Hi, this is Lily DeHoya-Sanderson, and you're listening to Choosing Glory. Thank you for joining me for

part two of sections 58 and 59 of the Doctor on Covenants. And we are going to pick up

where we left off with David McCullough's description of the Missouri territory.

Now, he's talking about the Truman family, Harry S. Truman's ancestors who came in with a lot of the Kentuckians in later years than the Saints were there.

But it does describe the territory in kind of a beautiful way, and it kind of leads

into some of the things I wanted to share about what the church is doing now or has been doing

in recent decades to follow the commands of Section 58 and purchase territory in this area.

So, anyway, we talked about the soil is great, the pastures, the hardwoods, continuing

with that description, to cut through sod with a plow, took six to eight yoke of oxen.

What does that mean? That means it was tough work to get through the crest of the soil.

Like, it was difficult, and it required the strength of six to eight oxens to pull a plow through

that sod.

That's a lot of strength to cut through that crust, but, and he mentions that horses

couldn't do it.

They just didn't have the power.

Horses are strong animals, but this required oxen and six to eight hooked to the plow,

but beneath the crust, the dark prairie loam could be two to six feet deep. That's extraordinary.

In places along the river bottoms, it was 20 feet deep. The rich and beautiful

uplands in the vicinity of independence might well be denominated the garden spot of the far west.

Like that's, again, it's just so tangible and concrete. When God says it's a garden, it's a garden. It will grow things.

That nutritious soil that goes two to six feet deep by the river bottoms could be up to 20 feet deep.

And that's crazy. I don't know if you've heard this. And I didn't even bother to look it up,

...