My brothers and sisters, my
talk was prepared some time
before the passing of
my dear wife, Barbara.
My family and I thank you for
your love and your outreach
and kindness.
I pray the Lord will bless me
as I speak to you this morning.
In October 1918, 100 years
ago, President Joseph F. Smith
received a glorious vision.
After almost 65 years of
dedicated service to the Lord
in The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints,
and just a few weeks before
his death on November 19, 1918,
he sat in his room pondering
Christ's atoning sacrifice
and reading the Apostle
Peter's description
of the Savior's ministry
in the spirit world
after His Crucifixion.
He recorded: "As I read
I was greatly impressed.
...
As I pondered over
these things ...
the eyes of my
understanding were opened,
and the Spirit of the
Lord rested upon me,
and I saw the
hosts of the dead."
The full text of the vision
is recorded in Doctrine
and Covenants section 138.
Let me provide some background
so that we may more fully
appreciate Joseph F.'s
lifetime of preparation
to receive this
remarkable revelation.
When he was President
of the Church,
he visited Nauvoo in
1906 and reflected
on a memory he had when he
was just five years old.
He said: "This is
the exact spot where
I stood when [Joseph, my
uncle, and my father, Hyrum]
came riding up on
their way to Carthage.
Without getting off his horse
father leaned over [from]
his saddle and picked
me up off the ground.
He kissed me goodbye
and put me down again
and I saw him ride away."
The next time
Joseph F. saw them,
his mother, Mary
Fielding, lifted him up
to see the martyrs
lying side by side
after being brutally murdered in
Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844.
Two years later, Joseph
F., along with his family
and faithful mother,
Mary Fielding Smith,
left his home in Nauvoo
for Winter Quarters.
Although not yet 8
years old, Joseph F.
was required to drive
one of the ox teams
from Montrose, Iowa,
to Winter Quarters
and then later on to
the Salt Lake Valley,
arriving when he was almost 10.
I hope you boys and
young men are listening
and will realize the
responsibility and expectation
placed on Joseph F.
during his boyhood.
Just four years later,
in 1852, when he was 13,
his beloved mother died--leaving
Joseph and his siblings
orphans.
Joseph F. was called
to serve a mission
in the Hawaiian Islands in
1854 when he was 15 years old.
This mission, which lasted
more than three years,
was the beginning of a life
of service in the Church.
Upon his return to Utah,
Joseph F. married in 1859.
For the next few
years, his life was
filled with work, family
duties, two additional missions.
And on July 1, 1866,
at the age of 27,
Joseph F.'s life
was forever changed
when he was ordained an Apostle
by President Brigham Young.
In October the following
year, he filled a vacancy
in the Council of the Twelve.
He served as a counselor to
Brigham Young, John Taylor,
Wilford Woodruff,
and Lorenzo Snow
before becoming President
himself in 1901.
Joseph F. and his wife Julina
welcomed their first child,
Mercy Josephine,
into the family.
She was only two and a half
years old when she passed away.
Shortly after,
Joseph F. recorded:
"It is one month yesterday since
my ... darling Josephine died.
O!
that I could have saved her
to grow up to womanhood.
I miss her every day
and I am lonely. ...
God forgive my weakness
if it is wrong to love
my little ones as I love them."
During his lifetime,
President Smith
lost his father, his mother,
one brother, two sisters,
two wives, and 13 children.
He was well acquainted with
sorrow and losing loved ones.
When his son Albert
Jesse died, Joseph F.
wrote to his sister Martha Ann
that he had pled with the Lord
to save him and
asked, "Why is it so?
O. God why had it to be?"
Despite his prayers at the time,
Joseph F. received no answer
on this matter.
He told Martha Ann that
"the heavens [seemed like]
brass over our heads" on the
subject of death and the spirit
world.
Nevertheless, his faith in
the Lord's eternal promises
was firm and steadfast.
In the Lord's due time, the
additional answers, comfort,
and understanding
about the spirit world
he sought came to
President Smith
through a marvelous vision
he received in October 1918.
That year was particularly
painful for him.
He grieved over the death
toll of the Great World War
that continued to climb up
over 20 million people that
were killed.
Additionally, a flu pandemic
was spreading around the world,
taking the lives of as
many as 100 million people.
During this year,
President Smith
also lost three more
precious family members.
Elder Hyrum Mack Smith of the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,
his firstborn son
and my grandfather,
died suddenly of a
ruptured appendix.
President Smith wrote: "I am
speechless--[numb] with grief!
...
My heart is broken; and
flutters for life! ...
O!
I loved him!
I will love him forever more.
And so it is and ever will be
with all my sons and daughters,
but he is my first born son,
the first to bring me the joy
and hope of an endless,
honorable name among men. ...
From the depths of my
soul I thank God for him!
But ...
O!
I needed him!
We all needed him!
He was most useful
to the Church.
...
And now ...
O!
what can I do!
O!
God help me!"
The next month, President
Smith's son-in-law,
Alonzo Kesler, died
in a tragic accident.
President Smith
noted in his journal,
"This most terrible and
heart-rending fatal accident,
has again cast a pall of gloom
over all [of] my family."
Seven months later,
in September 1918,
President Smith's
daughter-in-law
and my grandmother,
Ida Bowman Smith,
died after giving birth to her
fifth child, my Uncle Hyrum.
And so it was on
October 3, 1918,
having experienced intense
sorrow over the millions
who had died in the world
through war and disease
as well as the deaths of
his own family members,
President Smith received
the heavenly revelation
known as "the vision of the
redemption of the dead."
He alluded to the
revelation the following day
in the opening session
of general conference.
President Smith's health was
failing, yet he spoke briefly.
He said: "I will
not, I dare not,
attempt to enter upon
[the] many things
that are resting upon
my mind this morning,
and I shall postpone
until some future time,
the Lord be willing, my attempt
to tell you some of the things
that are in my mind, and
that dwell in my heart.
I have not lived alone
these [last] five months.
I have dwelt in the spirit
of prayer, of supplication,
of faith and of
determination; and I
have had my communication
with the Spirit of the Lord
continuously."
The revelation he received on
October 3 comforted his heart
and provided answers to
many of his questions.
We too can be comforted and
learn more about our own future
when we and our loved ones
die and go to the spirit world
by studying this
revelation and pondering
its significance in the way
we live our lives each day.
Among the many things
President Smith
saw was the Savior's visit
to the faithful in the spirit
world after His own
death on the cross.
From the vision I quote:
"But behold, from
among the righteous,
he organized his forces and
appointed messengers, clothed
with power and authority,
and commissioned
them to go forth and carry the
light of the gospel to them
that were in darkness, even
to all the spirits of men
[and women]; and thus was the
gospel preached to the dead.
...
"These were taught
faith in God, repentance
from sin, vicarious [baptisms
and] remission [for]
sins, the gift of the Holy
Ghost by the laying on of hands,
"And all other principles of
the gospel that were necessary
for them to know in order to
qualify themselves that they
might be judged according
to men in the flesh,
but live according to
God in the spirit. ...
"For the dead had looked
upon the long absence
of their spirits from
their bodies as a bondage.
"These the Lord taught,
and gave them power
to come forth, after his
resurrection from the dead,
to enter into his
Father's kingdom,
there to be crowned with
immortality and eternal life,
"And continue
thenceforth their labor
as had been promised
by the Lord,
and be partakers of
all blessings which
were held in reserve
for them that love him."
In the vision, President
Smith saw his father, Hyrum,
and the Prophet Joseph Smith.
It had been 74 years since
he had last seen them
as a small boy in Nauvoo.
We can only imagine his joy
at seeing his beloved father
and uncle.
He must have been
inspired and comforted
to know that all spirits
retain the likeness
of their mortal body and
that they are anxiously
awaiting the day of their
promised resurrection.
The vision revealed more
fully the depth and breadth
of Heavenly Father's
plan for His children
and Christ's redeeming
love and matchless
power of His Atonement.
On this special
100th anniversary,
I invite you to thoroughly
read and thoughtfully read
the revelation.
As you do so, may the Lord
bless you to more fully
understand and appreciate God's
love, His plan of salvation
and happiness for His children.
I testify that the vision
President Joseph F.
Smith received is true.
I bear witness that every
person can read it and come
to know it is true.
Those who do not receive
this knowledge in this life
will surely come to
know of its truthfulness
when everyone will arrive
in the spirit world.
There, all will love and praise
God and the Lord Jesus Christ
for the great plan of salvation,
the blessing of the promised
resurrection, when
body and spirit
will once again be united
never to be separated again.
How grateful I am today,
my brothers and sisters,
to know where my
precious Barbara is
and that we will
be together again
with our family
for all eternity.
May the peace of the
Lord sustain all of us
now and forever is
my humble prayer,
in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
