Wednesday, August 17, 2022

House of the Lord

For those of you unfamiliar with our beliefs, we thought it appropriate to share a bit of background on the temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in order to give you a better understanding and appreciation of their importance to us.



A Temple-Building People


As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we are a temple-building and temple-loving people. It has been so from the earliest days of the Church. Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord declared that my people are always commanded to build temples unto the Lord (Doctrine & Covenants 124:39-40).  For us, the temple is the House of the Lord and the most sacred place on earth.



Temples are different from the thousands of Church meetinghouses located around the world. Meetinghouses are where Sunday worship services, youth gatherings, service projects, and other community events take place. All are welcome to join in these activities.

Temples have a more specific purpose. They are places specially set apart for sacred service and ceremonies. They are designated by the Lord and dedicated to His purposes. Temples are the only places where some priesthood ordinances are authorized to be performed. These sacred ceremonies lift and inspire participants as they make commitments to follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ.

The Architect

On January 19, 1841, Joseph Smith received direction from the Lord to build a house unto the Lord in Nauvoo.

The original Nauvoo Temple was an inspired masterpiece of architecture and craftsmanship. The Prophet Joseph Smith, through divine direction,  directed the design work while architect William Weeks translated those directions into drawings and workable plans.  

Raised in a family of builders, William Weeks worked with his father and brother on building projects in the American northeast and south.  


Joseph Smith received many instructions about the temple by revelation, and he was considered the chief architect for the temple. Weeks then drew up the detailed plans and supervised construction. However, the two did not always agree on the building details. For example, when Joseph instructed William that the office windows on the middle floors should be round, William objected, saying that the building was too short for that style of window. Joseph replied, “I wish you to carry out my designs. I have seen in vision the splendid appearance of that building illuminated, and will have it built according to the pattern shown me.” William complied, and the temple was, of course, built with round windows.




Above two photos depict the round windows Weeks objected to.



Weeks would have used drawing tools like these to create the drawings below.


Drafting table in the actual home of William Weeks.




Unfortunately, the Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo before the temple was completed. Brigham Young called William and his family to go with the first groups in early 1846, and responsibility for finishing the temple was transferred to Truman Angell. Brigham wanted William and his family to be in the vanguard company of pioneers so that he could begin work on a new temple as soon as the Saints were settled in their new home. This plan, however, was never fulfilled.


Shortly after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, William and his family separated from the Church. The source of the conflict is uncertain.  The family moved back to the Midwest for five years before returning to Utah and the Church for a few years. However, the family moved to California in 1857, and there is no evidence of their participation in Church activities there.


Through all of these changes, William maintained a love for Joseph Smith and the gospel. He kept his drawings of the Nauvoo Temple and passed them down to his daughter, Caroline Weeks Griffin. She in turn passed them on to her son, Leslie. 


The drawings would have remained in obscurity if not for a “chance” meeting in 1948, when Elders Thacker and Griffon were serving in the small desert town of Boron, California, knocked on the door of Leslie and Zetta Griffin. The missionaries built a good relationship with the Griffins, and Leslie, who was not a member of the Church, told the elders that they had William’s original architectural drawings of the Nauvoo temple. The Griffins felt strongly that the drawings should be returned to the Church. They asked one of the elders, who was returning home to Utah in a few days, to give the drawings to the Church archives. Years later these same drawings were instrumental in rebuilding the Nauvoo Temple. 



Elders Thacker and Griffon


House of the Lord


On May 16, 1845, Brigham Young decided to have a dedication plaque made for the temple.  It was placed high above the west entryway of the temple.  In gold gild lettering the inscription on the stone plaque read:


HOUSE OF THE LORD

Built by

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST

OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

Commenced April 6, 1841

HOLINESS TO THE LORD


Temple Ordinances


In the temple, sacred ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ are performed.  Consequently, we view the temple as a spiritual haven where we can feel a special closeness to God.


God commanded Joseph Smith in 1841 to build a temple at Nauvoo, Illinois. “Let this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people,”  (Doctrine & Covenants 124:40). For the next four years, the Saints worked mightily on the temple. “The Church is not fully organized, in its proper order, and cannot be,” Joseph taught the Saints of Nauvoo, “until the Temple is completed.”


The temple would serve as a house for religious assembly, instruction, and ordinances. Joseph taught the doctrine of baptism on behalf of the dead in April 1840. This ordinance, Joseph taught, should be performed only in the temple. The news that members could be baptized for their deceased relatives was received with jubilation. Why were they so excited?  Because as Jesus Christ Himself taught as recorded in the New Testament,“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” (John 3:5) and now the early Saints would have the opportunity to have those sacred ordinances performed for their kindred dead who had not had the opportunity to be baptized for themselves.


We simply cannot imagine the joy, the peace, the comfort and the hope that the early Saints, virtually all who lost one or more members of their family to cholera, malaria or accident,  must have felt when Joseph first taught of the doctrine of baptisms for the dead. 


Apostle Paul referred explicitly to the practice of vicarious baptisms for the dead in 1 Corinthians 15:29;  


Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?


This doctrine certainly strengthened the Saints’ understanding that they were participating in a restoration of primitive Christianity. 




The font rests on the back of twelve oxen, with three of them facing toward each direction of the compass as was done in the temple of Jerusalem as described in 1 Kings 7:23-26 in the Old Testament.


Joseph Smith explained that the Lord commanded that the baptismal font be placed below ground level in order for it to symbolized the death and resurrection of the recipient of the ordinance.


We continue to perform these sacred ordinances for our deceased ancestors that they may enjoy the blessings of the gospel throughout the eternities.


The most important of the restored ordinances was that of temple marriages known as the sealing power.  This ordinance binds a couple and their children together throughout eternity.


A little side note for you ~ after the early Saints installed the twelve stone oxen and filled the stone font with water, the hooves of the oxen sank a bit into the floor.   So as a tribute to the courage and faith of the early saints, when the temple was rebuilt it included recessing the hooves of the stone oxen into the floor.  Kind'a cool, don't ya think?


Sacrifices of the Saints


Because the early Saints were so poor, men tithed their time by working on the temple one day in ten. Some were willing to work longer for food - or for no pay at all. Mercy Fielding Thompson and Mary Fielding Smith encouraged the sisters to pledge one penny a week to buy glass and nails for the temple, and the women organized to provide clothes for the workmen.


Before the temple was completed, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred at Carthage Jail. Mobs attacked and burned the Saints’ homes in Nauvoo - the Saints knew that they would have to leave their homes once again. Nevertheless, they did not stop working on the temple. They were determined to finish it and receive the temple ordinances before leaving Nauvoo. Consequently, portions of the temple were dedicated as they were completed. The lowest level, containing the baptismal font, had been dedicated in 1841 so that baptisms could be performed while construction continued.


The early Saints in Nauvoo made great sacrifices to built the original Nauvoo temple.  They were willing to make such sacrifices so that they could receive all those blessings, for themselves and their kindred dead, that could be attained only in the House of the Lord.


For example, on July 7, 1845, Giuseppe Taranto, a native of Sardinia and the first known Italian convert to the Church, arrived in Nauvoo and gave $2,500 in twenty-dollar gold pieces to Brigham Young.  He told brother Brigham that he simply wanted to give himself and all that he had for the upbuilding of the Church and the Kingdom of God.


In fall 1845, the Latter-day Saints faced harassment and intense pressure to leave Illinois, but they were determined to finish the temple so that worthy Saints could receive temple ordinances before leaving for the West. They raced to finish the temple and dedicated the attic in December 1845 for the purpose of administering marriage sealings and the endowment.


Though portions of the temple were unfinished, the entire temple was dedicated on May 1, 1846. Forced to abandon the temple, Church leaders decided to sell it to help finance the Church’s migration to the Great Basin but were unable to do so.


Temple Security


From the time of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, security of the temple construction was a major concern to the Saints.  In August 1844, less than two months after their murders, Brigham Young declared: “We want to build the Temple in this place, if we have to build it, as the Jews built the walls of the Temple in Jerusalem, with a sword in one hand and the trowel in the other,” (HC 7:256).  He would later recount that, when the work on the temple began anew, the Saints did so “with fire arms at hand, and a strong band of police,” (Journal of Discourses, 2:32).


Destruction of the Temple


In 1848, a few years after the Saints were driven from Nauvoo, an arsonist set fire to the Nauvoo temple gutting most of the interior.  In the spring of 1849 a community of nearly 300 French emigrants, called the Icarians, settled in Nauvoo attracted by the largely deserted city.  They planned to refit the temple ruins into a school, study halls and dinning hall.  Work began in early 1850; however, on May 27, 1850 a tornado swept through Nauvoo knocking down one of the temple walls and damaging the others.




Temple Rebuilt


Plans to rebuild the Nauvoo Temple were announced on April 4, 1999, by then Church President Gordon B. Hinckley and ground was broken on October 24, 1999.


The 54,000 square foot temple is situated on the original 3.3 acre temple block.  Just as in the original temple, there are five floors and a basement level in the temple.


Thanks to the miraculous finding of William Weeks’ original drawings, the temple’s exterior is a near duplicate of the original temple exterior.  The limestone, quarried in Alabama, is indistinguishable from the stone used on the original temple.


The height of the temple, to the top of the angel Moroni statute, is 162’ 5”.


Interior staircases are situated in each of the temple’s four corners.  The circular staircase in the south west corner of the temple is a close replica as one in the original temple.


The window glass, made in France and Germany, is the same type of glass made in the late 1700s and early 1800s.  Each circular window on the fourth floor contains a large star made of red, white and blue colored glass, as did the original windows.



The temple was dedicated on June 27, 2002, 158 years following the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum.


Symbols of the Temple


To early Church members, the sun breaking through clouds symbolized the dawning of the Restoration and the coming of gospel light to illuminate a dark earth. It is little wonder, then, that sunstones were featured prominently on the Nauvoo Temple. Above each sun are two hands holding trumpets, heralding the dawning of the gospel in this dispensation.



The walls of the temple featured 30 pilasters, each with a moonstone at the base and a sunstone at the top. A sunstone served as the capital, or head, of each pilaster. A star stone was placed above each sunstone. The order of the stones recalled the woman described in Revelation 12, “clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1).


Benjamin Mitchell and Charles Lambert carved the first sunstones. Lambert was a skilled stonecutter from Yorkshire, England. After he was baptized in England, he decided to go to Nauvoo. Lambert recorded in his autobiography about the day after he arrived in Nauvoo: “I went up to the Temple [and] saw there was work for me.” He went to those in charge and offered his skills. They told him, “If you can work we can do with your work, but we have nothing to give you.” He replied, “I have not come here to work for pay. I have come to help to build that house,” pointing to the Nauvoo Temple.


He records, “I worked and finished the first capital [sunstone] and part of eleven others. I [committed] with [Brother William] Player that I would stick to the temple pay or no pay until finished and did. I quarried and worked the last stone called the capstone.”


The first sunstone was installed on September 23, 1844. The sunstones were six feet high and six and a half feet wide at the top.


Only two complete original sunstones are known to exist. The first, owned by the state of Illinois, is displayed on the grounds of the Nauvoo Visitors’ Center. The second was purchased by the Smithsonian Institution from the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County. It is currently on display in a prominent position in the Museum of American History and Technology. 



Moonstones decorated the base of the pillars surround the Nauvoo Temple.  These crescent moons, carved with faces that were turned towards the ground, were identified as “new moons.”  They were very important in ancient Israel for indicating the proper time of certain temple festivals such as Rosh Hashanah or New Year.



Redemption of the Temple


The redemption of the temple began in 1937, when the Church acquired a large parcel of the original temple block. Eventually all of the original land was purchased.


At the April 1999 general conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley made the dramatic announcement that the Nauvoo Temple would be rebuilt. At the cornerstone ceremony, President Boyd K. Packer said, “The temple was destroyed and burned, and the stones of the temple were scattered like the bones had been cremated, and the temple, in effect, was dead. . . . So the temple died. But now, this day, it has come to a resurrection. The Temple stands here again.”





One of our fondest memories of serving in Nauvoo and Carthage is the Nauvoo Temple itself and the sacrifices the early Saints made in order to received the blessings that could only be obtained in the temple.  Due to the kindness of the temple presidency and all of the many temple Ordinance Workers, we, along with all of our fellow missionaries, were able to attend the temple at least weekly where the spirit was always strong.


Enjoying Visits to the Temple with Friends








Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Spring has come to Carthage … well at least for a day or two as thunder storms are expected later this week … it just starting raining … no wait, its just stopped and the sun is shining.  So typical for out here!



We are happy to let everyone know that we are now serving in Carthage where we have been serving for the past three weeks and where we will complete our mission on June 1.  


Carthage is more than just a special place, to us, as well as for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this is a sacred place.  This is where the Prophet Joseph Smith, like many prophets in ancient times, along with his brother Hyrum, sealed their testimonies and their works with their own blood dying as martyrs in Carthage Jail.  We hope you will enjoy reading the following for some background and historical context of it all.





Following the First Vision in 1820, Joseph Smith devoted his life to the Lord, Jesus Christ, and His Church. He received new scripture, organized and led the Lord’s restored Church, and guided the Saints efforts to establish Zion. Legal proceedings, including imprisonment, trials, and mob violence were not unknown to the Prophet. But in the first six months of 1844, events came in rapid succession, firing tensions that eventually exploded across western Illinois, culminating in the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail. 


CARTHAGE JAIL


Carthage Jail was Hancock county’s first jail and was built in 1839. (Ironically it was in 1839 when Joseph purchased Commerce later named Nauvoo.) The jail was made of limestone from a nearby quarry and cost the county $4,105 to build. For over twenty-five years, the county used the structure as a jail. Mostly it housed debtors and petty thieves, but occasionally it held more violent offenders. 


The jail was only about five years old when Joseph and Hyrum were incarcerated and was built in a similar pattern as other jails of the time, with cells on both the main floor and the upstairs.


In 1866, a new owner converted the jail into a home. 


The Church purchased the jail in 1903 under the direction of Joseph F. Smith, then president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was the son of Hyrum Smith and who was killed there and who was just six years old at the time of his father's martyrdom.  


In 1934 the local mission president called a couple to serve at the site and provide tours of the building. Over the years, numerous renovations were made to the building. In 1989 the building was fully restored to its original 1844 appearance.


FURNISHINGS


The furnishings currently in the Carthage Jail cannot be traced to the jail during the time of the martyrdom. However, they are period pieces and were selected and situated simply to help visitors understand what the jail may have looked like in June 1844. Though none of the furniture is tied to the tragic events that occurred here, the building itself stands as a witness to the events of June 27, 1844. Much of the building’s material is original and meticulously restored to its 1844 appearance. 


JAILOR GEORGE W. STIGALL


Little is known about the jailer, George W. Stigall. However, we do know that he and his wife and their seven children lived here and were responsible for housing and feeding any prisoners who were unable to provide their own meals. Because Nauvoo was about a six hour horse back ride to Carthage, Joseph and the others meals were provided by the jailer.  In his journal John Taylor later wrote that Stigall, and his wife, “manifested a disposition to make us as comfortable as they could; we ate at their table, which was well provided, and, of course, paid for it.”   It was common practice in the mid-nineteenth century for prisoners to provide their own food, clothing, etc., which, of course, the prisoners paid for. 



Dinning area of the jail.



Food preparation table in the kitchen of the jail.


Family gathering area and kitchen.



1844 stove ...



Staircase to the attic where the jailers seven children slept.


Jail Grounds


Joseph and Hyrum Smith left Nauvoo at 6:00 pm and arrived in Carthage near midnight on Monday evening, June 24, 1844. So, their first night in Carthage was not at the jail, but in a rented room near the town square. The next day they appeared before a judge at the courthouse, which is just two blocks southeast of the jail. Several other men came with them. The judge set the date for a hearing on charges of riot.  The judge released them on $500 bail each.  Before they could leave town Joseph and Hyrum were charged with treason, which was a capital offense that prevented the men from being released on bail, which is why they were confined overnight in the Carthage jail. 



Original painting by Valoy Eaton hanging in the visitors' center.


Criminal Cell


Joseph and Hyrum, along with eight of their friends who were not charged with treason, only spent a few hours in the criminal cell on the second floor on Tuesday before being moved downstairs to the debtor’s cell. The criminal cell had a larger role to play on Thursday, June 27. It was here that Willard Richards moved the wounded John Taylor, who had been shot four times during the attack.  Willard had hoped to conceal him should the mob return by placing a mattress on top of him. 



Pictured above and below ~ the criminal cell has three small slits for windows.



Criminal cell where Joseph and the others were initially incarcerated ~ they were not put in shackles.


Willard Richards hid the wounded John Taylor under the mattress in the criminal cell to hide him after the initial attack just in case the mob returned to kill him.



Door to the entrance to the criminal cell area.


Debtor’s Cell 


George Stigall first imprisoned Joseph and Hyrum in the “criminal’s cell” upstairs, but then he moved them to the debtor’s cell, often referred to as the “debtor’s apartment” where there was more room for their friends to visit. Eight other men were with the Prophet and his brother on the night of June 25, 1844—John Taylor, Willard Richards, John P. Greene, Stephen Markham, Dan Jones, John S. Fullmer, Lorenzo Wasson, and a Dr. Southwick. 


Throughout the night the angry mob continued to gather around the jail shouting profanities and threats against Jospeh and the others.  Because of the cell’s location on the ground floor and its large windows, Stigall felt the group would be safer by moving them upstairs into his personal bedroom on Wednesday, June 26. 



Entrance to debtor's cell.


JAILER’S BEDROOM


On Thursday, June 27, 1844, about 5:00 P.M. the jailer suggested that the four men—Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Willard Richards, and John Taylor—might be safer if they went back into the criminal cell at the back of the second floor. Joseph indicated that they would do so after supper.  Moments later the jailer  was sent to deliver a message and consequently he was not in the jail when the mob attacked. His family members later recalled quickly seeking safety at a neighboring home.

A few moments later, a noise was heard outside, followed by three or four gunshots.

Willard Richards looked out the window and saw a large group of men with painted faces. The mob ran up the steep stairs and began firing. 

The prisoners pushed the door shut and leaning against it with all their weight tried to keep the mob out. John Taylor used Stephen Markham’s large hickory cane, called the “rascal beater”, and Willard Richards used John Taylor’s cane to beat down rifle barrels sticking between the door and door casing. A bullet fired through the door hitting Hyrum on the left side of the nose. Another ball, coming through the window, hit him in the back almost simultaneously.  

John Taylor ran to the window and was then hit in the back of the left thigh.  He went numb, fell into the window sill and then fell back onto the floor.  In an act of desperation he rolled himself under the bed for protection and while doing so he was shot three more times.


These are the original stairs that the mob ran up in search of Joseph.


"Greater Love Hath No Man" by Casey Childs


After being shot in the back of the left thigh Apostle John Taylor rolled under bed. He was shot three more times.

Joseph ran to the window, was shot twice in the back, paused for a moment,  cried out, “Oh Lord, my God,” and was then shot from outside the jail being stuck just below the heart and fell out the window head first, landing next to the well.


The top window is the window from which Joseph fell after being shot three times and landing next to the well below.


Joseph, the Prophet, was dead. Hyrum, the Patriarch was also dead. The Apostle John Taylor was seriously wounded. Willard Richards miraculously escaped with just a minor scratch to the left ear lobe.

Thus ended the long odyssey that had taken Joseph Smith within a period of thirty-eight and a half years from his birth on 23 December 1805, in Sharon, Vermont; first to western New York; to northern Pennsylvania; to Kirtland, Ohio; to Missouri—first to Independence and eventually to Far West—and then to Liberty Jail; from there to Quincy, Illinois; to Nauvoo; and on to Carthage.

John Taylor would later write; “Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. …

“[His] innocent blood … is an ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts of honest men among all nations” (D&C 135:3, 7).

Willard Richards and John Taylor lived to bear witness not only of the events that occurred in the jail, but also of the prophetic ministry of Joseph Smith. Their eyewitness accounts are the basis for the published tribute now known as Section 135 of the Doctrine and Covenants. 


What Happened to Joseph and Hyrum’s Bodies? 


The governor’s aides returned to Carthage and helped to clean the bodies of the fallen martyrs. Two roughhewn oak coffins were hastily made, and with the bodies laid in them, they were taken to Nauvoo. On Saturday, June 29, the Mansion House opened its doors to thousands of Latter-day Saints who came to pay their last respects to their Prophet and Patriarch. 


Threats to steal Joseph and Hyrum’s bodies led to them being secretly buried in the basement of the unfinished Nauvoo House. Years later they were moved to their final resting place located in the Smith family cemetery near the Homestead along the banks of the Mississippi River. 



God bless the memory of Joseph and Hyrum Smith who died here in Carthage. It is always with loving gratitude that we sing Praise to the Man;

Great is his glory and endless his priesthood.

Ever and ever the keys he will hold.

Faithful and true, he will enter his kingdom,

Crowned in the midst of the prophets of old.


VISITOR EXPERIENCES


Each tour of Carthage is a blessing not only to our visitors, but to us as well.  Let us mention just two of the many powerful spiritual experiences we have already enjoyed here in Carthage.


First, we had only been serving in Carthage for a week or so when we gave a tour to a group of youth.  It was a seminary class from El Paso, Texas.  Their seminary teacher along with a few parents drove all the way from El Paso to give the class the opportunity to visit Nauvoo and Carthage Jail for the first time in their lives.



Seminary class from El Paso, Texas.


As we concluded the tour in the jailers bedroom there was not a dry eye to be found anywhere.  Not only the teacher, the parents and the young sisters, but even the burley young men athletes were all in tears. It was a powerful spiritual experience for all of us!


Just a few days ago we were privileged to give an in person tour to two families from India.  This was by far one of the most reverent and respectful families we have ever met.  Even their very young children were both reverent and attentive - it was amazing.


Nithyakumar Sunderraj, one of the dads, is currently serving as the Stake President of the Bangalore India Stake, which, by the way, is where the first temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in India is currently under construction and scheduled to be completed in 2025.  To say the least, both families are very excited about that!


President Sunderraj shared with us the tragic impact that the Covid pandemic had throughout India and especially upon his stake.  One of his counselors, who was in his forties, tied from it.  He also explained how he spend a lot of time searching for beds and oxygen for so many who were grasping for their last breath.


So glad we also met Alfred Victor and his family who were traveling with the Sunderraj family.



We had an unexpected surprise visit from Lynzi Barfuss whom we served with in the California Roseville Mission nearly ten years ago.  She did not know we were serving in Carthage and, of course, we had no clue that she and her young family were coming.  Just another Nauvoo Miracle!




We continue to give live video tours around the world.  We even have a tour coming up with a family living in South Korea.



Chris above giving a live video tour from the criminal cell in Carthage.



Enjoying time with this wonderful family of visitors from Alaska.







House of the Lord