Elvira crossed the mountains in the first company in 1848, and arrived in this valley by the side of two yoke of oxen, with a sick sister and a brother-in-law with a broken arm, in her care. Her first lesson in surgery was the helping to set this arm, and her first practice in medicine was the breaking up of her sister's fever. Soon after this Elvira made herself a pair of buck-skin moccasins. The first meeting she attended was in a bowery, and her best calico dress had patches on the elbows. Before the next winter she worked six weeks for a pair of leather shoes. There was not much aristocracy here in those days. They held meetings in tents, sang praises to God, and danced with as much sincerity and purity of heart as even King David did before the Lord, for they knew God was with them. Said her sister, who afterward turned from the faith: "If God had not been with us when we were driven out at the battle of Nauvoo, we should have perished, but when we were starving he sent quails, and they were so tame they came into our tents where the sick were lying, and they even took them in their hands." Thousands witnessed the miracle. After they arrived in the valley, crickets large and numerous threatened their crops, (their only recourse) but the Lord in answer to prayers sent sea-gulls in such flocks that the air was darkened, and they destroyed the crickets. The heavens were not as brass above their heads; they helped and loved each other, and God heard and loved them. Their laws were few and simple; in a Bishop's court a brother forgave his brother.