2021
Trusting in the Lord
July 2021

“Trusting in the Lord,” Liahona, July 2021

Early Women of the Restoration

Trusting in the Lord

By Brent M. Rogers

Church History Department

Because she knew the Lord through the scriptures, Mary Ann Angell Young’s deep faith kept her feelings “quite calm through all the storm.”1

Mary Ann Angell Young in her garden

Illustration by Toni Oka

Mary Ann Angell was fortunate to have grown up in a home that prioritized scripture reading. She was especially fond of the teachings of the Savior.2 She learned early in her life that she could hear the Lord’s voice through the scriptures and find solace in His teachings.

She heard the restored gospel of Jesus Christ preached in Rhode Island, USA, in 1831, and after reading the Book of Mormon, Mary Ann was converted to the gospel.

She moved to Kirtland, Ohio, around 1833, where she met Brigham Young, whom she married in early 1834. For the next 48 years, through many relocations and trials, Mary Ann Angell Young continued to hear the Lord through the scriptures and to place her unwavering trust in Him.

For example, her husband departed for a mission to Great Britain in 1839 just 10 days after she had given birth to their daughter Alice. For the 20 months that followed, Mary Ann and their six children struggled. They suffered from illness and survived primarily on corn bread, milk, and a few garden vegetables.3 Mary Ann managed to find a little work to support her family and to care for herself and her ailing children. Yet the Lord helped them through these trials. “That is a great thing,” she wrote to her husband, to “trust in the Lord.”4

Relying on her scriptural knowledge, Mary Ann seemed to understand with a deep conviction that the Lord was always with her, loved her, and understood her, especially in her many trials. “May the Lord direct us in all things and speak consolation in the most darkest and trying hours” was her prayer.5

Notes

  1. Mary Ann Angell Young letter to Brigham Young, June 30, 1844, Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878, Church History Library, Salt Lake City (CHL).

  2. See “Biography of Mrs. Mary Ann Young,” Woman’s Exponent, Sept. 1, 1887, 53–54; Emmeline B. Wells, “In Memoriam,” Woman’s Exponent, July 15, 1882, 28–29.

  3. See Matthew C. Godfrey, “‘You Had Better Let Mrs Young Have Any Thing She Wants’: What a Joseph Smith Pay Order Teaches about the Plight of Missionary Wives in the Early Church,” BYU Studies, vol. 58, no. 2 (2019), 63–64.

  4. Mary Ann Angell Young letter to Brigham Young, Apr. 15, 1841, Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878, CHL.

  5. Mary Ann Angell Young letter to Brigham Young, Mar. 21, 1840, George W. Thatcher Blair Collection, 1837–1988, CHL.