SALT LAKE CITY — President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, tonight praised the faith, devotion and sacrifice of the pioneering members of the Church. Those early settlers of Utah fled religious persecution to find refuge in the Salt Lake Valley.
President Hinckley explained that two recent events — last February’s Winter Olympics and the June dedication of the reconstructed Nauvoo Illinois Temple — tremendously enhanced his respect and appreciation for the Latter-day Saint pioneers. He noted that "there is not another episode in the history of this great land to compare with the movement of the Mormon pioneers from Nauvoo to the valley of the Great Salt Lake."
He also noted that the history of the Latter-day Saint migration from upstate New York to Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and Utah is "a great chronicle of faith and perseverance ... an incomparable crucible that has made our faith in God as strong as steel, tempered with a love of all mankind."
President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, conducted the program which featured performances of pioneer hymns and anthems by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square, as well as selected readings by choir narrator, Lloyd Newell.