his first mission there and they were converted to the Church.\u00a0 Ellen and Alexander left almost everything they had to join in the second company with Brigham Young in 1848 to cross the plains and join the Saints in the Salt Lake Valley.\u00a0 It took all their money to buy a team and wagon and supplies for the journey.\u00a0 Ellen didn\u2019t even have enough money to buy a pair of shoes.\u00a0 She wrapped her feet in rags and came all the way across the plains barefoot!<\/em><\/p>\n

After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the family, which included 7 children (eventually 14 children were born to them), lived in a tent.\u00a0 They often went hungry.\u00a0 Alexander became a teacher and Ellen took in laundry.\u00a0 For the next eight years, any time she could save a little money, she put a penny or two aside.\u00a0 After eight long years, she was finally able to buy a pair of shoes from a mail order company.\u00a0 High-top, patent leather, button shoes!\u00a0 She knitted herself some blue and white stockings.<\/em><\/p>\n

Just a few days after the shoes arrived, a company led by Franklin D. Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve, rode into Salt Lake with very disturbing news.\u00a0 It was October, 1856 and two handcart companies were stranded out on the plains with over a thousand people struggling to survive in the Wyoming snowstorms.\u00a0 Brigham Young stood up in General Conference the next day and explained that these two companies were still 700 miles away.\u00a0 \u201cThey must be brought here.\u00a0 We must send them assistance,\u201d he said. President Young called for teams, wagons, food, and clothing to help those who were stranded.<\/em><\/p>\n

When the Brethren came around collecting clothing to take with them to meet the pioneers, Alexander said he had nothing to give them, but Ellen said, \u201cwe must give them something.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, Ellen Neibaur, after 8 years of waiting for a pair of shoes, removed her brand new shoes and hand-knitted stockings from her feet and gave them to the rescue effort. Once again, she bound her own feet in rags.<\/em><\/p>\n

When a new company came into the Valley, all the Saints would go out and line the streets to greet the newcomers. Most were looking into their faces to see if there was anyone they knew, but Ellen wasn\u2019t looking at faces.\u00a0 She was looking at feet.\u00a0 She wanted to know who had gotten her shoes.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Ellen Neibaur saw her shoes, she looked up and to her absolute amazement, wearing them was an old friend from Preston, England who had joined the Church since Ellen had left England!\u00a0 Ellen\u2019s sacrifice had helped to save her friend\u2019s life and had helped her come to the Valley safely.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Sacrifices must be made in our own day.\u00a0 Much will be required of us if we are to remain righteous and worthy to stand side by side some day with our pioneer ancestors.\u00a0 Their stories of faith and courage can remind us that we are capable of much more than we think we are.<\/p>\n

We, too, can do hard things!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matthew 22:37-40
\n~ Sister Pat Barton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We Can Do Hard Things It\u2019s almost July! If you are like me, your thoughts turn to the amazing stories of the pioneers and their heart-wrenching stories of sacrifice. The story of Ellen Breakell Neibaur is one of my favorites\u2026..it\u2019s worth telling to the kids in Family Home Evening! Ellen was the daughter of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4876"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5518,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4876\/revisions\/5518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}