LDS Place

“Before Joseph Smith was killed, he dispatched a Jewish apostle by the name of Orson Hyde to dedicate the land of Palestine for the return of the Jews. This concern for a homeless people and the sending of this apostle was done at a time when the Mormons themselves were virtually homeless, having been dispossessed of their lands and possessions in Missouri.

“Orson Hyde left on his assignment in the fall of 1840. He arrived in Palestine in October 1841. On October 24, 1841, he ascended the Mount of Olives all alone, built an altar to the Lord, and offered a dedicatory prayer.”

Ezra Taft Benson, “A Message to Judah from Joseph,” Ensign, Dec. 1976, 68

It is exceedingly important for members of the Church to get experience following the prophets in little things, so that they can follow in large matters. By following the prophets in fair weather we become familiar with their cadence, so that we can follow them in stormy times too, for then both our reflexes and our experience will need to combine to help us; the stresses will be so very real.

Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1979], 102

“Brigham’s most obvious achievements were the product of his ever-present and practical decision-making. He instituted the pattern of church government through the Quorum of Twelve Apostles that persists to this day. In leading the Saints across Iowa he issued instructions about wagons and oxen, modes of travel, times of departure, and types of recreation that were followed by the hundreds of companies that crossed the Plains to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and succeeding years. In the Great Basin he directed the organization of several hundred Latter-day Saint settlements; took contracts to build the transcontinental telegraph and Pacific Railroad; set up several hundred cooperative retail, wholesale, and manufacturing enterprises; established colleges and universities; and initiated the constructions of meetinghouses, tabernacles, and temples. And while doing all of this he carried on a running battle with the United States government in order to preserve the unique Mormon way of life.”

Leonard J. Arrington

“A few days ago in the early morning hours, in my private study at home and all alone with my thoughts, I read the tributes paid to each of the Presidents by those who had been most closely associated with each of them.

“Joseph Smith was the one whom the Lord raised up from boyhood and endowed with divine authority and taught the things necessary for him to know and to obtain the priesthood and to lay the foundation for God’s kingdom in these latter days.

“There was President Brigham Young, who was foreordained before this world was, for his divine calling to lead the persecuted Saints in fleeing from the wrath that threatened the Saints in those early gathering places in Missouri and Illinois and to pioneer the building of an inland commonwealth in the tops of these majestic mountains, to fulfill God’s purposes.

“To look upon the features of President John Taylor was to gain a realization that here was one, as President Joseph F. Smith spoke of him, ‘One of the purest men I ever knew. . . .’

“As I saw the sainted face of President Wilford Woodruff, I was aware that here was a man like Nathanael of old, in whom there was no guile, and susceptible to the impressions of the Spirit of the Lord, by whose light he seemed to almost always walk ‘not knowing beforehand the thing he was to do.’ ”

Harold B. Lee