The Prophet Joseph

“I feel like shouting, hallelujah, all the time, when I think that I ever knew Joseph Smith, the Prophet.” ~Brigham Young

I've been thinking about Joseph Smith today. I often imagine what it would have been like to be among the early saints, to have known the Prophet personally. I have several ancestors who were friends of the Prophet. John Solomon Fullmer, for instance, was one of them. When his parents became interested in being baptized, John was "bitterly opposed to them joining what he called some 'new fangled' religion." But he softened to their choice and determined to investigate their new religion with an open heart. "At the end of two years, he decided to go to Nauvoo to visit with the portion of his family living there and to see for himself the Prophet Joseph Smith. He made the journey from Nashville to Nauvoo, Illinois on horseback in the Spring of 1839 and, before returning to Nashville, was baptized into the Church by the Prophet Joseph Smith on 29 July 1839" (from The Life of John Solomon Fullmer). John had been bitterly opposed to the Church, but upon meeting Joseph Smith, he was converted. The story is nearly repeated with several of my other ancestors. Though previously skeptical, they embraced the gospel after they had met the Prophet personally.

I wonder what it would have been like to be in the presence of Joseph Smith. Being in his presence had a powerful impact on my ancestors. I have met people who have an aura of love and sincerity and just feel good to be around. Was the Prophet Joseph one of those people? In a New Era article, "The Personality of the Prophet," Richard Lloyd Anderson tells us:

"Those closest to Joseph felt the power of the Spirit, which came upon him. Lorenzo Snow was 18 and not yet converted when he first watched Joseph Smith. He heard Joseph Smith speak in his neighborhood, standing in the doorway of John Johnson’s farmhouse. The Prophet began telling of the coming of Moroni 'in a rather low voice,' but his inner feelings poured out as he proceeded 'and seemed to affect the whole audience with the feeling that he was honest and sincere.' After his baptism, Lorenzo attended meetings in the Kirtland temple when Joseph Smith’s 'whole person shone, and his face was lightened until it appeared as the whiteness of the driven snow' (Deseret News, 23 December 1899)."

Mary Alice Cannon Lambert, an English convert, described her first encounter with the Prophet Joseph this way:

“I first saw Joseph Smith in the Spring of 1843. When the boat in which we came up the Mississippi River reached the landing at Nauvoo, several of the leading brethren were there to meet the company of saints that had come on it. Among those brethren was the Prophet Joseph Smith. I knew him the instant my eyes rested upon him, and at that moment I received my testimony that he was a Prophet of God. … He was not pointed out to me. I knew him from all the other men, and, child that I was (I was only fourteen) I knew that I saw a Prophet of God” (“Joseph Smith, the Prophet,” Young Woman’s Journal, Dec. 1905, p. 554).

I remember being a small child and hearing the story of Joseph Smith's First Vision in Primary. I have always known it was true with every fiber of my being. I never had any doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in that grove of trees and spoke to him there. Almost like it was written into the very cells of my body. Maybe it was, in a sense, an inheritance from my ancestors who knew the Prophet Joseph themselves? But the important thing is that anyone can have that same assurance regardless of their inability to meet the Prophet or their lack of pioneer ancestors. Anyone can know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.

When Joseph Smith lacked wisdom in his search for truth, he took his concerns to God. We, too, can ask our loving Father in Heaven to reveal truth to us. Was Joseph Smith really a prophet of God? I invite you to ask God with sincerity, and I know that He will answer.