A couple Sundays ago I was asked to speak about my
experiences at the various church sites I have visited. In preparing for this talk I was amazed at
how much insight the Spirit added. I hope
I can capture that same Spirit here in my writings.
In 2021 I went to the Sacred Grove. As I walked past the Smith home I heard
Michael S Wilcox share his experience as he was touring there many years
ago. He had placed his head against the
same fireplace Joseph had when he shared with his mother, “none of the churches
are correct…For I have seen a vision.” As
I continued on the path to the Sacred Grove, I observed a wooden fence and once
again I was taken to the Jospeh Smith story where he had fallen over the fence
and the angel Moroni had appeared him to him and instructed him to “tell his
father all that had transpired. As I entered
the grove I felt as if I was entering the temple. It is truly a sacred place. I wandered all around the pathways and sat on
the benches and reflected on what had transpired there so many years ago. “Oh, How Lovely was the Morning” played out
in my mind. I came across some benches
as if they had been set up for a church service and I sat there wondering how
cool it would have been to have been there to listen to the Prophet teach. Then “Praise to the Man” started playing out
in my mind.
I then made my way to the Hill Cumorah where Kenneth Copes
song “Come with me” played in my mind.
My definition of hill is totally different than what I climbed. I found myself on a steep trail. As I huffed and puffed with multiple breaks,
I found myself wondering, “Brother Jospeh how did you do this?” The Spirit responded, “He was a young man.” (Hinting that I was an old woman.” At the top I was greeted with a circular
statue with a golden Moroni on top with various pictures of the prophet all
around it.
On my flight home I decided I wanted to go to Nauvoo, so
April of this year I made the drive to Nauvoo.
My first stop was the Winter Quarters temple. Behind the temple were the grave sights of
our pioneer ancestors. In the middle was
a statute of a husband comforting his wife and at their feet was a marker that
read “Grave on Unknown Child.” This was
truly another a sacred place To enter,
you walked between two cherubim with their wings extended towards each other
covering their face and all around were sayings from “Come Come Ye Saints”,
bible scriptures and my favorite, “Oh Lord responsive to thy call in life or
death what er befall our hopes for bliss on thee depend thou art our
everlasting friend.” Their faith was
life changing.
I then went to Liberty Jail which was a dingy dungeon
with no light. Tears flowed as I gazed
at that hole where the Prophet spent so much time with D&C 121 and 122
started running through my mind: “O God where
art thou?....because of thy righteousness; and thy God shall stand by thee
forever and ever…And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit or into the hands of
murders and the sentence of death passed upon thee, if thou be cast into the
deep, if th billowing surge conspire against thee, if fierce winds become thine
enemy, if the havens gather blackness, and all te elements combine to hedge up
thy way; and above all if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide
after thee, know thou my son, that all these things shall give thee experience,
and shall be for thy good. The Son of
man hath descended below them all, Art thou greater than he?”
I then went to Carthage Jail where in the visiting
center they opened with a talk given by Elder Holland which hit home. I shall just share a part of his powerful testimony
that solidified mine: “May I refer to a
modern ‘last days’ testimony? When
Jospeh Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage to face what they knew
would be an imminent martyrdom, Hyrum read these words to comfort the heart of
his brother: ‘Thou hast been faithful, wherefore…thou shalt be made strong, even
unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my
Father. And now I Moroni, bid farewell…until
we shall meet before the judgement seat of Christ.’ A few short verses from the 12th
chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon.
Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the page from which
he read, marking it as part of the everlasting testimony for which these two
brothers were about to die…Joseph the Prophet turned to the guards who held him
captive and bore a powerful testimony of the diving authority of the Book of
Mormon. Shortly after pistol and ball
would take the lives of these two testators….In this their greatest—and last---hour
of need, I ask you: Would these men blaspheme
before God by continuing to fix their lives their honor, and their own search
for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry)
they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth? Never mind that their wives are about to be
widows and their children fatherless. Never
mind that their little band of followers will yet be ‘houseless, friendless,
and homeless’ and their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen
rivers and untamed prairie floor. Never mind
that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters fo
this earth thay they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses is
to be true. Disregard all that, and tell
me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their
Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very
word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the ends of
time? They would not do that! Thery were willing to die rather than
deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.”
We then entered the jail. You could still see the bullet holes through
the door and which stopped the clock. The
missionaries then played a tape of an elder singing “A Poor Wayfaring Man.” Tears flowed as I gazed around the room and
then my eyes fixed on the window the Prophet tried to leap out off. Once outside by the well where the prophets
body had; landed D&C 135 ran through my mind: …”Joseph Smith the Prophet and Seer of the Lord,
has done more, save Jesus only for the salvation men in this world, than any
other man in this world…”
I then made my way to Nauvoo. A truly beautiful place. As you enter and leave the temple you face a
stature of Hyrum and Jospeh on horseback looking over his beautiful “City of
Nauvoo.” Before the headed to Carthage. It is truly a remarkable site. I spent two days in that magnificent temple
and found myself totally overcome with emotion.
You see I had taken my endowment out in Brigham’s temple in Salt Lake
and now here I was in Joseph’s beloved temple.
Elder Hinckley’s words ran through my mind: “…We were to rebuild the
house of the Lord as a memorial to the Prophet Joseph and as an offering to our
God. On the recent 27th of
June, in the afternoon at about the same time Joseph and Hyrum were shot in Carthage
158 years earlier, we held the dedication of the magnificent new
structure. It is a place of great beauty. It stands on the exactly the same site where
the original temple stood…It is a fitting and appropriate memorial to the great
Prophet of this dispensation, Joseph the Seer.
How grateful I am, how profoundly grateful for what has happened. Today, facing west, on the high bluff overlooking
the City of Nauvoo, thence across the Mississippi, and over the plains of Iowa
there stands Josephs temple, a magnificent house of God. Here in the Salt Lake valley, facing East to
that beautiful temple in Nauvoo stands Brigham’s, temple the Salt Lake
Temple. They look toward one another as
bookends between which there are volumes that speak of the suffering, the
sorrow, the sacrifice, even the deaths of thousands who made the long journey
from the Mississippi River to the valley of the Great Salt Lake…”
I stood at the gravesites of the Prophet and his
family and stood in the home of Lucy Mack Smith. The Spirt in her home was very powerful. I found myself for the first time
understanding the great women’s organization that the Prophet started and its
true mission.
I then went to the Farr West temple site. One day it will be a beautiful temple in an idyllic
spot.
I then went to Haun’s Mill which was a beautiful green
pasture. The river was now a creek but
it was hard to comprehend the massacre that had happened there due to the peaceful
beauty of the place. I then drove to a
small town in MO where the mob had travelled to slaughter the saints at Hauns Mill.
I found myself in a dying little town
but there in the park was a monument with an original stone from the mill and
two headstones. One which listed those
who had died and the other the names of the woman who ha survived and across the
top was written “And they ever lost their faith and never left the church.” Inspiring women.
I then ended my tour with a drive through Adam Ondi Ahman. In my mind’s eye I could envision the Garden
of Eden. It is truly a place of beauty
and peace. How grateful I am that a
door was opened that I could visit these historic church sites and feel the
pioneer spirit that attended each.
