祖先 Zǔxiān Ancestors

In China ancestors are very important to the people, and since being here, I've felt a desire to learn even more about my ancestors. I've been working on family history about once a week and just thinking more about these people and the lives they lived.

I've also tried to read more church talks, and pick a new speaker each week to learn about and read their talks. The first week I did this, I read an old young adult devotional which quoted one of my ancestors - Mary Ann Frost Sterns Pratt. I was sooo excited that I came across this talk because as soon as I read that part, I remembered that I had heard this years ago and looked online to find the quote but couldn't find it. So, a few years later I'm sitting in China, and there it is! Mary Ann and her husband Parley were early converts to the LDS faith, and Parley served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when Joseph Smith was a prophet. His testimony of the Book of Mormon has always inspired me. Following his testimony is Mary Ann's. You can learn more about Parley here.

A man named Hamlin “began to tell of a book, a STRANGE BOOK, a VERY STRANGE BOOK! in his possession, which had been just published. This book, he said, purported to have been originally written on plates either of gold or brass, by a branch of the tribes of Israel; and to have been discovered and translated by a young man near Palmyra, in the State of New York, by the aid of visions, or the ministry of angels. I inquired of him how or where the book was to be obtained. He promised me the perusal of it, at his house the next day, if I would call. I felt a strange interest in the book. …Next morning I called at his house, where, for the first time, my eyes beheld the “BOOK OF MORMON"...

I opened it with eagerness, and read its title page. I then read the testimony of several witnesses in relation to the manner of its being found and translated. After this I commenced its contents by course. I read all day; eating was a burden, I had no desire for food; sleep was a burden when the night came, for I preferred reading to sleep.

As I read, the spirit of the Lord was upon me, and I knew and comprehended that the book was true, as plainly and manifestly as a man comprehends and knows that he exists. My joy was now full, as it were, and I rejoiced sufficiently to more than pay me for all the sorrows, sacrifices and toils of my life. I soon determined to see the young man who had been the instrument of its discovery and translation.”

Mary Ann's story and testimony:

Mary Ann Pratt married Parley P. Pratt in 1837. Upon moving to Missouri, USA, along with other Saints, they endured horrific persecution. When Elder Pratt was taken, along with the Prophet Joseph Smith, by a mob in Far West, Missouri, and imprisoned, Mary Ann was confined to bed, gravely ill, while caring for two small children.

Later, Mary Ann visited her husband in jail and stayed with him for a time. She wrote, “I shared his dungeon, which was a damp, dark, filthy place, without ventilation, merely having a small grating on one side. In this we were obliged to sleep.”

After Parley’s release from jail, Mary Ann and her husband served missions to New York, USA, and to England and were among those who made “the final weary gathering to Utah,” as she described it. Elder Pratt ultimately died a martyr’s death while serving another mission.

Despite this tumultuous life, Mary Ann Pratt stayed true. She powerfully stated, “I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints … , being convinced of the truthfulness of its doctrines by the first sermon I heard; and I said in my heart, if there are only three who hold firm to the faith, I will be one of that number; and through all the persecution I have had to endure I have ever felt the same; my heart has never swerved from that resolve.”

Love those final words. I stand with her - my heart will never swerve from that resolve.