The Church Now and Then

Summer here at BYU is separated into two terms, the Spring Block and the Summer Block. What that means is that we teach a full semester in half the time so instead of teaching a class twice a week we teach it four times a week. I like the accelerated pace and how it keeps the students focused. I also like how it keeps me focused.

This semester I am teaching New Testament 212 which consists of Acts to Revelation. I love Peter and Paul and all the others we read about in the last half of the New Testament so I am excited about the semester. One of the most interesting things is to see how the early apostles established the Church in the meridian of time and how it parallels exactly the establishment of the Church in the latter-days. Acts to Revelation covers about 30 years of time and from 1830 to 1860 we see the same things happening in the modern Church. It is amazing, and a lot of fun to search out and take note of all the parallels! What a testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His Church.

Palmyra Here We Come

Mr. J and I are getting ready to return to Palmyra NY to be volunteers for two weeks at the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We leave bright and early Tuesday morning and will be there for two weeks. We did this last year and had a wonderful time so we decided to “re-up.” If any of you are going to the Pageant be sure and look us up. We will be at the Smith Farm.

In preparation I have been reading and reviewing Church history in the New York area and have enjoyed it so much. One of the books I re-read was The Lion and the Lamb by Rand Packer. It tells the story of Willard and Rebecca Bean who were called as missionaries in 1915 to live in the Smith frame home and re-establish a Latter-day Saint presence in Palmyra. The mission ended up lasting 24 years and the persecution they encountered during the first dozen years is unbelievable.

One day as Willard, who had been a United States middle weight boxing champion, walked down main street in Palmyra, a man watering his lawn said, “I understand you Mormons believe in baptism by immersion,” and turned the hose on Willard. While jumping over the picket fence, Willard responded, “Yes, and we also believe in the laying on of hands.” Willard was never “baptized” again.

As I return to my roots my heart is full. The feeling in the Sacred Grove is out of this world. I wish everyone in the world could taste of it.

I’ll keep you apprised of my adventures as often as I have Internet access! And thanks again for the kind comments. It is nice to know I’m not speaking into the air!

The Armies of Heaven

Each day just keeps getting better and better. Yesterday our shift didn’t start until 2:00 so Matt took us to Mendon in the morning. Most people don’t even go over there because there are no official sites, but Mendon is the place Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball heard the gospel. Brigham’s home is no longer there but his father’s home is standing in two places! Many years ago they divided the home and moved half across the street and then added on to both halves. The Chruch now owns the home and at one point moved the John Young threshing barn to the Smith farm where it now stands.

Even though there aren’t many artifacts in Mendon, it was well worth the time to visit. Shortly after the Book of Mormon was published, Joseph’s brother Samuel went on the first mission. He labored far and wide trying to get someone, anyone, to purchase a Book of Mormon but no one would. Returning home very discouraged because he had not sold one single book he stopped in Mendon for the night at the Tomlinson in where he found Phineas Young, Brigham’s brother who was interested in reading the book. So Samuel sold him a book and went on home. Phineas dropped most of his chores for two weeks and read the book and believed. He also told his brother Brigham about the book and he read it and was interested.

You all know what happened from there, but something very extraordinary occurred before Samuel ever got to Mendon. Years before, on the 22 day of September 1827, Brigham Young was living 45 miles east of Mendon in Port Byron and Heber C. Kimball was living near his father in Mendon. The two men didn’t even know each other at the time but something happened to both of them that night that would change their lives.

Heber explains that he suddenly saw white smoke rising toward heaven accompanied by the sound of a mighty wind. The smoke moved across the sky, arched like a rainbow that stretched toward the western horizon. It grew wide, changed to a bluish color, and then grew transparent. As Heber, his wife Vilate, and family members and several neighbors watched, a large, commanding army suddenly began to march in platoons across the sky from east to west. “We could distinctly see the muskets, bayonets and knapsacks of the men,” Heber recorded, “and also saw their officers with their swords and equipage, and [heard] the clashing and jingling of their implements of war, and could discover the forms and features of the men. The most profound order existed throughout the entire army; when the foremost man stepped, every man stepped at the same time; I could hear the steps. When the front rank reached the western horizon a battle ensued, as we could distinctly hear the report of arms and the rush.

“No man could judge of my feelings when I beheld that army of men, as plainly as ever I saw armies of men in the flesh; it seemed as though every hair of my head was alive. This scenery we gazed upon for hours, until it began to disappear.”

Brigham and his wife Miriam saw the same thing in Port Byron and he recorded that the vision was perfectly clear, and that it remained for several hours.

What the Youngs and Kimballs did not know at the time is that on that day, the 22 day of September 1827, a man neither of them knew at the time, Joseph Smith, went to the Hill Cumorah and received the gold plates from the angel Moroni that he then translated and which we now know as the Book of Mormon. A lot of adversity paved the way for us to have this gospel, but there were also a lot of miracles.

Yesterday as we stood on the Young farm which is now acres of rolling farm land bordered by green forest, the trees framed a wide expanse of blue sky filled with white puffy clouds, and it was easy to picture the giant panorama in the sky that the Youngs and Kimballs saw. It was a little more difficult to imagine what they must have felt as they witnessed the armies of heaven going forth to battle.

(The top picture is one half of John Young's home with its additions. The second picture is the Tomlinson Inn where Samuel sold Phineas Young a Book of Mormon, and the last picture is a view of the fields and sky where Heber and Vilate would have seen the vision of the armies. Imagine those clouds as an army!)

My Amazing Day

I can’t even begin to express the miracle and wonder of yesterday. A few days ago while working I met a seminary teacher coordinator from Syracuse, NY, who knows all about the history of this area and he volunteered to take Mr. J and I to Harmony, Pennsylvania and show us the sights down there. So yesterday we went to the Farm for our shift at 8:00, had an amazing day (as usual) and even met several people from back home. When we got off our shift at 2:00 we met Matt and drove to Harmony, the place where the Prophet Joseph met Emma and where he and Oliver Cowdery were baptized.

It is over a two hour drive to Harmony so all the way down Matt taught us Church history. I thought I knew Church history but he was telling us stories I’ve never heard, and I can’t wait to research and learn more about them. There were some very interesting things I’ll share later. But back to yesterday. We arrived in Oakland, PA, which is what used to be Harmony and stood on the land that Joseph bought near his father-in-law and where Emma and Joseph lived while he translated the Book of Mormon. The house is gone, but you can still see what must have been foundation stones. We then went down the street a little to see where Emma’s parent’s home stood. Isaac Hale was a prominent man who owned a very large parcel of land. I had never realized before what prosperity she gave up to go against her parent’s wishes and marry Joseph. The Hale home was large, and the land fertile and beautiful.

Near the home sites is the cemetery where Emma’s parents are buried and Emma’s first child, Alvin. Behind Emma and Joseph’s home site is the Susquehanna River where Joseph and Oliver Cowdery prayed and John the Baptist appeared to restore the Aaronic priesthood and where they were baptized. The river is much larger than I imagined and flows gently. At the spot we were in the river has carved out an area in the shore to form a pool of water that doesn’t flow much. I waded into the water to find that the river bottom is all rocks—no sand or soil—and the water surprisingly warm.

Matt next took us to some homes most tourists never get to see. Historians have discovered where Josiah Stowell and Joseph Knight lived and their homes are still standing. Both men were very affluent and influential. You will remember that Joseph Knight hired Joseph to build a well and later Josiah Stowell hired Joseph to dig on his property for Spanish treasure. While working for Stowell, Joseph boarded with Isaac Hale and that is when the love story of Joseph and Emma began. That much of the story I knew and figured the three homes were near each other, but Stowell and Knight lived in Colesville which is about 30 miles away.

Some people have purchased the Knight and Stowell homes and are restoring them to their original condition and Matt had access to both homes. It was electric! Joseph stayed in both those places many  times. Most significant is that he and Emma honeymooned in the Stowell home after Josiah Stowell helped the couple elope. In their day the homes were the largest and best with beautiful wide, plank floors and several bedrooms upstairs. Again, it made me think of all the sacrifices Emma made to support and be a help to Joseph.

Palmyra was the cradle of the restoration of the Church, but Colesville was the place of the first converts. Joseph preached often in a large barn owned by Joseph Knight and it was there that the first branch of the Church was formed (Joseph baptized Emma in a pond near the Knight home) and it was those saints that proved to be some of the strongest and most loyal of the early Church. I felt it such an honor to stand where they had stood. I found myself wish those old walls could speak and tell me all they knew! The well Joseph and his father built has been restored and the restoration people reported that when they dug down and found the original rock work it was very well done.

We next went to the county fairgrounds to see where the home once stood where Joseph and Emma were married. The home is long gone, but there is a metal historical marker posted by the NY preservation society that was put up when the home was still standing. It says that it is the place where the Mormon founder Joseph Smith married Emily [sic] Hale.

Finally we headed back to the motel and arrived at midnight. It was a long day, but amazing. We saw and felt the places where Joseph and Emma met and married, where the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods were restored, and where the first saints were converted and baptized.

I wish you had all been here with me! But I hope you'll enjoy the pictures. To get the bigger feel of the place imagine being surrounded with small mountains covered in dense forest and everywhere you look shades of green with small wandering roads and old, old homes still lived in and cared for. Close your eyes and see the wide Susquehanna River gently snaking through the valley, and on it Joseph traveling between the Hale's estate and Colesville in a canoe to see Emma and to attend the school where she taught. (I love romantic stories!)