A LETTER TO CALEB

A LETTER TO CALEB

As I sit here tonight I wonder if you are also sitting somewhere in a heavenly sphere, watching and listening to what is happening in this world of ours?

I can almost imagine you asking yourself if what you went through for your family while you were here on earth was worth it? The trials and tribulations of Kirtland, Nauvoo and Liberty Jail were more than I can imagine as I sit here in comfort in my home. But how do you feel about the trials you had to suffer? Were they worth it, to bring a new Church and a new way of thinking to help your family and their families learn new things and change so that they might return to live in a heavenly sphere in the hereafter as one large family?

Do you and those with you still dream and imagine there is still hope for your family and friends, even in this world of sin, hatred and despotism? Or do you realize these things are just part of a larger plan and it is inevitable that they will happen; so you sit there watching and hoping that we will rise above the sins of the world and look for and see the good and the beautiful and raise ourselves up to be a generation ---like yours—that can change the world, do much good, see the light and life of the gospel come into the eyes of our children. Are you hoping these things happen for us as they once did for you as you lived, traveled and suffered and had joy with Joseph and the other Brethren when the Church was in its infancy?

What you did was not without cost! Nancy and yourself gave all your earthly possessions, with the exception of what you could load into a wagon, to join an unpopular Church, leave your home to do as the Lord counseled his people, just as Lehi did with his family in ancient times. Thousands of others did the same thing along with you and I often wonder if I today would sacrifice as you did, if I was asked? I imagine it could be said you gave your life for what you believed! The beatings and the suffering in Liberty Jail caused such pain and agony that you died at the relative young age of 56 after the long trip across the plains to the promised land of Utah. How do you feel about these things? I often try to imagine those things but somehow I am unable to comprehend them?

I am sure you realize that you left posterity here to carry on with the beliefs you had. Of course some of them chose a different path and I am sure that must have caused you grief and heartache, perhaps even a broken heart? However I am sure you understand just as I do that this is all part of the eternal plan—The part we call Free Agency. We all can chose what we think is right or wrong-just as you did—after conversing with Parley Pratt about his strange new religion. I also am sure that you have learned, just as I have, that although we have the right to choose we also must accept the consequences of our choices; be they right or wrong!

As I never really had the opportunity to meet you and get to know you, I often wonder if we were anything alike in our thinking or our actions. As you were told in your Patriarchal Blessing your have suffered afflictions but borne them with patience. You were also told that the Lord had looked down on you and forgiven you for your sins and your former trespasses. That tells me we are at least alike in some ways. We have both sinned and we are capable of repentance and that we both held the Priesthood. I hope that someday we may meet and embrace and feel of each other’s spirit and have joy in our posterity together.

Caleb, when you were in Kirtland, Nauvoo, Liberty and Garden Grove I wonder if you even imagined what would happen to this small Church you had become a part of? It is now like nothing you could imagine at that time! You pledged your time, your talents and all the means at your disposal to help build Temples in both Kirtland and Nauvoo, only to leave them to screaming mobs. Now there are over 100 Temples scattered over this earth and there will be many more because we have been promised they will dot the land. Of course I am sure you know this now but did you imagine it when you were helping to build the first Temple in Kirtland?

It is hard to believe that a Church made up of common people like you and I and our children and grand children could grow to twelve million souls so quickly and it is still growing and flourishing every year, month and day.

I hope with all my heart that I will never forget what you did for our family and that I try to live a life that will bring us together. I am sure you are well aware that the Church is doing fine. I have pledged to do my best and sometimes I even do. However I do not believe I have ever suffered as the early Saints had to and I hope I am never called to do so. I hope your posterity, including myself, have done the best we can and as the pioneer song says, “All is well.”

Written by:

Wallace R. Baldwin
3^rd Great Grandson
of Caleb Baldwin
18 Dec 2004