12: "The Gathering of My People"

Reading Assignment for March 31, 2013 Centennial Ward Gospel Doctrine Class


Class Member Study Guide: Lesson 11. Class Member Reading Assignment

 Our Heritage: 16-23, 37-39 

11: The Field Is White Already to Harvest

Class Member Study Guide:  Lesson 11.  Reading Assignment

Samuel Smith's Early 1830 Missionary Efforts Brought Many to the LDS Church

Brigham Young and his brother Phineas. John P. Greene and Phineas Young joined the Church as a result of Samuel Smith’s missionary labors. Samuel was also indirectly responsible for the conversion of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball through the copy of the Book of Mormon given to Phineas Young.

Parley P. Pratt (1807–57), converted through the Book of Mormon, became one of the Church’s leading theologians and a member of the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He was assassinated in Arkansas in 1857.

John Lyon Pioneer Poet

My great, great grandfather--John Lyon--joined the LDS church in 1844, just 14 years after these early missionaries went out into the field in 1830 and months before Joseph Smith was martyred for his beliefs.  He was called on a mission himself by Orson Pratt, an early convert.  The red link above takes you to a audio recording created by BYU about early LDS poets.  It gives a biography of his life. The biography emphasizes the personal value to all members of the church of early missionary efforts.  Considering that the first missionaries were sent to England in 1837, the gospel reaches my great, great grandfather only 7 years after missionaries arrive.

 

A Little Under Half the Missionaries Pictures Here Arrived on One Day--March 8, 2013--in the Canada Vancouver Mission

 

There Have Been about 25 Sister Missionaries in Danielle's Mission at Any One Time.  11 New Sisters Arrived on One Day--March 8, 2013

 Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve related the following experience:

It’s easy to say, ‘The time isn’t right.’ But there is danger in procrastination. Years ago I worked for a man in California. He hired me; he was kind to me; he seemed to regard me highly. I may have been the only Latter-day Saint he ever knew well. I don’t know all the reasons I found to wait for a better moment to talk with him about the gospel. I just remember my feeling of sorrow when I learned, after he had retired and I lived far away, that he and his wife had been killed in a late-night drive to their home in Carmel, California. He loved his wife. He loved his children. He had loved his parents. He loved his grandchildren, and he will love their children and will want to be with them forever.

“Now, I don’t know how the crowds will be handled in the world to come. But I suppose that I will meet him, that he will look into my eyes, and that I will see in them the question, ‘Hal, you knew. Why didn’t you tell me?’” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1998, 42; or Ensign, Nov. 1998, 33).

 

 What Should We Teach When We Act as Missionaries?
 

          D & C 11:9

9 ^aSay nothing but ^brepentance unto this generation. Keep my commandments, and assist to bring forth my ^cwork, ^daccording to my commandments, and you shall be blessed. (Hyrum, May 1829, Har. Penn. After restoration of Aaronic Priesthood)

D & C 15:6

 6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to ^adeclare ^brepentance unto this people, that you may bring ^csouls unto me, that you may ^drest with them in the ^ekingdom of my ^fFather. Amen. ( John Whitmer, Fayetter, NY June 1829)

D & C 31:3-4

 3 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare ^aglad tidings of great joy unto this generation.

 4 You shall ^adeclare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun. You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is ^bwhite already to be burned. (Thomas B. Marsh, Sept 1830, Conf. Aug Baptized, elder)

         D & C  33: 10-11

10 Yea, open your mouths and they shall be filled, saying: ^aRepent, repent, and prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for the ^bkingdom of heaven is at hand;

 11 Yea, ^arepent and be baptized, every one of you, for a ^bremission of your sins; yea, be baptized even by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost. (Ezra Thayre, Northrop Sweet, Fayette, NY Oct 1830.  Lord willing to instruct)

 12 And again, the ^aelders, priests and teachers of this church shall ^bteach the principles of my gospel, which are in the Bible and the ^cBook of Mormon, in the which is the ^dfulness of the ^egospel. (Elders called to preach the gospel, called ordained to teach principles in the scriptures Kirtland, Oh Feb 1831).

           D & C 52: 8-9

 8 And also my servant John Murdock, and my servant Hyrum Smith, take their journey unto the same place by the way of Detroit.

 9 And let them journey from thence preaching the word by the way, saying ^anone other things than that which the ^bprophets and apostles have written, and that which is taught them by the ^cComforter through the prayer of faith. (to elders of Church. Conf. Kirtland, Oh Jun 1831.  First ordained to office of high priest.)

Additional Historical Reading to Bring Insight into Early Church Missionary Efforts

Link to Church History Institute Student Manual: Chapter Six--Scroll for a bit to Early Missionary Labors and Conversions Heading.

Our Heritage:  Samuel Smith Missionary Work, Page 11