The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as missionaries in Great Britain.

I think it's one of the most important missions that ever took place in the history of the Church just because of what it did for the Church and what it did for the Quorum of the Twelve at that particular time.

That’s next on the Joseph Smith Papers.

KJZZ television, in cooperation with the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presents this weekly series highlighting the research of scholars and historians as they prepare for the publication of the Joseph Smith Papers. And now, your host, Glenn Rawson.

At a time in the wake of the Saints’ problems in Missouri and their relocation to Illinois,

when Joseph Smith needed the strength and support of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,

he received a revelation calling them to serve as missionaries in Great Britain.

Now, while Joseph was not able to go on that mission with them,

their service in England profoundly impacted him and the Church ever after.

The mission of the Twelve to England was a seminal event in the history of the Quorum of the Twelve.

The Quorum of the Twelve were selected from a group who

traveled to Zion’s Camp in 1834,

and that was a crucial test of commitment, of sacrifice and dedication.

And from those tried and proven men,

the Twelve were, were largely selected.

But after the Quorum of the Twelve was organized,

they never worked together very well. They didn't learn how to be administrators.

Often they didn’t get along with each other— at least some members of the Quorum didn’t get along with each other.

Some were—didn’t really understand their responsibilities and their positions.

The Saints in Nauvoo respected the Twelve as leaders,

but they weren't their leaders.

Their responsibility at the beginning was to take the gospel abroad and to preside and to regulate the affairs of the Church where there were not organized stakes.

The intention that—was that this be a quorum mission.

And when they finally made it as a Quorum in 1839–41,

it was an opportunity for the first time to function as a quorum, to figure out individually and collectively what their responsibilities were as Apostles and what their authority and abilities were

as members of the Quorum of the Twelve.

Joseph Smith brought the Quorum of the Twelve together to prepare them for their missionary journey.

He taught them and molded them as a quorum.

Where pride had been a contributing factor in the fall of so many, Joseph taught them humility.

For the first time, really, he brought them together,

taught them, had intimate sessions of counseling and instruction, and had them function with him in laying the foundations of Commerce.

And these experiences helped set a tone for what would occur as they moved into their mission in England.

They had to build homes and make preparations to leave their families behind them in Nauvoo.

But during that—those meetings with Joseph Smith,

one of the things that was on Joseph Smith's mind was the disunity and the lack of humility that some of the Twelve had already expressed.

So here is one of the things he said to them:

“Let the Twelve be humble and not be exalted, and beware of pride and not seek, seek to excel one above the other.

Must the new ones that are chosen to fill the places of those that are fallen of the Quorum of the Twelve

begin to exalt themselves until they exalt themselves so high that they will soon tumble over and have a great fall, and go wallowing through the mud and mire in darkness,

Judas-like to the buffeting of Satan,

as several of the Quorum have done,

or will they learn wisdom and be wise.

Oh God, give them wisdom and keep them humble, I pray.”

It was that first summer in Commerce,

when the Saints were clearing the land and draining the swamps and beginning their new city of gathering,

that the Twelve were called to depart on their mission for England.

It was a difficult time for them to leave,

even a trial of their faith.

So they left under very difficult conditions,

making their own way in twos and threes,

and eventually reassembled in England in April of 1840.

It was no easy task to get from Nauvoo to England.

When some of them left, they were penniless—

Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, for example.

When they left, they had no money in their pockets.

They were both ill. Their families were both ill.

There is quite a heart-touching story of how they stand up in the back of the wagon when they see their wi— when they see Vilate Kimball standing at the doorway, knowing she’s ill, and they raise their hand and shout,

“Hurrah and hosanna!” as they are leaving Nauvoo and don’t know what’s going to happen to their wives and children.

And that was one of the things that affected them. You can read their letters and see how much concern they had for their wives—and especially Wilford Woodruff when he finds out that his young daughter became ill and died while he was gone. These Apostles went through

—I won’t say the word— terrible times

just because of things that were happening in their personal lives.

Because of their varied circumstances, the Apostles didn’t travel to England together.

Several of them spent time in the eastern United States helping the small Latter-day Saint congregations there.

John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff were the first to leave.

They arrived in Liverpool in January of 1840.

By March of that same year, they were joined by the rest of the Twelve.

Their leader was Brigham Young.

The others were Heber C. Kimball,

who had been on the mission in 1837; Parley P. Pratt,

who had been a—one time he had been a preacher,

or a self-appointed missionary missionary for the,

for the disciples of Christ;

his younger brother, Orson Pratt, who was the most well-educated among all of the Apostles,

was there; John Taylor, a convert from Canada— he had been born in England and then later went to Canada was converted there; Wilford Woodruff,

who became the most famous of all the missionaries in, in England;

George Smith, who was the youngest of the modern Apostles— he was ordained an Apostle when he was 21 years old;

and Willard Richards,

who was with that first mission in England, and he was finally ordained an Apostle in March of 1840 when the Quorum of the Twelve came back;

and then Orson Hyde, who went to Palestine instead of to England.

And that made nine who fulfilled the mission that Joseph Smith had called them to.

At age 38, Brigham Young was the oldest and the most senior Apostle.

They were all young in age and experience.

England was their proving ground.

It's almost as if the Lord had constructed a lab in which they could reach their potential.

For example, the impulse always was to counsel with Joseph,

and never before had they been where they couldn’t receive in a matter of weeks, if not days, his advice, and this time they could not.

Brigham Young longed for that advice—

he wanted it more than anything.

And there was no way.

It's almost as if Joseph was willing to leave them to sort this out themselves and figure out who they were and what they could do alone.

In addition to that, they were in a situation where the expectations were already set.

Heber Kimball and Orson Hyde had been so dynamic in laying the groundwork of the first mission with upwards of 1,500 or 1,600 baptisms in a period of eight months.

And so they were put in a situation where they had to perform because they were alone.

They had to rely on each other, and they had to rely on the Lord.

They could not go to Joseph or parcel it out to somebody else.

It was the Quorum responsibility, and they rose to that task.

Thomas B. Marsh had been the President of the Twelve at its first organization.

David Patten was second in seniority.

But during the difficulties in Missouri, Marsh had fallen away,

and David Patten was killed in the Battle of Crooked River,

making Brigham Young President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

He set out consciously to be in a different manner than what he’d experienced when Thomas Marsh was their President. Thomas B. Marsh was a good man.

He did many good things for the Twelve, but he could be officious,

sometimes abrasive. And partly in reaction to that, Brigham Young set out to be a father, as he put it in one image. He wanted to counsel with his brethren,

and he did. He wanted to embrace them and encourage them,

and he did. And so they really worked together marvelously as friends, as associates, as fellow Apostles, as a quorum.

I remember one little incident that happened when they were on their way to England after they left Nauvoo in 1839.

Brigham Young and George A. Smith traveled together for a while, and they didn’t have any money,

so they would rely on the Saints along the way to help them along.

Once in a while, they could get a room in a tavern, which were the hotels of those days.

But George A. Smith was very ill,

and his illness had affected his eyesight—

he could hardly see at all, and he was emaciated, he was thin.

He was only 21 years old; he was the youngest modern Apostle.

But Brigham Young, who was 38, was traveling with him. And at at one place, they stopped at a tavern.

And George A. Smith was so,

so blind he couldn't see

that Brigham Young sat there feeding him.

And somebody said, “I wonder who that old man is

that that young man is feeding.”

They could see that—the love that Brigham had for what they thought was an old man.

While the bulk of missionary activity was centered in the British Midlands, still the Apostles spread the restored gospel to many parts of Great Britain.

Now, while President Young presided over the mission,

he still managed to find time to proselyte.

This he wrote about his work in, in and around Manchester.

“Since we have been in Manchester, we have done all that we possibly could to spread this work, and we have succeeded in making the priest mad,

so that they rave like demons.

We keep baptizing every week, which causes much persecution.”

The youngest member of the Twelve on this mission was George A. Smith.

His experience was like that of his brethren on this mission:

overwhelming responsibility and profoundly humbling.

He has a wonderful account that he writes of his responsibilities in,

in his assignment where he’d been sent.

And he says, “I seldom go to bed before 12 o’clock.

This comes from having so many who come to hear me talk and receive instruction from me.

You cannot think how foolish it makes me feel to be looked upon with so much earnestness by persons who have been professors of religion and preachers of the different sects.

[The new converts] I thank the Lord for the wisdom he has given me and the success I have had in teaching these men.

They all look to me for instruction as children do to a father, and this makes me feel very small indeed,

[and then the reason he could do this] and causes me to cry unto my Father who is in Heaven for wisdom and prudence.”

There are stories of people that just, in effect, fell in love with him. And when he left, the tears of of people who did have means

but were still humbled by him are very impressive.

Wilford Woodruff's success on this mission was perhaps the most noted of all of the Apostles’.

He began his labors in Staffordshire and then went to Herefordshire.

Wilford Woodruff had already been on a number of missions

—starting as a priest and many times as an elder—before he was an Apostle. And yet he, too, felt the same feeling of being overwhelmed with the demands of people who looked to them to be their leaders

in a new land where the gospel was just taking root.

He talks about his work in Herefordshire in these words:

Some are placed in all the perplexing circumstances that possibly can be,

and are flocking around me by scores at a time asking counsel what to do.

As soon as a meeting closes,

multitudes crowd around me, and many hands are presented on every side to bid me farewell

—many calling for me to bless them before I leave them,

others crying out to ‘lay hands on me and heal me’ before I go.”

He was preaching in the town of Hanley.

And as he got up to speak on March 1st, (actually his birthday), he— the voice of the Lord spoke to him. Let me read to you what he was told:

“It being Sunday I preached twice through the day to a large assembly in the City Hall, in the town of Hanley, and administered the sacrament unto the Saints. In the evening I again met with a large assembly of the Saints and strangers,

and while singing the first hymn the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and the voice of God said to me,

’This is the last meeting that you will hold with this people for many days.′ I was astonished at this, as I had many appointments out in that district.

When I arose to speak to the people, I told them that it was the last meeting I should hold with them for many days. They were as much astonished as I was.”

In Hanley, Wilford met a man named William Benbow,

who told him about his brother John.

He was a preacher for a group called the United Brethren,

who were about 600 in number,

and they were seeking for light knowledge.

Wilford wanted to meet them.

So on March 2, William Benbow took Wilford Woodruff south to meet his brother and ended up at a little tiny farm in the middle of nowhere called Hill Farm in Herefordshire.

On March 6, John Benbow, his wife, and four of their best friends were baptized.

And so Wilford Woodruff meets John Benbow, baptizes John Benbow,

and then goes off on this glorious preaching circuit for several months, teaching and preaching every day. Wilford Woodruff baptized about a thousand people,

which is a phenomenal amount of baptisms in a short amount of time. Right, right.

And Wilford Woodruff was an incredible journal keeper,

as everyone discusses. Let me show you a page from Wilford Woodruff’s journal.

This is his summary of his missionary travels in the year of 1840. If you look at this closely, it gives a good idea of what he's doing.

John Taylor was born in England, and on this mission back to his native land,

he was influential in establishing the gospel in Ireland and on the Isle of Man.

John Taylor stayed in Liverpool,

and he began to preach in one of the most famous chapels there.

He began to have a lot of converts,

but his important job was to assist in publishing. However, he felt he had to go someplace else. So he took a man by the name of Black with him who was a convert to the Church and had friends in Ireland.

And can you see how friends, again, are important?

And so he goes to Ireland.

He left Brother Black there after he left Ireland, but he laid the foundation for the establishment of the Church in Ireland.

And then he went to the Isle of Man—didn’t know anybody there, but he was able to get some opposition and, as a result of that, attract attention.

And he left a branch of the Church in the Isle of Man.

The two Pratt brothers, Parley and Orson, each had their own fields of labor and their respective responsibilities.

One of Parley’s duties was to publish the Church periodical,

the Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star.

His brother—his younger brother— Orson Pratt, who was one of the most learned men among the Quorum of the Twelve— he was quite well educated.

Maybe that's the reason he decided he wanted to go to Edinburgh, Scotland, because Edinburgh was an intellectual center, and there were people who

I suppose he would be thrilled to talk with because of his intellectual concerns.

The problem was he made a commitment that by the time he left Edinburgh, there were—Edinburgh— there were going to be 200 members of the Church in Edinburgh.

But he began to do missionary work, and he found out that the intellectuals were polite— a polite interest, a curiosity—

but that’s all. They wouldn’t even fight him. And no opposition!

And he finally writes [? a letter ?] and says, “I wish I could get some opposition

because that would bring some interest to the Church.”

Finally, a group of ministers began to attack verbally Orson Pratt. This caused some controversy. This caused some opposition.

And by the time he left Edinburgh,

there were 203 members of the Church.

So his, his commitment had been fulfilled.

After a remarkable level of success in growing and strengthening the Church in Great Britain, as it came time for the Twelve to return home,

they appointed a conference for April of 1841.

It so happened that at this conference in April of 1841, the eight Apostles who had spent their year laboring together were joined by a ninth Apostle.

Orson Hyde had finally got himself together without his missionary companion John Paige, who never made it, and was on his trip alone to Palestine.

And he had stopped through British—Britain before going to Europe and heading on to Jerusalem.

So he is there for this great farewell conference.

And for the first time,

these nine men, who later became the nine who led the Church after Joseph Smith’s death, met together as a quorum in April of 1841.

There were great tears of farewell as the British missionaries, the Quorum of the Twelve and some of their American and Canadian companions, prepared to leave the Saints.

As the Twelve departed for home,

Parley P. Pratt remained behind in England with his family to preside over the British Mission.

There were about 1,600 members of the Church when the Twelve arrived; when they left about a year later,

there were almost 6,000 members of the Church in the British Isles.

It’s clear that the Quorum of the Twelve arrived at a time of religious preparation, religious turmoil,

economic difficulties, and the Quorum of the Twelve had confidence in two things as they preached to the British Saints—or the British would-be Saints.

They had confidence that they were bringing them

the plan of happiness and a way to salvation.

But they also believed fervently that what they saw in England among the poverty of the working classes in the cities was no way to live and not God’s plan for man

and that the American experience offered more opportunity,

more prosperity, more growth than Britain’s cities could possibly do. And they preached spiritual

and, if you will, temporal salvation.

The mission of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to Great Britain was lastingly significant in more ways than just convert baptisms.

Number one, by opening up the foreign missionary activity of the Church in England,

this became a kind of a stepping stone for the Church to go into continental Europe, South Africa, Australia, and India. This really opened missionary work to all the rest of the world because the British Mission became the, shall I say, the jumping off point

for missionaries who then went to various other parts of the world.

Secondly, the Twelve

began a tremendous publication program while they were in England.

They needed to get information out to the Saints.

So, one of the very first things they published is

the Millennial Star. The Millennial Star was published continually from 1840 until the 1970s. It was the official publication of the Church to the 1970s— Till the 1970s?

—when the Ensign came into publication, and then they stopped original publications.

Another thing that the Church published in England was a hymnal, which seems odd to publish a hymnal first off. You have a magazine and then a hymnal.

Music was very important to, to churches in that area.

Many people were illiterate,

and so they couldn't read and understand the doctrines of the churches themselves. But they could learn hymns— Which was a lesson in Doctrine—

—in Doctrine and Teachings. —I see.

And this is what the preface of the hymnal says. This is Brigham Young,

Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor’s motivation for publishing this hymnal in England.

It says, “The saints in this country have been very desirous for hymnbook adapted to their faith and worship,

that they might sing the truth with an understanding heart,

and express their praise, joy, and gratitude in songs adapted to the new and everlasting covenant.”

So, focused on them. One of Parley P. Pratt’s first assignments

in organizing this hymnal was to write new hymns.

There are 271 hymns in this hymnal. It was a big, thick book. —Yeah.

Forty-four of them were written by Parley P. Pratt in England.

Another thing that the Twelve published while they were in England was a new edition of the Book of Mormon.

—And that would have been an undertaking!

—That was a major undertaking. And actually, they hoped to publish in 1840, but it was such a big undertaking that they didn’t get it published until 1841.

Joseph Smith said that the gospel was restored to gather up scattered Israel and build the house of the Lord.

With the encouragement of the Apostles,

these British Saints—as soon as they joined the Church,

the spirit of gathering took hold of them,

and they wanted to go to Nauvoo.

The first emigrants from England to what became Nauvoo leave in 1840, the year the Quorum of the Twelve get there.

By the time the Quorum of the Twelve members return in 1841,

they are preceded by hundreds of British immigrants who have this same attachment to them and have shown the same affection and the same loyalty to the Twelve as their leaders. And it changes the way the Twelve are looked upon in the Church.

Well, by the time the Saints left Nauvoo,

there were over 4,500 British Saints that had gathered to Nauvoo. And by the end of the 19th century, there were 50,000 British Saints that had gathered to Nauvoo or later to Utah.

They were normal people. I think that's one of the most powerful impacts of this mission—of the mission of the Twelve to England. They didn’t—yes, they baptized a lot of people who became major leaders of the Church. But more importantly, they baptized people that filled the rank and file of the Church. What these British Saints brought to the Church in America wasn’t

a wealth of leadership or experience. They just brought stability and endurance— —And life and endurance.

A group of people willing to settle wherever Brigham Young asked them to settle. And these were the normal members of the Church that gave their all to the gospel.

The mission of the Twelve in England left behind an artifact that came to have lasting significance to the British Saints. It was the first chapel ever owned by the Mormons.

Where the conferences were formed in 1840,

that chapel was then donated to the Church because

the United Brethren don’t need a chapel anymore. But the Mormons do. —I see.

—So, this is the Gadfield Elm Chapel.

It's all of about 30 feet by 40 feet.

Tiny little stone building out in the middle of

the quiet countryside— —This is out in the countryside? —out in the quiet countryside— —In the middle of farms. —Very typical, primitive, Methodist-looking chapel,

but Apostles preached in this chapel.

Wilford Woodruff preached here about five times.

Willard Richards preached here a couple of times. And Brigham Young preached in this building a couple of times.

This is the Church’s first international historic site.

So members of the Church in the United States can visit Palmyra and Kirtland and Winter Quarters and Nauvoo. Members of the Church in England can visit the Gadfield Elm Chapel. This is the pond at Benbow’s farm.

About 40 people were baptized in this pond.

Wilford Woodruff baptized the Benbows and their friends

—their four friends—and had this idea that perhaps there’s going to be more baptisms here.

So the date—so March 6, he baptizes the Benbows. March 7, he spends the day clearing this pond. It was a cow pond. We have a marker at the site of the first baptisms in Preston in the River Ribble,

where people were baptized in 1837.

When the Twelve returned home in the summer of 1841,

they were a much different group of men than the ones who had departed almost two years earlier.

Soon thereafter, Joseph Smith's planned role for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles began to take shape.

Joseph Smith now had great need for such a quorum of unity and power and experience

and was so excited to have them back and so pleased with how well they had functioned that he could not wait

even until the October conference.

Instead, he called an extraordinary conference of the Church—that’s what the minutes say.

Written across the top: “Extraordinary conference on the 16th of August, 1841.” And at this conference,

to use them—not just the minutes but also the language of Wilford, Willard Richards in his diary:

“Business of the Church given to the Twelve.”

It was a constitutional change to bring the Twelve into responsibility— jurisdictional assignments within the organized stakes of Zion.

A lot happened in the next several years, most of which reinforced the role—the new role the Twelve had

so that by the time Joseph Smith was killed in 1844,

the Saints understood that the Twelve were empowered,

they had Joseph Smith’s confidence, they had experience.

They had confidence in the Twelve,

and there was very little questioning who was in charge.

Nine members of the Quorum of the Twelve who went on the mission to England are the nine who stayed with it

and who became the leaders for the rest of the 19th century.

The three who did not go all went off the track at some point after the death of Joseph Smith.

It was actually in March of 1844 in what has sometimes been called the last charge,

he called them together and told him that the keys to the kingdom were theirs.

The kingdom was going to roll forth on their shoulders. And there was no question in their minds that Joseph Smith had indicated that they were the ones to succeed him

should anything happen to him.

Joseph Smith described the things done to the Saints in Missouri as enough to make hell itself stand aghast and pale.

Next week on the Joseph Smith Papers,

we return to Missouri for Joseph Smith and the Law, Part Two.

I’m Glen Rawson.

Thanks for joining us.