Family plays a central role in the religious experience of
Latter-day Saints. According to LDS teaching and practice, we are all offspring
of God the Father and it is to one’s family that a person is sealed for all
eternity. Because of this there is a strong sense of belonging that is fostered
with immediate family members and a high value is placed on family lineage.
Around 3,000 Latter-day Saints migrated from Illinois to
Utah in the late 1840s, largely to escape religious persecution. This journey
still looms large in the minds of many Mormons, and Utah has instituted a state
holiday— Pioneer Day—to commemorate the trek.
The Latter-day Saint movement began in the spring of 1820 when a fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith, bewildered by the many differing interpretations of Scripture he was encountering in his upstate New York neighborhood, sought divine assistance regarding which church he should join...