Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith
Prophet, Seer and Revelator

Saturday, July 28, 2012

John didn’t neglect his civic responsibilities in Nauvoo. His election to the City Council, and appointment to be a member of the Board of Regents for the Nauvoo University, kept him very busy. He attained the rank of colonel in the Nauvoo Legion, and the Prophet also asked him to be the associate editor of the Times and Seasons newspaper.


John’s writing skills enabled him to present a timely outline of the Church’s stand on political issues, and put down negative arguments with literary style. The Saints also loved his humor. He told of a man who lost his leg and had an artificial one made. The limb was so precisely carved that when the man got his wooden foot wet, he came down with a cold.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

The Prophet revealed the principle of celestial marriage, instructing the apostles that marriage was not just until ‘death do you part,’ but ‘for time and all eternity.’ Included in the revelation was the instruction to practice polygamy (to marry more than one wife). John said, “I had always entertained strict ideas of virtue, and I felt as a married man that this was to me, outside of this principle, an appalling thing to do. Hence, nothing but a knowledge of . . . the revelations of God . . . could have induced me to embrace such a principle.” Reluctantly John obeyed the Prophet and entered into the practice.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

During the first few weeks of John’s return, he spent many hours with the Prophet and the apostles. The Joseph Smith designated John to write letters and redress the wrongs done to the Saints in Missouri.


John was not only close to the Prophet in civic and Church matters, but the Smith and Taylor families spent time together socially with other apostles and their wives. The Prophet Joseph recorded in his journal, January 1, 1844, “A large party took a New Year’s supper at my house, and had music and dancing till morning. I was in my private room with my family, Elder John Taylor and other friends.” February 6, 1844, the Prophet said, “I spent the evening with my brother, Hyrum, Sidney Rigdon, and the Twelve Apostles and their wives at Elder John Taylor’s.”

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Upon returning from England, John sailed with Heber C. Kimball down the Atlantic coast and up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo. “When we struck the dock,” Heber C. Kimball reported, “I think there were about 300 Saints there to meet us, and a greater manifestation of love and gladness I never saw before.”


John searched the crowd for Leonora but didn’t find her. Where was she? Why hadn’t she come to meet him? He crossed the river to the old army barracks where he’d left her. She lay sick in bed – close to death. John looked around the barracks. Dampness filled the dark dingy space. Leonora told him snakes, skunks and other small animals roamed the area, climbing in and out of cracks in the building. John shuddered. He felt heartsick that Leonora and the children had lived in such terrible circumstances while he enjoyed the labors of the mission field.

Calling some of the elders together, John blessed her. Immediately she started to recover. John began building a house on the corner of Parley Street in Nauvoo away from the river, and Leonora continued to get well.