December 2004 Ensign - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

ORGANIZATION OF THE RELIEF SOCIETY, BY NADINE BARTON
Right: On 3 April 1836, in the newly dedicated
Kirtland Temple, Christ appeared to the Prophet
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. “We saw the
Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit,
before us” (D&C 110:2). Oliver Cowdery, one of
the Three Witnesses, said of the Prophet, “I wrote
with my own pen the entire Book of Mormon (save
a few pages) as it fell from the lips of the Prophet
Joseph, as he translated it by the gift and power of
God. . . . I beheld with my eyes and handled with
my hands the gold plates from which it was transcribed”
(quoted in William G. Hartley, “Pushing on
to Zion,” Ensign, Aug. 2002, 18).
Below: Of the Relief Society sisters, Elizabeth Ann
Whitney, counselor in the first Relief Society presidency,
wrote: “President Joseph Smith had great
faith in the sisters’ labors, and ever sought to
encourage them in the performance of the duties
which pertained to these societies“ (in Andrus, 41).
Right: Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner wrote: “I
heard Joseph say, ‘I have rolled this kingdom off
of my shoulders on to the shoulders of the Twelve
and they can carry out this work and build up His
kingdom. . . . I am tired, I have been mobbed,
I have suffered so much. . . . I have to seal my
testimony to this generation with my blood. . . .’
“These words were spoken with such power
that they penetrated the heart of every soul that
believed on him” (in Andrus, 26).
CHRIST APPEARS TO JOSEPH SMITH AND OLIVER COWDERY IN THE KIRTLAND TEMPLE, BY DEL PARSONS
JOSEPH, A POOR WAYFARING MAN OF GRIEF, BY JARED BARNES
ENSIGN DECEMBER 2004 21