followHIM - Voices of the Restoration #8 • Zion's Camp • Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat • Sept 15-21 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Follow Him. As you know, we are doing Voices of the Restoration episodes. We're so excited to have Dr. Garrett-Dirkmont back again. Today, our Voices of the Restoration is about Zion's Camp. Hank, what are you looking forward today about Zion's camp? It's been a while since we've had Garrett here. It's been too long, Garrett. I'm glad you're back.

One of the things I love about these voices of the restoration is that let's bring it to life. Here's someone who has read the history. Let's find out what the history has said. Let's find out what happened to our pioneer forebears. These are our people. We just use that phrase, Zion's camp. Was it a camp? Did they go camping?

What in the world? For those of you who are just coming at this, this is a fascinating episode, one that created some confusion, I think, for us and for them. at the time. Garrett, what are we going to look at today? I think the manual has some great commentary of people who participated in the Zines Camp March and the things that they get out of it. For me, camping is the worst thing that's ever happened. By calling it Zines Camp, this is a great contradiction in terms.

I mean, in fact, at the time, they call it the Camp of Israel is what they usually call it at the time. And then as they look back on it, they call it Zines Camp because that's where they were marching was to Zion. What we'll discuss is what causes the crisis in Missouri. How does Joseph and do church members respond to it? What is the experience of people in this march down to help these Latter-day Saints in Missouri? Then maybe what are some takeaways we can get from it?

I'm so excited to hear this. Why don't we dive in? Let's talk about what was the camp of Israel? What was Zion's camp? What's the backstory of why this even thing had to happen? I grew up in Idaho. We did campouts. Like, it seemed like every week constantly doing campouts.

Sometime around my senior year in high school, I was out in the middle of nowhere with the group camping, and I had a horrible night's sleep. And I'm looking around. There's mosquitoes all around. I'm like, I don't really think I like this, actually. Why are we doing this? I kind of like my own bed. I like showers.

I like not being constantly consumed by insects. All of those things about being outside is what these men and women that are part of the Zines Camp March they're going to experience. What precipitates all of this is really the violence against the Latter-day Saints in July of 1833. Were Missourians in Jackson County terribly happy that a bunch of Mormons were moving in? No, they weren't. But what sparks the violence? Well, in July of 1833, W.W. Phelps publishes on the church's newspaper.

He publishes an article that appears to be inviting free black members of the church to move to Jackson County. And in fact, appears to be letting them know what the anti-black laws are of Missouri to try to help them avoid getting caught up in those laws. This does a couple of things. First of all, it is a demonstration of just how culturally apart Latter-day Saints are from the people in Jackson County. Because Missouri's a slave state. Missouri's not only a slave state. Missouri had to fight for its slave status. That's where the Missouri compromise, the compromise of 1820 comes from. It comes from Missouri fighting to be a new slave state in a nation that had up to that point

at least told itself that slavery wasn't expanding anymore that once these parts all become states there wouldn't be any more new slave states and Missouri is very far north I mean the upper portion of Missouri's as high as almost the Great Lakes in its latitude it's very far north

it's a very sensitive subject in Missouri and even the fact that latter day saints have black members of their congregations at a time when many churches did not there were separate worship services that's also a thing but the mobbers the people who will destroy the printing press and demand that the latter day saints leave Jackson county they believe that allowing free black members of the church to move to Jackson County will cause slave insurrections among their slaves. They actually explain in a document they create to justify their actions about why are they taking up this violence.

In part, they say that we intend to rid our society peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must. They go on to say, we know that the civil law doesn't give us the right to go drive these people from their homes, but they argue that they have a moral right to do it, that they are allowed to do it by the laws of nature. Part of the way that they justified is they say, look, when they first got here, we believe them to be deluded fanatics or weak in designing knaves. They and their pretensions would soon pass away. They talk about how a couple of their leaders are so good that they hold them together, even though they shouldn't, their whole society should dissolve.

The statement says, since their arrival of the first of them, they have been daily increasing in numbers, and if they had been respectable citizens in society and thus diluted, they would have been entitled to our pity rather than to our contempt and hatred. But from their appearance, from their manners, and from their conduct since coming among us, we have every reason to believe and fear that they, with very few exceptions, are the very dregs of the society from which they came. Lazy, idle, and vicious. They go on to say that,

but then, after listing off all of those things, they explained why they actually had to act. Their conduct here stamps their character in their true colors. More than a year since it was ascertained that they'd been tampering with our slaves and endeavoring to sow dissensions and raise seditions among them.

Now, what they mean is, is Latter-day Saints were preaching the gospel to everybody. In southern slave culture, you don't preach the gospel to slaves without the consent of the masters, and Latter-day Saints were apparently sharing the gospel with everybody. It's almost like Jesus told us to do that. They go on to say, of this teaching, the Mormon leaders were informed, and they said that they would deal with any of their members who should again and like case offend, but how specious are appearances.

In a late star published in Independence, so it's the evening and morning star, which is the newspaper. In a late star published in Independence by the leaders of the sect, there's an article inviting free Negroes and mulattoes from other states to become Mormons and to remove and settle among us. This exhibits them in still more odious colors. It manifests a desire on the part of their society to inflict on our society an injury that they know would be to us entirely unsupportable, and one of the surest means of driving us from the county, for it would require none of their supernatural gifts that they pretend to, to see that an introduction of such a cast among us would corrupt our blacks and instigate them to bloodshed. They're very clear about what caused the violence in July of 1833. They're even citing the article. They were diluted. They were fanatics.

They were obviously poor. They were probably the drugs of society where they came from. But they were all those things two years ago. Why in July are we destroying a printing press and threatening people because of this? They're very clear about it. I'm glad you're talking about this. We can talk about a pie chart. Sometimes we do of different reasons, but what are they stating over and over again?

It was the issue. W.W. Phelps publishes the article, and that was the, can we call it a tipping point? The straw that broke the camel's back, because it appears to be the biggest issue. It's one that they make reference to again and again, even with later violence, they are going to make reference to this. when Zines camp marches down to Missouri, the Missourians responding to the fact that the Latter-day Saints are marching down, they will reference the slave issue even in their responses to it. It's clearly a big part of it.

In a culture of the time where these slave codes and slave societies were so incredibly rigid in their attempts to maintain the order of slavery, they felt very justified. In fact, as they continue in their argument, they raise the specter of race mixing by what the Mormons are saying, that they say, we are not prepared to give up pleasant places and goodly possessions to them, or to receive into the bosoms of our families as fit companions for our wives and daughters, the degraded free Negroes and mulattoes that are now invited to settle among us. We therefore agree that after timely warning and after receiving an adequate compensation

for what little property they can't take with them, which is the greatest understatement of the world, they literally own tens of thousands of dollars of land, yeah, they're not taking that with them, that if they refuse to leave us in peace as they found us, we agree to use such means as may be sufficient to remove them, and to that end, we pledge to each other, our bodily powers, our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. So they demand an immediate removal. The Latter-day Saints, of course, that are settled there, they're settled there because God commanded them to go there. They purchased these lands legally. This is not like the Latter-day Saints just showed up on someone's yard one day. They went down and bought these lands.

The Missourians tell them that you have to leave, and if you don't leave, we will enact violence. They hesitate. They say, well, we need to talk to our leaders about this. That's when they begin the violent assaults. They tar and feather. Two people, they destroy the printing press. This is when the pages of the Book of Commandments are pitched out of the window. We've heard that story.

For a time, there's a little bit of a respite because the Latter-day Saints agree to Lee. Joseph and others, when they find out about this, they say, well, no, this land is land that we purchased. We're going to petition the governor and say that you can't just steal our land. You can't point a gun at us and tell us we have to leave. By early 1834, there's a violent conflict that takes place as the mob attempts to forcibly drive the Latter-day Saints from the county. Garrett's, it's how dare you try to legally keep your land? Yeah, I mean, we're not talking about the Latter-day Saints as squatters. Like, they just showed up one place and they're living there.

They bought the land that they're living on. Now, some of it they don't buy outright. I mean, like a lot of us, when they buy land, some of it they owe money on. Some of it they buy outright. You can see part of the problem with being driven from their places. In early 1834, they are violently driven out. at the point of a bayonet, point of a gun, to the surrounding counties where they are essentially forced to live as refugees.

Most of them will go to Clay County, which is the county in Missouri that Liberty Jail is in. Liberty Jails for a later story. I'm trying to orient the people listening. They're driven to this neighboring county. That's what causes the crisis that leads to the calling of the camp of Israel. or Zion's camp. You have all of these members that are refugees in Clay County driven from their property that they legally own. Then the camp of Israel is going to go help them from this being forcibly displaced. Yeah. So the idea behind it, this is a point of contention for the

Missourians, and really among some of the Latter-day Saints. God calls by revelation for people to come together, to raise a company of men, to go redeem Zion. Now, that can sound like the intent is to go down and to start, you started shooting at us, and now we're shooting at you. But in reality, this is what they believe. the violence and the lawlessness that took place in Jackson County was so great that the governor of Missouri, Governor Dunglin, is going to use the state militia to go to Jackson County to restore the Latter-day Saints to their land that they purchased legally.

Zion's camp, the point of it is that these men would arrive to reinforce the settlers there. Okay, the governor is going to get us back. on our land, but once he gets us back on our land, well, what happens? The mob just comes back and drives us out. So unless we are more in numbers to where we can defend ourselves, the governor putting us back on our lands is only a temporary solution. There's two things that are going to go on. The camp of Israel is bringing food and money and clothing with them for all of these refugee saints that are now scattered everywhere, who are in dire circumstances, The idea being that when they are illegally restored to their legal, rightful lands, this force will essentially act as a deterrent to prevent further mob violence.

When you invest all this money and time and effort into lands for two years in Jackson County, and then you're driven out without any remuneration at all, you're starting over from scratch. It's going to place the saints in a position of poverty for a long time. I remember when I was first learning church history as a teenager, it's kind of confusing because this being driven in Missouri happens multiple times. This isn't the time they're driven from the state. This isn't the extermination order. That's later. Missouri is very confusing because there's just a lot of violence and we're always getting driven out of somewhere. It is hard to keep them together. But here's the timeline. Joseph Smith goes by Revelation with a group of Latter-day Saints to Jackson County, Missouri in 1831. In 1831, by Revelation, Doctrine

and Covenant Section 57, declares that where the temple is to be built at the center point of the city of Zion that will be built. From that time forward, dozens and then hundreds of Latter-day Saints, start arriving in Jackson County. So over the course of the next two years, between July of 1831 and July of 1833, there are several dozen, and then like I said, hundreds. I mean, we could quote the movie Legacy where they talk about that, where they say, two years ago, have a dozen of these moms arrived on the banks of the upper Missouri. Now they're over 1,200 in their dramatization of that. They're rapidly increasing in numbers. Missouri is not the headquarters of the church. It is the future headquarters of the

kingdom of God on earth. This is where they're going to build the city of Zion. This is where Jesus is going to come. When Jesus returns, more and more members are moving, some by direction, others just by, I want a front row seat for the second coming. I'm just going to go down there anyway. And then you have this July 1833 violence that takes place. the print shop, you have early 1834, the Saints being driven out of the county entirely. Not the state, this is the county. And they're living in Clay County, and some of them in Caldwell County, although Caldwell County hasn't been made yet. The first violence, July 1833, Independent Square, throw their printing press out the window, the girls save those Booker Commandments, then 1834 driven

out of the county. Primarily to Clay County. Which is just across the river. Yes, it's just across the river, yep, as far as they could get. And it's not a very populated portion of Clay County, which is part of the reason why they're able to go there and live there without much interference at first, because Liberty's on the other side of Clay County. This is the timeline, and now let's focus on the camp of Israel.

That is going back to address the Saints being after the July 1833 violence. And really after the January violence in 1834 that drives them out of the county. But yeah, all of that's kind of related. What happens is the violence initially starts in July. The Saints agree to leave. The Jackson County residents decide that the Saints may not actually be leaving, or at least they're not leaving fast enough, and they're petitioning like the judges and the governor to stay on their lands, they then attack the Latter-day Saints.

Someone's called the Battle of the Blue, where some people killed on both sides and the Latter-day Saints are driven completely out of the county. This is what causes Joseph Smith to write his lamentable letter in December talking about how hurt he is, how horrible it is for the Saints who went down there. If you put yourself in Joseph Smith's position, the only reason why anyone is living in Jackson County is because Joseph Smith as a prophet said this is where Zion is going to be. The people that are there are faithful Latter-day Saints who believe Joseph Smith to be a prophet. They're not living in Jackson County because it's just such a wonderful place to live before air conditioning is invented. they're living there because God declared that this is where Zion is. There's a real pain that Joseph goes through in hearing the reports of this violence. And then the Lord will eventually, in early 1834, command the saints to raise up a group of men to go redeem Zion.

This is the calling of the Zines camp. There's two aspects to that. They send out calls wherever there are branches of the church trying to get people to come join them. They're going to go down to Missouri. Now, this is not a light thing because Missouri's a thousand miles away. A thousand miles. There's no train.

You're walking this. And this is going to be a very difficult journey. It's going to be very expensive. The reason why the Latter-day Saints are not in Jackson County, is because people took guns and started shooting at them and killing them. Marching down there, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think you're going to get down there

and the Jackson County residents are like, well, we killed a couple of those Mormons to get them out of here, but you know, you guys are fine. Come on in. Obviously, there's a real potential sacrifice. There's a real sacrifice of your marching and your time and being away from your family. Then there's also the very real

possibility of the potential sacrifice. And that is, what if this meets a violent end? What if the Missourians fight? And we can't just get the people back on their land. The second thing that's going on is hundreds of saints are going to contribute money to pay for the expedition. One of the things that is undervalued when camping, especially if you're camping with a huge number of people

is just how many resources it takes. Anyone listening who has been like in charge of the food for girls camp is well aware we need how many eggs? We

need 2,000 eggs for a week. Obviously I'm not very good at that but people who are planning for treks. I mean it's yeah we're going to need 95 pounds of hamburger per day, I mean, the enormity in food alone to feed what will end up being well over 200 people, 230 people, every day.

I'm so glad those people exist in our church. Let's give them a shout out. People who know how to do that. They are wonderful people, unlike me, didn't say no to the calling. And so there's a lot of logistics. One of the cool records you can see, the Joseph's on the paper's website or on the church history library catalog, you can see these individual donations that your average member of the church makes for the redemption of Zion. I mean, one of the people who donates is actually Iber Howe's wife.

Iber Howe of Mormonism Unveiled Fame, the leader of the anti-Mormons in Kirtland. One of the reasons why he's not a fan is that his wife is a member of the church and not just a member, she's a believing enough member that she's paying money for the redemption of Zion. His wife, okay, this is brand new. I'm sorry. His wife was a member of the church. His wife's a member. His sister first joins the church, and then his wife joins the church. church. Iber Howe can act like he's being dispassionate all he wants in his attacks on the church, but in reality, it's very, very personal to him by 1834. Wow. Wow. She's a great example of someone Ruth Voss contributes hundreds of dollars to the Zines camp. Hundreds of dollars, I mean,

the average American makes $200 a year. So when you donate $250, that's like someone today donating $70,000, that's what it would be the equivalent of. That's a lot of money. What's interesting, though, and I haven't been through all the records to determine this. So all of your listeners who are like, wait a minute, that was my great-great-grandfather, and I'm sure he donated money. George A. Smith will later talk about the Zines Camp March a lot. one of the feelings that he always has is that the wealthy people in the church actually didn't

really contribute very much, that the wealthy people were the ones who ended up staying behind and didn't join the march, and that the wealthy people had the means to furnish more money for this trip, but didn't. At least that was George Smith's perception. Now, maybe it's because you eat enough maggotty bread for a while. and you're like, hey, why didn't we have money to buy better bread? And you're lashing out. But he brings this up multiple times in Utah that the rich members of the church.

Now, obviously some did contribute, but the majority of donations came from people that weren't wealthy. Like a lot of people donating a little bit funded most of them. The widows might, really it is, for a lot of the, a lot of that. You use a phrase, the redemption of Zion, go redeem Zion. Hank, we've talked about this. In the minds of those going on the march, what do they think redeeming Zion means? Because we've talked to about, is it a place, is it a people, is it a cause, is it all those things? What are they thinking they're going to do?

Maybe that's impossible to know. Almost every instance in Joseph Smith era references to Zion, it is a very instance. it is very, very much a place. Now, the Lord will even say, in his teaching to the saint in Joseph's revelations, that people have to purify themselves in order to make Zion. I mean, they certainly see Zion as both a place first and then a people that will inhabit it. because Zion really is the Lord declared it's there heading westward of the courthouse that's where it is right there that's where the city is going to be built that's where the temple is going to be built they very much

understand the city of Zion to be an actual physical location now they certainly believe that in order to inhabit Zion you're going to have to be a pure person a Zion people the plan behind Zion is a plan in which the land itself for the city would all be consecrated to the church. The church would own all of the property. Now, why would the church own all the property? Well, how do you build the city of Zion? Okay, so you go buy the physical land. Okay, you got it. There you go. Got your thousands of acres. You're going to build your city. And then people start moving in. Well, what happens when Bill moves. into a lot in the city of Zion, then commits adultery and gets excommunicated.

Now it's the city of Zion plus Bill who committed adultery. Because he's still living there. How are you going to ensure that there's a minimum standard of worthiness for the residents living in Zion? The way that you do it is by having all of the saints consecrate their land to the church the church then assigns stewardship to people that are theirs that they can live on, they can actually have inheritance rights

with their stewardship. But the price of the stewardship is that you're a faithful member of the church. You can live on this land as long as you possibly want. Your family can live on this land as long as you're a member. So that if Bill commits adultery and gets excommunicated and refuses to repent,

well, then he's going to get evicted from where he lives. because only the faithful are going to live in Zion. The idea behind it is the actual city itself will eventually only have people in it that are living a minimum standard of worthiness. Your temple recommend is probably a good example, where as a member, I donate tithing funds towards the building up of these temples, but my access to that temple is based upon a minimum standard of worthiness. And I'm well aware of that when I make my tithing donation. If I am not going to maintain a minimum standard of worthiness, then I lose my access to this place that I otherwise have access to. That's the idea

behind it. A lot of these properties that they're being driven out of in Jackson County are actually purchased or they've already been consecrated to the church and the church owns the title to them because they're planning to build the city of Zion. Oh, that's interesting. That's interesting. So redeeming Zion, this helps. Got a Zion people trying to go to a Zion place. They have been kicked out. So let's organize now, Zion's camp, originally called Camp of Israel. And that sounds like the people Israel, right, who are going to the place, Zion's camp. They see themselves as as the modern Israel that have been given that promise. So they march down, but they don't believe that the intent is to go assault Missouri.

I mean, if that's your plan, going with only 200 people, it's a very bad plan. Sometimes detractors of Joseph will say, yeah, and then Joseph raised an army to go like march on Missouri. It's like, well, I mean, obviously he didn't because 230 people versus tens of thousands is not going to work out very well. Yeah. And you've got children with you. You've got some families with you. They do bring families. I mean, we talk about the men of Zion's camp, but in fact, there's at least a dozen women who go.

In fact, one of the casualties of Zion's camp is going to be a woman who will die. Betsy Parish or Elizabeth Parish, who's actually the wife of Warren Parish, who is Joseph Smith, who will be Joseph M's scribe. And then eventually, unfortunately, he is one of the ones that will apostatize and try to form his own new church and they try to take over the Kirtland Temple, that Warren Parish. I wonder if any part of his later apostasy was affected by the fact that his wife died on Zion scam. She dies of the cholera epidemic that breaks out. I guess let's get them down there. So there are two companies. Joseph has the largest company that he's taking down. Then Hiram Smith and Lyman White have formed their own company from the

various outlying branches, and the two groups begin to march down there. By all accounts, it's a rough march. They are marching in the middle of summer. Having just returned from Missouri in the middle of summer, that's rough. You know about it. Oh, it's so hard to breathe sometimes. The heat index was 109. The last trip I was out there with. There were some people there from Georgia and from Arkansas in our group, and they're like, this is fine. This is called Saturday to us. This is the normal sequence of events for us. Everyone from Utah I was like, we're all just going to die. Yeah.

Don't you want to go see the church sites? I think I'll just stay in the bus. No, they'll stay in the bus. Keep the air con. I'm pretty sure the Pioneer sacrificed a lot. It is a very difficult march. Taking 230 people anywhere is very difficult logistically. And it's made all the more difficult by the fact that they have no comprehension of,

what causes disease. Zero. Everything that they think causes disease, they're wrong about. They don't know that germs exist. They don't know that viruses exist. They have no idea what causes them to get sick. Even when the cholera breaks out, the cholera epidemic breaks out among them. They don't know what's causing it.

That's why it's such a almost a biblical plague to them, because it seems so random and so out of nowhere. Of course, cholera is perpetuated by unsanitary living conditions and unsanitary water. Once someone has it and then they infect the whatever water source you're using, it keeps being perpetuated and it can be very violent. Hey, Garrett, tell us how far it is. How long is it's going to take? Yeah. Are there horses? Are they all walking? So some of them have horses In fact, one of the people who marched on this

As a guy by name of Joseph Holbrook He gives an account of this He gives a list of all the people that are there He says, we having teams We progressed on our journey at a rapid rate Considering the state of the bad roads In this new country Often 40 miles a day

You are booking to go 40 miles on a day I don't think I've ever done that in my life I don't think I've ever walked 40, maybe Disneyland. Yeah. If you're driving 40, you're like, I'm going too slow. I'm ready to get out of the car. Yeah. So he said, we generally lay by on the Sabbath day, and we held meetings on our campgrounds,

which was very interesting and instructive to us. I had the bad fortune for one of my horses to die near Jacksonville in Illinois, and I bought another one for $55 in cap. I don't want to tell Holbrook this, but you're going 40 miles a day with your horses, and one of them suddenly died, maybe you're going a little too fast with all the horses. We probably have some ferriers listening that would be like, yeah, you're going a little fast there with the horses, depending on how loaded down they were. So some of them have horses, but most of them are just walking. They certainly have some wagons because that's how they're hauling all their provision.

You can't just carry it all in your knapsack for a month and a half of walking. But it's going to take them essentially six weeks to get to where they want to be altogether. Things start out okay, but, you know, Benjamin Franklin famously said that fish and house guests stink after three days. I don't care who you go on a trip with. they could be your best friend you've got roughly 10 days with your best friend before on the 11th day in your mind you're like he plays that song one more time on the radio and I'm going to say something I am so tired of why does he breathe through his nose with a whistle while we're driving why does he do that and this is someone that you love that you deliberately went on a trip

With, for most people, it's not even 10, for most, it's three days. Two days, hey, it's fine, everything's on. Third day, it's like we eat, it's like the fish. So imagine now, you bring together dozens of people, 230 people. Yeah. You aren't sitting in an air-conditioned car driving all day. You are walking in the brutal heat of the summer, the brutal, humidity. At night, you're not heading to a hotel room. You're sleeping on a rock outside under

the stars. The food that you do have is limited, and we have to ration it, so you're getting even less of it. Now you're hungry, you're exhausted, you are hot and sweaty and filthy and dirty, and oh, by the way, we're going to walk another 30 miles tomorrow. It's not that surprising that under those circumstances, some feelings start to emerge, and people start to get snippy with one another. I think, brother so-and-so is not getting enough firewood the way I was getting firewood.

I went, I brought it, I spent two hours getting all the fire. He just sat there. He's got a better spot to camp at night than I do. It's interesting that when you're in those conditions, things that you normally wouldn't ever say one word about, you know these slights start to build you're hungry you're tired you miss your family you're like why did i do this right and where are you going like right you're headed into an uncertain future where you might end up dying all of those things combined to have a great deal of anxiety

people start complaining and they complain a lot they're complaining about their food they're complaining about because it is such a hot and dry summer, there's multiple times that they can't find any source of clean water. Clean is in giant air quotes for the 19th century. I mean, clean, but obviously not. I mean, it's not like they're getting this water from anywhere that's in any way coronated or treated. I mean, they're drinking bad water. They're eating maggot-infested bread, they're walking all day every day in this extreme heat, and people just start to complain. At one point, things come to a head where even Joseph is so frustrated that he reprimends one of the chief complainers. The complainer-in-chief of Zion's camp is a guy by the name of

Sylvester Smith. He's no relation to Joseph Smith, but Sylvester Smith is complaining about literally everything. And at one point, Joseph rebukes him for his complaints and is so frustrated that he takes the horn that they use, you know, because they call a horn every morning like a camp. They aren't a military body, but they are trying to use that military discipline. We'll sound the trumpet in the morning and will sound it at night. Joseph takes this horn, which George A. Smith will explain is a French brass horn. is what he'll call it. And if you have any French horn players, a little shout out to you, he will take it and he will throw it in disgust at the feet of Sylvester Smith.

Now, Sylvester Smith will later claim Joseph threw the trumpet at him, that, you know, he got mad and just winged a trumpet at him. I think Joseph at least going to claim he threw it at the ground and it like bounced up and hit him. But regardless, it shows you just how frustrated. Joseph is at that point, that we are supposed to be on an errand of the Lord. Yeah, you guys might be suffering, but you know, suffering more the people driven out of their homes in Jackson County that we're going down to hell. There is a lot of negativity that's building as they get down there, and it all culminates an even greater negativity. Because as they get to Missouri, as they're getting to those counties. Well, the Missourians are well aware. They've been apprised that there's a

body of Mormons moving down. Now, this is going to surprise you, but back in the 19th century, newspapers didn't always report facts accurately. Today, it's always accurate. But back then, shocking. You could get reports that were completely false. Some newspapers were saying things like there are 1,200 or 2,000 Mormons marching on Missouri. Some newspapers are saying things like, yeah, and they intend to attack the capital of Missouri. There is literally no evidence and no basis for any of these claims. But the Missourians themselves are increasingly concerned as the Zines camp march gets closer. When you read the newspaper accounts from the time, you get a sense for what the Missourians

themselves thought as the Latter-day Saints approached in the Camp of Zion. Now, they, of course, don't know that there are trumpets being winged places and that people are grumbling and complaining about everything. They just see this outside force coming in. All of the news media is blowing everything out of proportion. For example, there's a Washington. D.C. national newspaper that reports pretty frequently

on what their correspondents tell them that's going on with the Mormon controversy, is what they call it. They quote some letters from some Missourians who are there. In a former letter, so this is a letter that a Missourian is writing, explaining what's

going on. In a former letter I wrote at some length about the Mormons and promised to write again on the subject, they have just received a large reinforcement from the east. which makes their numbers amount to 800 or 1,000 men, all well armed with guns and tomahawks, knives, and from two to four braces of pistols each.

I don't know where they're getting their report from. I mean, you're only off by five times the number of people. There's estimates, and then there's whatever that is. This Missourian's giving a contractor's estimate, apparently, of how many people there are. the reports of the weapons they have? Yeah, they, all of them are carrying four pistols each. Anyway, they go on to say, in their letter, that they went through the county on the north of the river yesterday. We understood that the people of the county intended to stop them, and for the

purposes of assisting them, we raised 40 men, but we couldn't overtake the Mormons, as they raised to a dog trot and kept it up to most of the next day. The next Monday, it was supposed they were intended to cross the river to take Jackson County. The whole county is in an uproar. Volunteers are preparing to go to the scene of action. Should they cross the river, there will be a battle. And probably much bloodshed. Then they send a follow-up letter.

Their letter is, hey, there's about to be this cataclysmic violence. There's thousands of Mormons. They've got tomahawks and four pistols apiece. From my last letter, you may possibly be expecting to hear of a severe. battle that took place between the Mormons and the Jacksonians. But you will not. We went to Jackson County armed with guns and knives and in full expectation of meeting an enemy determined on victory or death. Nothing less could have been anticipated. For Smith, their prophet, had promised to raise all of them that should be slain in fighting the Lord's battle. Now they're claiming that

Joseph Smith is preaching that he's going to resurrect people on the spot. Once again, this is what a bad source looks like. We have no references of anyone at the time saying that whatsoever. How this person who's part of the Jackson County Defense Force knows what Joseph is saying in camp. No one would have any idea, but hey, well, it kind of goes to part of the problem with anti-Mormon rhetoric in the 19th century. Because Latter-day Saints are so hated, generally, whether it's religiously, whether it's politically because they're voting the wrong way, whether it's economically because they're disrupting the economics, whether it's because they are baptizing black members of the church and inviting them to move in, whatever it is.

When reports like this are given out, you'll notice that this national newspaper, the Washington intelligents are not disputing them. They're not saying like, well, it seems like that we have no other source that's, it's saying, Oh, yeah, of course, because when you're a hated minority group, it doesn't take very much to convince the majority of a negative thing about you. Because they already believe everything negative about you. When someone says something like, yeah, they've all got four pistols. They're coming here to kill us. You're predisposed to say, yeah, they probably do.

Everything else they do is terrible. There's no real check on these explanations that the Mormons are coming. They're coming to kill everybody. They're armed to the teeth. So he goes on in his letter. He says, you may recollect that some months ago, the people of Jackson County drove all the Mormons out of the county. Well, at least there's one honest part of his letter.

On account, as they alleged, of the improper conduct such as stirring up a seditious feeling in the slaves and Indians. So again, here's a Missourian contemporary to the time. saying this is what they said they drove the Mormons out for surrounding that slavery issue. He goes on to say that they're going to raise forces to stop them. The Jackson people offered them twice the value of all of their possessions, which was refused. So at this point, there are some negotiations going on between the Jackson County mobbers, the fact the saints are coming. it's at least allege here and in other places

that the people in Jackson County are like, okay, well, tell you what, you still can't come here, but we'll pay you for your lands that you didn't want to sell that we stole by pointing a gun in your face. How about we just give you money for it? That should be more than enough to settle this. Of course, it's not more than enough to settle it

because the Latter-day Saints aren't moving to Jackson County because it's a wonderful place to live. you have men like Ezra Booth who essentially apostatize when Joseph declares that Zion is there in Jackson County because he looks around and it's like this is a dirty drunk infested gambling hall town

this is the most sinful place on earth oh yeah this is where the city of God's going to be built we have one report from Jackson County that the only way that you could tell that it was the Sabbath day is that the saloons were more busy than they were on any other day of them.

For Latter-day Saints, they're not moving to Jackson County because it's great weather. They're moving there because God declared through a revelation to his prophet that this is where the city of Zion was going to be built.

that this is where the Lord Jesus would return when he returned. So the idea of, you know, tell you what we're going to do, sure, we stole your land and we killed some of you and threatened to kill the rest of you and destroyed your sacred scriptures and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, water under the bridge, water under the bridge, water into the bridge. How about we give you whatever we think is fair for the land that we stole from you, then you should be fine with it?

This is the equivalent of someone breaking into your house and stealing your television set. Then contacting you the next day and saying, look, we both did some things wrong. You know, you have the door locked and I had to kick it in. So I took the TV. I'm willing to let you have your TV back for $300. Well, I mean, you're not going to get a better offer than this. That TV is worth a lot more than that. take it or leave it.

So the residents of Jackson County feel even more justified in the stealing of the Saints' homes and land because, well, hey, I mean, we like offer to pay for it. Yeah, that's not how transactions work. You don't point a gun at someone and say, give me the land or I'll kill you. And then later say, you know what, here's 50 bucks. That should make you happy. That's essentially what they're doing. This letter goes on from this Jackson County resident.

They had collected in Clay County, and they'd built a number of boats to cross their forces over. Last Monday was no doubt the time they intended to cross, and they would most probably have done so, had it not been for the numbers who went from this county to oppose them. Jackson County raised about 900 men, and 400 went from Lafayette, and about 300 more have marched all day in a day or two if they'd been required. I know that we had neither law nor gospel on our side, but self-preservation urged us to pursue the course for we knew that our county would be the next to suffer from their presence if they had crossed the river i very much question if one of them would have been left alive to tell the tale no quarter would have been given to them we would have killed most of them before they even got across the river so you get an idea of what the Missourians are thinking what happens is that the

Latter-day Saints are marching down with Zion's camp believing from reports that they've gotten from the governor that the governor is going to intervene when you're a frontier governor in 19th century America the worst possible thing that can happen is lawlessness because you're already so far away from the centers of power in the country. The population is very sparse and very scattered. Lawlessness is a real problem because the same lawlessness that drives Mormons out of Jackson County is the same type of lawlessness that can drive governors from their mansions. Once people decide, hey, the law doesn't matter, I'm going to do whatever I think is right. Governors are pretty

hesitant for that because it's very hard to put the genie back in the bottle. when you say, yeah, you can be violent to whoever you want. Well, whoever I want is everybody. Now how do I take care of that? Well, the governor had initially indicated that he would use the state militia to return the Latterty Saints to their homes. But over the course of the weeks that it took for the saints to march down there, these reports of thousands of Mormons loaded with guns everywhere and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

As those reports hit, the governor finds himself in a situation where Mormons aren't just unpopular in Jackson County. They're unpopular everywhere. The worst thing he could do politically is seem to side with them in any way. So he sends messengers to let them know that he's no longer going to intervene, and that the Saints are going to have to pursue their own course through the court system to try to get their lands back. Well, that's what they've already been doing. What do you do when the sheriff of the county is complicit in the murder and mobbing of your people off of your land? Guess what? The judges of the county also complicit. The same thing that causes a governor to not want to intervene,

is the same thing that makes a county judge and then a state judge not want to intervene. So at this point, the Latter-day Saints are faced with this, what do you do? The 200 men was only going to be effective in helping prevent new violence. It wasn't going to clearly wish they had the thousands of people that the newspaper reports said they had. So 200 men was not going to win some war against Missouri. It's at the same time when they're camped that some of the movers send a deputation over and say, if you're not all gone in the morning, we're going to come kill all of you in the morning. So they race for an assault that's going to happen.

And then that's the night that there's this huge thunder and hailstorm dumps inches of rain. it swells the rivers and the creeks so much that they can't cross, and so they avoid violence. But at this point, the saints are faced with there's so much opposition. Before we thought we'd have the governor and his militia to aid us, now the governor says he's not going to do anything. The only options left are fighting a very violent struggle, hundreds of people being killed on both sides, or trying to find a peaceful way to resolve things and pray that at some point, you get an honest judge and an honest governor. Spoiler alert, in Missouri, they won't ever get one.

The camp is going to disband, and the Lord's going to give, by Revelation, doctrine comes section 105, that's going to say, I'm not requiring you to redeem Zion by the shedding of blood. God's going to fight our battles. So they do still serve a very good purpose. I mean, they do carry provisions and money and clothing to the scattered saints that are living as refugees in Clay County. But shortly after they arrive, there is a cholera outbreak that happens. And many people get sick.

As I said, one of the women who marches with them, she dies, another that gets very ill. is miraculously healed by Brigham Young. Brigham Young heals her from the cholera. There ends up being over a dozen Latter-day Saints that die of cholera that are part of the camp. And then a couple that are already living in Missouri die of cholera as well. The breakup of Zines camp is a very bitter thing for some people because, hey, I just marched all the way down here

and I slept on rock and outside in horrible conditions. with horrible food and horrible company at time. And I thought that we would come down and if we had to, we would fight the battles of Israel. We would go to fight. Some of them were almost disappointed that they didn't have that outcome. And I think that speaks to one of the things in the manual of what Brigham Young has to say about his experience on science camp.

Yes. in your voices of the restoration lesson. This is not in the manual, right? It's only digital for everybody. It's not in the physical manual, I believe. I think it's just digitally online. It's just the digital one. Yep. Okay. So I will read, because I printed it out, because I have this old-fashioned thing called a printer, printer, and I printed it out. So this is Brighamian. When we arrived in Missouri, the Lord spoke to his servant Joseph and said, I have accepted your offering, and we had the privilege to return again. On my return, many friends asked me, what profit there was in calling men from their labor to go up to Missouri and then return

without apparently accomplishing anything? Who has it benefited? asked they. If the Lord did command it to be done, what object had he in view in doing so? I told those brethren that I was well paid, paid with heavy interest, yea, that my measure was filled to overflowing with the knowledge that I had received by traveling with the prophet. Yeah, Brigham's going to, he's going to reiterate this multiple times in Utah when he talks about the Zion's camp. So they're actually going to have reunions of Zines camp where everybody who did the march they get together several times to talk about, hey, do you remember when we, remember when

we ate our terrible bread and do you remember when Sylvester Smith got hit by that trumpet? Those were the good heady days. Three people will talk about this multiple times to the saints where he says the same thing. You know, people would be like, oh, so why did we even go? Why did we spend all of this money and all of this time? And by the way, we're all farmers. We're all away from our crops in literally the most crucial time to grow. We went down there for what?

We didn't put one saint back on their land. We didn't fight and kill one Missourian with our dozens of pistols that we were. were all carrying constantly in our giant bands of pistols everywhere, apparently. And Brigham said that the knowledge he gained and the experience that he gained, he told them that he wouldn't give all of Ghiaga County, where Kurtland was, he wouldn't give all of the property in the county for the experience that he had. he will specifically say that his experience in Zines camp helped him with the exodus from Nalvu. That that was a training ground of how do you deal with a large group of people over the course of many hundreds and over a thousand miles.

They see it as this growth point. And that's obviously one of the takeaways from the Zion's camp march is God commanded them to do something very, very difficult with a very uncertain future. We read what the Missourians were planning. We will kill every single one of them. So that's already a pretty difficult thing. And to leave their families, to leave their farms, to leave their livelihood, to not have the outcome. that they thought they deserved or that they expected is very difficult. Now, people like Ezra Booth, when he got to Zion and saw that it was a town of horse thieves and drunkards

and was like, that's not where I think the new Jerusalem's going to be built, he apostatized. What's very fascinating about the men who embark on Zion's camp and the women is that there seem to be very few immediate apostaties. Even people like Sylvester Smith. I mean, there will still be some reckoning that will happen because he'll make all kinds of accusations against Joseph publicly. And there'll actually be a trial surrounding him. He doesn't apostatize over the science camp march. The experience that these men have is transformative for them. Eight of the 12, members of the original Quorum of 12 apostles who are going to be called only a few months later, eight of them, 1,000 miles down and 1,000 miles back.

All of the members of the presidency of the 70, when the 70 are called, are people who travel down there, including a repentant, Sylvester Smith, demonstrating Joseph's willingness. In fact, just to show you how frustrated Joseph was, maybe I will share with you a letter that Joseph Smith writes. Didn't he at one time mimic the spirit of the camp? Kind of like we do with our kid. And kind of show them how they sounded or something. And it says, is that what we want?

That's always super effective too. Yeah, isn't it? That really solves everything. This is a letter that Joseph writes in August. He writes it back to Lyman White, who's still back in Missouri. So it's after they get back. And he says, after so long a time, I dictate a few lines to you to let you know that I'm in Kirtland and that I found all well in my arrival as pertaining to health.

But our common adversary had taken the advantage of our brother, Sylvester Smith, and others, who gave false coloring to almost every transaction from the time that we left Cortland until we returned, and thereby stirred up a great difficulty in the church against me. Accordingly, I was met in the face and eyes as soon as I'd got back home with a catalog that was as black as the author himself, and the cry was tyrant, pope, king, usurper, abuser of men, angel, false prophet, prophesying lies in the name of the Lord, and taking consecrated monies, and every other lie to fill up and complete the catalog that was necessary to perfect the church to meet for the devourer, the shaft of the

destroying angel. And in consequence of having to combat all of these, I have not been able to regulate my mind so as to write to give you counsel and the information that you needed, but that God who rules on high and thunders judgments on Israel when they transgress has given me power from that time that I was born into this kingdom to stand. And I succeeded in putting all the gainsayers and enemies to flight under the present time. And notwithstanding, the adversary laid a plan, which was more subtle than all the others. I now swim in good, clean water with my head out, as you shall see. He goes on to talk more about it, but when they get back to Kurtland, Sylvester Smith tells everyone, oh, Joseph did this wrong, and Joseph hit me

with a trumpet. It's brought before the High Council. There's testimony that's taken. You can see from the emotion of that letter how Joseph feels when I finally got back home because he risked his life too he risked his wealth his time his farm his health when he gets back home it's not a hero's welcome for the sacrifice they went out it's a bunch of backbiting and rumor mongering about what a terrible job they did so it actually goes before The High Council, they discuss all of this. Eventually, Sylvester Smith is caused to recant and says that he exaggerated things, that things weren't actually the way that they were.

They do talk a lot about that trumpet relative to an assertion here to form made that Brother Joseph did at that time throw a trumpet or a horn at Brother Sylvester. He did not consider at the time that Brother Joseph had any intention of throwing it at Brother Sylvester, but that he might have hit him with it, it being so near the ground to him as he was, and it only fell near the ground near him, and that his brother, Sylvester, has supposed that had been in his hand, and then he only threw it down as usual, or as another man would. Either way, Joseph is super frustrated, but even more frustrated that when he gets back, that these things corrupt the sense of the church there.

There's a lot of negatives that come with them. the positives are these men who did sacrifice, the men and women who sacrificed, they are consecrated as a Zion people in a way that they weren't before. As Brigham says, as Wilford Woodruff says in the manual, this is part of what made them the type of men that they were going to be. We think about it for our own lives. one of the more frustrating things is to do something that you believe is for the Lord or because the Lord asked you to do it.

Then you don't end up with the outcome that you thought that you were supposed to get. You don't end up with the outcome that you anticipate it. I think all the way back to me going to graduate school, I wanted to go to a certain university. I intended to go to that university. I had correspondence with the professors and the history department of that university. I'd aced all my undergraduate work, graduated with honors,

and all the things that you can do. And I got rejected from going to that university. It was a bitter pill because I was so certain that I was going to get accepted into their graduate program because I'd talked to the people running the graduate program. program and I'd done everything that I could do on my own. I had every A that I could put up there. I had a high GRE. I had done all of the efforts and I really felt like I was following

the course that I was supposed to be at. So it was a bitter thing to not get what I thought I was going to get what I thought God frankly wanted me to do. But because I didn't go to that university, and I went to the one that I was at, that's what started me down the road of researching and writing in Latter-day St. History. You had no intention of doing Latter-day St. History. I was writing military history when I first was going to my Ph.D. program. And only because I was at the University of Colorado in a particular class where I did a particular research project that I came upon latter day saint history items that inspired me to write on it that caused me to pursue my course we're glad that happened well i mean maybe some of your listeners aren't because

they're like this is like 15 times now let's uh get somebody else but a lot of us can look back on really difficult experiences that we went through in our life boy when you're going through them they are the worst of the worst and then with high hindsight, you're able to look back and say, I'm glad that God didn't listen to everything I was crying about in my prayers. Because in the end, where he took me was where I needed to be. I always think of the old God is the gardener talk by Hugh Bound. I am the gardener. I'm a current bush. I know what I want you to be. And if I let you go the way that you want to go you'll you'll never amount to anything yeah you can either have what you want or you can

have something better they say but one day when you're laden with fruit you'll look back yeah it's such a powerful talk obviously the brown is amazing apostle and leader but the point of that talk is that sometimes the hardest things for us to deal with are unrealized expectation when in reality God who knows us and knows what is best for us and knows how it is that we'll follow that road to become exalted, sometimes he has us pursue things because of the experience. I could look at my undergraduate education and all my applications and my visits to universities and I could say that was a waste of time because I wasn't ever actually going to go into

that field anyway. Why didn't God step in and da-da-da-da-da? You know, I mean, you could. You could spiral into, I spent thousands of dollars doing this. And now what? And the reality is, as I look back, those experiences, those disappointments are part of what drove me to be where I am today. I wouldn't be the same without him. This is exactly what Brigham Young is saying about Zion's camp. I would not be, The Brigham Young I am today, if I hadn't gone on Science Camp. Hank, we love Section 58 verse 3, because we quoted a lot on here. Do you know what I mean? You cannot behold for the present time the design of your God concerning things which will come here after.

Brigham is now prepared to take a lot larger science camp. You mentioned the Wilford-Woodruff quote. I would love to read that. I love what you're talking about. It's that hindsight thing where you go. I thought I was abandoned. Actually, that turned out better than I thought. Better than I thought.

Wilford Woodruff has also a really longer, powerful statement about that. Hey, do you want to read the future President Wilford Woodruff's statement about Zion's camp? Yeah, right here in the manual. I was in Zion's camp with the prophet of God. I saw the dealings of God with him. I saw the power of God with him. I saw that he was a prophet. What was manifest to him by the power of God upon that mission was of great value to me and to all who received his instructions. When the members of Zion's camp were called, many of us had never beheld each other's faces. We were strangers to each other and many had never seen the prophet.

We had been scattered abroad like corn sifted in a sieve throughout the nation. We were young men, and we were called upon in that early day to go up and redeem Zion. and what we had to do, we had to do by faith. We assembled together from the various states at Kirtland and went up to redeem Zion in fulfillment of the commandment of God and us. God accepted our works as he did the works of Abraham. We accomplished a great deal, though apostates and unbelievers many times asked the question, what have you done? We gained an experience that we never could have gained in any other way. We had the privilege of beholding the face of the prophet, and we had the privilege of traveling a thousand miles with him and seeing the workings of the Spirit of God

with him and the revelations of Jesus Christ unto him and the fulfillment of those revelations. And he gathered some 200 elders from throughout the nation in that early day and sent us broadcast into the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Had I not gone up with Zion's camp, I should have not been here today, and that's in Salt Lake serving in the 12th. by going there we were thrust into the vineyard to preach the gospel and the lord accepted our labors in all our labors and persecutions with our lives often at stake we have had to work and live by faith the experience we obtained in traveling in zion's camp was of more worth than gold that's wilfrid woodruff there's a design of god like section 58 says with this so garrid if you had to

Zines Camp summarize it. We know why they went. We know what they thought when they went. We know it really happened. In the end, what would you say? It's a great example of the fact that there are few things that build both spiritual and moral character more than sacrifice. It's the unfortunate thing. You hear people all the time say, well, you know, I pray for trials. I don't. I feel like I'm going to have enough of them. I don't need to pray for them. But the idea behind it is this life presents many opportunities for us to grow and become something different. Those men who went and listened to Joseph preach on the daily, those who suffered with him, those had him reassure them when they were threatened by the mobs that we will be fine. They gained a testimony that,

they would not have had otherwise. I went on a fairly difficult mission to Wisconsin in the United States. At the time I went, there was only three stakes in the entire state, and they just barely made those stakes. There were hardly any members, and almost no one ever listened to us. We were confronted with antagonistic, anti-Mormon comments almost every day. It was a very difficult time. Yet I look back and I say, I would not have my devotion to the gospel that I have had I not been staled in that fire. That there's something about experience that prepares us and creates in us something new. And I'm still not praying for trials. I don't think I'd go back on my mission to Wisconsin. You'd get in too many fights, I think. You'd,

Yeah, you're right. Let me tell you. Oh, boy, if only you thought that wasn't going on back then. But I was already well into studying history before I went on my mission. Okay. Not very many elders are having a conversation with a pastor about whether or not they are an Armenian or Calvinist persuasion that I was. I think the takeaways are that God is in charge. We have to remember that it's the one.

works of men that are frustrated, not the works of God. At times, God does command us to do things because in the following of that commandment, even if it's not realized the way that we hope or think it will be, God's real goal, his real work isn't, let's get some land in Missouri. His real work is bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. If the way that he moves us towards that exaltation is through having us work through some difficulties that ultimately end up making us closer to the Savior, closer to following God's will, we would all count ourselves lucky. We get to the end of our life and we say, boy, that was really really hard. Also, that is why I never strayed. I think we'll notice that more. And that's what many of

these members of the camp did. I think of the phrase, things that bring you to your knees. But boy, when you're brought to your knees, what did somebody say? You're never standing taller than when you're on your knees. When you're brought to your knees and you're brought to rely on God, that is a really good place to be. When Nephi said, oh, wretched man that I am, he wasn't having low self-esteem. that was one of his greatest moments ever. But I know in whom I have trusted. My God, it's been my support. It's a principle I both love and hate.

I love the idea that God can take someone like me and transform me into something I want to be, but I fear the process. The process of what it might take. But looking back on some of the things I thought, I could never go through that. Here I have. Hank, he knows what he's doing.

I see the phrase that you read, Hank, from Wilford Woodruff. When the members of Zion's camp were called, many of us had never beheld each other's faces. We were strangers to each other. And many had never seen the prophet. Think of these guys for the rest of their decades of their lives when they look at each other, what they know they've been through together. And the bond they feel. I mean, you've been to a mission reunion?

I've been to missionary unions. We laughed ourselves sick at one of those missionary unions. Telling stories, yeah. We're talking about some of the hardest times. We're, in hindsight, feeling so much joy about the whole thing. I think it's also instructive, if you go to the Book of Mormon, they have this huge, long war that takes place the statement of what happens after the war because of the exceeding great length of the war that there's some who've turned against God. God who said... Hardened. Many were hardened. Then the same war, there are many that turned to God. We can't control the trials that happened to us. Obviously, we can try to mitigate some. I mean, don't drink and drive, and you're not going to end up getting a DUI. There's some things

you can do to prevent adding pain to yourself. For most things that affect us externally, we don't have the ability to control them. The only thing we really have the ability to do is to control how we react to them. My wife's favorite quote is from President Monston that we can't direct the wind, but we can't adjust the sails. We can decide how we react to the sometimes very difficult aspects of mortality. We always have the ability to decide. Am I going to allow this trial to push me into becoming a better person, to push me towards the arms of my Savior, or am I going to allow this trial to embitter me and push me away?

Joseph's a great example of this. You would think, with how upset he is at Sylvester Smith, that that would be the end of Sylvester Smith in the church. Of their relationship, yeah. Yeah. Sylvester Smith repents. Not even a year later, Joseph is giving him a beautiful, blessing that you can find on the Joseph Smith paper's website, giving him all kinds of promises.

And again, demonstrates the nature of Joseph. He was an emotional guy. In the moment when someone was upsetting him, there might be a trumpet heading your way. But at the sign that someone was willing to repent, he immediately grabbed a hold of them and said, okay, things are fine. even out of that, Joseph learns more forgiveness coming out of this camp because of how angry and bitter he felt because of how poorly he was treated and lied about, but then embraces this brother and others after they repent. No. Beautiful.

Well, thank you so much. Dr. Garrett Dirkmont, that's been so fun, so interesting, so introspective, because we all have some Zion's camp experiences in our lives. We can all look back and say, that was rough when I was in it, but this is what I've got from it. I don't want to do it again, but this is what I got from it. Great stuff today. Thank you. We will have you back. I love this voices of the restoration idea. We got to hear from Brigham. Why don't we talk to people who are actually there instead of look back on it a couple hundred years and make our comments? Who was actually there and talked about it? So I love that.

approach. We'll see Dr. Durkmont again when Voices of the Restoration visits the Curtland Temple, maybe a little happier topic. Yeah, I'm excited for that one. Yeah. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time on Follow Him.