Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Doctrine & Covenants 124 Part 1 : Dr. Susan Easton Black

Episode Date: October 23, 2021

If temple work is the soul of the Restoration, the Nauvoo Temple may be its heart. Dr. Susan Easton Black returns to share her love of the city of Nauvoo as well as the joy the Saints felt to not only have a temple but have a gathering place for the Saints and world visitors in order to not only redeem the dead but to share the gospel with the entire world.Shownotes: https://followhim.co/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannel"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-pianoPlease rate and review the podcast.

Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith and I'm John by the way. We love to learn, we love to laugh, we want to learn and laugh with you. As together we follow him. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith, I'm your host, I'm here with my pure in-heart co-host, John, by the way. Hello, John.

You are pure in-heart. My kids have a better adjective for me. It is ordinary. That would do that. Okay. Yeah. I'm here with my ordinary co-host. John, by the way, they could do all.

Yes, finally. That would be dad, yeah. We want to remind everybody that you can find the podcast on social media. We have an Instagram page, we have a Facebook page, our wonderful Jamie Nelson runs those. So come on over and check out all the extras that we have there. If you want to watch the podcast rather than list to it,

you can find it on YouTube. And if you want to go to our website, follow him dot, c o follow him dot co and please take time to rate and review the podcast that really helps us out. Hey, John, we have a guest here that is renowned for her knowledge of church history. Tell us who we have with us. Oh, I'm so excited. I told the Kim, my wife, this morning, hey, we've got Susan Eastern Black this morning. She said, Oh, my favorite church history teacher, but don't tell her that because I had

others too. But so glad to have her back. She taught at church history and doctrine of BYU for 32 years. First woman hired as a full-time faculty member in the College of Religious Education. I think they just call it Religious Education now. Received the Carl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Award in 2000. Was the first woman to be honored with that. She is a popular speaker, prolific writer. She's one of those that can speak without notes for days and days. I think she has a photographic memory, you know. She's the mother of three.

She's currently married to George Durant. They've served several missions together, including a season as writers for the church curriculum department. I don't know who wrote this, but that sounds very doctrine and covenants. Including a season as writers for church curriculum department. She's been part of the doctrine and covenant central team. I hope people know about Book of Mormon Doctrine and Covenant Central team. I hope people know about BookamormaCentral.org and Doctrine and Covenant Central as well.

These great websites. She's authored more than 130 concise biographies as well as a series of insights from each section. And recently was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by La Dada de St. Publishers Association. And I don't know, have you counted all the books that you've written? I mean, I think they have an entire winged

library of Congress for you, don't they? Oh, I don't think so. I think John is a professor. We were always told you had to publish your parish and I was the one professor that took it hard. I have a wing at good will, but not yet. That's wonderful, but we're so glad to have you.

I know that our listeners will be excited that you're back as well. And thank you for being with us again. I welcome. It's a treat. Susan, I am so excited because at the heading, we only have one section to study today. It's section 124 and it's the first section given in a place called Navu, Illinois.

And when I saw this, I thought, we've got to get Susan on the show because I've been to Navu with you. I've seen your love for it. I'm hoping our listeners can feel some of that as well. Tell us, back up, section 123 is 1839. Section 124 is 1841. That is two years between sections.

Yeah, let's back up and tell us what, how and when and what happened to get us to Navu, Illinois. Oh, thanks a lot Hank. Anyways, just great to see you again in John 2. So if we back up to 1839, we know that many of the saints who had fled from the extermination order in Missouri went to a place called Quincy Illinois. And there they were assisted Joseph Smith describes it. He said he could have gone toe-to-toe with

Abraham Isaac and Jacob. If it had not been for the charity, the goodwill kindness of the people at Quincy. But once we were there in 39 for a few months and May of 1839, a conference will be held and the decision at the conference is that the saints would now go up to an area that Isaac Gallant and others owned called commerce. So the very first Latter-day Saints to leave, then from Quincy and to come all the way up to commerce, your 40 plus miles, depending on which road you take, right, was Joseph Smith and his family, and they arrived on May 10, 1839. So once they're in commerce, you start to see many of the saints that had gone to Quincy moving up, others that had gone to Iowa moving up, we can find them as far away as St. Louis,

moving up, some still in Kirtland, make the decision to also move up. So between 39 in this revelation in January of 41, you have thousands of saints now head up to a place called Commerce that Joseph will eventually rename Navu, which means a beautiful situation and truly it was for a while. And when they when they got there what made them choose that piece of land versus you know somewhere else? Well somewhere else I think might have been expensive. For Isaac Gallant, he was willing to trade properties that we'd had in far west and other places in Navu that we've been or other places in Missouri that we've been forced to abandon. And so basically for no money down, they're able to move up there

and with signing land contracts, land properties, Sydney Rigdon was a big signer, Joseph Smith also. We moved to that area, but it was not desirable. Part of the reason is part of the land is a swamp. So this land, if we were to look at it historically, we'd say it was once, of course, what they called Indian territory. We'd say Native Americans. And then you start to get settlers moving in, our first being James Whiteen, his family, who named it Venus. And you realize that's a great name

and attracted a lot of men. If a man's gonna go west to Newland, he typically goes alone. And then if he likes what he sees, then he goes back and gets his wife in sweetheart. And sometimes they're actually one in the same. And so, James White goes, he calls it Venus, men move there, but the swamp made it very difficult. And when they were there, they built two story houses, thinking they could get above the

smells of the swamp. And the problem was, they suffered from swamp fever. And we know it was malaria, and you take the word apart, mal air, and easy to get above the bad air, you build a second-story house like the homestead. Okay. Just build up.

You just build up, but pretty soon they're sick, they leave, and then come these entrepreneurs like Isaac Gallant that, well, they created kind of what you'd call a paper town. They actually drew their town out where they had four ports, they had a big canal coming down the middle and their plan was they would take these pieces of paper, go east. And at that time, and probably still today, some of the really rich people in the United States lived in Connecticut. With the idea, they'd sell their land to the people in Connecticut who wouldn't know it was a swamp land, right? And, you know, such a deal, get, you know, buy something out here on the Mississippi

well. It doesn't work because there is, remember the rent on the bank in 37 that so affected the Curtlyn Safety Society. And then the state of Illinois had a rent on the bank in 39. And suddenly entrepreneurs like Isaac Gallant and others are looking for where can we dump this land? And who are people desperate enough that Joseph says, no better place presenting itself. I now go to commerce to build up a city that will be allied into the world. The first time I visited Navu, I thought I assumed swamp means it's at the same level of the river. And you're going up a hill out of how is this swampy and the swamp evidently didn't

come from the river, right? It came from springs. Right. There's a lot of springs under Navu. Navu's built limestone. Water runs down from the bluff onto the flatter portion. You do get floodwater. I mean, you see Navu now. To get there, many of us cross the dam down by a place called Kia-Kak.

Then right outside as we come up to Navu, we can see that Navu is a peninsula that jets out into the Mississippi River, but by forming that dam, they created out of the Mississippi River a lake called Lake Cooper. And so a lot more water than the Saints would have seen. I mean, I think with spy glasses, you could actually see across to Montrose at the time and see two islands that are now submerged due to the lake effect. Oh, okay. So the river would have been a lot smaller.

Yeah, and the swamp wasn't the river being high. The swamp was run off from the bluff and springs or whatever. And so they had to dig these, these ditches to drain everything. Was that job one? And so, um, yeah, job one. You go, well, I'd like to be one of the first to arrive in Navu. And definitely the assignment was dig ditches. And almost like you're digging ditches so you can have a little tributaries you can control the water now as it heads to the Mississippi and leading that effort will be the the 70s and eventually Navi will have 35 quorum of 70s I mean it just

but but it was dig those ditches. And eventually they'll, they'll move to public works like the Navajo House and Navajo Temple music call that kind of thing. And I think isn't it true that by the side of the road, you still see the, the ditches on the north south road there? Right. If you're coming down Durphy Street, kind of the main street that will lead up towards the temple today.

Right next to the Navu State Park, you can still see remnants of the ditches and having been there last week, they need to mow. Otherwise, ditches fill in and pretty soon you're really back to that swamp. Yeah. You were just there last week, Susan. I was. So the elders' quorum is for moving people and the 70s are for digging ditches.

OK. 70s. Yep. That's how it was at first. So Susan, it's January of 1841, when we get this revelation, what's happened that even spurs this, this certain radiation here? Well, as they come into town, you realize you've got to drain the ditches, put in your houses,

put in your gardens, your shop, you know, next to your house, your barn, and basically everybody's a farmer. And so some people say, well, Joseph Smith orchestrates and is the architect of Navu, and I go, well, when they're all farmers, they cannot live together. So if you looked at any given map between 1839 and 41, you can see Joseph Smith has 23 communities on one side of the Mississippi, and then on the Iowa side of the Mississippi, you've got 15.

So between all that, you have all this going on, but then the question comes, we're now to January 19th of 1841. When can you count that the saints and Joseph Smith would actually be living in Navu and not out on his farm? You'd say the winter months and so January 19th Joseph Smith and we don't know the location that he was out, but Joseph Smith and Navi will receive a very long revelation from the Lord, which takes 145 verses.

And that's our section 124. And it's the longest section, isn't it? Well, I think you could look at section 76 or a few that can kind of rival it, but for this time period, for sure, it's the longest. Susan, I know we're going to we're going to talk more about the revelation itself, but I just want to hear a little bit about your experience in Nalvoo. I know that you had a home there or had a home there there which you donated. But what do you think about Navu? Why do you love it so much?

I've been there with you and you can almost feel it kind of coming off you like a radio to offer you a love of this place. What why do you love it so much? Well, okay. I love Navu. I've served four missions now in Navu I've written scripts I tried to find all the people that lived in the different communities so

that was a mission I've served a mission for a year in the temple there I've done the song of dance on the stage help set up their Lansing Records Office, you know, so you could say all of that and had a house there since 2005. How do I feel about Navu? I actually think it started for me. I took a church history trip with my favorite professor at BYU, Milton V. Beckman, Jr. Milton V. Beckman, Jr. And I went through Missouri with him, we got to Navu, and he just lit up, and the crazy thing so did I. And I'll always be grateful for that. And I found myself doing so much research in Navu

and got tired of the hotels and rent something for a week and I go, that's it. I'm going to make this a more permanent. And you'd say I love the people in the past. I've written about I think every person that walked the streets of Old Navu. From their land properties, did they do baptisms for the dead? Where they are, remember the church? Did they join the reorganized church? Anyway, I just, I just have loved it. And if you were to say, how do I feel about the current people? In Navu, I mean, just give you one example from yesterday.

I had a moving van company going to stop by my home and bring some things to Utah, right? And they were late and a friend sat in my home for over an hour, waiting for them. And then when they arrived, she asked if they'd eaten and they hadn't. And she went home and got food and brought it back to them. You know, those kind of neighbors are hard to come by, right? And I love the people at Navajo this last week. I gave a couple of talks and one night we went over to Annie's

custard and found it was closed and I slammed on the door, you know, let me in and, and, you know, Helen opened up and I want to go. I need to eat this, this, this, and she would not allow me to pay. Now, that's when you know, you've got, I have some just amazing friends there. And I think in Joseph's time, the Lord picked up and took the best of the best. And I think it's still the same today. So I love the current people in Navos as much as I have

the ones in the past. All right. I can't imagine how Annie's custard is going to get bombarded by people saying, Susan says we don't have to pay. Right. Well, I hope they tip really well. Could I have these Susan discount? Yeah. Yes. Yes. Hey, I wanted to ask you. I think I remember once just throwing out the name of my fifth great grandfather and that you knew exactly who it was that I think was endowed in Navu. His name was Samuel Alexander Pagan Kelsey.

Yep. Is that ring about? So I know you can see behind me. Names in that's actually better site, but you're seeing that I'm sitting in my library, which I think is actually the biggest room in the house. And where you see those blue books, they still just keep going. And there are, well, there's 48,000 pages. And it's of the people that had known the Prophet Joseph with a real emphasis on those in Navu. And I said, why would I do all this? And I said, you know, if I thought my husband was funnier, I probably wouldn't have done it.

I just had some free time. Okay. Yeah. John, that brings up a great point. If people will open up their family search app, you can actually go to a thing called Map My Ancestors, and you can see if you had relatives in Nauvoo. Yeah. When I go there, I have two relatives that lived in Nauvoo, George Washington Clyde and John Wooten, both in Nauvoo, buried there. You know, the Prophet Joseph Smith said that there would be people that would come along after him that would take unusual interest in his generation

and time and his people. And I think obviously you two have, I don't know if you'd call it like just a passion, but the love for the people, it doesn't mean that they all stayed faithful. But when they were on the scene, they all made a contribution. And I think sometimes, you know, we get after people that don't hang in every minute of their lives.

But I think they were there and their contribution needs to be remembered. Yeah, and there's just, there is something about that place. I love going there. I love taking groups there, John. I know you do too. You come around that bend and up towards the temple and, oh, you're just, there's nowhere like it. Okay, it's a site. You know, I think we all say, sorry, John, that, you know, we go to different sites and

I'll ask you to feel the spirit of the Lord. In Nahu, even on their missionary vans, it says Spirit of Joseph. So you want to ask, did you, did you feel the Spirit of Joseph? And I've had an occasion to read all the dedicatory prayers from the little bakery to the Jonathan Browning gun shop, to the Wayne Wright. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And it's so interesting, even though you can read, say in the bakery, read about Lucius Skolville and his bearing children and the wedding cakes and the cost of all that. But before they're all said and done, they're dedicated to the memory of Joseph Smith.

So whether you're looking at the women's garden by the Navu visitor center or you're way down the street at the Bhutan Shoe Place, memory of Joseph Smith that and it's interesting. It's not just the memory of Joseph Smith. If you began to look at dedication date, you're most consistent dedication date is always in June and it's around the martyrdom. So Navu is a restoration place in memory of Joseph Smith and what's it a memory of the martyrdom that he sealed, his life with his testimony of the book, Mormon,

Doctrine of Covenants. And Doctrine of Covenants were studying this year, isn't that great? Yeah. Yeah, that's beautiful. John, you were going to say something about Navu coming around that bend. Oh, I just, the first time I ever went there, Hank, you were probably in third grade or something, I don't know, but there was, there was a there was a just left. Yeah, I was like, bye, you know, no, the temple was just grass, but

there were like four stones marking where the corners would have been. And and so for me seeing that and having it affect me that it was gone. And then coming back later and seeing the temple fully finished, it was just really a while moment to see it back there again. I'm sure Susan will remember when exactly, when did President Hinckley make that announcement? I remember an audible gas when he announced it. And when did we finish it? All right, so in April 1999, I'm sitting at home, I'm watching conference,

and wearing sweats, I'm no dummy, I know my name's not being called off. So I'm sitting home, and it's at the very end. And President Hinckley is thanking everyone for their talks and then he starts coughing. And I'm saying to myself, and before he coughs, he goes, I have an announcement to make. And then he coughs and I'm saying to myself,

somebody get him a drink of water. I mean, if there's anybody's announcement, I'd like to hear, I'd like to hear his, right? And then he says, I'd like to announce we're going to rebuild the Navu temple. And suddenly, for me, just tears. Anyway, you might enjoy this.

When conference was over, I got a call from a friend at the Navu stake center that said, there's stake president, Daryl Nelson, who now owns the fudge shop in Navu, that he wanted her to call me and asked what went on the rest of conference. And I said, I'll tell you, but you've got to tell me what happened when the announcement was made in Navu.

And she said, some started whistling, clapping. Others got down in their knees, or like praying, and I go, well, what are you doing afterwards? And she said, we're all going to that depression that John talked about, where you had the stones, and you had the circle in the middle, you know, on circular staircase and where the baptismal font had been. And she said, we're gonna hold hands around that that lot, which is on four acres. And she said,

we're gonna sing the Spirit of God like a fire is burning. And after that, it will take almost six months to get approval from the Navu City Council for there to be the construction to go forward. But then construction goes forward and Navu had never seen the like. You know, Navu's struggle is now to be a town of 1,000 people. And suddenly you've got Jacobson, Layton Construction. They're just rolling in with big trucks and and eventually you get a you get the open house and over 330,000 people toured that open house and then you get it's now

coming time for when will it be dedicated and I can remember friends in the Joseph Smith building we run through and we'd say April 6th it going to be dedicated for 6 we all know and you know and others are saying no May 15th priesthood and you'd say when was it dedicated June 27th Margardem 2002 and to get a seat in that in the building for the dedication. Well, I would have done anything. So in this case, I took General Authority wives back there, showed them the sights and guaranteed a seat for the June 27th, 2002. And I had said, hey, even if I'm sitting on the horns of the oxen, I just got to get in. And I ended up pretty much nosebleed upstairs,

but got to be in a ceiling room. And present, Hinkley, it was just so amazing to me. You know, you've got men singing from the choirs, it's Tabernacle Choir, singing Praise to the Man, which was the funeral eulogy given by W. W. Phelps, they're in the corners. And then President Hinckley, when he stands up before he dedicates that building, he says, I want to tell you about a man named Thomas Ford. And okay, I don't know if I was the only one that just practically jumped out of my seat,

but I have read a lot of boring books in my life, and I've written even more, right? But Thomas Ford wrote a book called The History of Illinois. And in the history of Illinois, you read and read, and then you read he has three fears. And as three big fears were that someone, there would be someone who would keep a name, alive the name of Joseph Smith. So thank you, Hank and John, you're telling the world.

Anyway, I love that. And all those missionaries out there returned. And then his second fear was that place names like Navu, a little tiny town out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, your closest airport St. Louis, I mean, you know, I mean, it's going to take you three, four, who knows how long, depending how many times you stop. And that place name's like Navu, Palmyra, would be as familiar to people around the world, such as Bethlehem and Gassimini. I can say this.

And then his third fear, he was fearful that there would be a great speaker who would one day link his name to Herod and Pateus Pilate. And who was that great speaker? I mean, you could tune in all over the world, do the Housanna shout in stake centers everywhere. And here is this just wonderful man. That's about my size, right?

Gordon B. Hinckley now stands up and says, I want to tell you about Thomas Ford. And the whole world learned that he literally turned his back. It's not like he shot the gun that killed Joseph, but he made it possible by his total inept. I mean, just didn't fulfill his assignment. So, wow, to be there and then to listen to President Hinkley, dedicate that building and then to ask people

afterwards walk partly street and change it to the trail of hope. And in other words, it's a trail of hope we're heading west was just one of the most spectacular days of my life. I got to read this to you soon Susan, I have it on my phone here. He says it is to be feared. This is governor Ford. It is to be feared that in the course of a century, some gifted man, like Paul, some splendid orador, who will be able to buy his eloquence to attract crowds of thousands who are ready to hear and be carried away. He may command a hearing and may command in succeeding breathing new life and make the name of the martyr Joseph Ring as loud and

stir the souls of men as much as the mighty name of Christ himself. And then he lists off these names, Sharon, Palmyra, Manchester, Kirtland, Far West, Adam on Diamond, Na'avu, and Carthage, may become holy and venerable names, places of classic interest in another age like Jerusalem, the Garden of Gesemini, the Mount of Olives, Calvary, and he says, this author feels degraded by that reflection, you think? He says, he says, he will be hitched on the memory of Joseph Smith, meaning himself. I don't want to be hitched to the memory of Joseph Smith. So, I mean, that Governor Ford became a bit of a profit there in saying, yeah, those names are important to us. Every one of them. Yeah, and I remember you told me a story about President Hinckley at Governor Ford's grave.

Do you remember telling that story, Susan, that he would he would pace in front of that grave and get? Yes, I think for President Hinckley, his love of history of church history sites. I mean, you just start to look and you just can find them at dedication, rededications all over the place. And he had strong feelings about Governor Ford. Yeah. He did. And you want to be on the good side of a profit. You know, all of us, John and Hank,

we got to make good choices here. I just remember when I came back there, I couldn't, I think my family commented on it. I couldn't stop shaking my head. Just there was this temple, we were back. I mean, I couldn't, all by seminary, all, you know, that we'd got kicked out an avu and that they were painting it and they had to leave and it was back and it was gorgeous and I just couldn't, I can't look, we're in navu. So that was, I'm so glad you relived some of that force, that dedication and everything.

We only had one picture of the old navu temple, right? And so suddenly architects and those that are designing at our desperate what should be included on the inside, outside colors. And we know that Joseph Smith's red brick store where they had the first endowment that the inside of the store was painted with buttermilk and ox blood. And so it was red. And so as I'm talking with the architect trying to give ideas, I said, well, of course, the inside is red. And if you've been in the temple, you quickly notice I have no power or influence. And having served in there a year as a missionary temple worker that I can assure you, I haven't found one red building or one red room in the entire building.

Yes. Well, the other thing is that when they had the wooden font, and that's the one that was really used for baptisms, right? When they had the wooden font, the oxen were all wood and then the bowl that they hold up was all wood. And so everything was wood except the ears of the oxen were 10, TIN. And so I said to the architect, even though you're doing stone, I want those 10 TIN ears on the oxen. So I give it like this bling.

You know, a bling was big. You know, I kind of really pop out, but once again, no power influence. And obviously it didn't happen. But I still think it would look great. A little chrome. Wow, those oxen. Yeah, it reminds me of, I was reading in the Saints book about, you know, the Kirtland Temple. Did I, did I recall that the roof was red and the sides were blue or something?

Right. The roof's red and then the window casings blue and the doors all of green. And the doors green. And it's just, you know, there's, I think that clothes go through fashions and so does architecture and colors. Right. So how it used to be back then, you know, you'd build a log cabin and then you got money coming in, you build a clapboard house, and then, but how you knew somebody was well to do is that they would splash their buildings with color. And nowhere do you see it better than that John Johnson farmhouse

back in Hyrum, Ohio, the the floor in Joseph Smith's bedroom, you know, the blue red green kind of looks like a checkerboard. Yeah. And the revelation room is it is it orange trim? I mean, there's trim around the fireplaces that are the way the wood is kind of varnished or painted is kind of stored. I think it took a while. Oh, that's very interesting. You know, when you see the Whitney home is bright yellow. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you can tell we need to we're now like gray or beige and you're like, what? We just splash our hearts. If we if we can afford some paint, let's. Oh, let's go bright green. I'm sure my wife will be really excited about that. Well, let's go bright green. I'm sure my wife will be really excited about that.

Well, let's go into some of these verses. I love how this starts with this idea of a proclamation. You want to lead us through how this revelation begins? For me, I love Joseph Smith. And I love the boldness as the revelation begins. And especially as he's saying to do a proclamation to all the kings of the world. And then as he goes forward, he tells him to awake. You're like, okay, kings, what are they to awake to? And they're to awake to the needs of the daughters of Zion, and to bring their golden silver, and basically to help build up what is known as a corner stake

of the church, then Navu, Illinois. And wouldn't that be great if they had, and if they would do it today? Navu could sure use it We'll just kind of let you take the show here Susan walk us through the revelation Versus one who see So looking at the revelation you've got the first 14 verses is Joseph Smith and a great desire to send a proclamation to all the kings of the earth, to the presence of the United States,

to governors, to all rulers, to let them know who were in Na'avu. And then it switches from there to talk about men that Joseph had known who had a great integrity. And of them only one was alive at that time. So you get Hiram Smith, his brother, a man of great integrity, but then Joseph, the Lord refers to two others, David W. Patent, who died at the Battle of Cricket River and Joseph Smith's senior, who had died in 1840. And all three of the men having integrity. Could you imagine anything better said about any of us that you could count on us no matter the situation and I like that. From there on out you get there's much talk about two buildings and when I come on with you it seems like I always get to do buildings and I like that. So the Navu House and the Navu Temple and then then Hiram Smith be becoming officially ordained a patriarch and I like his being a patriarch. Hiram was so

serious about being a patriarch that he set aside three days a week that you could receive your blessings from him. So every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I think of Hiram Smith. I think of the literally dozens and dozens of patriarchal blessings. He gave from 1841 to 44. And then at the end of the revelation, it goes through the leadership of the church, starting with the first presidencies down to the Deacon's corums. And that's where you get so many names in section 124. But I think for us, the part that would perhaps be the most interesting and long lasting, I know you want to hear about the presidency of the Deacons, right? Okay. perhaps be the most interesting and long lasting.

I know you wanna hear about the presidency of the Deacons, right? Okay, so, all right. But I think probably if we talked about the Navu House and a little bit more about the beginning part of the Navu Temple, might serve our listeners well. So on this, the Navu House, it's so interesting you can walk around the outside and see it today, but it isn't a place that the typical tourist goes. But you'd say, let's say you wanted to do a family reunion, how to youth group,

Let's say you wanted to do a family reunion, had a youth group, some kind of friends all getting together, it'd be a wonderful place to rent, and you're right down there by the Mississippi River. You're right across the street from the homestead. But this Navu house, licking at it, anciently, we know that Joseph Smith will call, Foreman and the Lord names them. You get a George Miller, a Lyman White, a John Snyder, and you also get a Peter Haas.

And their job is, and they're all mentioned in section 124. Verse 22 George. Okay, the George Miller's verse 20. Okay. Okay. and then we'll find the first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. The first one. sometimes when you get the people at the top, they then assign out and they continue sitting at the top, right? And are not actively involved in, say, the building or the getting, but if you were to look at each one of these men, you can find them going out on missions to be able to get money, to get lumber, whatever's needed

for this Navu house. So I like them a lot actually. So they form an organization and they form it one month after the revelation in February 1841 and it's the Navu House Association. Between these four men, they estimate that what is going to be the Navu House has a possibility of being worth and to be able to build $150,000, which is big money at the time. You get John Snyder, he goes all the way to England to collect money for this. And he comes back with over $900, I think is pretty impressive from the English saints

that are trying to save up their money to be able to come to the United States, to be able to help with the building of this building. And Susan, for those of us who've never heard of the Navu House, what is it exactly? Well, it was supposed to be an L-shaped kind of like a hotel, where there would be a resting place for kings, queens, people like us, to come and to sit and to contemplate the great things of the world. What I think is so interesting as they try to raise the money, they did

like subscriptions like stocks. And you could put in as $50 up to $15,000000 but no more. And it's interesting, the only people that could buy stock in this, you think, hey, you could buy stock, but the only people that could buy stock were those who believed the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God, and those who believed Joseph's prophecies. And I don't know of any other stock company That would have this caveat that says you know to buy stock in our organization You've got to know the book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith the prophet of God Now they will actually begin building and it's quite a large facade. The first floor is ultimately to be three floors but the first floor would be rock and then the other two floors

brick but as time went on we know at the death of Joseph Smith we know they were up to almost the window line. But then the things stopped, and the Navajo House goes into the ownership of Emma Smith. For Emma, they continued building in 1845, and it's going up even higher with the bricks. But then, Brigham Young is very concerned about, we need a temple. He's concerned he's going to take the people west, and he wants a Navu temple finished. So he takes everybody off public work projects, even those drainage ditches we talked about.

Everybody's off. You're not working on the music hall, you're not working on what we call the cultural hall, you're not working on the Navu house, that temple needs to be completed. So as a result, the Navu house is a shell of a building, it's L shaped, and when the Saints go west, there's no building on it. And okay, but I think one thing I should say that kind

of backing up, when they put the cornerstone, the southwest cornerstone in the ground, and they're about to dedicate this site, Joseph stops the whole thing, and it's really, it's at the October conference in 1841. And he stops the whole thing and he goes, he goes, wait, I have something to put inside the cornerstone. And he runs across the street back to his house. The home said, he comes back after he's kind of checked to make sure he thought it was all there.

And he puts in the Book of Mormon manuscript and they then seal it up. They built but the problem was years later Emma's second husband, Louis vitamin, has made the decision he will pick up all the stones in the brick and he will then build what we call today the the Naboo House, Riverside Mansion, the Vitamin House. We have a lot of different names for it. But in doing so, he uners this corner stone. And he finds that the documents, including this book more of a manuscript that have been placed in that stone. There's mold, you know, much is disintegrated. And so if you were to look today, sense, well, it's sense, I think it's 1909

that this house has been owned by what was first known as reorganized church now, the community of Christ. But we know in the seller of that house that's one of the places, well Joseph was first buried as well as Hiram. So significant things on the Navajo House, let's see if I can summarize this, when it's a revelation from God, to there was a huge effort to build it. There was a huge effort to acquire the needed money and you could buy stock, but only if you believed in the Book of Mormon

and Joseph's revelations. We know that Joseph was buried there for a short time until September then 44. And we know that workers were taken off because in Brigham's mind, it was more important to finish that novice temple. Can you kind of finish the, the your thought about that Book of Mormon manuscript

to where it ended up? For Lewis vitamin, he started giving away parts of it to different people. Oh. And you're like, wait a minute, you wanna see a treasure I found? for Lewis vitamin, he started giving way parts of it to different people. And you're like, wait a minute, you wanna see a treasure I found, take part, right? And then eventually you get Franklin D. Richards is back there, choirs, and eventually you get much of it then acquired by our church.

And then trying to pull it apart to see what's in there. I think the great work of Royal Scousin is to just be cheered, you know, his ability to look and find and the Church's history department, archives trying to preserve what there was left of it. And too bad on that occasion, Joseph goes, wait a minute, and runs back and gets it, because obviously we would like to have seen it all kept in touch. This is the original manuscript, the one that all of our counteree penned in,

his head writing harmony. The printer's manuscript, which is the second manuscript, it's fully intact, right? Susan, is this original that about a third remains, which you're, oh, you put it inside a rock, right? To put it inside a bag or did you? And especially down by the Mississippi, I've gone back there several times where it's flooding and we're all sandbagging and you're like no Yeah, I thought that several times like oh don't put it in there

Susan say what you will I guess about Joseph Smith thinking that you know nations and and people all over the earth We're gonna go visit the Navu house but 100 and how long now, years later, there are people from all over the world that go visit Navu. It just took a little bit of time. Okay, from literally all over the world, and there's now hotels and bed and breakfast and other places that you can stay. But it's been serving back there. I've been amazed how many times I've met people

from Japan, Russia, and Oregon. I mean, they're just, they're coming from all over to see a little town that, wow, since the St. Slev, since the 1860s were, well, okay, just as an example, just that whole Hancock County in 2010 they did a census and in the whole county, which includes Carthage, there was only one town named Elvison, you see, on the way to Carthage, and it was the only town that gained in population and they went from 150 to 151 because a woman had a baby. So you look at this area and yet because Navu is talked about all over the world, people will come

and they see that beautiful temple and the spirit. Yeah. So yeah, the nations of the earth are coming to Navu, maybe not as early as Joseph thought they would, but they're definitely coming and I, and my mind it continues to be a light onto the world. Yeah, me too. Because of what you get there, I mean, you get baptism for the dead, families can be together forever, the endowment, ceilings, we trace all that to none. Please join us for part two of this podcast. you