The Latter-Day Prophet: History of Joseph Smith Written for Young People

by George Q. Cannon

On the 2nd of January, 1831, a conference was held at Fayette, being the third since the Church was organized. It was a glorious time for the assembled Saints, for besides the regular instruction a revelation came from the Lord telling them that He would give them a land of promise and that they should possess it eternally. He promised, too, that He would come at a future day and rule as King.

According to the instruction of the Lord, Joseph set out from Fayette in the latter part of January for Ohio. The Saints were to follow in the spring, and it was necessary to find out the conditions and prepare for them. He was accompanied by his wife and by Sidney Rigdon and Edward Partridge. They all reached Kirtland in safety and immediately after, on February 4th, 1831, according to a revelation, Joseph ordained Edward Partridge to be the first Bishop in the Church.

The Prophet now made his home with Newel K. Whitney and occupied himself in translating the scriptures, receiving revelation, discerning and casting out false spirits and guiding the Church. Since the Prophet obtained so many revelations now it might be well to describe how one was given. Parley P. Pratt and others say that it was dictated by Joseph to the person writing, slowly and distinctly, sentence after sentence. When one part was spoken the Prophet paused until it was written. If written correctly it seemed to vanish from his mind and the next was spoken. If a mistake was made by the scribe, the Prophet did not go on until it was corrected. There was no hesitation in going forward, and no changes were made after the revelation was written.

A conference of the Church was held at Kirtland June 6, 1831, and all the Elders and Saints that could be gathered together were present. The Holy Ghost was made manifest in its workings upon the Prophet and many of the Elders. The spirit of evil was also shown to be present, but as soon as discerned it was rebuked in the name of the Lord Jesus, and vanished. The High Priesthood, a degree of the Melchizedek higher than the Elder, was conferred for the first time on a number of faithful men.

On the day after the Kirtland conference the Prophet was directed to set apart a number of the Elders for missionary work. They were to travel westward two by two until they reached Missouri, preaching the Gospel on the way. It was promised that the next conference of the Church would be held in Missouri on the land that the Lord had appointed for Zion. About thirty Elders were called, only two of these being sent eastward.

On the nineteenth day of June, 1831, Joseph left Kirtland for the West in company with Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris, Edward Partridge, Joseph Coe, W. W. Phelps, and A. S. Gilbert and wife. They crossed the State of Ohio by stage and boats and took steamer from Cincinnati down the Ohio river to Louisville, Kentucky. After a delay of three days they again sailed down the Ohio to the Mississippi and up that river to St. Louis. The party divided here; Joseph and Elders Partridge, Harris, Phelps and Coe crossed Missouri to Independence, Jackson county, by foot, and the others sailed up the Missouri river.

The meeting between Joseph and Oliver and the Elders with each was a very happy one. For nine months they had been separated and now they were united again, a thousand miles from where they parted. They saw one another full of faith and zeal for the progress of the Lord's work, and they wept with joy.

They stood upon the land of Zion, and realized that it was holy ground, for here the new Jerusalem, the celestial city, shall be built. They looked upon it, too, as the immediate gathering place of the Saints and rejoiced at its goodliness. The land was a prairie of deep, fertile soil and covered with a fragrant and many-colored growth of flowers. Along the edges of the streams, timber in great abundance and variety grew, and scattered among this was an underbrush and shrubbery that bore grapes, nuts, crab-apples, persimmons and berries of all kinds.

The land was indeed beautiful, and was a fit gathering place for the Saints. By their industry they would, if unmolested, build up a great civilization there and make it indeed a Zion. The future seemed very bright. Joseph and his companions knew that the Lord had promised the land to His people as an eternal inheritance, but fortunately they did not know of the deeds of violence, the murders and awful crimes to be committed there before the Saints should build the holy city of peace.

August 2, 1831, under Joseph's direction, Sidney Rigdon dedicated the land of Zion by prayer as the gathering place of the Saints, and at the same time twelve men, in honor of the twelve tribes of Israel, carried and set in place a log for the first house to be built there. This was twelve miles west of Independence, about where Kansas City, Missouri, now stands. On the following day Joseph dedicated the spot where the temple is to be built, a little west of Independence. Eight men were present.