Hank Smith:                      00:02                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s Come, Follow Me lesson. John, we are in the book of Esther this week. There is a part of this story where Esther gets a letter from her uncle Mordecai asking her to do something impossible. She says to him, do you realize what you’re asking me to do? I could easily die if this goes sideways. I thought of a story about a pioneer girl. Her name is Agnes Caldwell. She joins the church in Scotland with her family, sails to America. In 1856, she’s nine years old. She boards the ship called the Thornton. They joined the James G. Willie Handcart Company. If you know about the Willie Handcart Company, you know that they’re headed into a very difficult place. As they start west, they’re running out of food and the storms are hitting.

                                           01:03                   Things are getting really bad. Many people are going to end up dying. One incident took place shortly before they got to the valley. This is what she says. “Just before we crossed the mountains, relief wagons reached us, and it certainly was a relief. The infirm and aged were allowed to ride. All able-bodied had to continue to walk. When the wagons started out, a number of us children decided to see how long we could keep up with the wagons,” so they’re going to run after them. “In hopes that someone would give us a ride. At least that’s what my great hope was. One by one, the other children gave up until I was the last one remaining. I was determined that I was going to get a ride. After what seemed like the longest run I ever made, the driver, William Henry Kimball, called to me. Say, do you want a ride?”

                                           01:54                    I can see her. She’s just looking at him. “I answered in my very best manner. Yes, sir. At this, he reached over, taking my hand, and then clucking to his horses to make me run more with legs that seemed they could run no farther. On we went to what seemed like miles. What went through my head at the time was that this was the meanest man that ever lived or that I had ever heard of. And other things that would not be a credit, nor would it look well coming out of one so young. Just at what seemed to be my breaking point, he stopped. Then taking a blanket, he wrapped me up and lay me in the wagon, warm and comfortable. Here, I had time to change my mind, as I surely did, knowing full well by doing this, he saved me from freezing when taken into the wagon.”

                                           02:47                   The long run he made her do, the further running he made her do, got her blood flowing, and when he put her in the wagon, she had all that blood in her limbs. Now she could be warm and saved her from freezing. She ends up in the Salt Lake Valley, marries, has 13 children. She moved to Brigham City, Utah, died on September 11th, 1924. 1924. She lived a long time. I though of that when you see Mordecai saying to Esther, I’m going to ask you to do something very hard. But in doing so, he saves her life and many others. When the Lord asks us, old or young, to do really hard things, you never know that that thing might end up being the very thing that saves you.

John Bytheway:               03:37                   Just exactly what you need. That’s a trust in the Lord story and in this case the wagon guy.

Hank Smith:                      03:44                   Yep, very wise. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We are with Dr. Barbara Morgan Gardner this week as she walks through the book of Esther. If you’ve ever heard Barbara teach, she is wonderful. You’re going to love it. Then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.