Pioneer heritage

Pioneer Day was yesterday, and today it's being observed since the holiday here in Utah just happened to fall on the Sabbath. It was a day well spent when my friend and I went to the hospital and spent the day with Deb.

But the holiday actually got me thinking about pioneers and our pioneer heritage. Since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints really focuses on the pioneer heritage, what usually comes to mind is the groups that traveled across the country to settle here in Utah, like the handcart companies as depicted in the movie 17 Miracles, or the ones I'm reading about in The Work and the Glory series right now. Either way, I felt like I didn't have a pioneer heritage, and that thought made me sad.

However, during Relief Society yesterday, I learned that I do have a pioneer heritage. It's not the kind described in the above article, but it's a pioneer heritage nonetheless. My paternal grandfather, Ramiro Valdivia Sr., came up to the United States from Zacatecas, Mexico to seek a better life for himself and his future family. His cousin, Ishmael, was already settled in Topeka, Kansas, and that's where Grandpa settled and married my Grandmother Juana Valdivia. They raised their family, whose posterity included my father. Grandpa Valdivia was a pioneer because he had courage enough to leave Mexico and emigrate to a new country and start a new life.

And apparently, I started a pioneer heritage that I'm passing along to my own posterity. Because I took a leap of faith and left Iowa and all that was familiar to me and journeyed to Utah for a job, and to be closer to the Saints, that makes me a pioneer too. In fact, when I said on my Facebook the day I left Iowa on the train that with me being packed to the gills with three suitcases worth of stuff, I felt like a pioneer; my Aunt Berta commented that I was a pioneer.

So Grandpa Valdivia, on these two Pioneer Days, yesterday and today, I salute you for being a pioneer and coming to this country for a better life. Gracias!

Slan go foill...