Sometimes it’s fun to read those stories and wonder how we’d react in the same situation. Would we stay true to what we believe even when our lives were threatened? Would we continue to live the way God has taught us to live no matter how much pressure there was to stop living that way? Would we be cheerful in the face of adversity?

We may not be asked to walk across country or flee our home while murderers chase after us. Some of us won’t face open prejudice and hatred. And yet, there will always be people who think our standards are old-fashioned and stupid, and who will pressure us to give them up. The pressure might be less noticeable, less violent, but it is there. In many ways, it’s harder to fight the less fierce forms of prejudice and pressure than it is a mob with guns. It’s sometimes said that it’s not nearly as hard to die for our religion as it is to live for it.

What does that mean? It means that if someone says, “Deny your religion or I’ll kill you,” you are likely to find that moment of courage to say, “I won’t deny it.” You’ll die, but it only takes a moment of courage and then you’re with God. However, when someone pressures you day after day to smoke or drink or dress immodestly, when people all around you are swearing or cheating or gossiping, when everyone but you gets to go play on Sunday…that can be hard. The little day to day pressures can wear you down faster than a gun pointed at you for a few minutes.

Today’s pioneer is asked to blaze a new trail, not a physical one leading west, but a trail of faith and morality. There used to be one, but it’s become overgrown with weeds and brush and so-called civilization. It’s up to those of us who still care what God teaches to clear that path, get on it, and stay on it. We can set an example that will encourage our friends to join us. If enough people do that, there can be more people on the trail than off it.

There is a story in the book of Mormon about a man named Lehi. He saw a vision in which there was a beautiful tree that represented God’s love. Anyone who made his way to the tree and ate the fruit that grew on it would enjoy more happiness than anyone could imagine. There was a path and many people got on it. However, a deep fog came up and many got lost, wandering off the path. There was an iron rod, representing God’s word, that the walkers could grab onto. If they held on they couldn’t get lost. Not everyone did, but those who did got to the tree and ate the fruit.

But then something interesting happened. There was a large and fancy building on a hill nearby. At the windows of the building were people in fancy clothes and elegant hairstyles. They stood there making fun of all the people who ate the fruit. Some people wisely ignored them, but others got embarrassed at being made fun of. They rushed off the path and ran to the building to join the people in it. They became mockers, too, wanting to be part of the rich “popular” crowd more than they wanted to be part of God’s inner-circle. They were willing to give up all the eternal blessings of Heaven to get a few years of popularity.

How about you? If you were on that path, would you give in to the mocking or would you stay on that path and do what you knew was right? Would you settle for a lifetime of pretend happiness or hold out for an eternity of real joy, even if it meant being made fun of today? Are you willing to be lonely if necessary for a while, remembering that someday you’ll never be lonely again? Are you willing to put up with the teasing or a less popular crowd if that’s required? Most importantly, are you willing to hang on to a good attitude even when your trials aren’t your fault?

All those things can set an example for others. You’ll be the one leading the way and you may be surprised to discover others find themselves anxious to join you when they see how happy and fulfilled you are on your special path. You never know who is watching, so be brave and be a pioneer.

The Martin Handcart company had more problems than many of the companies. They were so desperate to reach Salt Lake set out too late in the year and storms came early. They had been advised to wait, but they were anxious to get started in a safe new home. They ended up traveling in the cold of winter, when it was hard to find food or to stay warm.

In October 1856, Brigham Young learned they were in deep trouble. The semi-annual conference was about to begin, so during the conference, he asked for volunteers to form a rescue party. The rescuers found them, bringing food and help. However, by the time they reached the Sweetwater River, the people in the Martin Handcart Company were very weak from having been hungry and cold for so long. The very deep, wide, and icy cold river was more than they could handle and they were afraid their journey would end right there, because they weren’t strong enough to cross it. Three teenage boys from the rescue party, George W. Grant, David P. Kimball, and C. Allen Huntington, took matters into their own hands and decided to carry people across. Those three boys carried almost every member of the handcart company themselves. However, this came with a price, as heroism often does. They became quite ill themselves from the strain and the challenges of spending so much time in icy water with heavy loads. Eventually—years after their heroic actions—they all died from complications of that day of heroism. Brigham Young was moved by their sacrifice and cried when he learned what they’d done.

Mary Goble was a teenager in the Cluff Wagon Company, which was to follow the Martin Handcart company in order to help them as needed. Because they had wagons and not handcarts, they had better supplies and more options open to them. Her heroism came in the form of helping her mother. Her mother became very sick during the journey and the company was traveling in an area with no water. They’d been able to melt snow sometimes to have something to drink, but Mary’s mother longed for water from the freshwater spring a few miles away. Mary set out to get it for her, traveling with a woman from the company. As they were walking, they found a very sick man. He was old and unable to move. They knew he would die of frostbite soon if they didn’t get help. Mary continued on to get the water and the other women went back to the camp to get help for the man.

Mary was naturally frightened to find herself all alone in the woods. The travelers were afraid of the native people and Mary was so busy watching for them she lost track of where she was. Soon she realized she was completely lost in the wilderness. The snow was all the way up to her knees and it was almost midnight before search teams found her. They tried to treat her frostbite.

Mary’s mother died just as they entered the Valley and they carried her body in the wagon the rest of the way. Already, three of Mary’s younger siblings had died during the five month journey. When they arrived that evening, they were quickly given shelter and food. Brigham Young himself came to greet them the next morning. Tears filled his eyes when he saw Mary’s frozen feet and learned her mother was dead. A doctor was sent for who had to amputate her toes because they were unable to be saved from the frostbite. Naturally, this was traumatic for her, but Brigham Young made a prophetic promise to her the rest of her feet and her legs would heal. It didn’t seem at first like this was going to be true. She continued to get worse and the doctor told her he needed to amputate her feet. She refused, remembering Brigham’s promise and having faith in him. The doctor was amazed, a few months later, that she was completely healed.

Sometimes a hero is just someone who keeps on going, doing what needs to be done even when their hearts are breaking and their bodies are weak. This was the case with Maggie, age thirteen, and Ellen, age nine, who left their home in England to come to be with the Mormons, whose religion they had just joined. The Pucell family immigrated to the United States on the same ship that brought Mary Goble.

They found, when they arrived, their wagons and handcarts weren’t ready and it was July before they could begin their journey. They traveled to Winter Quarters in Missouri and then set out for Salt Lake. They had to cross the Platte River several times, and the last time there were chunks of ice floating in the water. Some were too weak to even attempt to cross a deep icy river and sat down, where they died. Others, including the Pucells, braved the water. However, the girls’ mother became very ill from doing this and had to be placed in the wagon. Their father, although weak and thin from lack of food, tried to pull the wagon up the steep hills himself, with the girls pushing the back of the wagon.

When it came time to cross another stream, again icy, the father fell. He managed to get back up but died on the other side of the stream. Now there were only the girls to care for their mother and manage the journey. Their mother soon died also and the girls were orphaned. Despite their broken hearts and the fear they must have felt, they kept right on going, managing as best they could with whatever help was available, until rescuers came. Then they continued on, still struggling in the icy cold, although at least with a little food and warmer clothing to help them. Everyone had been hungry for so long they were dangerously thin and weak.

The girls had frozen arms and legs. Ellen had to have her legs amputated at the knees—and because the Saints were newly arrived, they didn’t have proper tools or even anesthesia. Can you imagine having your knees amputated while you’re still awake and without pain killers? This didn’t stop Ellen, though. She went on to marry and have a large family. She spent her life in pain, because her legs never healed properly, but was never heard to complain. Without the wheelchair she might have had in modern times, she learned to get around on her stumps and to devote her life to helping others.

Life can be hard. A lot of times, our trials are not our own fault, but we still have a responsibility to follow the examples of these teenagers and make something of our lives. We can learn to endure our trials and to find our proper place in whatever life we’re given.

July 24 is Pioneer Day. For Mormon teenagers, this is a day of fireworks and parades, but it’s also a day to remember the Mormon pioneers. Can you imagine spending your teen years walking across the country, helping to pull a handcart because you can’t afford a covered wagon, maybe watching your friends, siblings, or even your parents die along the way? That’s how it was for a lot of teenagers. There were dances, but they were held after a really long day of walking. They had friends, but they talked as they worked or walked. These teens had to be adults long before a modern teenager might have to, just because they had so much responsibility and they’d already had hard lives. Many had lost parents or watched their homes destroyed. Some had even been attacked and every day they faced serious dangers from people who had forgotten our country believes in religious freedom. That kind of life makes you grow up fast.

The teenagers in the early church had interesting lives and many of them recorded their experiences in journals or later wrote their life stories. One boy, Henry Sanderson, became a Mormon when he was thirteen. He lived in Connecticut and when his parents converted, he had to endure a lot of teasing and bullying from people who didn’t like Mormons. He was relieved when his parents decided to move to Nauvoo to live with the Mormons, so he could escape the persecution. There, he became friends with the sons of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, who lived two houses from him. Every tenth day, Henry helped to build the church’s temple, a special building used for sacred ordinances.

Joseph Smith was murdered when Henry was fifteen. He had watched as Joseph was arrested and taken to prison on false charges, which allowed him to be killed without protection from his own people. For a while, people weren’t sure what would happen to the church. The murderers hoped the church would die with Joseph, but it didn’t. Brigham Young took over and life went on, but not exactly as before. Things became very hard for the Saints, as the Mormons called themselves, and Henry’s family needed income. He and his father went to St. Louis to find work and Henry was hired to work for shoemakers. At fifteen, he worked full-time.

In 1845, the family moved to a farm, where his father was hired to work. However, an illness, probably malaria, struck and Henry’s father died. In those days, that meant the oldest son, Henry, was now responsible for making sure the family survived. However, Henry himself was also ill with the same disease. Despite this, the family returned to Nauvoo, the city where the Mormons lived. One sister stayed behind to work for a bit, so Henry, still sick, returned to bring her back when her job ended. He worked for his passage as an assistant fireman one way and a cook and dishwasher the other way.

At age seventeen, Henry joined the Nauvoo Legion. The Saints were in a lot of danger. Joseph Smith’s murder hadn’t ended their persecution and the Saints knew they could all be killed at any time. He had a gun and helped patrol the city, watching for enemy mobs.

When the Saints finally decided they were going to have to leave Nauvoo, Henry and his family joined them on the trek west. Henry worked for another family to help pay the costs. However, the United States government stopped the travelers and asked for volunteer soldiers to help fight the Mexican War. Henry was sure Brigham Young would refuse, because the government had refused to protect the Saints in their time of danger. To his surprise, Brigham Young agreed and Henry became a soldier. When his time ended, he entered the Salt Lake Valley, but he wanted to be with his family, so he traveled with Brigham Young’s company to Winter Quarters, where many of the pioneers were preparing for the journey. He returned to Utah in three years.

Henry’s life was unusual compared to teens today. By the time he was an adult, he had lost his father, been a soldier, led a family, worked full-time, and become a pioneer. His teen years weren’t filled with the fun of a typical teenager, but he never complained about it. He was proud of what he had accomplished at such a young age.

This story is retold from William G. Hartley, “Nauvoo Teenager: Henry Sanderson,” New Era, Oct 1989, 44. Read the story to learn more about his teenage years.

In this month’s New Era (a magazine for Mormon teens) a writer tells how she got roped into helping at the Bishop’s Storehouse, which is a food bank for Mormon church members. It’s a little different from most food banks, in that the person needing help first meets with her bishop (pastor) to determine what type of help is needed. They then are given a list of the items available and mark what they need, which is approved or adjusted by the bishop. They go into a building that looks like a grocery store, but with just a checkout counter instead of a cash register and get their order with help from volunteers.

At first Sarah resented having to do this service because it cut into her free time. After a while though, she realized she felt great knowing she was helping others and making a difference, and she began to work even harder at it. (See What’s in Store at the Storehouse?”)

There are a lot of volunteer jobs available for teenagers. The first step is to identify what you really care about or are passionate about. If you worry about people being hungry, you might want to work at a food bank. If the environment is your specialty, volunteer with an environmental group or just go out and pick up trash somewhere, maybe getting your friends to help out and ending with a picnic. Do you plan to be a teacher someday? Maybe a group is looking for tutors to help out in a summer program. Can’t live without a computer? Teach a class on computers at a senior center. No matter what social issues you care about, you’re likely to find some way to turn it into a volunteer job.

While you don’t get a paycheck in the form of cash, the paycheck you do get is worth more and lasts longer. Volunteering makes you feel like you’re helping to create the world you’re going to be living or running someday. The more problems we fix while you’re young, the better your world will be when you’re an adult.

You’ll never really know how many people you help. If you tutor one child, you might feel like you only helped one person. However, if that child grows up and goes to college because you taught him to read and to love reading, you’ve then helped his spouse and children, too. They’ll probably go to college because their dad did, and your influence can go on forever, because you may well have rescued hundreds of generations from a lifetime of poverty. Pretty amazing results for a few hours of tutoring!

Volunteering can also help you find out what you want to do for a career and give you job experience to put on your first resume. A lot of the volunteer work I’ve done helped me decide what I wanted to do with my life—sometimes I loved it and sometimes I hated it, but I learned what I’m willing to spend my life doing. Colleges like seeing volunteer work on your application.

Really, though, even though volunteer work can benefit you, the best reason for doing it is because it’s a great feeling to know you’re making a difference and not just sitting around complaining about what’s wrong with the world. Don’t complain—get up and go do something.

The New Era, a monthly magazine for Mormon teenagers, has featured many of these young volunteers over the years. In 2008, they wrote about a group of teens who have made an unusual contribution to the Nauvoo pageant in Illinois—they play the bagpipes. The bagpipe band volunteers work for about two weeks, playing before shows, in mini-shows, and in the actual pageant. Many of these teens belong to bagpiping families and say playing such an unusual instrument has given them many opportunities to perform around the country. The bagpipes are considered an important part of the pageant because they represent part of the English culture of many early pioneer immigrants and because they draw people to the players. The teenagers say being in the pageant teaches them to interact with strangers of all types and to be away from home, which is excellent preparation for missions.

Read more about the bagpiping teens.

In 1990, the New Era wrote about a teenager named Craig who played Moroni in the Hill Cumorah pageant in New York State. It is a small but critical role. Moroni was just a teenager when his father died. In fact, all of his family was dead, as were all his friends and every single one of his people. He alone survived. Imagine that situation for a teenager. Now add to it that everyone who is alive wants to kill you. That was Moroni’s situation. He took the record his father had been working on and finished editing it down to a manageable size. It was the entire history of his people in the Americas. When Mormoni finished, he buried it and left, returning once to add to it. Then he hid it again and slipped out of a city still anxious to kill him. We don’t know what happened next until Joseph Smith, a fourteen year old boy, prayed to ask God which church to join.

God told Joseph not to join any of them just yet. A number of years later, Moroni returned, now an angel, to begin tutoring Joseph in preparation for restoring the Savior’s full gospel to the earth. So, even though Moroni’s part is small in the pageant, it’s a key to the whole play. Craig’s father plays Moroni’s father, Mormon.

Craig grew up right in Palmyra, where this whole story happened, where Moroni hid the records and where Joseph lived. He said that when he was a teenager, he finally gained a real testimony of the gospel as he sat in the same woods where Joseph once prayed for truth. Now, playing Moroni, he tries to let his testimony of that experience shine through.

Read more about Craig in the Hill Cumorah pageant.

If you’re interested in doing pageants next year, check out this article about teens in the pageants and learn how to get involved:

Youth a Driving Force Behind Pageants

Just because everyone's doing it doesn't mean they're right.

Great stories, but of course, that’s not how it worked in real life. When I was a freshman in high school, I found myself unexpectedly getting attention from a group of popular kids. I don’t know how I came to their attention since popular had never been part of my life. Actually, I’d never really had any desire to be popular. I’d always been happy with the friends I had, but somehow, when they started paying attention to me and to my friend, we both were so flattered we forgot popularity had never been very important to us.

At first, everything seemed great. However, my friend David pulled me aside and warned me the kids in that group were dangerous. He said they didn’t have values and they liked to pull good kids into their group and try to corrupt them. I shrugged off his warning, figuring he was jealous of the time I spent with the new friends I had.

Then one day at a party for my drama class, they invited me to go for a walk with them, saying it was too hot inside. I guess I was pretty inexperienced, because I actually thought they were going for a walk. I loved nighttime walks. Instead, of course, they pulled out cigarettes. I had watched my grandmother suffer from emphysema for several years, the result of a lifetime of smoking, so I was not even tempted to smoke. I refused their offer and instead of accepting it, as always happens in stories, they started making fun of me. Even worse, my friend took one, looking a little embarrassed as she did so. I wanted to yank it out of her mouth, knowing what she was doing to herself, but I didn’t. I didn’t really know what to do. I was hurt that my “friends” would make fun of me for doing what I was knew was right and I was angry that they’d gotten my friend to give in so she could fit in, but I also lacked the courage to just go into the house alone. I wouldn’t give in, knowing what I knew, but I stayed with them. Finally one of the girls told the others to leave me alone.

The worst was yet to come, though. When we went back inside, a boy I really admired walked over to me and said, “I know they do all kinds of things they aren’t supposed to, but I thought you were different.” I realized, as he walked away,  he thought I had smoked because I was with them. I realized everyone knew why they’d gone outside and by going with them—and by returning with them—I sent a false message that I was just like them.

That weekend, I paid more attention to David’s warning. I learned they did a lot of things I hadn’t known they did. I was shy, though, and not very brave, so I didn’t know what to do. On Monday, not wanting to see them in drama class or at lunch, I came to school early and went to talk to my guidance counselor. She suggested we rearrange my schedule so I had no classes with them and so my lunch would be at a different time. That took away any temptation to continue to bask in the prestige of their popularity and made it easier for me to break off the ties—we just never really saw each other any more.

When I walked into the cafeteria that day, I saw David. He motioned me over and I joined the friends I had abandoned. I was lucky they wanted me back. Popularity didn’t seem so appealing anymore as I found myself thinking about the trouble I could have gotten myself into and the damage I’d done to my reputation just by hanging out with the wrong crowd. I didn’t do anything wrong, but no one else knew that.

That story had a happy ending for me, but it didn’t for my friend, who stayed with the group and adopted their values. She had a hard life ahead once she abandoned her standards and her dreams for life to focus on being accepted and popular. I tried to help, but there was nothing I could do. A person has to take the first step alone before others can step in to help.

As an adult now, I can’t remember why it seemed so important to be in that group. I had nothing in common with those people and they didn’t care about me. If they’d cared about me as a person, they would have respected my standards. I was so much happier with friends who shared my values and who respected me if I chose a higher value once in a while. More importantly, their high standards encouraged me to live a better life. We had fun, but we always had an eye on a bright and glorious future. We knew high school wasn’t all there was to life.

Read advice to a Scandinavian girl who wanted to move in with her boyfriend.

Lisa, a Mormon who lives in Taylorsville, Utah, is the author of The Hourglass Door, published by Shadow Mountain. The Hourglass Door is a supernatural story for teenagers, but with an emphasis on romance. It concerns a teenager named Abby who has a perfect life—until a tall, dark, handsome, and mysterious Italian stranger arrives in town as an exchange student. Dante Alexander is about to change everything. He might be an exchange student from Italy, but he has traveled further than she realized at first—he got here in a time machine built by Leonardo da Vinci, and now he and he friends need to get back home. This book was named 2009 Book of the Year for independently published young adult fiction. Her second book, The Golden Spiral, was released in May. In this book, Lisa has to rebuild the time machine and save Dante, but his time traveling friend Zo is complicating matters by trying to change history—Lisa’s history, to be exact. What will happen to Abby and Dante’s relationship?

Lisa is a young wife and an acquisitions editor—someone who decides what books get published. That is probably a big help for a writer, since it means she is used to evaluating what is publishable and what isn’t. She is certain to have read lots of good and bad manuscripts, so when it came time to write her own, she was ready to go. That doesn’t mean it was easy—writing is hard work, no matter how prepared you are.

She makes good use of all her time, even writing on the train to work each day. However, her favorite setting for work is on the sofa with music playing and a cat on her legs while she types on her laptop. With a job, a husband , and a home to care for, she has to write when she has time. And of course, now that she is a popular author, she also has promotional work like book signings to add to her schedule. Since she grew up shy, it’s been a change for her to learn to speak to large groups, but it comes with the job. You can visit her website, which has a blog, to see just how busy she really is.

Leo’s Dungeon

Even if you never become famous, your descendents—your children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren—will want to know who you are. If you want to make history, you need to get started right now.

The first step is to write your life story up to where you are right now. This might seem like a lot of work, but there are lots of ways to make it easy or fun. Make a list of all the important things that have happened to you in your life and some of your favorite memories. Write each one on a slip of paper and put it into a jar or box you’ve decorated. Every Sunday, pull one slip out of the box and write about it.

If you’re using a computer, just copy the new story into the file, putting it wherever it belongs in your life so far. So if you write about your sixteenth birthday party this week, and your first day of kindergarten next week, you want the kindergarten story first. Just copy it into your life story before your birthday party story. Eventually your life will all be written about and in order. If you find yourself remembering something during the week, take a minute to write about it. If you remember extra details for a story you’ve already written, just add it.

If you’re doing it on paper, put each story on its own sheet of paper and put them into a three-ring binder. Then put the paper in the proper sequence. Use subject dividers to divide your life into the major categories.

If you hate writing, try recording your story. You’ll still want to type it out someday, but for now, at least you’ll be saving the story and your descendents will love being able to actually hear you talking.

Do you feel funny talking to yourself? Try setting up a recording device when your family is talking or your friends are over. Make sure everyone knows they are being recorded so they won’t say anything embarrassing. Start talking about shared memories. You’ll get a lot more information if everyone is contributing memories of the same party or graduation ceremony than if you’re just relying on your own memories.

A lot of teens love scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is another way to save your life story for the future. Make sure you use papers designed to last a long time, and put lots of information into your captions. This doesn’t take the place of a written story, but it adds more to it.

As you’re deciding what to save or write, remember what makes a biography interesting to you when you’re reading. You won’t want to record everything you do every single day, but including a sample typical schedule will be interesting to a teen who might have a very different schedule 100 years from now. Include pictures of your favorite clothes, information about the books you love, and pictures of you and your bedroom. Talk about what school is like.

When you’re choosing events from your life, focus more on the good than the bad. Include some smaller bad things—times you had a trial and learned from it, for instance—but you are more good than bad, so your story should be written that way. Use this as a chance to help your great-great-grandchildren learn something from your life. You’re learning a lot—pass it on.

Try to imagine your story being read 100 years from now. Who will be your biggest fan?

Take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Where did your skin color, hair color, and eye color come from? Why do you have curly hair instead of straight hair, or large eyes or small ears? Take inventory of your personality and talents. Who was the first artist in your family? Love to read—how many generations ago did the first person in your family learn to read? Why do you have a sense of adventure?

Chances are, all of this is inherited from someone in your past. You might have heard people tell you that you have your father’s athletic ability, but most likely, it goes much further back than your father. Who was the first track star in your family?

Family history, also known as genealogy, can tell you all of that. It isn’t just boring names and dates, although that’s some of it. Your family history is you. It tells you how you became you. The more you know about your ancestors, the more you’ll know about yourself.

When I was a teenager, I was already well on my way to becoming an author, which is what I am now. My mom loved to write, even though she didn’t try to get published. My parents both loved books. We had a house filled to the brim with them. My mom taught me to read when I was a preschooler. Books were really important to my whole family and we spent a lot of time reading. When I started learning about my family history, I couldn’t find any authors, but I did learn something that helped me understand why my family was so passionate about books.

On many census records, you can find out if your ancestor could read and write. I discovered some parts of my family had only been able to read for a few generations. When they finally learned, they were so excited and they made sure their children loved books and reading and understood what a great blessing it was to know how. Their children passed that on to their own children and by the time we got to my generation, only a few generations down, we’d produced authors and teachers and literacy program leaders. My career and my love for books all came because my great grandparents couldn’t read but desperately wanted to.

So what is in your family history that will tell you something about who you are? Remember that every one of your ancestors was once a teenager. When you’re researching, see what you can find out about their teen years. You’ll feel more connected to their teen lives than you will to their later adult lives. Look at where they lived and who lived with them. Were one of their parents dead? Did they have a large family? Were they rich or poor? Find out what historical events were going on during those years and how that might have affected their teenaged years. Compare their lives to your own.

You start your family history with you, and then work your way back. In my next post, we’ll talk about the most important person in your history—you—and find out how to make yourself into someone your descendants will be talking about one hundred years from now.