Excerpts from “Saints”

In late April 1839, days after reuniting with the Saints, Joseph rode north to inspect land that church leaders wanted to buy in and around Commerce, a town fifty miles from Quincy. For the first time in more than six months, the prophet was traveling without armed guards or the threat of violence looming over him. He was finally among friends, in a state where people welcomed the Saints and seemed to respect their beliefs.

While in jail, Joseph had written to a man who was selling land around Commerce, expressing interest in settling the church there. “If there is not anyone who feels particular interest in making the purchase,” Joseph had told him, “we will purchase it of you.”

After the fall of Far West, however, many Saints questioned the wisdom of gathering to a single area. Edward Partridge wondered if the best way to avoid conflict and provide for the poor was to gather in small communities scattered throughout the country. But Joseph knew the Lord had not revoked His commandment for the Saints to gather.

Arriving in Commerce, he saw a marshy floodplain that rose gently to a wooded bluff overlooking a wide bend in the Mississippi River. A few homes dotted the area. Across the river in Iowa Territory, near a town called Montrose, stood some abandoned army barracks on more land available for purchase.

Joseph believed the Saints could build thriving stakes of Zion in this area. The land was not the choicest he had ever seen, but the Mississippi River was navigable all the way to the ocean, making Commerce a good place for gathering the Saints from abroad and establishing commercial enterprises. The area was also sparsely settled.

Still, gathering the Saints there would be risky. If the church grew, as Joseph hoped it would, their neighbors might become alarmed and turn against them, as people had in Missouri.

Joseph prayed. “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”

“Build up a city,” the Lord replied, “and call my Saints to this place.”

That spring, Wilford and Phebe Woodruff moved into the barracks in Montrose. Among their new neighbors were Brigham and Mary Ann Young and Orson and Sarah Pratt. After they settled their families, the three apostles planned to leave on their mission for Britain with the rest of the quorum.

Thousands of Saints soon moved to the new gathering place, pitching tents or living in wagons as they went to work building homes, acquiring food and clothes, and clearing farmland on both sides of the river.

As the new settlement grew, the Twelve met often with Joseph, who preached with new vigor as he prepared them for their mission. The prophet taught that God did not reveal anything to him that He would not also make known to the Twelve. “Even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to,” Joseph declared.

He instructed them in the first principles of the gospel, the Resurrection and the Judgment, and the building of Zion. Remembering the betrayal of former apostles, he also urged them to be faithful. “See to it that you do not betray heaven,” he said, “that you do not betray Jesus Christ, that you do not betray your brethren, and that you do not betray the revelations of God.”

Around this time, Orson Hyde expressed a desire to return to the Quorum of the Twelve, ashamed that he had denounced Joseph in Missouri and abandoned the Saints. Fearing Orson would betray them again when the next difficulty came along, Sidney Rigdon was reluctant to restore his apostleship. Joseph, however, welcomed him back and restored his place among the Twelve. In July, Parley Pratt escaped from prison in Missouri and was also reunited with the apostles.

By then swarms of mosquitos had risen from the marshlands to feast on the new settlers, and many Saints came down with deadly malarial fevers and bone-rattling chills. Most of the Twelve were soon too sick to leave for Britain.

On the morning of Monday, July 22, Wilford heard Joseph’s voice outside his home: “Brother Woodruff, follow me.”

Wilford stepped outside and saw Joseph standing with a group of men. All morning they had been moving from house to house, tent to tent, taking the sick by the hand and healing them. After blessing the Saints in Commerce, they had taken a ferry across the river to heal the Saints in Montrose.

Wilford walked with them across the village square to the home of his friend Elijah Fordham. Elijah’s eyes were sunken and his skin ashen. His wife, Anna, was weeping as she prepared his burial clothes.

Joseph approached Elijah and took his hand. “Brother Fordham,” he asked, “have you not faith to be healed?”

“I am afraid it is too late,” he said.

“Do you not believe that Jesus is the Christ?”

“I do, Brother Joseph.”

“Elijah,” the prophet declared, “I command you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, to arise and be made whole.”

The words seemed to shake the house. Elijah rose from his bed, his face flush with color. He dressed, asked for something to eat, and followed Joseph outside to help minister to many others.

Later that evening, Phebe Woodruff was astonished when she visited Elijah and Anna. Only a few hours earlier, Anna had all but given up on her husband. Now Elijah said he felt strong enough to work in his garden. Phebe had no doubt his recovery was the work of God.

Joseph’s efforts to bless and heal the sick did not end the spread of disease in Commerce and Montrose, and some Saints perished. As more people died, eighteen-year-old Zina Huntington worried that her mother would succumb to the illness as well.

Zina cared for her mother daily, leaning on her father and brothers for support, but soon the entire family was sick. Joseph checked on them from time to time, seeing what he could do to help the family or make Zina’s mother more comfortable.

One day, Zina’s mother called for her. “My time has come to die,” she said weakly. “I am not afraid.” She testified to Zina of the Resurrection. “I shall come forth triumphant when the Savior comes with the just to meet the Saints on the earth.”

When her mother died, Zina was overcome with grief. Knowing the family’s suffering, Joseph continued to attend to them.

During one of Joseph’s visits, Zina asked him, “Will I know my mother as my mother when I get over on the other side?”

“More than that,” he said, “you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven.”

“Have I then a Mother in Heaven?” Zina asked.

“You assuredly have,” said Joseph. “How could a Father claim His title unless there were also a Mother to share that parenthood?”

While the apostles were leaving for Britain, Saints in Illinois and Iowa composed statements detailing their harsh treatment in Missouri, as Joseph had instructed them to do when he was in jail. By the fall, church leaders had collected hundreds of these accounts and prepared a formal petition. In total, the Saints asked for more than two million dollars to compensate for lost homes, land, livestock, and other property. Joseph planned to deliver these claims personally to the president of the United States and to Congress.

Joseph considered President Martin Van Buren to be a high-minded statesman—someone who would champion the rights of citizens. Joseph hoped that the president and other lawmakers in Washington, DC, would read about the Saints’ suffering and agree to recompense them for the land and property they had lost in Missouri.

On November 29, 1839, after traveling nearly a thousand miles from his home in Illinois, Joseph arrived at the front door of the presidential mansion in Washington. Beside him were his friend and legal adviser, Elias Higbee, and John Reynolds, a congressman from Illinois.

A porter greeted them at the door and motioned them inside. The mansion had recently been redecorated, and Joseph and Elias were awed by the elegance of its rooms, which contrasted sharply with the Saints’ ramshackle dwellings in the West.

Their guide led them upstairs to a room where President Van Buren was speaking with visitors. As they waited outside the door, with the petition and several letters of introduction in hand, Joseph asked Congressman Reynolds to introduce him simply as a “Latter-day Saint.” The congressman seemed surprised and amused by the request, but he agreed to do as Joseph wished. Though not eager to assist the Saints, Congressman Reynolds knew their large numbers could influence politics in Illinois.

Joseph had not expected to meet the president with such a small delegation. When he left Illinois in October, his plan had been to let Sidney Rigdon take the lead in these meetings. But Sidney was too sick to travel and had stopped along the way.

At last the president’s parlor doors opened, and the three men entered the room. Like Joseph, Martin Van Buren was the son of a New York farmer, but he was a much older man, short and squat, with a light complexion and a shock of white hair framing most of his face.

As promised, Congressman Reynolds introduced Joseph as a Latter-day Saint. The president smiled at the unusual title and shook the prophet’s hand.

After greeting the president, Joseph handed him the letters of introduction and waited. Van Buren read them and frowned. “Help you?” he said dismissively. “How can I help you?”

Joseph did not know what to say. He had not expected the president to dismiss them so quickly. He and Elias urged the president to at least read about the Saints’ suffering before deciding to reject their pleas.

“I can do nothing for you, gentlemen,” the president insisted. “If I were for you, I should go against the whole state of Missouri, and that state would go against me in the next election.”

Disappointed, Joseph and Elias left the mansion and delivered their petition to Congress, knowing it would be weeks before legislators could review and discuss it.

While they waited, Joseph decided to visit the eastern branches of the church. He would also preach in Washington and in the surrounding towns and cities.

Group 1

Joseph and others were to be taken prisoner and delivered to a courthouse for trial.  Flanked by armed guards, Joseph was led through the ravaged streets of Far West to gather some belongings from his home. His wife, Emma and their children, were in tears when he arrived, but they were relieved that he was still alive. Joseph begged his guards to let him visit with his family privately, but they refused.  Emma and the children clung to him, unwilling to part.  Angry guards force them away.  Joseph’s five-year-old son clung to his father’s leg, begging him to stay.  A guard drew his sword, thrust is between Joseph and his son, and shouted, “Get away, you rascal, or I will run you through!”

• How might Joseph have felt at this time?  Why?
• What might Joseph had wanted to do?
• What COULD he do?

Group 2 

For the next month, Joseph and his associates were mistreated and moved from jail to jail as they awaited a trial based on false accusations. On December 1, 1838, the men were imprisoned in a small jail in Liberty, Missouri. During the next four months, Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, Alexander McRae, Lyman Wight, and Caleb Baldwin were held in the lower dungeon of Liberty Jail during a bitterly cold winter. Sidney Rigdon was also with them for a time, but a judge authorized his release in late January of 1839.

• How might Joseph have felt at this time?  Why?
• What might Joseph had wanted to do?
• What COULD he do?

Group 3

The dimensions of the dungeon room were approximately 14 feet by 14 feet (4.3 meters by 4.3 meters), and the ceiling was between 6 and 6.5 feet high (between 1.8 and 2 meters). The only natural light or fresh air came from two small, barred windows near the ceiling. From outside these windows, people often mocked and insulted the prisoners. The men were forced to sleep on the floor with only a little dirty straw for padding and were given very little protection from the cold. The dungeon had a single bucket for human waste, and the meager food provided was so disgusting that the men could only eat it out of desperate hunger. Occasionally, the food was poisoned. The prisoners intensely missed their friends and families and felt deep sorrow when they heard about the suffering Saints being driven from Missouri during the cold of winter.

• How might Joseph have felt at this time?  Why?
• What might Joseph had wanted to do?
• What COULD he do?

Excerpts from “Saints Vol 1”

At the town square, under heavy guard with the rest of the Saints’ troops, Heber Kimball heard a familiar voice call his name. Looking up, he saw William McLellin, the former apostle, coming toward him. William was dressed in a hat and shirt decorated with garish red patches.

“Brother Heber,” William said, “what do you think of Joseph Smith the fallen prophet now?” William had a group of soldiers with him. They had been moving from house to house, plundering the town at will.

“Look and see yourself,” William went on. “Poor, your family stripped and robbed, and your brethren in the same fix. Are you satisfied with Joseph?”

Heber could not deny that things looked bleak for the Saints. Joseph was a captive, and the Saints were disarmed and under assault.

But Heber knew he could not forsake Joseph and the Saints, as William, Thomas Marsh, and Orson Hyde had done. Heber had stayed loyal to Joseph through every trial they had faced together, and he was determined to remain loyal even if that meant losing everything he owned.

“Where are you?” Heber asked, turning the question back on William. “What are you about?” Heber’s testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and his refusal to abandon the Saints answered William’s question well enough.

“I’m more satisfied with him a hundredfold than ever I was before,” Heber continued. “I tell you Mormonism is true, and Joseph is a true prophet of the living God.”

As the militia pillaged the town, General Lucas did nothing to stop his troops from terrorizing the Saints and taking their property. Across the settlement, Missouri militiamen were chasing Saints from their homes, cursing them as they fled into the streets. The troops whipped and beat those who resisted them. Some soldiers assaulted and raped women they found hiding in the houses. General Lucas believed the Saints were guilty of insurrection, and he wanted them to pay for their actions and feel the power of his army.

Throughout the day, Lucas’s officers rounded up more church leaders. With the help of George Hinkle, troops forced their way into the home of Mary and Hyrum Smith. Hyrum was sick, but the troops drove him outside at the point of a bayonet and placed him with Joseph and the other prisoners.

That evening, as General Lucas prepared to try the prisoners in a military court, a militia officer named Moses Wilson took Lyman Wight aside, hoping to convince him to testify against Joseph at the trial.

“We do not wish to hurt you nor kill you,” Moses told Lyman. “If you will come out and swear against him, we will spare your life and give you any office you want.”

“Joseph Smith is not an enemy to mankind,” Lyman said hotly. “Had it not been that I had given heed to his counsel, I would have given you hell before this time.”

“You are a strange man,” said Moses. “There is to be a court-martial held this night, and will you attend?”

“I will not, unless compelled by force.”

Moses threw Lyman back in with the other prisoners, and General Lucas soon convened the court. Several militia officers participated, including George Hinkle. General Doniphan, the only lawyer present, opposed the trial, arguing that the militia had no authority to try civilians like Joseph.

Paying no attention to him, General Lucas proceeded with the trial and rushed through the hearing without any of the prisoners present. George wanted Lucas to show mercy to the prisoners, but the general instead sentenced them to be shot for treason. A majority of the officers present sustained the ruling.

After the trial, Moses told Lyman the verdict. “Your doom is fixed,” he said.

Lyman looked at him contemptuously. “Shoot and be damned,” he said.

Later that evening, General Lucas ordered General Doniphan to march Joseph and the other prisoners into the town square at nine o’clock the following morning and execute them in front of the Saints. Doniphan was outraged.

“I will be damned if I will have any of the honor of it, or the disgrace of it,” he told the prisoners in private. He said he planned to withdraw with his troops before sunrise.

He then sent a message to General Lucas. “It is cold-blooded murder. I will not obey your order,” he stated. “If you execute those men, I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal, so help me God!”

As promised, General Doniphan’s forces were gone the next morning. Rather than execute Joseph and the other prisoners, General Lucas ordered his men to escort them to his headquarters in Jackson County.

Flanked by armed guards, Joseph was led through the ravaged streets of Far West to gather some belongings from his home. Emma and the children were in tears when he arrived, but they were relieved that he was still alive. Joseph begged his guards to let him visit with his family privately, but they refused.

Emma and the children clung to him, unwilling to part. The guards drew their swords and pried them away. Five-year-old Joseph held his father tightly. “Why can’t you stay with us?” he sobbed.

A guard thrust his sword at the boy. “Get away, you rascal, or I will run you through!”

Back outside, troops marched the prisoners through a crowd of Saints and ordered them to climb inside a covered wagon. The militia then surrounded the wagon, creating a wall of armed men between the Saints and their leaders.

As Joseph waited for the wagon to roll away, he heard a familiar voice above the noise of the crowd. “I am the mother of the prophet,” Lucy Smith called out. “Is there not a gentleman here who will assist me through this crowd!”

The wagon’s heavy canvas cover prevented the prisoners from seeing outside, but at the front of the wagon, Hyrum pushed his hand under the cover and took his mother’s hand. The guards immediately ordered her back, threatening to shoot her. Hyrum felt his mother’s hand slip away, and it seemed that the wagon would roll out at any moment.

Just then, Joseph, who was at the back of the wagon, heard a voice on the other side of the canvas. “Mister Smith, your mother and sister are here.”

Joseph pushed his hand beneath the cover and felt his mother’s hand. “Joseph,” he heard her say, “I cannot bear to go till I hear your voice.”

“God bless you, Mother,” Joseph said, just before the cart lurched and drove away.

Several nights later, the prisoners lay on the floor of a log house in Richmond, Missouri. After taking them to Jackson County, General Lucas had put them on display like animals before he was ordered to send them to Richmond for a legal hearing.

Now each man tried to sleep with a shackle around his ankle and a heavy chain binding him to the other prisoners. The floor was hard and cold, and the men had no fire to keep them warm.

Lying awake, Parley Pratt felt sick as their guards told obscene stories about raping and killing Saints. He wanted to stand up and rebuke the men—to say something that would make them stop talking—but he kept silent.

Suddenly, he heard chains clank beside him as Joseph rose to his feet. “Silence, ye fiends of the infernal pit!” the prophet thundered. “In the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke you and command you to be still! I will not live another minute and hear such language!”

The startled guards gripped their weapons and looked up. Joseph stared back at them, radiating majesty. “Cease such talk,” he commanded, “or you or I die this instant!”

The room went quiet, and the guards lowered their guns. Some of them retreated to the corners. Others crouched in fear at Joseph’s feet. The prophet stood still, looking calm and dignified. The guards begged his pardon and fell silent until their replacements came.

On November 12, 1838, Joseph and more than sixty other Saints were taken to the Richmond courthouse to determine if there was enough evidence to try them on charges of treason, murder, arson, robbery, burglary, and larceny. The judge, Austin King, would decide if the prisoners would go to trial.

The hearing lasted for more than two weeks. The star witness against Joseph was Sampson Avard, who had been a Danite leader. During the siege of Far West, Sampson had tried to flee Missouri, but the militia had captured him and threatened to prosecute him if he refused to testify against the prisoners.

Eager to save himself, Sampson claimed that everything he had done as a Danite had been done under orders from Joseph. He testified that Joseph believed it was the will of God for the Saints to fight for their rights against the governments of Missouri and the nation.

Sampson also said that Joseph believed the church was like the stone spoken of by Daniel in the Old Testament, which would fill the earth and consume its kingdoms.

Alarmed, Judge King questioned Joseph about Daniel’s prophecy, and Joseph testified that he believed it.

“Write that down,” the judge told his clerk. “It is a strong point for treason.”

Joseph’s attorney objected. “Judge,” he said, “you had better make the Bible treason.”

The prosecution called more than forty witnesses to testify against the prisoners, including several former church leaders. Afraid of being prosecuted themselves, John Corrill, William Phelps, John Whitmer, and others had struck a deal with the state of Missouri to testify against Joseph in exchange for their own freedom. Under oath, they described outrages they had witnessed during the conflict, and all of them blamed Joseph.

The Saints’ defense, meanwhile, consisted of a few witnesses who did little to sway the judge’s opinion. Other witnesses could have testified in Joseph’s behalf, but they were harassed or scared away from the courtroom.

By the time the hearing was over, five Saints, including Parley Pratt, were jailed in Richmond to await trial on murder charges related to the fight at Crooked River.

Those who remained—Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Lyman Wight, Caleb Baldwin, and Alexander McRae—were transferred to a jail in a town called Liberty to await trial on charges of treason. If convicted, they could be executed.

A blacksmith shackled the six men together and led them to a large wagon. The prisoners climbed in and sat on the rough wood, their heads barely above the high sides of the wagon box.

The journey took all day. When they arrived in Liberty, the wagon rolled through the center of town, past the courthouse, then north to a small, stone jail. The door stood open, waiting for the men in the cold of the December day.

One by one, the prisoners climbed down from the wagon and made their way up the steps to the entryway of the jail. A crowd of curious people pressed in around them, hoping to catch sight of the prisoners.

Joseph was the last man off the wagon. As he reached the door, he looked at the crowd and raised his hat in polite greeting. He then turned and descended into the dark prison.

Study the following resources, looking for what could motivate you or others to obey the law of tithing.

Scriptures: Malachi 3:8–10; John 7:17; Doctrine and Covenants 119:5–7

Statements and other resources:

President Steven J. Lund, Young Men General President, taught:

When youth pay a full tithe, they form a link with Heavenly Father that remains. Every time they obey that commandment and make that payment, a new bond of sacrifice and connection is created. (Steven J. Lund, “Seminary, Institute, and Other Things that Work” [address given at the Seminary & Institute annual training broadcast, Jan. 27, 2023], broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org)

For the Strength of Youth: A Guide for Making Choices advises:

Show love for God by keeping His commandments.. . . As you fast and pay tithes and offerings, you show God that His work is more important to you than material things. (For the Strength of Youth: A Guide for Making Choices [2022], 11–12)

While serving as a member of the Seventy, Elder Stanley G. Ellis asked:

Do we have the faith to trust [the Lord’s] promises regarding tithing that with 90 percent of our increase plus the Lord’s help, we are better off than with 100 percent on our own? (Stanley G. Ellis, “Do We Trust Him? Hard Is Good,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2017, 114)

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught:

Often as we teach and testify about the law of tithing, we emphasize the immediate, dramatic, and readily recognizable temporal blessings that we receive. And surely such blessings do occur. Yet some of the diverse blessings we obtain as we are obedient to this commandment are significant but subtle. . . .

For example, a subtle but significant blessing we receive is the spiritual gift of gratitude that enables our appreciation for what we have to constrain desires for what we want. . . . Sometimes we may ask God for success, and He gives us physical and mental stamina. We might plead for prosperity, and we receive enlarged perspective and increased patience. (David A. Bednar, “The Windows of Heaven,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2013, 17–18)

Mary Fielding Smith was the widow of Hyrum Smith and mother of President Joseph F. Smith. When someone suggested that she was too poor to observe the law of tithing, she responded: Would you deny me a blessing? . . . I pay my tithing, not only because it is a law of God, but because I expect a blessing by doing it. (Mary Fielding Smith, quoted by Joseph F. Smith, in Conference Report, Apr. 1900, 48)

🗓 Key Events

• Summer 1831: Joseph Smith designated Independence, Missouri, as the “center place” of Zion — the New Jerusalem — and directed early Saints to begin gathering there.
• 1832–1833: Tensions rose between the Latter-day Saints and local Missourians. Cultural, religious, and economic differences fueled suspicion and hostility.
• July 1833: A mob of Jackson County residents destroyed the Evening and Morning Star printing office (the Church’s publication) and tarred and feathered Bishop Edward Partridge.
• November 1833: Armed conflict broke out. Several skirmishes occurred between the Saints and the Missouri settlers.
• Early November 1833: Under threats of death and further violence, the Saints agreed to leave Jackson County.
  Most were driven out between November 4 and November 7, 1833, crossing the Missouri River into Clay County, where they took temporary refuge.

📍 Aftermath

• By 1834, virtually all members had been forced out of Jackson County.
• The Lord through the Prophet, Joseph Smith,  later organized Zion’s Camp (1834) to aid and reestablish the displaced Saints, but the effort did not result in their return.
• The main body of the Church eventually gathered farther north in Caldwell County, Missouri.
• The citizens of Clay County were moved by the difficult situation caused by the residents of Jackson County.  They opened the county to the saints and did as much as they could to alleviate their suffering.
• Although the residents of Clay County had pity on the saints, they made it clear that the saints were only welcome in Clay County temporarily.
• 1835-1836 In the next few years, the saints in Clay County began making permanent homes as new members from outside Missouri came to “establish Zion.”  These new members also began purchasing lands and building homes.  This started to strain the relationship between the residents of Clay County and the Church.
• March 1836. The Kirtland Temple was finished and dedicated in March, 1836.  Because of the high cost of building the temple, the Church was heavily in debt.  Members throughout the country had already donated much of their money to building Zion and the temple.
• March 1836 Late Spring: With the Saints in Missouri needing a new place to settle, Joseph felt even more pressure to raise money to buy lands. He decided to open a church store near Kirtland and borrowed more money to purchase goods to sell there. The store had some success, but many Saints took advantage of Joseph’s kindness and trust, knowing he would not refuse them credit at the store.
• By the end of July, neither the store nor anything else church leaders tried had eased the church’s debt. Desperate, Joseph left Kirtland with Sidney, Hyrum, and Oliver for Salem, a city on the East Coast, after hearing from a church member who thought he knew where to find a cache of hidden money. No money came of the lead when they arrived in the city, and Joseph turned to the Lord for guidance.
• In July 1836,  William Phelps and other church leaders in Clay county wrote the prophet to tell him that local officials had summoned church leaders to the courthouse, where they discussed the Saints’ future in their county. The officials had spoken calmly and politely, but their words left no room for compromise.  The Saints had worn out their welcome in Clay County.
• Since the Saints could not return to Jackson County, the officials recommended that they look for a new place to live—somewhere they could be by themselves. The church leaders in Clay County agreed to leave rather than risk another violent expulsion.
• December 1836. Caldwell County created by the Missouri State Legislature as a place for the Latter-day Saints to relocate.
• 1837 January To help alleviate the financial crisis, the Church organized an “anti-banking company” called the Kirtland Safety Society in January 1837.  They began issuing their own notes (currency) and doing business in Kirtland and the surrounding area.
• 1837 February, the Sate of Ohio refused to grand the Kirtland Safety Society a charter. The public lost confidence in the “anti-bank.”  A few antagonists of the Church and Jospeh used this to deplete the Safety Society’s ability to hold money in reserve.  By late spring and early summer, a region financial panic occurred throughout the United States and the Kirtland Safety Society collapsed.
• The collapse of the Society’s bank only fueled negative feelings about Joseph Smith and the Church.  Many members of the Church, including some apostles, apostatized, left the Church, and began bitterly opposing Joseph Smith, making threats on his life.
• By late spring of 1837, many of the Saints in Zion were now settled along a stream called Shoal Creek, 50 miles northeast of Independence, MO.  They had founded a town called Far West, in Caldwell County—a county which had been organized by the Missouri legislature for the Saints’ ongoing problems with their neighbors. 

A long time ago, there lived a young man of modest means but uncommon strength of character. He worked long hours, treated others fairly, and used his hands to build what his heart could envision.  By diligence and goodness, his name became known across the land, and in time he built an empire of extraordinary wealth.

Yet the man feared what riches often do to the soul.

So he set a condition upon his fortune: that only those who could both prove they were of his bloodline and walk in his integrity could inherit it.  His hope was that his legal descendants would value virtue as much as gold.

Years passed into centuries.

His posterity multiplied, but their records were lost, their hearts grew faint, and few remembered the standard of the man from whom they came.  The empire, untouched and ever-growing, waited in silence for a rightful heir.

Generations later, in a quiet village, two brothers lived by simple trades.
One evening, as dusk fell and rain whispered on the roof, a stranger knocked upon their door.

They welcomed him in, shared their food, and warmed him by their fire.

The stranger told them a story—of a man long dead, whose immense fortune remained sealed away, awaiting an heir both true in blood and in spirit.  “I know,” said the stranger, “how to prove your claim. This wealth can be yours.  I can help you find the right legal documents—but you must live as he lived.”

The elder brother leaned forward, his eyes bright with wonder.  The younger laughed, shaking his head. “Another tale for fools,” he said, and sent the stranger from their home.

D. Todd Christofferson,  excerpts from “Lifelong Disciples of Jesus Christ” at a Religious Educators Conference Devotional, June 12, 202

1. What is “lifelong discipleship?”
2. Lifelong discipleship is an essential aspect of the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of Christ expresses how we come unto Christ and receive the gift of His atoning grace. We exercise our agency to have faith in Him, repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost. But for Christ’s Atonement to have its full, transformative effect in us requires that we continue in this covenant path—the path of discipleship—to the end of our mortal lives. In Nephi’s words: “And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.”
3. In the CES resource “Strengthening Religious Education,” we’re taught:
4. “The purpose of religious education is to teach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ from the scriptures and modern prophets in a way that helps our students:
5. Develop faith in and a testimony of Heavenly Father and His ‘great plan,’ …
6. Become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ, who make and keep covenants, … [and]
7. Strengthen their ability to find answers, resolve doubts, respond with faith, and give reason for the hope within them in whatever challenges they may face.”¹
8. Lifelong discipleship is an essential aspect of the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine of Christ expresses how we come unto Christ and receive the gift of His atoning grace. We exercise our agency to have faith in Him, repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost. But for Christ’s Atonement to have its full, transformative effect in us requires that we continue in this covenant path—the path of discipleship—to the end of our mortal lives. In Nephi’s words: “And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.”²
9. President Nelson has taught: “True disciples of Jesus Christ are willing to stand out, speak up, and be different from the people of the world. They are undaunted, devoted, and courageous.” How is this kind of discipleship achieved? What does that mean for us as religious educators? And how can we more effectively teach in a way that our youth and young adults become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ?
10. Agency’s Role in Discipleship
11. So first, agency’s role in discipleship. One of the most important gifts God gave His children was moral agency. This power and privilege—and responsibility—to act for ourselves is essential to realizing our full potential as children of God. It is central to our progression on the covenant path. God’s plan, as you know, was not to do everything for us but to provide a structure that allowed us to make our own choices to grow individually. Agency was key to our progression as spirits in the past, and it is key for what we can become under God’s plan of happiness, now and in eternity.
12. The adversary knows this and seeks to compromise our agency.
13. The War in Heaven can be seen, in large part, as a battle to preserve the agency of man. And that battle continues in this mortal sphere. Satan attacks agency on at least two fronts. On the one hand, he inspires [ideas and practices] that diminish personal responsibility or that employ [being forced or manipulated].
14. The other focus of the adversary’s assault against agency has particular significance for us as teachers. As identified in the scripture just cited, Satan, “the father of all lies,” acts “to deceive and to blind men.” Agency becomes meaningless if we don’t know what’s true and what’s not, and therefore cannot make informed, intelligent choices. The antidote to deception is truth….
15. God sent His Son as “the way, the truth, and the life.” He gives us prophets to teach and guide us to truth. He’s given the gift of the Holy Ghost to confirm that truth, and the teacher is to help students hear and choose to embrace truth.
16. But agency in the context of religious education requires a further step beyond imparting gospel truths. It is essential that we teach in a way that invites students to exercise their agency in the learning process. We want to help them become active participants in the process and take responsibility for their own learning. Activating students’ agency to take personal ownership in learning has implications for the development of lasting belief, lasting testimony. It is in so doing that they can become active and lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.
17. Taking ownership for choices deepens personal conviction. When we don’t act for ourselves, we can unwittingly find that our faith lacks the depth required to overcome life’s questions and challenges and to be lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. In the Lord’s own words:
18. “For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day.”
19. Teaching in the Savior’s Way
20. Now, this foundational role agency plays in our own personal development has implications for the way we teach as religious educators….And we ask you, our religious educators, to teach in ways that invite personal engagement and ownership of learning. In each of these settings, real growth happens most effectively when young people are given opportunities to act and not just be acted upon.
21. To create these types of learning experiences for His disciples, the Savior found ways to help them take responsibility for their learning. Consider [these] ways the Savior engaged His disciples: (1) asking inspired questions, and (2) extending personal invitations.  In all the Savior’s invitations, He gives His disciples opportunities to act, to think, and to take ownership of their learning and their growth.
22. Implications for Religious Education
23. Earlier this year, Elder Clark Gilbert extended an invitation to our seminary and institute teachers to find ways deliberately to provide students opportunities to act and take responsibility for their learning….this is a reminder that effective teachers invite students to take responsibility in their own learning.
24. In (the church manual) “Teaching in the Savior’s Way”, we’re reminded that inviting diligent learning requires us to help students become agents in their own learning process. There are several ways this can happen, but let me emphasize at least three from that teaching resource.
    1. First, we can create learning experiences where we “invite learners to prepare to learn.” This can happen through pre-reading assignments, study questions, and personal invitations.
    2. Second, we should “encourage learners to share the truths they are learning.” There are so many ways to do this, and each of you will find personalized approaches that work for you and your students.
    3. And third, we should “invite learners to live what they are learning” (italics added). We should always look for ways to invite students to apply what they are learning in their own lives. This can come through personal invitations, reflective exercises, and a host of other efforts to help students change and become something more in Christ.
25. Helping Students Take Charge of Their Testimonies
26. Finally, on helping students take charge of their testimonies. Inviting diligent learning is foundational to developing lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ because it helps learners take responsibility for their learning, as we’ve been saying. One of the ways President Nelson has encouraged this ownership of our personal growth is in his invitation to the young adults to take charge of their testimonies. In his worldwide devotional to young adults in 2022, President Nelson stated:
27. “I plead with you to take charge of your testimony. Work for it. Own it. Care for it. Nurture it so that it will grow. Feed it truth. Don’t pollute it with the false philosophies of unbelieving men and women and then wonder why your testimony is waning. Engage in daily, earnest, humble prayer. Nourish yourself in the words of ancient and modern prophets. Ask the Lord to teach you how to hear Him better. Spend more time in the temple and in family history work. As you make your testimony your highest priority, watch for miracles to happen in your life.”
28. When he spoke to the young adults, President Nelson asked a series of questions: “Do you want to feel peace about concerns that presently plague you? Do you want to know Jesus Christ better? Do you want to learn how His divine power can heal your wounds and weaknesses? Do you want to experience the sweet, soothing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ working in your life? Seeking to answer these questions will require effort—much effort.” He validates the students’ concerns by saying: “If you have questions—and I hope you do—seek answers with the fervent desire to believe. Learn all you can about the gospel and be sure to turn to truth-filled sources for guidance.”
29. When we help students exercise their personal agency, their conversion will deepen in ways that lead to lifelong discipleship. Last October, President Nelson stated, “Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority.” And he added, “It is neither too early nor too late for you to become a devout disciple of Jesus Christ.” Let us act diligently now before it is too late. Now is the time, as he said.

In an August 1833 revelation, the Lord commanded the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, to “commence a work of laying out and preparing a beginning and foundation of the city of the stake of Zion here in the land of Kirtland beginning at my house.” For the next three years, the Saints consecrated much of their time and talents to construct the House of the Lord, later known as the Kirtland Temple.

The First Presidency at that time—Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams—saw the building in vision in 1833 and presided over the laying of the temple cornerstone at a ceremony held on July 23. The revealed design called for an interior 55 feet wide by 65 feet long with a large first-floor assembly room for administering the sacrament, preaching, fasting, and praying, and another large hall on the second floor for a school of the elders. The exterior resembled the New England Protestant style, but the interior introduced unique features, particularly the arrangement of two series of four-tiered pulpits on each end of the assembly rooms for seating the presidencies of the Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods.

A limestone quarry a few miles from the temple provided stone for the temple walls, and a sawmill built and operated through the consecrated service of the Saints supplied wood for the interior. Skilled carpenters, including Jacob Bump, Truman Angell, and Brigham Young, applied their craft to beautify the building. Children gathered discarded shards of crockery and china for mixing into the stucco finish applied to the temple’s exterior.

As the temple neared completion, Joseph Smith met in the structure with Latter-day Saint men who had been ordained to the priesthood in January and February to prepare for the dedication. The assembled men prayed together, experienced spiritual manifestations, partook of the sacrament, and participated in sacred rituals, including ceremonial washing and anointing. On January 21, 1836, Joseph Smith experienced a vision of celestial glory now found in Doctrine and Covenants 137.

On March 27, 1836, the Saints assembled for the temple’s dedication. The Saints partook of the sacrament and listened to several sermons. Joseph Smith offered a prayer of dedication that he had received by revelation (now D&C 109), which the Saints followed by giving the Hosanna Shout and singing “The Spirit of God like a Fire Is Burning,” a hymn penned by William W. Phelps for the occasion. The dedicatory prayer, Hosanna Shout, and Phelps’s hymn became standard elements of subsequent dedicatory proceedings of Latter-day Saint temples.

At the dedication ceremony and at meetings in the following weeks, Latter-day Saints experienced dramatic outpourings of the Holy Spirit and remarkable spiritual events within the temple that fulfilled a promise in earlier revelations that the Lord would “endow” the Saints with “power from on high.” Most notably, a vision of Jesus Christ and several Old Testament prophets seen by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery inaugurated the worldwide gathering of Israel and restored a fulness of the sealing power.

The temple functioned as a center of the Kirtland Saints’ worship, hosting Sabbath, prayer, and fasting meetings. Church leaders and missionaries assembled for study in subjects including reading, writing, history, and geography. The last session of the Kirtland School of the Prophets (also called the School of the Elders) was held in the temple.

A year after the temple’s dedication, a financial crisis beset the Saints in Kirtland. Angry at Church leaders, a faction led by dissenter Warren Parrish attempted to seize the building. Months later, an unknown arsonist tried to set fire to the building. Threats of violence and other troubles led Church leaders and many Saints to leave Ohio for Far West, Missouri. The relatively few Saints remaining in Kirtland continued to worship and congregate in the temple.

After Joseph Smith’s death in 1844, most members of the Kirtland congregation embraced the “New Organization,” a movement that eventually became the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, led by Joseph’s son Joseph Smith III. In 1880, a court recognized the heirs of Joseph Smith as those holding title to the building, and two decades later, the RLDS Church (later Community of Christ) secured ownership through a legal claim of continuous use (known as adverse possession). Community of Christ has cared for the building since that time.

Eliza R. Snow

“The ceremonies of that dedication may be rehearsed, but no mortal language can describe the heavenly manifestations of that memorable day. Angels appeared to some, while a sense of divine presence was realized by all present, and each heart was filled with ‘joy inexpressible and full of glory.’”

Sylvia Cutler Webb

“One of my earliest recollections was the dedication of the Temple. My father took us up on his lap and told us why we were going and what it meant to dedicate a house to God. And although so very young at the time, I clearly remember the occasion. I can look back through the lapse of years and see as I saw then Joseph the Prophet, standing with his hands raised towards heaven, his face ashy pale, the tears running down his cheeks as he spoke on that memorable day. Almost all seemed to be in tears. The house was so crowded the children were mostly sitting on older people’s laps; my sister sat on father’s, I on my mother’s lap. I can even remember the dresses we wore. My mind was too young at that time to grasp the full significance of it all, but as time passed it dawned more and more upon me, and I am very grateful that I was privileged to be there.”

Oliver Cowdery

“In the evening I met with the officers of the church in the Lord’s house. The Spirit was poured out—I saw the glory of God, like a great cloud, come down and rest upon the house, and fill the same like a mighty rushing wind. I also saw cloven tongues, like as of fire rest upon many, … while they spake with other tongues and prophesied.”

Benjamin Brown

“Many visions [were] seen. One saw a pillow or cloud rest down upon the house, bright as when the sun shines on a cloud like as gold. Two others saw three personages hovering in the room with bright keys in their hands, and also a bright chain in their hands.”

Orson Pratt

“God was there, his angels were there, the Holy Ghost was in the midst of the people … and they were filled from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet with the power and inspiration of the Holy Ghost.”

Nancy Naomi Alexander Tracy

“[When] the Temple was finished and dedicated … they were two of the happiest days of my life. The fitting hymn that was composed for the occasion was ‘The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning.’ It was verily true that the Heavenly Influence rested down upon that house. … I felt that it was heaven on earth.”

D&C 103

Read your assigned experience with your partner, help each other answer the questions in your Learning Journals. Be prepared to teach this section to other people.

Read the following excerpt, look for what President Oaks uses and doesn’t use to help teach about the spirit world.

Of course, we know from the scriptures that after our bodies die we continue to live as spirits in the spirit world. The scriptures also teach that this spirit world is divided between those who have been “righteous” or “just” during life and those who have been wicked. They also describe how some faithful spirits teach the gospel to those who have been wicked or rebellious (see 1 Peter 3:19; Doctrine and Covenants 138:19–20, 29, 32, 37). Most important, modern revelation reveals that the work of salvation goes forward in the spirit world (see Doctrine and Covenants 138:30–34, 58), and although we are urged not to procrastinate our repentance during mortality (see Alma 13:27), we are taught that some repentance is possible there (see Doctrine and Covenants 138:58).

The work of salvation in the spirit world consists of freeing spirits from what the scriptures frequently describe as “bondage.” All in the spirit world are under some form of bondage. President Joseph F. Smith’s great revelation, canonized in section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants, states that the righteous dead, who were in a state of “peace” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:22) as they anticipated the Resurrection (see Doctrine and Covenants 138:16), “had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:50).

The wicked also suffer an additional bondage. Because of unrepented sins, they are in what the Apostle Peter referred to as spirit “prison” (1 Peter 3:19; see also Doctrine and Covenants 138:42). These spirits are described as “bound” or as “captives” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:31, 42) or as “cast out into outer darkness” with “weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth” as they await resurrection and judgment (Alma 40:13–14).

Resurrection for all in the spirit world is assured by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 15:22), though it occurs at different times for different groups. Until that appointed time, what the scriptures tell us about activity in the spirit world principally concerns the work of salvation. Little else is revealed. The gospel is preached to the ignorant, the unrepentant, and the rebellious so they can be freed from their bondage and go forward to the blessings a loving Heavenly Father has in store for them.

The spirit-world bondage that applies to righteous converted souls is their need to await—and perhaps even be allowed to prompt—the performance of their proxy ordinances on earth so they can be baptized and enjoy the blessings of the Holy Ghost (see Doctrine and Covenants 138:30–37, 57–58). These mortal proxy ordinances also empower them to go forward under priesthood authority to enlarge the hosts of the righteous who can preach the gospel to the spirits in prison.