August 6, 2015 - Thursday in Carthage

After a long day in labor, our daughter Josie and her family welcomed Macie June to their home at around 4:00pm this afternoon.  What a helpless feeling we had being so far away from being able to offer any help for Josie or for Mary a little over two weeks ago! ....... except, to offer our heartfelt prayers for these two precious ladies and the resulting two precious granddaughters!  What a blessing it is to have these two wonderful additions to our family.  Now the aching arms of two senior missionaries will be anxious to hold and cuddle them...

Mom and I kept busy at the Visitors Center today.  We had two groups of EFY students come for the tour and experience in Carthage.  I was impressed with the group of youth I had the privilege of leading on a tour.  Teaching these future leaders of the Church is one of my favorite experiences here.

I like to tell one story in particular in the Dungeon Cell in the jail.  The Brown's and the Sathre's will appreciate this review from their visit!  It was in that room that a couple of marvelous events took place.  So, here is my story in that room;

The Dungeon Cell was a room that probably the more hostile prisoners were kept, even though this jail was more of a minimum security prison.  This room had been remodeled in the 1870's by the Browning Family when they bought the jail that became their resident for over 30 years.  Then, in the 1960's, the room was brought back and restored to what is believed to be the original condition as a jail cell.

Back in June of 1844, this cell was about three and a half years old.  It had a mattress and straw on the floor that probably had never been cleaned or changed.  The mattress had to be filthy and stinky when a prisoner had to lay on it.

Well, on June 27, 1844, when Joseph Smith fell out the window, there was only one man in that Martyrdom room that had not been seriously injured or killed.  That person was Willard Richards. He quickly went to the window that the Prophet had fallen out of to see what had happened.  He later recorded in his journal that the Prophet had been killed.  Once he realized that the mob had retreated back down the stairs (to see what had happened to Joseph), he knew that they would probably return. He felt that they would return to finish the job of murdering all of them, so he wanted to find a place to hide when they did return.  As Willard was leaving the Martyrdom room he heard a faint voice saying, "take me with you"...

That was John Taylor who had been seriously injured.  He helped Brother Taylor into the Dungeon Cell and quickly helped him hide under the filthy mattress, and on top of the filthy straw.  I can almost hear Brother Richard's apologize for having to put him there.  But he told him that if there was any way Brother Taylor could be preserved to tell about the terrible and evil deed, that this was why he was putting him there.  Brother Richard's then waited for the mob to return.  And they did!  And as they were storming back up the stairs, they heard the yell, "the Mormons are coming!!".  The mob quickly and cowardly retreated back down the stairs and left Carthage a ghost town within hours.

As the smoke settled in the upstairs area of the jail, Willard Richards would remember that Joseph had prophesied about a year earlier, about this event, when he told Willard; "there will come a day when you will be in a room with a "hail" of bullets, your friends would be falling on your right and on your left, but not one of those bullets will pierce your garments".  The superficial injury Willard had received was a slight piercing of his left ear lobe.  I can only imagine how he must have felt as he realized that that prophecy had just taken place.

Then, as the coast was clear, and they could help John Taylor out from under that mattress, they found him bloodied with straw matted to his wounds.  John Taylor credits that matted straw from keeping him from bleeding to death.

The interesting point here is that the Lord worked a miracle to preserve John Taylor, hiding under a filthy mattress and on top of filthy straw, to become the third president of the Church.  Now here is yet another miracle.  Behind those steel bars designed to "restrict" a man, they actually served the purpose of "liberating" John Taylor to serve as Prophet, Seer and Revelator!

Now, here is the ultimate lesson taught by an EFY student after hearing my presentation in the Dungeon Cell: "Elder Lasher, isn't that the same thing as when the leaders tell us that following and keeping the commandments is "liberating" and not "restrictive" to us."  I said, after a moment to reflect, and totally appreciate the question; "that is a profound comment!"  That is exactly what  the definition of liberating means!

I had my last Vignette in Rendezvous tonight with Jimmie and Marie.  We had the Young Performing Missionaries in the audience along with the Grattons.  By my estimation, it was a great night and I felt so good about the show.  Here is a person who was so opposed to being on stage and now he feels good about a performance tonight???  And why not?  I nailed the last show!!

So here is the dynamic group that worked together this summer!  Elder Rosenberg is heading off to the France, Paris Mission in two weeks and Sister Soloman is going home and back to school.  Elder and Sister Johnson played Marie's mom and dad along with me playing Jimmie's "Pa" in the Rendezvous Play.

A playful pose!