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September 17, 2018 - February 4, 2019
Oliver began to prophesy about things that would soon happen. Oliver then baptized Joseph, who rose from the river prophesying about the rise of Christ’s church, which the Lord had promised to establish among them.
they returned to the woods and ordained each other to the Aaronic Priesthood.
Oliver waded into the middle of the pool and baptized Emma,
Joseph stood and offered the dedicatory prayer, which he had prepared with the help of Oliver and Sidney the day before.
“Why do they oppose Mormonism?” Parley asked. “I don’t know,” Joseph said. “The name has such a contemptible sound.”
Wilford could not help worrying about Joseph and the state of the church in Kirtland. Taking a seat in the temple, he saw Joseph at the pulpit. In the face of so much opposition, the prophet appeared cast down. He had lost thousands of dollars in the collapse of the Safety Society, far more than anyone else.51 And, unlike many others, he had not abandoned the institution when it began to fail.
That morning, the Saints had attacked not a mob, as they had supposed, but a company of Missouri state militia. And that was considered insurrection against the state.
Later that night, the sheriff approached the prisoners. “I shall take a good drink of grog and go to bed,” he told them, “and you may do as you have a mind to.” As the sheriff and three of the guards got drunk, Joseph and his friends saddled two horses with the help of the remaining guard and headed east into the night.
The prophet taught that God did not reveal anything to him that He would not also make known to the Twelve. “Even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to,” Joseph declared.
the Quorum of the Twelve, ashamed that he had denounced Joseph in Missouri and abandoned the Saints. Fearing Orson would betray them again when the next difficulty came along, Sidney Rigdon was reluctant to restore his apostleship. Joseph, however, welcomed him back and restored his place among the Twelve.9 In July, Parley Pratt escaped from prison in Missouri and was also reunited with the apostles.
“you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven.” “Have I then a Mother in Heaven?” Zina asked. “You assuredly have,” said Joseph. “How could a Father claim His title unless there were also a Mother to share that parenthood?”
“I can do nothing for you, gentlemen,” the president insisted. “If I were for you, I should go against the whole state of Missouri, and that state would go against me in the next election.”
Matthew noted that the prophet said very little about rewards or punishments in the next life except that he believed that God’s punishment would have a beginning and an end.
Shortly after the sermon, Jane went to the river with an elder of the church and was baptized for Cyrus. When Joseph heard about the baptism later that evening, he asked what words the elder had used in the ordinance. When they were repeated back to him, Joseph confirmed that the elder had performed the baptism correctly.
On May 4, 1842, Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, and Willard Richards found the upper room of Joseph’s store transformed. On the wall was a newly painted mural. Small trees and plants stood nearby, suggesting a garden setting. Another part of the room was sectioned off with a rug hung up like a curtain.
When the ceremony was finished, Joseph gave some instructions to Brigham. “This is not arranged right,” he told the apostle, “but we have done the best we could under the circumstances in which we are placed, and I wish you to take this matter in hand and organize and systematize all these ceremonies.”
Some aspects of the ordinance reminded Heber Kimball of Masonic ceremonies. In Freemasonry meetings, men acted out an allegorical story about the architect of Solomon’s temple. Masons learned gestures and words they pledged to keep secret, all of which symbolized that they were building a solid foundation and adding light and knowledge to it by degrees.
