mhancock65

As the gospel doctrine instructor in my ward, I think the instructor who deviated so drastically from the spirit of the lesson, missed the true pearl this lesson is asking the instructor to convey. If one is going to truly take a different path on this lesson, why not find out the back story of these heroes? I cannot speak to any of the other men however as a member of the Huntington line, I can testify to the sacrifice that C Allen Huntington made not only with the incident of the Willie and Martin Handcart co but with his life prior to this event having the honor of reading my family journals. Did you all know that C Allen went on the march with the Mormon Battalion as a boy? Do any of you know the long term effects of severe frost bite? The story does not say that the boys died within a few days of their service only that they suffered from the effects of their service. Yes, C Allen died when he was 65 however a soul can live a very long time in severe pain, it does not discount his sacrifice. In the future, I would hope that Sunday school instructors would stay with the plethora of material given to cover the topic assigned for the specific lesson. Bringing in an article to "discredit" a story of sacrifice is a serious disservice to his Sunday school class, and our ancestors sacrifice. So the boys weren't all 18, their average age is very close to that? I am sure those individuals who were assisted by them that day didn't give two flips if they were 18 or 21. I am sure that the individuals who were assisted that day were not offended that these boys didn't die within the next few days or years to seal their sacrifice. The point is that when the prophet of then Lord asked for them to go and rescue, these boys and many others got off the butts, traveled for multiple hundreds of miles in the freezing cold by wagons and did what The Lord ask them to do through his Prophet. If we were all so willing to heed to call of The Lord, how blessed would we be?