There is a bigger lesson!

Today in our Sunday School class we discussed Zion's Camp. Zion's Camp was an expedition of approximately 225 Latter Day Saints or Mormons, mostly men, led by Joseph Smith, from Kirtland, Ohio to Clay County, Missouri during May and June 1834 in an unsuccessful attempt to regain the homes and land from which the Saints had been expelled by non-Mormon settlers.

 

" The Lord commanded Joseph Smith to gather a group of men to march from Kirtland to Missouri to help the Saints who had been driven from their lands in Jackson County. When Zion’s Camp reached eastern Clay County, Missouri, in late June 1834, a mob of over 300 Missourians came out to meet them—intent on their destruction. Under the direction of the Prophet Joseph, the brethren set up camp at the junction of the Little and Big Fishing Rivers.

The mob began to attack with cannon fire, but the Lord was fighting the battle of the Saints. Clouds quickly began to form overhead. The Prophet described the circumstances: “It began to rain and hail. … The storm was tremendous; wind and rain, hail and thunder met them in great wrath, and soon softened their direful courage and frustrated all their designs to ‘kill Joe Smith and his army.’ … They crawled under wagons, into hollow trees, filled one old shanty, etc., till the storm was over, when their ammunition was soaked.” After experiencing the pelting of the storm all night, “this ‘forlorn hope’ took the ‘back track’ for Independence, to join the main body of the mob, fully satisfied … that when Jehovah fights they would rather be absent. … It seemed as if the mandate of vengeance had gone forth from the God of battles, to protect His servants from the destruction of their enemies.”

When it became apparent that a mob army was confronting the Saints and that Governor Dunklin would not keep his promise to help them, the Prophet prayed for instruction from the Lord. The Lord told him that conditions were not then right for the redemption of Zion. The Saints had much to do to prepare their personal lives in order to build Zion. Many of them had not yet learned to be obedient to the things the Lord required: “Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself. And my people must needs be chastened until they learn obedience, if it must needs be, by the things which they suffer” (D&C 105:5–6).

The Lord instructed that Zion’s Camp should not pursue its military objective: “In consequence of the transgressions of my people, it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion—That they themselves may be prepared, and that my people may be taught more perfectly” (D&C 105:9–10). The brethren in Zion’s Camp were honorably released, and the Prophet returned to Kirtland.

 

After the camp had traveled nearly 1,000 miles to Fishing River, near Jackson County, the Lord revealed that the Saints would have to wait for the redemption of Zion. Soon afterward, the Prophet disbanded the camp. The event is not without detractors, who say that Joseph Smith accomplished nothing that he set out to do. Fourteen men were killed. Others say that  Zion's Camp was a refining for those who participated. Many future leaders of the church came from those who marched with the prophet Joseph Smith.

 

One of the obvious lessons of Zions Camp is obedience. Many criticized the Prophet Joseph Smith. There was dissension not only in Missouri, but in Kirtland, Ohio as well. Some even left the church or sought position and power. We talked about obedience in class today and as we did I shared a personal family experience, that I think was a defining moment in my, if not our lives.

 

When our youngest daughter Ashlyn was turning eight she and we desired that she would be baptized in the Provo River behind our cabin in Woodland, Utah. We consider our "Pine Valley" a sacred spot and many ancestors and progeny have been baptized in the river. The baptism required the approval of our local church leaders and when we approached them we were told that church policy did not permit baptism outside of approved church facilities. To say the least we were very disappointed and I would even say disheartened and sad. We were not mad, but had a difficult time understanding why our son was able to be baptized there and Ashlyn was not.

 

Steve and I talked and decided that we could approach this in two ways. We could complain and criticize our leaders or we could teach and follow the principle of obedience. Either may potentially set up a life long pattern that would be either divisive or strengthening. We decided we would follow the counsel of our leaders and we would teach obedience and faith. Ashlyn was baptized in the font in our stake center.

 

We have rarely talked about this experience, but we are facing a similar experience with one of our grandchildren and I have rethought over and over again our choices at the time.

 

Today when I shared the experience, without naming names or specifying the situation, I told those in the class that our decision to teach the principle of obedience was actually a very spiritually freeing experience. We did not criticize, we did not question. Steve and I discussed the response and we did as we were told to do. In  fact, we chose to look for positives to make this experience as sacred as it should be. I have no regrets and I am sure we have all been blessed by the path we chose.

 

After Sunday School, a former Bishop in our ward and the one that counseled us at the time, tapped me on the shoulder and told me he had been talking to his family members at a recent reunion about our family. He said he did not know if this was the experience I was referring to, but he did say that he was sad himself that he could not grant our request, because he knew how sacred our valley was. He said that he remembers my husband, who had approached him with the request, saying we will do whatever we are directed to do (not a direct quote). "Yes," I told him," that was the same experience I was referring to." We were not angry, but very sad, but we believed and still believe that our covenants should direct our decisions and that the lesson of obedience and not being critical of  our leaders was the bigger lesson at the time and still is. I don't even know how much Ashlyn remembers the experience, but she has always been an obedient child, at least in a gospel sense, and usually in a "child" sense. She is a spiritually deep daughter who understands who she is and has faith in what the Lord has in store for her. She is much more faithful than I, and I hope that those blessings she has been given are due in a small part because at an early age we taught her the principle of obedience, by our desire to follow the counsel of a dear friend and Bishop. Some say that religious people sometimes follow blindly the teachings of leaders, and yes, there may be some who do, but as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we choose to follow with an abiding faith and a deep testimony that we are being lead by a prophet of God who receives revelation from our Father In Heaven to guide his church here upon the earth and leaders who, although human and not perfect, are ordained to lead and guide us.

 

“Brethren, some of you are angry with me, because you did not fight in Missouri; but let me tell you, God did not want you to fight. He could not organize His kingdom with twelve men to open the Gospel door to the nations of the earth, and with seventy men under their direction to follow in their tracks, unless He took them from a body of men who had offered their lives, and who had made as great a sacrifice as did Abraham” (History of the Church, 2:182).

 

When Brigham Young, my husband's third Great Grandfather, returned to Kirtland after Zion’s Camp, he was asked, “What have you gained by this journey?” He replied, “Just what we went for; … I would not exchange the knowledge I have received this season for the whole of [this] County” (in Journal of Discourses, 2:10).  We will all be tried and tested, even in the little things. How we react to it is the basis for our character and the stepping stones of our faith. This I Believe as well!