Life's Lessons Learned ~ Dallin H. Oaks

Dallin H. Oaks in his book "Life's Lessons Learned" tells about his childhood years.  For two of those years he lived with his grandparents and worked on their farm for five years.  He tells of the influence of his grandmother who would tell him stories of her pioneer ancestors who had lived in Castle Dale, Utah.  It tells us of his link to Mt. Pleasant and the Seely Family.  I quote:  "When she (his grandmother) was six and a half years old, her father, Abinadi Olsen, received a mission call from "Box B" in Salt Lake City.  He was called to preach and teach in the Samoan islands, a place so unknown and far away from Castle Dale that his pioneer mother knit him pairs of heavy wool socks to wear on his mission.  In January 1895, Abinadi obediently left his wife and four children, my grandmother, being the eldest.  During his absence of three and a half years, his faithful wife, Hannah, my grandmother's mother labored as a school janitor, house cleaner, and dressmaker to support him and their family"..

"Hannah's cheerful obedience to a prophets's call was inborn.  Her parents, Orange and Hanna Olsson Seely, had done the same.  In 1877, they were happily established in Mount Pleasant, Utah where Orange was serving as a bishop and where their industry had earned them what Hanna later described as the finest home in Mount Pleasant.  Then President Brigham Young called for leaders to go east over the mountains to colonize what is now Emery County, at that time barren and unpromising.  Obediently, Orange and a pioneering party set forth over the mountain in October 1877.  Two years later, Orange moved Hannah and their seven children, then ages one to sixteen, constructing their own wagon road as they struggled up the steep canyon.  They spent their first year in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Many years later, toward the end of her long life, Hannah wrote:

"The first time I ever swore was when we landed here.  I said, 'Damn a man that would fetch a woman to such a God forsaken country.'"

"Some may wonder why I find those words so faith promoting.  They speak to me of a great-great-grandmother who did not deny her very moral emotions but nevertheless went forward in obedience to do what she was called to do.  She and her husband, who gave long and honored service in the Church community, and state legislature, are great examples of the fruits of obedience to priesthood direction."