March 19, 2015 - Thursday

He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people.”

From the Life of Joseph Smith

The winter and spring of 1843–44 was a time of great tension in Nauvoo, as Joseph Smith’s enemies increased their efforts to destroy him and the Church. Knowing his mortal ministry would soon come to a close, the Prophet met frequently with members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to instruct them and to give them the priesthood keys necessary to govern the Church. These preparations culminated in a meeting with the Apostles and a few other close associates in March 1844. In this extraordinary council, the Prophet charged the Twelve to govern the Church after his death, explaining that he had conferred upon them all the ordinances, authority, and keys necessary to do so. “I roll the burden and responsibility of leading this church off from my shoulders on to yours,” he declared. “Now, round up your shoulders and stand under it like men; for the Lord is going to let me rest awhile.”

On the afternoon of June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail in Carthage, Illinois, killing the Prophet Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith.

On June 10, 1844, Joseph Smith, who was the mayor of Nauvoo, and the Nauvoo city council ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor and the press on which it was printed. The Nauvoo Expositor was an anti-Mormon newspaper that slandered the Prophet and other Saints and called for the repeal of the Nauvoo Charter. City officials feared that this publication would lead to mob action. As a result of the action by the mayor and city council, Illinois authorities brought an unfounded charge of riot against the Prophet, his brother Hyrum, and other Nauvoo city officials. The governor of Illinois, Thomas Ford, ordered the men to stand trial in Carthage, Illinois, the county seat, and promised them protection. Joseph knew that if he went to Carthage, his life would be in great danger from the mobs who were threatening him.

Believing that the mobs wanted only them, Joseph and Hyrum decided to leave for the West to preserve their lives. On June 23, they crossed the Mississippi River, but later that day, brethren from Nauvoo found the Prophet and told him that troops would invade the city if he did not surrender to the authorities in Carthage. This the Prophet agreed to do, hoping to appease both government officials and the mobs. On June 24, Joseph and Hyrum Smith bade farewell to their families and rode with other Nauvoo city officials toward Carthage, voluntarily surrendering themselves to county officials in Carthage the next day. After the brothers had been released on bail for the initial charge, they were falsely charged with treason against the state of Illinois, arrested, and imprisoned in Carthage Jail to await a hearing. Elders John Taylor and Willard Richards, the only members of the Twelve who were not then serving missions, voluntarily joined them.

On the afternoon of June 27, 1844, the little group of brethren sat silent and disconsolate in the jail. One of the men asked Elder Taylor, who had a rich tenor voice, to sing to them. Soon his voice was raised: “A poor wayfaring Man of grief hath often crossed me on my way, who sued so humbly for relief that I could never answer nay.”2 Elder Taylor recollected that the hymn “was very much in accordance with our feelings at the time for our spirits were all depressed, dull and gloomy.”

Shortly after five o’clock in the afternoon, a large group of attackers stormed the jail, firing their guns at the men inside. Within a few minutes, the foul deed was done. Hyrum Smith was shot first and died almost immediately. Elder Richards miraculously received only a superficial wound; and Elder Taylor, though severely wounded, survived and later became the third President of the Church. The Prophet Joseph ran to the window and was fatally shot. The Prophet of the Restoration and his brother Hyrum had sealed their testimonies with their blood.

"A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" was a favorite hymn of Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The hymn was introduced in the church by apostle John Taylor, who learned the hymn in 1840 as a missionary in England. Taylor included the hymn in the Latter Day Saints' Manchester Hymnal, which was used in England from 1840 to 1912. The hymn was also included in the church's 1841 hymnal published in Nauvoo, Illinois. Unlike the version in the Manchester Hymnal, the hymn in the Nauvoo hymnal included music composed by Taylor. The hymn was originally written as a Christmas hymn.

On the afternoon that Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were killed by a mob in prison in Carthage, Illinois, the Smiths requested Taylor sing the hymn twice.

After he became president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Taylor asked Ebenezer Beesley to compose new music for the hymn. The results were published in the church's 1889 hymnal, and the hymn has been included in every subsequent edition of the church's hymnal. In the LDS Church's 1985 English-language hymnal, it is hymn number 29.

The original tune Taylor sung before the martyrdom became lost in the years following Taylor's death. In 2008, a descendant of Taylor found the original tune in the notebook of Beesley, and then shared his findings with historian Jeffrey N. Walker. Walker then published his arrangement of the hymn with the tune as it was sung to Beesley.

Mom and I worked a shift in Carthage today and got our final orientation from the out-going site leaders.  They complete their mission tomorrow and will be returning home and we will be assuming their responsibilities over the next few weeks.  Sister Lasher and I were each able to take five tours today.  Each tour takes about an hour, with each group about 20 minutes apart, and we met some wonderful people.  The guest who came the farthest was from South Korea!

Then, tonight, we had a dinner appointment with Elder and Sister Sudwicks.  They were so kind and we enjoyed an evening with them over corned beef and cabbage.  As we got to know them a little better, we were able to better understand some of the many challenges that Nauvoo Missionaries face prior to coming into the mission field.  They were both divorced from previous marriages and have been married about 5 years.  She was living in Modesto, California, and he was living in Brentwood, California, (near Antioch), and met on-line in a Mormon dating forum.  (Not totally sure what that is exactly)  

They communicated on-line for about 7 months before they found out how close they were to each other. She was teaching interior design at Modesto Community College, and he was the head of maintenance in the Brentwood school district for about 25 years.  She is a cousin to Zetta Lee Lindow!  

The tender story we heard tonight was about him when he went into the Army and served in Vietnam.  As we all know, we, as an American people, treated our Vietnam veterans shamefully.  They took the brunt of the political battle as some of them returned home and others just did not return home.  They were treated with contempt for following their government!  A topic for another story...

At any rate, Elder Sudwick went to Vietnam and his platoon was assigned to go to the front lines.  The day before leaving, he went to have some sores checked out on his legs, and the doctor told him he could not go with his group.  With mud in the jungles, he would have infections and they kept him there for observation and treatment.  I think he was 18 or 19 years old at the time.  Well, his platoon members were engaged in a conflict later that week and none survived.  

Several weeks later, he was reassigned to another platoon and were held up in the middle of a rice paddy in a clump of trees.  He was leaning against the trench when he saw a flash of light and realized a bullet had pierced his chest just missing his heart.  It went through his body and exploded in the back of the trench.  Since he was supported by the back of that trench, that bullet was allowed to pass through his body without causing instant death.  He was then hit with exploding mortar that sent shrapnel into his leg.  To further agonize the situation, they could not get him out of that rice paddy for three hours and several men were killed.  

When they got him to the field hospital they set him aside and worked on several others they thought had a better chance of surviving.  Finally, they began working with him and it was late that day.  Over the next three days he was so very close to death.  His dad had received word that he was seriously wounded and was able to find a Priesthood holder to look him up.  

However, the records indicated he was Catholic (in error), and that took another two days to finally locate him and that is when he received a Priesthood Blessing.  A young nurse cared for him and he never knew who she was until he was involved 41 years later in a ceremony honoring Vietnam Veterans.  She had a picture that she had kept of the hospital patients and he was pictured in the middle of several empty beds.  

She had witnessed the blessing and then noted that over the 45 days that he was there, many of those "less" injured soldiers had died.  She always knew that whatever those men  did in that blessing had saved his life.  When she went home after the war, and told her parents she wanted to know more about this soldiers religion, her parents would not let her.  Even 41 years later she still had not investigated the Church although she had seen the Priesthood in action in that hospital in Vietnam.  Elder Sudwick was very emotional as he related this major event in his life and mom and I felt we were in the presence of one great man and wife who were now consecrating their lives in missionary service.  

Also, during some very dark days of his recovery, the doctors were not expecting him to live.  He did have a friend who told him President Benson was coming to see the troops in a few weeks and encouraged him to "hang on".  As the day came for President Benson's visit, he did not want the President to see him in bed so he had the nurse help him get dressed and he was sitting on the side of the bed when President Benson came into his room.  The only thing he could remember about that visit was that he shook the Presidents hand.

We are grateful and humbled for the privilege of serving here in Nauvoo and Carthage.