Aug 9th

Julie R taught our RS lesson today on: Joseph Smith #38 The Wentworth Letter

background of the Wentworth Letter: Joseph Smith wrote the Wentworth Letter in response to a request from John Wentworth and George Barstow, “Editor and Proprietor of the Chicago Democrat, …It is an original account by Joseph Smith testifying of his sacred call from God, his visions, and his ministry and teachings. It recounts the rise and growth of the Church and the persecutions of the Saints. It contains a prophetic declaration of the Church’s future success in the earth under the protective hand of the Great Jehovah. It also contains several important details not found elsewhere in the Prophet’s teachings, including a description of the gold plates and a sketch of the contents of the Book of Mormon. Significantly, it is the first time that Joseph Smith himself published an account of his First Vision. Concluding with the 13 declarations of Church doctrine now called the Articles of Faith, it stands as a powerful witness of the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith.”

So, Joseph wrote the Wentworth Letter in response to a question someone asked about the church. It was a lesson on how to respond to those who ask us about our beliefs. Through studying the Wentworth letter we can see appropriate responses about church history and church beliefs.

The Wentworth Letter concludes with the 13 articles of faith describing the fundamental doctrines and principles of our religion. We talked about how The Articles of Faith would be great to memorize and use to clarify our beliefs to non-members.

We talked about how to answer questions, and how to be good missionaries. Caryn said “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”

Makenzie shared a missionary moment – she was out to eat with a few people, one non-member who was skeptical of the church asked why Mormons were always proselyzing to everyone. A member responded – “Do you believe in Jesus Christ? – yes – “Do you believe that he is the savior of all mankind?” – yes – “If Jesus were to come to Earth today, would you want to know he was here?” – yes – “What if Jesus organized a church on the Earth today, would you want to know about it? – yes – “Would you want to be a part of it?” – yes – “Well, we are from his church, we are the church of Jesus Christ, organized by Jesus, on the earth today…. The skeptic had nothing to respond.



Julie had Sr. Allen stand up and share a story that she shared earlier in YM about missionaries in Des Moines Iowa. They happened across the house of an elderly lady named Loetta who seemed to just want to talk. The missionaries sat with her while she spent an hour telling them about her husband and life. She then asked them for their message, and they left her with a book of Mormon and a few suggested chapters to read. Two weeks later the missionaries returned to her house. Again, Loetta spent an hour just telling the missionaries about her life, and then asked them for their message. The missionaries asked her if she had read the few chapters they had suggested at the previous visit, and if so what questions/comments she had about it. Louetta commented on scenes throughout the book of Mormon – she had read the entire thing. She was later baptized, 2 weeks later she received her patriarchal blessing. She asked the missionaries over, she wanted them to read her patriarchal blessing to her. The missionaries said it was personal, that it really wasn’t something for them to read. Louetta told the missionaries that her eyes were bad, and she needed someone to help her with it. It came out that it was a miracle that she had been able to read the book of Mormon earlier. She had been 15 years without being able to read – but her eyes were opened for a period of time allowing her to read the book of Mormon. Her patriarchal blessing said that she would have joined the church 25 years earlier had a different set of missionaries made a sacrifice. The current missionaries had made a sacrifice to serve an extra 6 months. I’m just paraphrasing the story (I could not find it on the net) am not doing it justice, sorry.

To sum up, the lesson was about preparing something correct and coherent to say to others when they ask about the church. To listen to others, and have love for them, and a desire to share the joys of the gospel.

Thanks for a great lesson Julie!!!