Winter Quarters, Nebraska

I know what you are thinking, "Seriously? More pictures? I think I will go shove my finger down my throat now." 

Relax. Isn't this new collage system so much better? It makes my endless of supplies of pictures much more palatable. Yes? I thought so! Besides, I couldn't end the record of our Epic Spud Harvest Vacation without including this special place in Florence, Nebraska. 

As we tried to follow the path that our ancestors trekked as they fled from their homes in Nauvoo, Illinois, we ended at the Mormon Trail Center. 

our family standing next to Amy Porter's grave    Jake & Lander standing next to Amy's original gravestone

This place had special significance to our family because Jake and Lander's great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Amy Sumner Porter, was buried here when she died from malnutrition after fleeing her home in Nauvoo. Her burial place gained some notoriety in the old pioneer cemetery because her gravestone was the only legible marker to be found. Because of her gravestone, historians were able to identify the remains of many other pioneers buried here.

In her story written by Bonnie Hiedenreich, she tells us that "it seems the cold bitter weather will never stop. I am weary and worn. I have promised the Lord that I will give all that I have, even my own life, to build up the kingdom. I don't know why that sacrifice would be required, but the Lord knows my heart, and all that I have is His...If I cannot make it to the land of Zion, I am confident that the Lord will answer the prayer of my heart...that my children will remain faithful, and that through them will come generations of righteousness."

It was hard to choke back the tears as the missionaries in the visitors center read this passage to us, knowing that we are some of the people that she was talking about. Like Nauvoo, it reinforced the desire to live a better life so that our ancestors' sacrifices were not in vain.