1. Leaving Nauvoo & The Trek West~
Lesson 24
Student Readings:
• Doctrine and Covenants 136.
• Gordon B. Hinckley, “True to the Faith,” Ensign, May 1997.

2. Leaving Nauvoo & The Trek West
The Saints under Apostolic leadership.
Completing the Nauvoo Temple.
The trek across the Iowa Territory.
The trek to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
After the death of Joseph Smith, the mobs thought the Church would go away. But it remained strong under the leadership of the Apostles, and Nauvoo continued to grow. This caused the mobs to try even harder to destroy the Church and drive out the Saints. The mobs printed lies about them in newspapers. The governor of Illinois would not stop the mobs. The Saints soon realized that they would not have peace unless they left Nauvoo. The governor suggested they move far away to the west, where they would be away from their enemies and could set up their own government. Finally the Saints agreed to leave, but they needed time to get ready.

3. Leaving Nauvoo & The Trek West
The Saints under Apostolic leadership.
Completing the Nauvoo Temple.
The trek across the Iowa Territory.
The trek to the Great Salt Lake Valley.
Faith and Sacrifice

4. “More than 1,000 men donated every tenth day in labor
“More than 1,000 men donated every tenth day in labor. Louisa Decker, a young girl, was impressed that her mother sold her china dishes and a fine bed quilt as her temple contribution. Other Latter-day Saints gave horses, wagons, cows, pork, and grain to aid in the temple’s construction. The women of Nauvoo were asked to contribute their dimes and pennies for the temple fund.”
(Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [1996], 59). 
After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, the Saints worked under the direction of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to complete the original Nauvoo Temple as quickly as possible.

5. Even though the Saints knew they would have to leave Illinois, they increased their efforts to complete the temple before they left. Rooms in the temple were dedicated as they were completed so that ordinances could be performed as early as possible. Before his death, the Prophet Joseph Smith had administered the temple endowment ceremony to a small group of men and women. On December 10, 1845, these men and women began administering temple ordinances to other members in the dedicated temple rooms.

6. How do you think the decision to leave Nauvoo might have affected the Saints’ efforts to complete the temple?

7. Brigham Young (1801–77) recorded:
“Such has been the anxiety manifested by the saints to receive the ordinances [of the Temple], and such the anxiety on our part to administer to them, that I have given myself up entirely to the work of the Lord in the Temple night and day, not taking more than four hours sleep, upon an average, per day, and going home but once a week.”
(History of the Church, 7:567).
From 1844 to 1846, President Brigham Young and the Twelve Apostles made completion of the Nauvoo Temple an urgent priority. Endowments and sealings were performed there even before construction ended.

8. In addition to the men who worked in the temple, “thirty-six women became ordinance workers in the Nauvoo Temple, working round the clock during the winter of 1845–46 to administer the ordinances to as many as possible before the exodus. ‘I worked in the Temple every day without cessation until it was closed,’ recalled Elizabeth Ann Whitney, one of the thirty-six. ‘I gave myself, my time and attention to that mission.’ Dozens of other women washed the clothing and prepared the food that physically sustained that remarkable undertaking.”
(Carol Cornwall Madsen, “Faith and Community: Women of Nauvoo,” in Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, ed. Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr. [1993], 233–34).

9. Between December 10, 1845 and February 7, 1846—the date when the Saints began to depart for their journey west—approximately 5,615 Saints received the ordinance of the endowment in the Nauvoo Temple and numerous families were sealed there.

10. What can we learn from the Saints’ sacrifices to complete the temple, even when they knew they would soon be leaving Nauvoo?

11. In what ways do you think receiving temple ordinances might have prepared those leaving Nauvoo for their journey of over a thousand miles to find refuge in the west?

12. Principles
Receiving temple ordinances is worth all of our righteous effort and sacrifice.

13. “If it had not been for the faith and knowledge that was bestowed upon us in that temple by the influence and help of the Spirit of the Lord, our journey would have been like one taking a leap in the dark”.
(Sarah Rich, quoted in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society[2011]).
Sarah Rich

14. “Our pioneer ancestors were sealed together as families in Nauvoo
“Our pioneer ancestors were sealed together as families in Nauvoo. Their covenants with the Lord in the Nauvoo Temple were a protection for them during their journey westward, as it is for each of us today and throughout our lives. 
Elder Robert D. Hales

15. “For these early Saints, their participation in the ordinances of the temple was essential to their testimonies as they faced the hardships, the angry mobs, being driven from comfortable homes in Nauvoo, and the long and difficult journey ahead. They had been endowed with power in the holy temple.
Elder Robert D. Hales

16. Husband and wife were sealed to each other
Husband and wife were sealed to each other. Children were sealed to their parents. Many lost family members to death along the way, but they knew that wasn’t the end for them. They had been sealed in the temple for all eternity”.
Elder Robert D. Hales

17. Principles
Receiving temple ordinances is worth all of our righteous effort and sacrifice.
Temple ordinances can provide us with protection and strength when we face times of hardship and adversity.

18. How has temple worship protected and strengthened you or those you know during times of trial?

20. After the Latter-day Saints left Nauvoo, the temple they had built was gutted by fire in 1848 and then almost completely leveled by a tornado in 1850.

21. Brigham Young said: “. . . We committed the building into the hands of the Lord, and left it; and when we heard that it was burned, we were glad of it.
I was glad when I heard of its being destroyed by fire, and of the walls having fallen in, and said, ‘Hell, you cannot now occupy it.’ 
I would rather it should thus be destroyed than remain in the hands of the wicked.”
George Q. Cannon echoed him, adding: “I am glad it is destroyed; I am glad that it was burned and purified by fire from the pollution our enemies inflicted upon it, and I am glad there is nothing of it left [rather than see it] pass into the hands of our enemies and be defiled by them.”

26. Because of excessive rain and insufficient supplies, the Saints who left Nauvoo in February 1846 spent four months making the 300-mile journey across Iowa. 

27. During this time, more than 500 Latter-day Saint men—who became known as the Mormon Battalion—heeded the call of President Brigham Young to enlist in the United States Army to serve during the United States’ war with Mexico. Some of the men were joined by their wives and children. Their service would earn money to help poor Church members make the journey west, but many families were left without husbands and fathers for part of their westward journey. 

28. For these reasons, Church leaders determined not to continue west to the Rocky Mountains until the spring of The Saints settled at a place they called Winter Quarters. It was there that Brigham Young received the revelation recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 136.

29. D&C 136:1-5
What did the Lord instruct the Saints to do to prepare to continue their journey west?
How were the companies to be organized? How do you think this organization would have helped the Saints on their journey?
How is this organization similar to the way the Church is organized today?

30. D&C 136:6-11
What words or phrases stand out to you?

31. What words or phrases stand out to you?
D&C 136:6-11
What words or phrases stand out to you?
Who has prepared the way for you to enjoy the blessings of the gospel? What did they do to prepare the way for you?

32. The Saints obeyed the Lord’s commands by helping one another and preparing the way for those coming after them. The first group of pioneers left Winter Quarters on April 5, 1847.

33. Principles
Receiving temple ordinances is worth all of our righteous effort and sacrifice.
Temple ordinances can provide us with protection and strength when we face times of hardship and adversity.
The Lord organizes His Saints into groups so that each person can be guided and cared for.
The Lord will bless us when we help others and prepare the way for them.

34. They traveled more than 1,000 miles and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in late July On July 24, 1847, President Brigham Young entered the valley and received confirmation that the Saints had found their new home.

36. Elder William R. Walker, a former member of the Seventy, taught:
“Whether or not you are a descendant of pioneers, the Mormon pioneer heritage of faith and sacrifice is your heritage. It is the noble heritage of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”.
(“Live True to the Faith,” Ensign, May 2014, 97).

37. “We stand today as the recipients of [the pioneers’] great effort
“We stand today as the recipients of [the pioneers’] great effort. I hope we are thankful. I hope we carry in our hearts a deep sense of gratitude for all that they have done for us…
“My beloved brethren and sisters, how blessed we are! What a wonderful inheritance we have! It involved sacrifice, suffering, death, vision, faith, and knowledge and a testimony of God the Eternal Father and His Son, the risen Lord Jesus Christ…
“We honor best those who have gone before when we serve well in the cause of truth”.
(“True to the Faith,” Ensign, May 1997, 66–67).

38. “We cannot begin to understand the journeys made by those who laid the foundation of this dispensation until we understand their spiritual underpinnings.
Once we make that connection, however, we will begin to see how their journeys parallel our own.”

39. Faith and Sacrifice

40. The Utah War & The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Next week:
The Utah War & The Mountain Meadows Massacre ~
Lesson 25
Student Readings:
• “Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints,” Gospel Topics,
lds.org/topics.

41. “If we follow the counsel given by the
“If we follow the counsel given by the prophets, we can have a life in mortality where we do not bring upon ourselves unnecessary pain and self-destruction. This does not mean we will not have challenges. We will.
This does not mean we will not be tested. We will, for this is part of our purpose on earth. But if we will listen to the counsel of our prophet, we will become stronger and be able to withstand the tests of mortality. We will have hope and joy. All the words of counsel from the prophets have been given so that we may be strengthened and then be able to lift and strengthen others.”
(in Conference Report, Apr. 1995, 20; or Ensign, May 1995)

42. The only safety we have as members of this church is to do exactly what the Lord said to the Church in that day when the Church was organized. We must learn to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through his prophet, ‘as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; …as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.’
(D&C 21:4–5.)