May 1, 2016 - Sunday in Nauvoo

Welcome to the month of May!  We were up early for our morning devotional and prayers.  This being the Holy Sabbath Day, we were excited to attend our meetings together, and then enjoy the balance of the day together.  We were scheduled "on call", and we were not needed for an assignment in the sites today.  Those who are "on call" are available in cases of sickness but, today, we were not needed to cover another missionary's shift.  Yea!

We first attended the Fast and Testimony meeting at the stake center.  We arrived at our usual early time of 7:10am.  The meeting started at 7:50am, and by getting there early, we get to enjoy the prelude music and greet the missionaries as they arrive.  Then, we attended the Sunday School meeting and the Priesthood and Relief Society meetings at the Visitor's Center.  And then we returned home for a very quiet Sabbath Day afternoon.

As I have read the various stories and histories of the Nauvoo era, I have been impressed by the reprieve that the Saints had for the 7 years they were here.  They left Missouri under the most inhumane circumstances, were received by the wonderful people in Quincy, under the most humane and kind circumstances, and then they settled into Nauvoo and built the beautiful city and the sacred temple.  

This story is so well portrayed by the play Rendezvous.  That is probably why I have embraced the part of the Editor so well.  He tells this story and the various vignettes bring the stories to life, as was experienced, in Nauvoo in the 1840's.  For all of the family and friends who have seen this play, you know what I am talking about!  For those yet to see it, you are in for a treat!  I found this article about the Nauvoo era on the Church website, and I have included the Rendezvous parts that the Editor introduces, to help you see, (and as a reminder to me), about this wonderful story;

Nauvoo: City Beautiful

Nauvoo, Illinois: 1839-1846

4 February 1839

As the Latter-day Saints fled Missouri during the winter of 1838–1839, having been threatened by the governor of that state with extermination, they crossed into Illinois and settled in a swampy area along the Mississippi River that they named Nauvoo. Over the next few years, an estimated 16,000 Latter-day Saints took up residence in the city and its surrounding communities. It became one of the largest cities in Illinois at the time and an important commercial center on the upper Mississippi.

Many in the surrounding communities continued to harass the Latter-day Saints, and on 27 June 1844, a painted mob shot to death the Latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brother Hyrum. Despite the rapidly escalating tension in the area, the Latter-day Saints continued at great sacrifice to complete a temple in the city, even while they prepared for a mass exodus to the West. Between February and September 1846, most of the Latter-day Saints took up their march to the West, leaving their homes, their city, and their temple to the hands of those who had not built and the hearts of those who did not care.

Today Nauvoo is a significant historic district, with many of the buildings in the original townsite rebuilt or restored and open for the public to visit.

Rendezvous Play: (1839) - "The residents of Quincy Illinois took them in and found them shelter".  "Yes sir, without any hesitation they harbored the who kit and caboodle..."

Cities Abandoned

In all of United States history, few people have suffered for their religious convictions as did the early Latter-day Saints. Because of the rapid growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and what many contemporary religionists viewed as the heretical doctrine of living prophets and modern revelation, many outsiders viewed Latter-day Saints with suspicion and contempt. During the first two decades of the Church's existence, Latter-day Saints repeatedly experienced the cycle of migration, settlement (including purchasing the lands they settled in), and expulsion. Within the span of 17 years, the fast-growing body of Latter-day Saints moved en masse from the Finger Lakes region of western New York state (1830-1831), to Kirtland, Ohio (1831-1838), Jackson County, Missouri (1831-1839) and Commerce/Nauvoo, Illinois (1839-1848), where their prophet, Joseph Smith, was murdered by a mob. In the dead of winter 1846, the Latter-day Saints once again abandoned their homes and began the long, hard trek to the Rocky Mountains, where they would at last find welcome refuge.

Rendezvous Play:  "Whatever folks thought about the beliefs of the Nauvoo Mormons, their literacy cannot be denied".

Extermination Order

Following eight years of convergence and settlement by thousands of Latter-day Saint converts in northern Missouri, tensions with neighboring communities reached a climax. On 27 October 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs signed one of the most heinous documents in American history, his Mormon "extermination order," declaring, "The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated, or driven from the State, if necessary for the public peace" (quoted in History of the Church, 3:175). This military directive called for the forced mid-winter exodus from Missouri of approximately 10,000 men, women and children from their own farms, homes, and lands.

On 25 June 1976, Missouri Governor Christopher S. Bond issued an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order, noting its legal invalidity and formally apologizing in behalf of the state of Missouri for the suffering it had caused the Latter-day Saints.

Rendezvous Play; (1839) "Take Sarah Cleveland, wife of one of Nauvoo's non-Mormon merchants.  A more compassionate and generous woman you would never be more likely to meet.  The Cleveland's were living in Quincy when they met up with the Mormons, who were forced across the river from Missouri..."

Nauvoo, Illinois: From Ecstasy to Exodus

In all of Church history, perhaps nothing symbolizes the pragmatic nature of Latter-day Saint religion as does the city of Nauvoo. On the very hem of the western frontier, the Latter-day Saints drained the swamps, wrote an ambitious city charter, established a university, mounted a city militia, and built a temple.

To Nauvoo and its vicinity came the great majority of all Latter-day Saint converts for the next seven years, swelling the population to about 20,000 by 1846. At its height it rivaled Chicago as the largest city in the state. A vibrant, culturally eclectic place, it came to be known as "Nauvoo, the Beautiful."

Rendezvous Play;  "Then in 1839, the Mormons came!  Under the leadership of Joseph Smith a beautiful city emerged with shops, factories, schools and homes.  Gardens sprouted with corn, peas, beans, hollyhocks and sunflowers..." 

Death of Joseph Smith

The relative peace and prosperity of the Nauvoo period was short-lived. Political maneuvering for the "Mormon vote" at the state level had granted the municipality perhaps the most liberal city charter in the state, and Nauvoo was seen as both a political and economic threat by many in the older, neighboring communities. At the height of tensions, a local opposition newspaper called for mob action against the Saints, to which the city council responded by destroying the offending printing press. Amidst growing regional clamor for, once again, the Saints' extermination, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were jailed. On 27 June 1844, a mob stormed Carthage jail and shot the brothers to death in their prison cell.

Rendezvous Play;  "Over at Carthage, 100 men rushed the stairs, forced the door, and fired!  And two of the best men, who ever lived, were dead".

The American Exodus

Following the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, ire against the Saints rose rapidly. In 1845, the repeal of the Nauvoo City charter, which among other things granted the Latter-day Saints the right to keep a standing militia for their own protection, signaled the effective end of their sojourn in Illinois. These events, however, merely catalyzed a move contemplated by Church leaders for a number of years. As early as 1840 Joseph Smith had taught there was "a place of safety preparing for [the Saints] away towards the Rocky Mountains" (quoted in Ronald K. Esplin, "'A Place Prepared': Joseph, Brigham and the Quest for Promised Refuge in the West," Journal of Mormon History vol.9 [1982], 90). By the fall of 1845, preparations for the exodus were well under way; the proposed departure date would be, in the words of Brigham Young, "as soon as the grass grows" (quoted in Wallace Stegner, The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail, [1964], 38) in the following spring. But the mobs wouldn't rest. On 4 February 1846, in the heart of a Midwestern winter so cold and bitter the Mississippi River froze over, the Latter-day Saints were driven from their homes and lands down a street which came to be known as the "Street of Tears" and into the unknown mystery of the western frontier.

 Rendezvous Play: "And so the Saints made ready to leave.  Here in Nauvoo, the Mormon people had lived their lives, built their homes and gardens, and operated their shops, united by a religious belief that was not just a faith, but a way of life".  

Religious Freedom

Although the body of Latter-day Saints grew rapidly, swelling the population of a number of frontier communities, the Saints were no theocratic usurpers: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may" (Articles of Faith 1:11). But as they gathered converts, they gathered enemies, leaving themselves, ultimately, no choice but departure. In a letter addressed to U.S. President James K. Polk in 1846, Brigham Young gave notice of the farewell:

"We would esteem a territorial government of our own as one of the richest boons of earth, and while we appreciate the Constitution of the United States as the most precious among the nations, we feel that we had rather retreat to the deserts, islands or mountain caves than consent to be ruled by governors and judges whose hands are drenched in the blood of innocence and virtue, who delight in injustice and oppression." Thus, they walked (quoted in B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church, 3:89-90).

Rendezvous Play;  Preparations for their exodus from Nauvoo began the only migration in which an entire community moved itself, its industries, institutions, religion, schools, and political and cultural beliefs to the far west...".

Value of the Exodus

"For Brigham Young and his associates, the 1846 exodus from Nauvoo, far from being a disaster imposed by enemies, was foretold and foreordained—a key to understanding LDS history and a necessary prelude for greater things to come. From a later perspective too, scholars of the Mormon experience have come to see the exodus and colonization of the Great Basin as the single most important influence in molding the Latter-day Saints into a distinctive people" (Reed C. Durham Jr., "Westward Migration, Planning and Prophecy," in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols. [1992], 4:1563).

 Rendezvous Play:  "Forced out?  No, Jed.  It will be said of us that we left "willingly", because we had to".....

Mississippi River Crossing

From February through September of 1846, thousands of Latter-day Saints abandoned Nauvoo, fleeing to the West in barges and ferries across the Mississippi River. Some of those who crossed in late February did so on ice, as the wide river froze solid in sub-zero temperatures. A number of diarists refer to the freezing as a miracle, even though, notes one commentator, "it was a miracle that nearly froze a couple of thousand Saints" (Wallace Stegner, The Gathering of Zion, 44). The majority, some 7,000 or more, left between March and May. By September only six or seven hundred remained in Nauvoo. Known as the "poor Saints," they were either physically or financially incapable of traveling west by themselves to join the main body of the Saints now near the western edge of Iowa. Mobs forced this last group from the city in mid-September, 1846, in what came to be known as "the battle of Nauvoo."

Rendezvous Play;  "And a few months later, on a very cold February morning, the Saints set out to find a place where we could plow our fields as we saw fit, worship as we want, and live life as we've a mind to..."

Iowa: Bitter Beginning

Of the entire trek to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, it was the first 300 miles across Iowa that most tried the stamina and courage of the Latter-day Saint pioneers. Mere weeks into the journey—through sleet, blizzard, and mud—it became apparent to Brigham Young that his people would never reach the Rocky Mountains in the time or in the manner that most had hoped for. So throughout the spring of 1846, thousands of refugees trudged across the windswept Iowa prairies, preparing the way for those yet to come: building bridges, erecting cabins, planting and fencing crops. By mid-June, nearly 12,000 Saints were still scattered across Iowa. The Rocky Mountain entry would be postponed.

Rendezvous Play;  "...nearly all the many accomplishments of the Saints who lived here during the Nauvoo years, depended on two things, faith in the Almighty, and the willingness of the people to pull together".

This is a longer post than usual tonight, but what a history we have of the Saints who lived here during the Nauvoo years!  They had some relief during the first years here in Nauvoo, and then they were forced out to go to the Rocky Mountains.  However, inspired leaders had already planned that exodus, and the conditions that prevailed in 1844-1846, made those plans a reality.  The Lord knew what he needed his people to do, and these precious Saints responded!  

We owe a great debt of gratitude for Joseph and Brigham and Heber and all the brethren and sisters who made the sacrifices they did, and followed inspired leaders out of the grasps of the adversary in the early years.  As our latter-day Prophets have said, the work "remember" is probably the most important word in the dictionary.  Remembering our ancestors, and pioneers, and remembering their sacrifices along with the ultimate sacrifice of our Savior.

It just reinforces to me that there is safety in following the Prophet.  Even if we don't fully understand the counsel we are given, we will never be led astray by the living Prophet and the Apostles.  What a blessing that is to us in these perilous times!  We can only imagine what the world would look like today, if the world population could  pattern their lives after the teachings of the Gospel.... oh yeah... Zion!  

This effort has already begun with the Restoration of the Gospel!  Perhaps we can try to strengthen this effort one person, and then one family, at a time...  We can make a difference... let's go and do some good!