Digital Only: Come, Follow Me
Facing Disappointment—We Always Have a Choice
We can learn from examples of early Saints in Doctrine and Covenants 51–57.
In 1831, Ezra Booth witnessed the healing of Alice “Elsa” Johnson’s arm by Joseph Smith. That miracle convinced Ezra that Joseph was a prophet and led to his baptism and subsequent ordination as an elder in the Church. Several weeks later, Ezra went with other Church elders, along with Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, to Jackson County, Missouri, USA (see Doctrine and Covenants 52:22–34). After they arrived, the Lord revealed to the Prophet that the City of Zion would be located in Independence, a small town in the county (see Doctrine and Covenants 57:1–3).
Ezra was very disappointed in hearing the news. Independence—which was still relatively undeveloped—seemed too rough to serve as the “center place” of Zion. “The prospect appeared somewhat gloomy,” Ezra explained, because the town contained only “two or three merchant stores, and fifteen or twenty dwelling houses.”1 How could Independence become the beautiful Zion he had heard so much about?
Ezra’s disappointment deepened when he realized that few Church members lived in Independence. Joseph had prophesied that a large congregation would exist in Independence. But when the prophecy hadn’t yet been fulfilled, Ezra began to question Joseph. He didn’t think Joseph conducted himself the way a prophet should, and he refused to share his testimony with the people of Jackson County.2 His disappointment slowly transformed into dissension.
The Lord asked Ezra to repent because he and others “condemned for evil that thing in which there was no evil.” The Lord said, “When these things are made known unto them, and they repent of the evil, they shall be forgiven.” (See Doctrine and Covenants 64:15–17.)
But Ezra never repented. Instead, he left the Church, became a bitter critic of Joseph Smith, and published a series of letters against him.3
That same revelation that called Ezra to repentance was also directed toward other elders, including Edward Partridge, a bishop. Like Ezra, Edward had also been disappointed in the location of Zion. The Lord instructed Edward to move his family to Independence so that he could oversee the purchase of land for the Saints, but Edward wasn’t excited about living there. He was used to living in an established town. He wrote to his wife, Lydia, “We have to suffer, and shall for some time, many privations here.”4
Edward also disagreed with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery about what land he should buy. Joseph and Oliver wanted certain tracts to be purchased, but Edward believed there was better land somewhere else. Edward had hard feelings toward Joseph for a while.5
But unlike Ezra, Edward didn’t allow the disagreement or his disappointment to drive him away from the gospel. Instead, he eventually asked for forgiveness from the Lord and from Joseph. “I sometimes feel as though I must fall,” he wrote to Lydia. “I fear my station is above what I can perform to the acceptance of my Heavenly Father.”6 He told Joseph that he hoped the Prophet could forgive him for the dispute because he was and “has always been sorry.”7
Edward and Joseph reconciled, and Edward stayed faithful until he died in 1840.
Ezra’s and Edward’s experiences show two different examples of how we can handle the disappointments we will face from time to time. We might be faced with situations that will give us reasons to be offended, but “as agents,” as Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has taught, “you and I have the power to act and to choose how we will respond to an offensive or hurtful situation”8—or to a disappointing one. We can allow our disappointments to drive us away from the Lord, as was the case for Ezra Booth, or, like Edward Partridge, we can use our struggles to become more humble and to strengthen our relationship with God.
We always have a choice.