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Show guess you think the pioneers were all in perfect health when they crossed the plains?" It was summer so I couldn't plan a school activity on the same day-and in this case I think church would have outweighed whatever it was anyway. One night she sat me down and told me she wanted me to remember, if I learned nothing else from her, that I was Mormon, that I was Welsh, and not to ever forget what my ancestors went through to get me here. By the time she gave me that talk, I had already been placed, through thought and prayer, in a pioneer family. It was led by Sister and Brother Peters- "Ma" and "Pa"-with four "children": myself, Brad Anderson, Cody Reeves and Krishna Otterstrom. I felt lucky about Brad because he was my best friend in the ward, though that was basically by default because he lived down the street and no one else really wanted him as a friend. His parents were inactive, put up the only CLINTON 96 banner in our neighborhood last year, and Brad himself was prone to making "interesting" comments in church every week. I was glad for Cody too because he was quiet and because he wasn't Austin Parks. A year back, on a warm day, we held Sunday School outside. Someone started a pinecone fight during which I hit Austin with a cone straight in the face. That made him mad, and he beat me up on the lawn behind our red brick church with a Mormon "quad"-which was all Mormon scripture-the King James Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price-in one heavy book. I was also glad that girls were coming on the trek. Not out of spite, but because usually church activities in the mountains were males-only. The girls |