E103: The Donner Party and the Mormons

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:07)
Bryan, Mormons are good at baptizing important famous people, yeah?
We're kind of known for it. We talk about it sometimes when we're bragging to each other about how cool we are.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:18)
Wait, are you talking baptism baptisms or baptisms for the dead?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:22)
Sorry, proxy baptisms for the dead important famous people.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:27)
All right, well, if we're baptizing live famous people, we have to include honorary Relief Society President Taylor Swift and High Priest group leader Neil Diamond and maybe Jimmy Carter.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:40)
All of who I met on an airplane and converted when they asked, excuse me, ma'am, what book are you reading?

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:46)
You did better than Jean Cook did on the plane. Good work.
Now, if we're talking baptisms for the dead, we've got Elvis and fun fact Adolf Hitler many times over.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:57)
We joke about the live ones, but those dead ones are true.
Okay, Bryan, stop bragging. The reason I was asking is I was wondering if you know if Lansford Hastings ever had his proxy work done.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:10)
Lansford Hastings, the so-called famous 19th century explorer, Confederate soldier and California industrialist?
The guy whose writings on mountain trails Mormons read more religiously than their scriptures? The cutoff guy?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:24)
Yeah, that guy.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:26)
Well, guess what? Mormons made a Mormon, so I'm glad you asked this question. Somebody did his proxy baptism and confirmation in the Logan Temple in 1993, his initiatory endowments in Logan Temple in 1994, and then sealing to his parents in the Timpanogos Temple in 2018 He was sealed to his spouse twice, once in the Logan Temple in 2003 Apparently, that one didn't take, so another in the Oklahoma City Temple in 2012

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:50)
Oh, good. He's all covered. I think the two ceilings might be, he had two marriages, maybe?

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:55)
That's very Mormon of him. Good for him.
Now, why are you asking, however?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:00)
Well, I figured old brother Hastings is going to need to have his sins washed away for some of the naughty things he did while he was yucking around in the 19th century when he was alive.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:12)
Ah, okay. I see what you're doing. This is how you're bringing in the Donner Party story.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:16)
Right. That's just what Lansford Hastings did. He brought in the Donner Party fatefully by his shoddy work.
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:31)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:33)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:00)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:05)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:13)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast. I want to know why you're pinning the Donner Party disaster squarely on Mr. Lansford Hastings, because that's contested.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:42)
Besides the fact that it's his fault, well, it's also because I don't like the guy. Endowment's taken out or not.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:49)
All right, well, we're going to have to talk about Lansford Hastings then. But first, a word from our sponsors, the Distinguished Signature Books.
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