Lesson 27 -- "The rest of the story"

Where do I even start this week? For starters, let me apologize for the disorganization this week. I am an emotional basket case. As I mentioned in fast and testimony meeting this afternoon, my dear wife, Eva, and the children (Sean, Brad and Chloe) are returning from Oregon tomorrow morning after a 31-day vacation (they were visiting our Michael family relations in Roseburg, OR). Also, I received the following beautiful e-mail message this morning from Natividad Dario Ordoñez, who I baptized in Tacna, Peru on March 15, 1986:

"hello, brother taylor, my name is dario, i remember you, because , you baptized me in peru, tacna, in granados' ward. your partner was elder chumbimuni. do you remember me ? i hope you're very good, with your family. i am married too, i have a one child her name is belyruth and my wife is humbelina japay she was missionary too, in arequipa, in 1987 later she was sent to the south mission. i was always active in the church, my last assignment was as bishop in lima peru 3 years ago. i live currently in new jersey, my daugther is 15 years old. i was missionary too in the north mision in peru. i am happy because jesus is my savior, joseph smith is a prophet of god, president monson too. the church of jesus christ is the only true church. write me back bye. take care"

Brothers and sisters, what news could be better than that? I will be reunited with my lovely family on Monday, and I just found out that a man I taught the Gospel to is doing well (served a full-time mission for the Church and in fact has served as bishop in his ward in Lima) and now has immigrated to the United States. I hope to be reunited with Dario soon! I love the Information Age and thank God that He answers our prayers and rewards us according to our "diligencia, fidelidad y oraciones de fe" [see D&C 103: 36].

Today we discussed the immense hardships faced by the Church members in Missouri from 1831 to 1834. We likened their adversities and trials to those of our day and ennumerated some of the trials we face today: illness/death, divorce, job loss, caring for the elderly or enfermed, harmful or painful acts of a loved one, religious intolerance. We recognized that the Lord sometimes gives us adversity to keep us humble. Elder Henry B. Eyring's recent conference talk was mentioned. Elder Eyring reminds us that "The very opportunity for us to face adversity and affliction is part of the evidence of [God's] infinite love. God gave us the gift of living in mortality so that we could be prepared to receive the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is eternal life" [see his full talk at: http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=fec9230bac7f0210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD]

We discussed the events that had transpired in Missouri just prior to the return of Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight to Kirtland in February of 1834. A brief breakdown of those events might be helpful to the historians in the group today:

• January 1831: The first missionaries arrived in Missouri.
• July 1831: Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon and 28 other elders are directed to go on a mission to Missouri. The Lord disignated Independence, Missouri as the location for the city of Zion, the New Jerusalem [D&C 57]. The Prophet Joseph instructs Bishop Edward Partridge to buy every tract of land lying west of the city to the line separating Missouri from the Indian territory.
• August 1831: The members of the Colesville, NY LDS branch, led by Newel Knight, arrived in Jackson Co., MO. They settled in Kaw Township, 12 miles west of Independence. Joseph Smith dedicated the temple site in Independence.
• April 1832: Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon visited Independence for the second time.
• May 1832: William W. Phelps started the first Mormon printing press in Missouri and called the paper he published the Evening and Morning Star or Star as the people referred to it. Oliver Cowdery and W.W. Phelps purchased the printing press in Cincinnati, OH and had it shipped to Independence. The new paper caused quite a stir among non-members because there was no opposition paper as of yet.
• April 1833: A total of 10 branches of the Church were set up for the members in Independence. There were approximately 1000 members present when a combined branch conference was held for the third anniversary of the founding of the Church.
• July 1833: Mob violence errupts in Jackson Co., MO. The mob destroyed the printing press and tarred and feathered Bishop Partridge and Charles Allen. Governor Dunklin advised leaders of the Church to seek legal counsel. The firm of Wood, Reese, Doniphan, and Atchison was retained to prepresent the Church in Missouri.
• August 1833: Parley P. Pratt opened a school for adult males in Independence called the School of the Elders, with Pratt as its teacher and patterned after the School of the Prophets in Kirtland.
• November 1833: The Battle of the Big Blue occurred. The outcome was that the LDS were driven from their homes and farms in Independence to Clay Co., MO. Two members of the mob were killed, and public sentiment against the Church further inflamed.
• December 1833: W.W. Phelps informed Joseph Smith of the lamentable condition of the Saints newly living in Clay Co., MO.
• New Year's Day 1834: Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight were chosen to journey to Ohio to counsel with the Prophet Joseph Smith about what measures should be taken for the relief or restoration of the Saints in Missouri. They left Clay Co., on February 12, 1834
• February 22, 1834: Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight arrived in Kirtland to meet with the Prophet Joseph Smith.
• February 1834: An attempt by the state to try members of the mob for their actions against Church members was disrupted by the mob and state officials ordered the Mormon witnesses to be marched out of town to the tune of "Yankee Doodle." Thus all efforts at legal remedies in Jackson Co. were thwarted by the mob.
• Spring of 1834: 203 homes of LDS were burned to the ground in Jackson Co., MO to discourage Church members from returning to the county.
• May-June 1834: the Zion's Camp march occurred.

We then turned our discussion to Section 103 of the Doctrine and Covenants and read verse 21 which stated that Joseph Smith was the "certain nobleman" spoken about in Section 101: 44. Instructions were now handed to the Church leaders on how to go about the business of raising an Army of the Lord to go back to Missouri and assist the wronged Saints there.

And now... "the rest of the story:"

The calling and selection of men, women and children who would accompany Joseph Smith to Missouri on the Zion's Camp march is a truly inspiring story. Before Joseph had met with Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight he had already received dozens of accounts of the brutal expulsion from Jackson County from members now living in Clay Co., MO (some of them were from his most trusted leaders there). His letter of December 10, 1833 is full of sympathy and comfort: Being made aware of "your suffering, it awakens every sympathy of our hearts; it weighs us down; we can not refrain from tears, yet, we are not able to realize, only in part your suffering" [Ivan J. Barrett, Joseph Smith and the Restoration, p. 269]. Upon hearing that the Saints had been driven from Zion, Joseph Smith declared that he was going to Zion to assist in its redemption. In an assembly of Elders in Kirtland Joseph asked for volunteers to join him on his trip to Missouri; forty offered to go. The Prophet was chosen as commander in chief of the armies of Israel.

Section 103 of the Doctrine and Covenants instructed Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight not to return to Missouri until they had raised an army "of five hundred of the strength of my house;" and if that number were not obtained because "men do not always do my will...," perhaps three hundred. That failing they were given the final instruction that they "shall not go up unto the land of Zion until you have obtained a hundred of the strength of my house" [D&C 103: 30-34]. Shortly following this revelation Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Frederick G. Williams, Parley and Orson Pratt, Hyrum Smith, Orson Hyde, and Lyman Wight went to the eastern branches of the Church to recruit 500 soldiers of God to go west to Missouri. The mission was successful. 207 volunteers assembled in New Portage (modern day Akron), Ohio (together with 11 women and 11 children), on May 7, 1834 and left for Missouri the following day. Many of the men recruited in the group were new converts from the western counties of New York State who had never met the Prophet Joseph Smith. One such group of men was recruited from the Richland, NY, branch, and included Wilford Woodruff, a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood at the time of the Zion's Camp march (he had been a member of the Church less than five months)!

The camp's route of travel was southwest through Dayton, Ohio, then almost due west to Indianapolis, Indiana, on west to Springfield and Jacksonville, Illinois, and southwest into Missouri after crossing the Mississippi River. From there, their travel continued in a southwesterly direction until they arrived in Clay County. The march lasted some 46 days and covered nearly 1000 miles of frontier wilderness! To contrast the experience of the camp, Parley P. Pratt and Lyman Wight had made the same journey traveling east in 10 days on riverboat and by horseback.

In class we took a moment to mention that if we were asked to make a similar journey today from Cincinnati, Ohio, these would be the possible destinations:

• Boston, Massachusetts: 893 miles
• Dallas, Texas: 938 miles
• Tampa, Florida: 921 miles
• Portland, Maine: 994 miles
• Montreal, Canada: 829 miles
• Fargo, North Dakota: 944 miles

Was the Zion's Camp March a Failure?

When the camp finally reached Missouri and was only 80 miles east of their final destination, the Prophet dispatched Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde as delegates to Governor Dunklin. They were to inform the Governor of the strength of the group assembled and to ascertain whether or not he was ready to assist the Church members in recovering their stolen lands in Jackson County. Governor Dunklin delivered a terrible final blow to the Church leaders, while at the same time admitting the just cause of the Saints in Jackson County, he advised Elders Pratt and Hyde to counsel their people, for the sake of peace, to sell their lands and not try to repossess them. Parley P. Pratt's response to the Governor is representative of the dispossessed Saints: "If we could not be permitted to live on lands which we had purchased of the United States, and be protected in our persons and rights, our lands would, at least, make a good burying ground, on which to lay our bones; and, like Abraham's possession in Canaan, we should hold on to our possessions in the county of Jackson, for this purpose, at least" [Ivan J. Barrett, Joseph Smith and the Restoration, p. 284].

Section 105 of the Doctrine and Covenants was received by the Prophet Joseph Smith shortly following the above meeting with Governor Dunklin, on June 22, 1834, while Zion's Camp was located on the Fishing River. It is amazing both for its brevity and for its vision of the future path that the Saints should take. Did the Lord counsel for the men to take quarellous action (similar to that proposed by Elder Pratt)? No. Instead, the men were counselled that they "should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion" [D&C 105: 9 & 13]. Instead of war, what the Lord wanted for His Church was leadership and priesthood preparation -- exactly what the Zion's Camp march was accomplishing: "That they themselves may be prepared, and that my people may be taught more perfectly, and have experience, and know more perfectly concerning their duty, and the things which I require at their hands" [D&C 105: 10].

Without a doubt, the temple endowment was the preparation, experience and more perfect teaching that the Lord desired then (as now) for his priesthood holders. The word "endowment" occurs only five times in all the holy scriptures. Three of the five times are found in Section 105 of the Doctrine and Covenants. D&C 105 is also the first time in all of scripture that the word "endowment" is mentioned. If the message of peace is repeated three times in D&C 105 (see verses 9, 13, and 19), the message of the importance of the endowment is also mentioned three times (see verses 12, 18, and 33).

As the Zion's Camp march progressed across Missouri, the army was schooled and drilled by an expert drill master, William Cherry, a native of Ireland, and veteran of the British dragoon service for 20 years. He taught the men how to engage in sword warfare among other things. Certainly the men had brought with them ample arms and amunition to carry out the task that many of them had imagined would be armed conflict in the Missouri wilderness. I believe that Joseph Smith's own actions leading up to the June 22nd revelation demonstrate that he too was of the opinion that now was the time for the Saints to stand up for their Constitutional rights in an assertive, armed confrontation. Those closest to the Prophet were at this time encouraging the use of force to regain their lands in Jackson County. The Lord's plan, however, was quite different. That Joseph chose peace is yet another testiment that he was receiving his instructions from on High, not from men or his own ego-driven ambitions.

Even before the march of Zion's Camp (in April 1834), the Prophet had shared a glimpse of God's plan for the future leadership of the Church: "I want to say to you before the Lord, that you know no more concerning the destinies of this Church and Kingdom than a babe upon its mother's lap. You don't comprehend it. It is only a little handful of Priesthood you see here tonight, but this Church will fill North and South America -- it will fill the world. It will fill the Rocky Mountains. There will be tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints who will be gathered in the Rocky Mountains and there they will open the door for the establishing of the Gospel among the Lamanites..." [Ivan J. Barrett, Joseph Smith and the Restoration, p. 278]. Men such as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson and Parley Pratt, and Wilford Woodruff, listening on that occasion, were years later to help fulfill that prophetic pronouncement made by Joseph Smith. Was the march of Zion's Camp a failure? Resoundingly not!