As Utah governor, I told Biden we want Afghan refugees to move here | Spencer Cox

"In 1845, my great-great-great-grandmother Elvira Pamela Mills Cox fearlessly stood her ground between an angry mob and an ornate wooden cabinet handcrafted by her father.

Targeting members of a small but growing Christian religion called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the mob threatened to burn her house down and chase all church members out of the state. But Elvira bravely insisted they help her remove the cherished hutch before they destroyed the home – both of which they did.

That violent encounter, the murder of church leaders including Joseph Smith and scores of other persecutions endorsed by Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs set my ancestors and hundreds of other so-called Mormons on a journey westward to find a place where they could practice their faith uninterrupted. Many of those forced to leave their homes – including my great-great-great-grandparents – settled in the Salt Lake Valley, then a territory of Mexico".