John Bytheway: 00:00:00 Keep listening for part two with Mark Beecher Doctrine & Covenants sections 30 through 36.

Hank Smith: 00:00:07 Mark. We’ve added some names to our church in these first few sections. Thomas B. Marsh, who’s going to have some impact. Parley P Pratt. I don’t know if you guys know, but he has some impact. In fact, I taught my first three years of seminary were at Park City, but I don’t know if you know this, it was once called Parley’s Park City and it was, right there in Parleys Canyon, impactful people.

John Bytheway: 00:00:32 And Hank, I grew up in the Parley’s Stake in the Parley’s second ward.

Hank Smith: 00:00:37 Wow. So he has some impact. This is beautiful. Here’s these names that all of us, everyone listening, it’s going to have impact on our lives and here they are just in the beginnings. Mark, should we keep going? Who else are we going to add here?

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:00:51 Let’s add some more in section 33. Ezra Thayre and Northrop Sweet. John, don’t you have a cat named Northrop?

John Bytheway: 00:00:58 Yeah. Well I think Northrop makes fighter jets too and rocket motors or something like that.

Hank Smith: 00:01:05 Really?

John Bytheway: 00:01:07 That was probably not him though.

Hank Smith: 00:01:08 Yeah.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:01:09 Probably not this guy.

  00:01:11 As we start with section 33, Ezra Thayre, I’m going to just share with you just a little bit of background on him. In the fall of 1830, Ezra Thayre was living in the township of Farmington, New York with his wife Elizabeth and their children. He was in his late thirties. He spent several years in the area building bridges, dams, and mills, and he had some interesting reactions. So he’s asked, as he comes across the prophet Joseph, he asks, is there a revelation for me? Section 33 opens and says, you know those names, open your ears and hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, whose word is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. Dividing asunder of joints and marrow, soul and spirit is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. I love that opening. The Lord’s voice is sharper than a two-edged sword, right?

  00:02:01 And to divide both joint and marrow. I’m not much of a swordsman, but if you were to fight, you want to try to hit somebody here at a joint, but the Lord would say it’s both joint and marrow at the bone. The Lord’s word is so powerful that it doesn’t just come to us in the most convenient or the easiest places to penetrate, but the Lord’s voice comes and is so powerful that it can penetrate the impenetrable. Ezra Thayre. He accepts it. Northrop Sweet doesn’t. It’s kind of an interesting little dual reaction to this revelation as it comes. Ezra Thayre had had a reaction where he’d heard a little bit about the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph. And he immediately had rejected it from the beginning because he knew Joseph and his father and his brothers and he just didn’t think that they were the ones, that kind of family, that background where he’d say these people are the ones that I want to follow.

  00:02:58 But he gets a little perturbed as some of his family members start to give heed to the words. They begin to join the church. He says, alright, what is there to this? I want a chance. I want to try to listen. He decides that he better go and hear. He goes and he listens. He hears a little bit about it and then is slow to get this as again, this is why I like this opening, right? The Lord’s word is quick and powerful, to the dividing asunder. But his heart is so hard that the first couple of interactions that he has, he says, I don’t particularly care for this message. And then they go to a Smith family farm in Manchester. There’s a lot of people there. And so Thayre kind of, let’s see this proven wrong once and for all, moves himself to the front and wants to hear the message.

  00:03:49 And so he jostles his way up to the front and Hyrum Smith begins to preach and Ezra Thayre’s resistance melts, it changes the spirit. Finally, he’s allowed it in enough that it could really take over. He wrote of this experience, he says, every word touched me to the inmost soul. I thought every word was pointed to me. The tears rolled down my cheeks. I was very proud and stubborn. There were many there who knew me. I sat there till I recovered myself before I dare look up. He just says it. It just changed him in that moment, how it often goes for us in missionary work that we maybe make several attempts when the heart is ready, the Lord will let it be penetrated and changed. And Ezra Thayre has this change come to him.

Hank Smith: 00:04:40 When the saints go West. Brigham Young does something I think is brilliant, which is as you’re moving west, you are helping with crops that are growing. You come first, you plant the seeds and then you keep going and the next group does some watering and weeding and then you keep going and the next group comes. They continue to help the crops grow and it keeps going till the last group gets to eat. You’re planting seeds that you are never going to harvest, but someone else is doing that for you ahead of you. Doesn’t it feel a little that way Mark? That this maybe set of missionaries do this part and maybe this neighbor does this part, and then another set of missionaries. Feels that way with Ezra Thayre.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:05:26 I had a son who just returned from a mission a year and a half ago in Houston and he tells a story of as they were on a P day, the call comes from somebody who needs some help moving in. And my son says, oh man, this is our one day, you know, to not be doing quote unquote missionary work. And they talk it over a little bit and decide, yeah, let’s hurry. Let’s just go help this family. And so they move this family in. As they get there, they find out that this call had come to them from some other missionaries who had sent these people from Arizona to Texas. Somehow it had been relayed to my son and his companion. They moved these people in. As they helped them move in, then they began to talk to them a little bit more about the gospel and found out that this couple were,  what you might consider, you know the eternal investigators, right?

  00:06:15 The eternagators, they’ve been going a long time, had been literally for 20 years, had had missionaries. He started when he was 18 and now he’s 38 years old and he’s still not joined the church. This woman says as they had these missionaries finally come and help, she said, I’ve been resistant as well too. But I sort of told myself, if these young men really did come and help, because the missionaries had promised, we’ll find somebody to help you on the end as you come in. That’s really the case, I’ll give them a little listen. They gave them a little listen and they realized soon that as they began teaching, that this man could almost teach them the Joseph Smith story. He knew it well enough that he was just like, I’ve heard all this before. In their next planning session, my son and his companion prayed and they said, what are we going to do?

  00:07:05 What’s the next step for this family? It was simply this. They had them get the app on their phone that shares a scripture from the Book of Mormon each day. And they said, will you read this scripture each day? One verse each day? And they said, yeah, we can do that. I can do one verse. My son and his companion were able to be the ones at the end who harvested 20 years of missionary labor. To your point, Hank, this happens over and over again where we have to just say it’s going to come, it’s going to come. We talked about in our last section, right, that the Lord’s words are going to touch the people as they’re ready and we have to just be content with his timeline and his power and his will be done. That’s fantastic.

John Bytheway: 00:07:54 Brigham Young took a couple of years. Some of these guys we’re talking about today were relatively quick. Brigham Young took a couple years.

Hank Smith: 00:08:02 Everybody’s different this way. July 2024, Liahona Magazine, Christy Monson, the title of this article is a Missionary Success Story: 60 Years in the Making. She says, I’ve always loved Doctrine and Covenants 18 the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. And then she writes, and sometimes it takes many of us working together in sharing testimony to bring souls to the Savior. I was reminded of this beautiful concept of collective missionary work. When I received an email one day, a brother who said he was the son of the mission president in Wichita, Kansas, wondered if I was the wife of Robert Monson. The brother went on to say he was looking for the Elder Monson who served in the Central States mission in 1959. That was my husband. He told me about two young elders, Elder Bennett, Elder Thompson, who were inspired recently to enter an apartment building.

  00:08:56 They knocked on the first door and found an elderly lady who invited them to come back the next day and they set a time. When they returned for the appointment, they learned that this elderly sister had an old triple combination the missionaries had given her in 1959. She had read it many times and knew the teachings in it were true. She had not joined the church then because her husband did not want her to attend church or be baptized. Her husband had passed away recently and she prayed that she might find the missionaries again. In her triple combination were the names of the two missionaries from 1959: Robert Monson and Granade Curran, my husband and his companion. Over the next several weeks, the woman learned about the plan of salvation and the blessings of the temple. Her son had passed away at age 22. She was thrilled at the possibility of being reunited with him, she joyfully accepted the invitation to be baptized.

  00:09:51 Both my husband and his companion Elder Curran have passed away. But I imagine them attending this beautiful baptism from beyond the veil. As the mission president’s son told me the story, I was reminded that the Savior does not forget any of us. Two sets of missionaries, one over 60 years ago and then one more recently brought this sister to Jesus Christ and in turn strengthened their own testimonies and found joy in the Lord. I love it. I love it. We do our part. It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 3. This is Paul. I have planted, Apollos, another missionary, watered, but God gave the increase. What does the Lord have to say to these two, Ezra and Northrop?

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:10:35 Well this is where we get in verses 8, 9 and 10, three times the Lord’s injunction to open your mouth. Verse eight, open your mouth and they shall be filled and you shall become even as Nephi of old who journeyed from Jerusalem in the wilderness. Do you want to really become as Nephi whose brothers persecuted him a little bit? You know? Took him out back and tied him up on the ship and gave him a hard time. I think what it’s saying here, right, open your mouth and you’ll become as Nephi of old who journeyed in the wilderness not knowing beforehand the things that he, which he should do. I like this. We’ve taught this principle a little earlier today. You open your mouth and just start in and see how the Lord begins to fill it with what you need to do and say, it will be his will.

  00:11:23 And you can trust that you’ve done what you needed to do. If you open your mouth, verse nine, open your mouth and spare not, don’t make a judgment call on who you’re going to share the gospel with. Just be able to say, is there somebody here that could use this? We had four sisters in the MTC, you have the sisters, if they go to a visitor center mission, they come to the two weeks of the MTC training and then they do one more week of visitor center training and they have some additional classes. And then on one of the last days of the week before they depart the MTC, they get on the train and they ride up to the Salt Lake visitor center and they shadow some sisters there for a day and they have an opportunity to maybe see how it could work.

  00:12:06 And it’s a really neat thing for them to have some hands-on experience with it at a visitor center before they go. These sisters were going to Ohio and to Illinois to Kirtland and Nauvoo sites where they were going to be doing this. As they rode the train up, they had a great day there at Temple Square and then they got on the train to come back down and as they got on the train to come back down, there was a man who was a little disheveled and didn’t smell great and was a little bit nerve wracking for some people on the train, began to talk with them. Now they had four of them there. They weren’t feeling threatened or anything, but felt like let’s just visit with him. We’re okay to do that. And so they began to have this conversation and these sisters spoke so kindly and so gentle and open with him and he asked questions that were not necessarily on topic and they just continued to be the most kind and courteous as they could be.

  00:13:05 The man got off somewhere as he’s coming down I-15, he got off probably around the Draper area and the sisters continued on and as they continued on, another man got up from his seat and came over to these four and he said, I noticed how you spoke with this man. And he said, I and my girlfriend had been dating for quite some time and she’s asked me to leave the church and to not have anything to do with it anymore. And he said, I watched how you talked with this man. And he said, it brought back so many memories to me of what it is to follow Jesus Christ. And he said, I’m going to go home and I’m going to tell my girl we can either be in the church or we’ll have to separate. But that’s what I’ve decided to do. And he got off in Lehi and was gone. I was just blown away by this from these four sister missionaries who just opened their mouth, had no idea that they were being watched.

John Bytheway: 00:14:09 Recently I came across a talk, her name is Diana Hoelscher and she gave this talk called the Missionary Next Door. So good. Oh my goodness, it’s so good. Have you heard it Hank? She talks about her family growing up in, I think it was Wisconsin or somewhere back there. And now they had pictures, Book of Mormon pictures on the walls and they’d invite friends over, what’s that? She said, we without fail, people would ask a question about what’s that? She said, we had these little two sentences, we each memorized something just to open our mouths. Oh, that’s Nephi, that thing he’s holding, that’s the Liahona. And it helped him through the wilderness. And after that we now wait. They just had a way of opening their mouths and it was super motivating to hear. It reminded me too of power of everyday missionaries.

Hank Smith: 00:15:02 Yeah, from Brother Christensen.

John Bytheway: 00:15:04 Yeah. Somebody says, what did you do this weekend? Usually we start talking about Saturday. Why not say, man, we had the best lesson in Sunday school. Why not talk about Sunday? Let that out there and open your mouth. When I showed up at the MTC, Elder Joe J. Christensen was the MTC president. The first meeting we all got in a big room and he read verses 8, 9, and 10. He taught us, open your mouth. That whole principle. I’ll never forget that first day.

Hank Smith: 00:15:37 Yeah, that’s great. This is a story by Dan Malcolm. He’s talking about the idea of open your mouth. He said, one of many experiences that I have had personally in opening my mouth at the right time was while I was serving in Paraguay, I had met a young woman who had spent quite a lot of time considering whether to become a nun and was on hiatus from her time in the convent. She was kind, intelligent, very quick to offer a friendly hand. Our first meeting was only in passing and I was never very good at remembering names. When I saw her several weeks later giving up her seat to an elderly woman on a bus, I recognized her. But I was embarrassed to open my mouth because I just could not remember her name. The spirit indicated me that this was a very important moment in time.

  00:16:22 I needed to speak to her. My heart pleaded with heavenly father, please help me open my mouth and say the right thing. He said there was absolutely no time to waste. And at the moment I began to open my mouth. She reached up to grab the handrail above and a bracelet on her wrist came into my view, which bore her name. Gladys, I said in a seemingly confident voice, which covered the true timidity I was feeling, she responded with a wonderful smile and a happy greeting, a warm conversation followed in the succeeding weeks with my companions, Elder Woolley, Elder Colina, Elder Hawes. I would spend hours with she and her baby sister Sindy unfolding everything we knew of Jesus Christ and his redeeming mission. To my eternal joy they accepted baptism in the Lord’s kingdom. On July 21st, 1984, I had the blessing of confirming them members in his church. Gladys has remained true and faithful to her covenants. Open your mouth.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:17:19 Again. Remember it’s the Lord’s responsibility to open the hearts.

Hank Smith: 00:17:22 Mark I’ve noticed in section 33 the Lord tells him, well here’s my gospel. If you want to teach my gospel, I’ll give you a quick version.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:17:30 Yeah, I love verses 11 and 12 and 13 there where it just says this is what it is that you’ve got to be able to teach. Now maybe one of the reasons why we hesitate in speaking to others is because look at verse 10 where it says to repent and prepare the way of the Lord. We think we’ve got to declare this message of repentance. But think more on the first principles of the gospel. This is what the Lord wants us to start with, which is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Talk about the Savior, talk about his goodness, what he’s done for us. Bring him to life a little bit more. Help them to be able to see this is something that’s made a huge difference to me. We can all spend a lot more time in the joy of the Savior. We’re just asking them to open their heart to Jesus Christ for a few minutes. That’s going to make all the difference to them. And that’s again, I think why we see this pattern of the doctrine of Christ.

Hank Smith: 00:18:25 I wonder in verse 10 and 11 here, if the quotation of John the Baptist might mean that I can be a John the Baptist type figure that prepares for the Lord to come into someone’s life. So it’s not necessarily call on your friend to repent as it is to see yourself as maybe a John the Baptist type figure who is introducing them to someone who is about to enter their life.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:18:51 I think that’s absolutely true. Yep. And upon this rock, I’ll build my church, come forward with the Savior and that’s where the foundation begins.

Hank Smith: 00:18:59 Mark, I love this idea. Talk about the Lord. You can talk about him in very natural normal ways. I think that’s President Uchtdorfs line. Normal and natural ways. It’s easy to talk about the Lord when it’s just part of your everyday life.

John Bytheway: 00:19:15 I was watching the Follow Up show on BYU TV and this sister talked about hitting rock bottom. I just loved what she said. I wrote it down because she had a tough time in her life and she said I hit rock bottom and then I discovered the rock was Jesus Christ and that’s where I could start building. I thought what a great way to look at it. And I think it might be fun to mention because sometimes I don’t think we have to be tied to one definition of what the rock is because Joseph Smith had referred to the rock as the rock of revelation in the Matthew 16 story. But here it sounds like the rock is the doctrine of Christ.

Hank Smith: 00:19:53 You build upon the doctrine of Christ, the gates of hell shall not prevail against you. This verse says my church.

John Bytheway: 00:20:01 This section, we’re hearing some different parables throughout the standard works here in verse three. We’ve got the laborers being called to the vineyard in verse four, here’s a vineyard that’s been corrupted every wit and that sounds like Zenos’s allegory, a favorite of Hanks. I know in Jacob chapter five and then we’ve got Matthew 16, the whole story about building upon the rock there in verse 17, having your lamps trimmed and burning and oil with you. We’ve got the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. How fun that the Savior here is getting them ready and saying, draw on this, draw on this, draw on this.

Hank Smith: 00:20:39 Right. He even mentions Nephi in verse eight. It’s someone who speaks scripture can put together something like this.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:20:48 Love that.

John Bytheway: 00:20:49 And as you mentioned John the Baptist in verse 10, you know, make his path straight. That’s a very John the Baptist way of talking.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:20:57 So if it’s okay, I just want to end section 33 a little bit on a personal note, I grew up different than a lot of people in the church. My family started off with kind of a rough beginning. My parents were married under some a little bit difficult circumstances. My dad, second marriage, he was 36. My mom was 19. You can imagine my mom’s parents and their reaction to the marriage was not very positive. They promptly moved away to California when I was born,  about six months after they were married. And so it just was a difficult beginning as they tried to find their way and they both had grown up very active homes in the gospel, but as they tried to find their way back, my mom, she was more active than my dad. I remember going to church with both of them enough during my early years, was baptized, and then my mom had her second child.

  00:21:51 My little brother, I was not quite 10, I was nine years old when he was born and she passed away four days later of complications of childbirth. She’d always had some tough physical difficulty. Challenges. My little brother went to live with my grandparents, my mom’s parents raised him and I stayed with my dad. And my dad really wavered with his faith and testimony. I felt drawn to stay as close as I could to the gospel. It’s interesting that as we look at some of these early church leaders, these men who come and go and have these spiritual moments and then maybe fade a little bit, I just felt to try to stay as close as I could. I went to church quite a bit by myself as a young, probably 12 to 18-year-old, but my life forever changed the day that I committed to go on a mission and opening my mouth and being able to take this gospel to other people, put me on a trajectory that I’ve been forever grateful for.

  00:22:56 You know, my dad, eventually he did come back before he passed away. He’d lost his membership in the church through some difficult choices, but came back and was, had his temple blessings back before he passed away. I’ve just been amazed to watch and see how the Lord works with us over time in this simple pattern of the gospel that I, we’ve kind of outlined here in section 33, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We start there. That’s where you start with anybody preaching him. Jesus Christ and him crucified. I can’t begin to tell you the number of divine intersections that I had with the Spirit where the Lord would just give me something that I needed at that moment to know that the Savior was real, to have my testimony deepened just a little bit more to keep my baptismal covenants, to want to repent, to just have the Spirit come.

  00:23:53 You know, those that faith, repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost. It worked. It’s what we do for people. It’s what we try to bring to them. I just want to share with you that I’m a living witness of the power of Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. I just would be remiss if I didn’t somehow take this opportunity to share it with anybody who will listen and let you know that no matter where you are, no matter how far maybe you feel like you’ve strayed or if you’re wondering if God has a plan for you, I just want to bear witness that he does and it’s that simple plan. Have faith in Jesus Christ. Repent. Cling to covenants. Let the Holy Ghost work in you and that will bring you back home to Him. Thanks for letting me share it.

Hank Smith: 00:24:51 You’re doing exactly what we’re talking about today. Open your mouth and teach Mark, thank you so much for what you’ve taught us so far. I noticed that we bring in even more important names. Section 34, Orson Pratt, he’s around for a while. Section 35, Sidney Rigdon. If you’ve done even just a little history of the church, you know that name. And then section 36, one of the greats of the history of the church, Edward Partridge. I mean you’ve already introduced us to Parley P. Pratt, Thomas B. Marsh. Now it’s Orson Pratt, Sidney Rigdon and Edward Partridge. What do you want to do here?

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:25:31 Let’s look at the Savior and what he teaches to each of these three and then maybe we’ll just intersperse some stories about them as we go. But look at section 34 verse one, my son Orson, hearken and hear and behold what I, the Lord God shall say unto you, even Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, the light and life of the world, a light which shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not. So that’s John 1:5 language of how as the Savior introduces himself, that phraseology to me is so fitting for all of us to understand a little bit more about the Savior. The idea that he says the darkness comprehendeth it not. That word comprehend can mean it didn’t perceive or receive or admit it into them, but it also means that the darkness couldn’t apprehend it. The Savior, everything about darkness is completely overpowered by him.

  00:26:33 He shines wherever he goes. Satan and his darkness cannot overcome that. And for Orson, who is this little brother of Parley Pratt, as you’ve said, he wants to be able to have a revelation. Parley’s had his experience. He’s the one of course who read the Book of Mormon all day and all night as you’ve talked about and had this amazing experience and Orson wants to come to know about the gospel too. And so Parley comes and and teaches him and Orson is baptized on his 19th birthday. Then asks Joseph for, is there a revelation for me? Orson’s reaction to this. The revelation that comes as the Savior’s more revealed to him is precious stuff. He says this, he says, Orson still anxious to know what the Lord’s will was for him, asked Joseph whether he could not ascertain what his mission was. Was there a revelation for him as there had been for his brother?

  00:27:31 Joseph Smith invited Orson Pratt and John Whitmer upstairs into the chamber where Joseph had recently completed the translation of the Book of Mormon. In this more private space, Joseph asked Orson if he would be willing to write the revelation down as he spoke it. Being then young and timid and feeling his unworthiness, Orson asked if John Whitmer might act as scribe. Joseph agreed and produced a small stone called the seerstone and putting it into a hat, soon commenced speaking. We’ve heard of this method of translation and it ought not to throw anybody in church history to know that this is somehow a way that Joseph sometimes received revelation. Orson then later described his feelings upon hearing the Lord speak to him through Joseph. I thought that it was a very great and important calling and I felt altogether incompetent and lest the Lord qualified me by his Spirit.

  00:28:25 This moment where Joseph gives this revelation and Orson feels it like he’s really experiencing it and these words about the Savior and who he is being revealed to Orson just really humbles him to his very soul. He says, I felt oft times to tremble and shrink in fear for I should never be able to fulfill and accomplish so great a work. Just that feeling that Orson comes through with just says, wow, I have felt things that I’ve never felt or experienced before. I love this section because of what it brings to all of us in remembering that we’ve all had these spiritual promptings, these moments where the Lord has really touched us and he wants us all to know that that’s something for each of you. Just as Parley had his experience Orson had his, you and I can each have ours as we humbly turn to him.

Hank Smith: 00:29:19 That is wonderful. When I first see his name here in section 34, I think we can at least in a little way have the perspective of the Lord because this little 19-year-old has no idea what’s in store for him. He becomes the first member of the church to enter the Salt Lake Valley on July 2nd. Can you imagine telling him right now, thousands of miles away, you’re going to be the first person to enter what’s going to be the Salt Lake Valley, which is going to be kind of important in the church. I just think it’s magnificent and poetic. Maybe I’m being too excited here, but I love that this is just the beginnings of this.

John Bytheway: 00:30:02 I have written in my margin that he’s the last surviving member of the original 12 and you can go see his headstone up in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Hank Smith: 00:30:13 And here he is entering the scene with the powerful experience. Like you said, Mark.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:30:18 With this amazing experience that’s almost overwhelmingly available to all of us, that the Lord would speak and give you and I a vision of what we could accomplish and what we could do just as he did Orson and Parley and some of these other. I think sometimes we read these sections and we think, oh, all the great work of the church is done, these people have all kind of started everything and got it going. And yet to think where we are now with over 300 temples now announced or dedicated or in process of being built and where we’re at with being able to be in these latter-days when the Lord’s going about his work the way he is, it’s as phenomenal for each of us as it was for them. Oh, I love it.

John Bytheway: 00:30:59 I like verse five. I think missionaries probably have it underlined more blessed are you, because you are called to me to preach my gospel, so there’s where we start seeing that phrase.

Hank Smith: 00:31:10 Yeah, so Mark, that’s Orson Pratt. We have another name that is pretty well known, come up for the first time in section 35, Sidney Rigdon.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:31:20 Yes, we’ve talked a little bit about Sidney already that of course he was very influential in being able to have a lot of people join the church. Sidney of course, was born 1793. He married Phoebe Brooks in 1820. He’s a former Baptist preacher and he really spends about 10 years preaching for different religions. He’s a Methodist, Campbellite, Sidney’s son, his name is John M. Rigdon writes this about him, he became a great historian, the best I ever saw. He seemed to have the history of the world on his tongue’s end, and he got to be a great biblical scholar as while he was familiar with the Bible as a child, as he was with a spelling book, he was never known to play with the boys. Reading books was the greatest pleasure he could get. He studied English grammar alone and became a very fine grammarian.

  00:32:12 He was very precise in his language. He’s a scholar and he’s excited about religion and he wants to preach. He again does this from congregation to congregation. He starts in 1818 when he’s still quite a young man and finally then has his own congregation that he’s charge of with some other people that we know. Parley’s a member of this congregation. They are all taught again by Parley as he comes back and the others come back on their way to their Lamanite mission and preach to him. Sidney reads the Book of Mormon. It takes him two weeks, but he reads the Book of Mormon in two weeks. They come in October and he is baptized in November. Sidney’s just great, he knows things. He’s older than the others and he’s much more experienced and yet says when he hears the gospel, this is what I’m looking for, this is the right answer. This is where I’ll take my life next.

Hank Smith: 00:33:07 Yeah, I’m sure both of you know the story of he and his wife Phoebe. You know, sometimes, kind of like we talked about earlier with Thomas B. Marsh, we focus on Sidney’s downfall. There is something to be said there, but from my knowledge, he’s doing pretty well as a preacher there in Kirtland to join the church is going to mean a significant financial loss. Maybe you’re going to bring this up, Mark, but I think it’s beautiful. It says, when Rigdon ultimately became convinced of the new revelation, restored authority and the necessity of obedience thereto, he first informed his wife and asked her, my dear, you have followed me once into poverty. Are you willing to do the same? Phoebe answered, I have counted the cost and I am perfectly satisfied to follow you. It is my desire to do the will of God come life or come death.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:34:01 You mentioned that sometimes we can’t focus exclusively on some of the later years, some of the difficulties. I mean, we know that Sidney does leave the church. For Sidney, at least in 1832, he is there at the John Johnson farm on March 24th when Joseph is drug out in the middle of the night. He’s tarred and feathered along with Joseph, and Sidney is tied by his heels to a horse and the horse is then whipped and Sidney is drug on his head and he has people call it sometimes episodes where he kind of has difficulties. He has a moment with Joseph where he says that all the keys of the kingdom have been taken from us. There’s some questions about that, and Joseph takes him back in and I believe the terminology says he reordains him, so I, I don’t know what happened there for a period of time, but, Joseph understands this is a man whose heart is dedicated to your point. And Phoebe are dedicated from the beginning.

Hank Smith: 00:35:01 Definitely going to be traumatic and he’s going to go into Liberty Jail. I like what you’re teaching us here is yes, we need to learn like Thomas B. Marsh from his pride and mistakes, and same with Sidney Rigdon, but let’s not forget the incredible things these people did and their incredible sacrifices. Just as we can do with everyone in our life, we can choose to focus on the good.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:35:24 We don’t know. We don’t know all the circumstances of what might have led somebody to make these choices and these difficult things that have happened. We’re going off pieces of history that we have. I want to be as liberal with them as I want the Lord to be as liberal with me in my judgment.

Hank Smith: 00:35:41 Oh, that’s awesome. Mark, what does the Lord have to say to Sidney?

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:35:46 Well, as you look in section 35 and we see an opening here of the Lord preaching about him, I love these sections as they teach, particularly 33, 34, 35 as they all open there, 36, the Lord identifying himself, the Lord wants us to know who he is and His power. Coming back to our missionary theme, the missionary purpose, where we say that it’s through faith in Jesus Christ. As a bishop, I served a couple of times in that capacity and it’s easy to try to have people who come in who need to repent to focus on the task of repenting. We talk about repenting. It seems as though we focus on all the things that we need to do and how we need to change and become different. I remember as a bishop learning this lesson very clearly that rather than giving people a list of things to do, have them focus more on Jesus Christ and his goodness.

  00:36:51 Instead of focusing on your inadequacies, focus on his adequacy. Rather than looking at the emptiness that you are full of, look at Jesus Christ and his fullness. The more I spend my time looking to him and letting him fill me, the less I have to worry about changing things because it’s naturally going to push anything in me that needs to be changed out because I filled my life up with Jesus Christ. My wife has an amazing book that she’s written on mindfulness. She shares this idea in one of the opening chapters where she quotes from Haggai, I’m always impressed, anybody who can quote from Haggai, you’re pretty awesome. Okay, I’m going to read Haggai chapter one, verse six, but I think it’s typical of what’s going on with the Israelites at the time, but isn’t it true of all of us as well? Haggai chapter one, verse six, you have so much and bring in little, you eat, but you have not enough. Ye drink, but you are not filled with drink.

  00:38:01 Ye clothe you, but there is none warm, and he that earn the wages, earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. The Savior who says, I am the bread of life. I am living water. I can fill you up. These sections here in 34 and 35 and 36. As we look at them, you’re going to have some things revealed to these early church leaders about the Savior, and I think he wants to say, fill yourself with me, lean on me, put me more in your life. And then the thing will be, you’ll have the hope and the capacity to repent and make covenants and change and become the people I want you to be. But start by filling yourself up with me.

Hank Smith: 00:38:46 In section 35, the Lord tells Sidney, he’s kind of like John the Baptist. He had this big group of people prepared for the message when it came, when those four missionaries showed up from New York, including his old friend, Parley P. Pratt. He had a group of people prepared and ready.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:39:04 He certainly was an instrument to have those people come in.

Hank Smith: 00:39:06 And it’s probably going to be like the St. Louis mission here in a few months. They’re going to double the size of the church. That’s what happens in Kirtland.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:39:16 That’s right. Absolutely, and maybe we’ll have our theme be verse 13. I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised to thresh the nation by the power of my Spirit. The Lord uses those who are inadequate but says, we’ll harvest. We will bring that around and for verse 14, their arm shall be my arm. I will be their shield and their buckler. I will gird up their loins and they shall fight manfully for me and their enemy shall be under their feet and I’ll let fall the sword in their behalf and by the fire of my indignation I preserve them. Again, it’s the Lord’s power. He wants them to know who is in charge and he can bring about these great and miraculous changes.

Hank Smith: 00:39:57 That’s wonderful. I’m going to use you so everybody knows it’s me.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:40:03 Oh, isn’t that true?

Hank Smith: 00:40:03 I’m going to choose the weakest of the world to do a great work.

John Bytheway: 00:40:08 I’ve got above that in my Doctrine & Covenants, that the weak, unlearned and despised is evidence that people are not converted to the messengers. They’re converted to the message.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:40:18 Yeah. Yeah.

John Bytheway: 00:40:21 And they’re perceived by the world to be weak, unlearned and despised. Even Jesus, we esteemed him as not, I mean, we’re really bad at estimating things as human beings, right? I love that. Their arm shall be my arm. I have in my notes the Ammon story because Ammon says, I will show forth my power and then he corrects himself, oh wait, or the power, which is in me. At the end of that little episode, Alma chapter 17 verse 37. This sounds like Mormon abridging because he’s not first person anymore. He caused them to flee by the strength of his arm. I like to ask my class, is it Ammon’s arm? Then we go to section 35 verse 14 where the Lord says, their arms shall be my arm. I will be their shield and their buckler. I will gird up their loins. They shall fight manfully for me.

  00:41:14 I mean, whoa. What a verse that is right there. I was looking in my book called Revelations of the Restoration, and there was a story about Elder David W. Patten, Wilford Woodruff and Warren Parrish were together preaching the gospel in Tennessee, a local sheriff arrested them on false pretenses at the urging of a Methodist priest. A mock trial was held in which the defendants were not allowed to say a word in their own behalf. They were pronounced guilty. Brother Patten being filled with the Holy Ghost arose to his feet by the power of God, bound them fast to their seats. While he addressed them, he rebuked them sharply for the wicked and unjust proceedings. Brother Parrish afterwards said, my hair stood up straight on my head for I expected to be killed. When Patten closed, the judge addressed him saying, you must be armed with concealed weapons or you would not treat an armed court as you have this. Patten replied, I am armed with weapons you know not of, and my weapons are the holy priesthood and the power of God. God is my friend and he permits you to exercise all the power you have, and he bestows on me all the power I have.

Hank Smith: 00:42:26 Wow.

John Bytheway: 00:42:28 Yeah. This idea of their arm shall be my arm. You can get courage from that, even if you feel like I don’t know how to talk to people. I’m weak. I’m unlearned, I’m despised. It’s okay. You’re on the Lord’s errand. The message, not necessarily the messengers, will be what people are drawn to.

Hank Smith: 00:42:48 I want to look at this really quick Mark and ask you a question. He says, I call upon the weak things of the world, unlearned and despised. I look at these young people who go on these missions. When I was called on a mission, I thought I knew a lot and now it’s been decades since then. You know what? I would be much more knowledgeable now, if I were to go on a mission. Here we use these young people, what are you looking forward to? Maybe it’s a little bit mean to call them the unlearned and despised, but we might just call them the inexperienced.

John Bytheway: 00:43:19 Or in the world’s view. They are.

Hank Smith: 00:43:22 In the world’s view they’re inexperienced, they’re weak.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:43:24 It’s phenomenal that it’s the Lord’s plan. I mean, you said it a minute ago, Hank, how did you say it? It was so beautiful. I used you so that you would know that it was me.

Hank Smith: 00:43:33 Yeah.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:43:34 I mean, this is what he does, right? He says, you are weak. You are unlearned. Who could think that you could possibly go out and do this? And yet to be able to rely on the Lord the way that these missionaries do? It’s just incredible to me to watch and see. When we served at the missionary training center, it was just incredible to watch. They come in on a Wednesday, they arrive at the missionary training center. I was asked a couple of times to help as they were greeted, they drop them off in the underground parking lot. They come up the stairs and they get their keys to the room and then they walk and they greet a member of the mission presidency. Or if there’s large groups, then they have branch presidents or wives who also fill in there. Here they are wiping the tears out of their eyes.

  00:44:23 Oh, you know, they’ve just gotten out of the car and you put your arm around them and you say, now turn and look. And there in that building on the missionary training center campus. There’s Jesus. It’s him calling forth his disciples to go and teach all nations and baptize them. It’s that picture and to just have them and just say, tell me what you feel. Alright. It just makes me emotional. You just have these kids who’ve just given everything up and walked out the door and here they are, and they come in and they just bear this testimony with power. And I’m overwhelmed by it, watching this and I’m just like, oh my goodness. You know, we step in on a Thursday night, they’ve come on a Wednesday. Our responsibility is to find district leaders and sister training leaders and zone leaders and organize them all. You interview them for six minutes. That’s what you’ve got. You’ve got six minutes with each with each missionary set. Two of them, you’ll bring the companionship together and you interview them and you walk out. And the Lord just makes it clear here they are. They can do anything. They are so powerful. I just have this witness of yes, they’re weak and they’re unlearned by the standards of men, but they are the Lord’s servants. They are disciples of Jesus Christ being set apart by priesthood authority. They can go out and do anything. It’s incredible to watch and be part of.

Hank Smith: 00:45:47 John, I think of your kids out there. I think of all those young adults out there that my students and there they go to take on the world and you think, oh, be safe. Be safe.

John Bytheway: 00:46:00 I know. Every night. Yeah, I see them out there. And you do too, both of you, as you travel, you run into missionaries. You just want to grab them and say do you have any idea how unique what you’re doing, who you are, that out of billions of people on this earth, you have walked away from your life and are doing this and the Lord sent you here now for a reason and you know it, but I just wonder if they sense that. Because it is pretty remarkable.

Hank Smith: 00:46:33 Wow.

John Bytheway: 00:46:33 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 00:46:34 What great kids. I’ve noticed, the Lord says in verse 26, lift up your hearts and be glad your redemption is drawing nigh just so positive about all these brand new members. We all have our own heroes of the restoration. So I might gush a little bit, John, you’ll have to hold me back because I’ll, we’ll get more chances.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:46:55 Edward Partridge.

Hank Smith: 00:46:55 To talk about him. A lot of people know the music. If you’ve listened to our podcast before, there’s a little music that starts us out. Since we first started John, we got to choose that music way back when we had to hurry and start. And my friend Marshall McDonald, who wrote that music, wrote, let Zion in Her Beauty Rise the hymn written by Edward Partridge. He is my hero. Edward and Lydia Partridge are just my heroes of the restoration. So you might hear me gush as we talk about them for the next weeks. Their introduction is right here. Mark in section 36, what do you want to look at?

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:47:35 I guess Hank I want to give it to you for a minute. I want to hear you gush. Will you gush just a little bit? Come on.

John Bytheway: 00:47:40 Yeah.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:47:41 Let’s just gush for a minute. Go.

Hank Smith: 00:47:43 I love Edward Partridge, my friend Sherilyn Farnes, she’s a historian in the church history department, also teaches in the religion department at BYU. She has done so much research on Edward Partridge. I wish she was here. I’ll kind of fill in for her. She wrote this, in the fall of 1834, young men in their late teens or early twenties appeared at the door of Edward Partridge’s hat shop in Ohio. As Partridge listened to the men’s extraordinary tale of a restoration of authority and revelation of new scripture, he called them imposters and sent them away. Yet after they left, Partridge sent one of his employees after the men, in order to purchase a copy of the book they carried, the Book of Mormon. He and Lydia end up getting baptized. In fact, the saints there, or the people, I should say in Kirtland, they want to know about Joseph Smith.

  00:48:34 Now they all can’t go back to New York. They send Sidney Rigdon, of course their religious leader, their preacher, but they send what Sherilyn calls the most honest, the one who they trust the most with Sidney back to New York to meet Joseph Smith and it’s Edward Partridge. Spoil it too much, but he becomes the first bishop of the church. I love good bishops and their wives who give and give and give. He’s a hatter. Every formal suit in those days comes with a hat. It’s an important piece of clothing. I can’t imagine I’ve met a hatter today and Edward Partridge is just going to give and give and give.

John Bytheway: 00:49:15 Doesn’t he get separated from his wife where he has to go to Missouri and she’s back there and what they give up for the gospel? No wonder he’s a hero to you, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:49:26 Yeah. Let Zion in her beauty rise.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:49:29 I love him too. He administers the law of consecration that’s coming just in a few sections coming up. He’s the first one to kind of be able to do that as a bishop, isn’t he the one that they say that he’s a man without guile.

Hank Smith: 00:49:42 A man without guile like Nathaniel of old.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:49:45 Like Nathaniel of old. It’s just coming up in section 41 verse 11 as it describes Edward. Well, just a little bit further, if I back up to verse nine, Edward Partridge, a commandment appointed but to be ordained a bishop verse 11, and this because his heart is pure before me. That word is, I’ve got that word just highlighted there in that verse, is pure before me. For he is like unto Nathaniel of old in whom there is no guile. I mean Edward Partridge is just true and true, pure and pure all the way through, and like you said, is going to be making some incredible sacrifices and just begins his service here in section 36. Let’s look at one verse in 36 to just maybe put this on Edward Partridge. Let’s look at verse six, crying repentance saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation and come out of the fire hating even the garments spotted with the flesh.

  00:50:45 That’s an interesting phrase. You’re going to go through whatever you’re going to go through and Edward’s going to go through some things. He’s going to be purified even more so by these difficulties and he will separate himself from the flesh, the world. Maybe this comes full circle to what we began with in Section 30 with David Whitmer, where the Lord says, your mind’s been too much upon the things of the world. Here’s Edward Partridge and the Lord’s saying, you continue faithful and go through this and there’ll be nothing that will taint your garments, that will stain you in any way. You will remain pure and holy and more refined as you go through what I ask you to go through.

Hank Smith: 00:51:30 Would to God that I could be like Edward Partridge just good all the way through. I hope the Lord one day can say, your heart is pure before me. We’re going to hear more about these people coming up here John.

John Bytheway: 00:51:44 The last words in section 36, I am Jesus Christ, the son of God. Wherefore, gird up your loins and I will suddenly come to my temple. Even so, amen. And I noted something, maybe it was four years ago. Section 33 ends with behold I come quickly. Section 34, I come quickly, section 35, I come quickly, section 36. I come suddenly and I thinking quickly, quickly, quickly. He’s, you’ve been saying you’re coming quickly for 200 years. you keep on using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means, right? But if you ask Elder McConkie, he would say quickly means with a suddenness, that will leave time for preparation behind. They’re kind of synonyms. I’ll come at a time you think not. I’m coming quickly or I’m coming suddenly. So I like the idea of come to Christ now. Then you don’t have to worry when or how quickly he comes because you’ll already be there.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:52:44 I love that, John. It’s a pattern that I also noticed. Just pulling the curtain back a little bit on John and Hank, they said, what kind of things are you looking to be able to teach and do you have two or three points? Do you have something that you want to kind of end with? This was my ending, those verses 36. At the end of each of these sections, he talks about coming quickly and the second coming, 33, having your lamps trimmed and burning with oil. The parable of the virgins. I mean, as he ends these sections, we hear about the second coming and I just couldn’t help but think of President Nelson’s most recent talk in general conference in October where he just talks about the second coming, being ready and knowing. I remember a lot of people saying, oh, well, is he announcing something?

  00:53:33 Well, to your point, John, he’s been announcing something for you know, 200 years a couple hundred years. He’s been saying this over and over again. I did want to highlight just this one little piece here from President Nelson as he talks about preparing for the second coming. Regular worship in the temple will help us. In the house of the Lord, we focus on Jesus Christ. We learn of him. We make covenants to follow him. We come to know him. As we keep our covenants, we gain greater access to the Lord’s strengthening power. In the temple we receive protection from the buffeting of the world. We experience the pure love of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father in great abundance. We feel peace and spiritual reassurance in contrast to the turbulence of the world. Here is my promise. Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find him in the temple.

  00:54:29 You will feel his mercy. You will find answers to your most vexing questions. You’ll better comprehend the joy of his gospel. Those words to me are so powerful as we think about preparing for the coming of the Savior again and being able to find him. Now, to your point, John, I’m coming quickly, to be ready. The temple’s going to help us to be able to find him now. We’re going to be ready. As we continually focus our efforts on the covenants that we’ve made, keeping them and finding the Savior more powerfully in the temple is an incredible means to that end.

Hank Smith: 00:55:06 The Lord just drops that little hint. I suddenly come to my temple. I’m sure they looked at each other. What? What do you mean by that?

John Bytheway: 00:55:15 Wait, what year is this? 1830. Yeah. What temple? Six years away.

Hank Smith: 00:55:21 That’s not for a while. Mark, this has been a fantastic day. I knew preaching the gospel was in your heart and mind right now. I was excited we were able to bring you on. Just to wrap up, I mentioned Edward and Lydia Partridge. Here they go here, they begin to give up so much and I just thought the work continues. Today we have Mark and Kimberly Beecher, who are ready to go and walk away from a wonderful life they have going on with children and grandchildren, and they’re going to head to St. Louis. Very similar as the Partridges were headed west, the Beechers are headed east. If some were to ask you and Kimberly, why are you doing this? You worked so hard, you just retired, you’re teaching third grade. It’s a perfect thing you got going on. You could build a home and enjoy the fruits of all that you’ve worked so hard and yet here the Lord has called and you’re going to go. If you were to just answer that to one of us sitting by saying, why would you do that? What would you say?

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:56:25 Thanks for the question, because I’ve asked it a little bit to myself. It really has been an amazing journey this last few months. Some people say, did you see it coming? Did you feel it? The answer is no, I’m probably just out of tune or something. But I’ve just thought, well, if it was going to happen, it might’ve happened earlier in life, but not at this point. Things are different now, and I’m retired and moved on. And when we opened our call, and this was a, it was a very wonderful sacred moment with our family. We were told that we could open the call with just our children and grandchildren, and that we had to then keep it confidential until it could be announced in the church news. We got our call the 8th of December, and we just had to sit on it for a month, but we opened it with our kids and shared it with them, and of course, you, we’ve all been to mission call openings.

  00:57:20 It’s an amazing thing. It was something to kind of be on the other end of this, right? To watch my little 11-year-old granddaughter just burst into tears. How come you’re going to go? You know, it’s just something to say to her. The last line of the call letter says this, our Heavenly Father will reward you for your efforts and desires. Great blessings and joy await you as you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord in this labor of love among his children. We place our confidence in you and pray that the Lord will strengthen you as you fulfill your missionary assignment. That’s all the reasons why, because you know that the Lord’s going to magnify us in whatever he asks us to do. We know that the Lord needs people who are willing to go out and do whatever he asks, and whether that’s being a primary teacher with a rowdy bunch of five year olds or mission president, it doesn’t matter.

  00:58:21 It really truly doesn’t matter. Another day I’d tell you how I know that for sure, but we all understand that it’s absolutely true. The Lord has placed confidence in us. He’s asked us to go and to do this work. You mentioned earlier, Hank, billions of people and millions of members of the church, and only thousands of people going out as missionaries. We’re a very small minority, but the Lord works with small numbers, and I just want to bear witness that they that be with us are more than they that be with them. The Syrian hosts that Elisha and his servant learned about is still true today. The Lord’s work is moving forward and will continue to move forward, and it’s a blessing and a privilege. We’ll be part of it in whatever capacity we all get a chance to serve in.

Hank Smith: 00:59:18 Wow. Well, we love you, Mark and Kimberly, and we’re excited for the people of St. Louis, the St. Louis mission. They’re going to get quite a blessing.

Bro. Mark Beecher: 00:59:29 Been a joy being with you both today. Thank you.

Hank Smith: 00:59:31 We have loved it. We have loved being with you. We want to thank soon to be President Mark Beecher for being with us today. We want to thank our executive producer Shannon Sorensen, our sponsors David and Verla Sorensen, and we always remember our founder. He was quite a missionary, Steve Sorensen. We hope you’ll join us next week. We have more of the Doctrine & Covenants to study on followHIM. Today’s show notes and transcript are on our website. Followhim.co. That’s followhim.co. Of course, none of this could happen without our production team. David Perry, Lisa Spice, Jamie Neilson, Will Stoughton, Krystal Roberts, Ariel Cuadra, Amelia Kabwika, Heather Barlow, and Annabelle Sorensen.