The Mormon Apocrypha

Persecution was a huge problem in the early church. It was the reason they moved from place to place, eventually making their way to modern day Utah. Moses Thatcher, a member of the Twelve, gave a sermon about this persecution. He talks about how "a persecuted religion is an investigated religion" and how the Saints still love their county. I rejoice in the remarks that were made this morning by the brethren and feel that they were prompted by the Holy Ghost. It was truly remarked by our aged and venerated President, that unless sustained by the Lord, we cannot, as a people, accomplish His work; and it certainly must be apparent to every thoughtful mind, that man in and of himself is very weak, that he is unable, alone and unaided, to accomplish that which will result in his own salvation. It is not difficult to understand or to comprehend the power of God, as it is manifested in the affairs of nations; but we cannot always see how He manages and controls individuals. And yet...

On February 4, 1879, Joseph Smith III, prophet of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, went to visit his mother, Emma Smith Bidamon at her house in Nauvoo Illinois. He asked her some questions about her life, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. It is inspiring how even after all she had been through; she still had a testimony in her husband's work and the Book of Mormon. Below is a sampling of the questions asked to her. Question: What of the truth of Mormonism?  Answer: I know Mormonism to be the truth; and believe the Church to have been established by divine direction. I have complete faith in it. In writing for your father, I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the [seer] stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.1  Q. Had he not a book or manuscript from which he read, or dictated to you?  A. He had neither manuscript nor book to re...

The eleven witnesses of the book of Mormon are well-known to any member of any branch of the restoration. Their testimonies have been printed in the book of Mormon since the beginning. But they are not the only ones who had a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  William McLellan was an early leader in the church, being in the Qurom of the Twelve. Over time, he slowly distanced himself from the church, eventually getting excommunicated in 1838. He often worked with the mobs against the church. After the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, he went from church to church, from the Ridgonites to the Strangites. Eventually in 1869, McLellan gave up on organized religion. In 1880, James T. Cobb, a resident of Salt Lake City and critic of the church, sent some letters to McLellan to get him to criticize the Book of Mormon. But no matter what problems McLellan had with the church, he could not deny the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. What he said in a letter back to Cobb was powerful. While I d...

Sealings were and still are a very important part of the LDS Church. You may be sealed to be a part of your family for all eternity. But in the early days of the practice of Sealing, people were getting sealed to apostles and prophets. They worried that their parents who passed on would not accept the gospel and wanted to get sealed to people who had, sealing themselves to people like Joseph Smith and John Taylor. This practice never sat well with Willford Woodruff and worked against it as early as 1874.   The Law of Adoption Discourses Delivered at the General Conference of the Church, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, Sunday, April 18, 1894 President Wilford Woodruff I feel thankful for the privilege of meeting with so many of the Latter-day Saints this morning. In order to present my position before the Saints I wish to say that I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over sixty years, a member of the quorum of the Apostles fifty-five ...

40 years. Three Prophets. This was how long it took to build the Salt Lake Temple. Thousands of Saints worked on the temple, laying brick on brick. On April 6, 1893, all that work paid off when Wilford Woodruff gave the dedicatory prayer, finally consecrating the temple as a house of the Lord. Salt Lake Temple Dedicatory Prayer Dedicated 6–24 April 1893 by Wilford Woodruff Our Father in heaven, Thou has created the heavens and the earth, and all things that are therein; Thou most glorious One, perfect in mercy, love, and truth, we, Thy children, come this day before Thee, and in this house which we have built to Thy most holy name, humbly plead the atoning blood of Thine Only Begotten Son, that our sins may be remembered no more against us forever, but that our prayers may ascend unto Thee and have free access to Thy throne, that we may be heard in Thy holy habitation. And may it graciously please Thee to hearken unto our petitions, answer them according to Thine infinite wisdom and lo...