It strikes me that the experiences of William Brewster were on a parallel with those of Lehi.  Lehi's life was in danger in Jerusalem, and he was commanded by the Lord, "even in a dream, that he should take his family and depart into the wilderness ... And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness.  And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness."  (1 Nephi 2:2, 4).

Lehi's son, Nephi, was given a vision wherein he saw Columbus, over 2,000 years in the future.  He said, "I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters ... (to) the promised land.  And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters."  (1 Nephi 13:12-13).

That was William Brewster and his little band of Pilgrims.

Lehi was wrought upon by the Lord to leave Jerusalem because his life was in danger, and because the Lord wanted to use him as the seed stock for a new and righteous nation that He intended to establish in the promised land, a land "which is choice above all the earth."  (Ether 1:38, 42: 2:7, 10, 15).

William Brewster was "wrought upon" by the Spirit of God to do the same.  William was in captivity.  He was forbidden to leave England.  He was being hunted.  His life was in danger.  Lehi-like, he left the land of his inheritance, took the barest of provisions, and with 34 other Separatists boarded the Mayflower for a 66-day voyage across the ocean to the same promised land.

He never once dreamed that his odyssey and exodus had already been done previously by Lehi, and before him, the Jaredites.  All three groups were commanded by the Lord to do what they did.  All three of them crossed the ocean to the same promised land.  All three of them left with virtually nothing.  All three of them became the seed stock for what would become the greatest nations on earth in their times.

William Brewster took his wife and two youngest sons.  His three older children were left in Holland to emigrate at a later date.  The Mayflower left Plymouth, England on 16 September 1620, and arrived on the shore of America on 21 November.  Food was short, and the winter harsh.  The 102 souls who started the voyage were cold, wet, hungry, and plagued by illness and disease.  By spring only half were still alive.  All but five of the 19 women who began the voyage were left among the living.

Among the survivors were William and his wife, Mary, and sons, Love, age 9, and Wrestling, age 6.  Son, Jonathan, from whom I am descended, emigrated one year later, in November 1621.  He was then 28 years old.  He had married in 1618.  His wife died in childbirth 13 months later.  The baby lived several months, and also succumbed.

William's and Mary's daughters, Patience and Fear, immigrated to the Plymouth Colony in 1623.  Both were single girls.  Patience was then 23, and Fear 17.  Jonathan, Patience, and Fear all married in Plymouth, and became parents.  Patience and Fear both died in 1634 from "the pestilent fever."  Mary died in 1627.  Wrestling, too.  William lived to be an old man of 78, dying in 1644.  Mary may possibly have given birth to as many as a dozen children, but only five survived childhood.  Wrestling, her youngest, was born when she was 46 years old.  Was a difficult pregnancy the reason for his name, or was it the wrestle that they had with the Anglican Church, the king's government, and the lives they were forced to live?

How many years ago was the voyage of the Mayflower, I asked myself yesterday, and was startled by the answer.  This is 2020.  The voyage of the Mayflower will have been exactly 400 years ago this fall!  Why isn't this being celebrated?  Why haven't I heard anything about commemorating this event?

It turns out that various celebratory events are planned, but I would have thought this would have been a bigger deal than it is.  We should be hearing lots of news and commentary about it.  The arrival of the Mayflower was, in a sense, the birth of our nation, which is only 400 years old.  We owe everything, including our democratic form of government which began with the signing of the Mayflower Compact, to these brave, self-sacrificing colonists.  I am so proud of what they accomplished.  We need to keep them in remembrance.  They sacrificed everything, and endured unimaginable hardships, which because of them, we don't have to endure.  All the comforts which we take for granted are attributable to them.

I thank them.  I reverence them.  I am thrilled to be counted among their descendants.  I hope that America will always remember what they did to bring about what we have.