Crazy, it’s December Already!

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner 

After you read the question, you’ll realize that the title has very little to do with the story. My wife Kate will be the first to tell you I’m horrible, and on occasion, if its really bad, a brat for doing stuff like this. She’ll also tell you I’m her biggest kid. Anyways, a big thank you to Kate. She’s been in Missouri these last three weeks helping out at our son and daughter-in-law’s house as they get ready for daughter #4 for them and granddaughter #9 for us. If you enjoy the pictures that go along with each story then it’s Kate you want to thank. I’ve emailed her the stories the last three weeks and she’s set them up with pictures and sets the time for the story to post. She’s back home now, and things are back to normal. Thank heaven for Kate, or as I love to affectionately call her, Smokin’ Kissin Kate, but that’s another story for another day.  My husband, Ranger Danny, seems to forget that because I post his posts that I don't always read them.  Hmmm maybe he better be careful as he just might find something in a post that might not have been by his hand.
So, with that being said, on to the next story. Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner related the first time she saw the Book of Mormon in Kirtland in 1830. She latter becomes instrumental in saving what for the Prophet Joseph Smith?

A)                 Joseph Smith III from drowning in the Mississippi River

B)                 Recovered a number of the revelations out of the hands of the mob in Missouri that were to be printed into the Book of Commandments

C)                 Joseph’s favorite horse from being stolen by an apostate

D)                 Joseph’s flowers from being destroyed by an early frost

Yesterday’s answer:

(B) A non-member on his way to Utah to find Brigham Young in hopes of determining what he must do to be saved

The following from the journal of Jesse N. Smith dated July 25, 1864:

As I sat in the shade of the boiler deck upon a camp stool in the crowd, a middle-aged man wearing a straw hat and duster came and stopped before me and after the usual salutation, asked: “Who are you, and where are you going?” Replied that I was a Mormon elder on my way home to Utah. The man clasped his hands fervently and exclaimed, “Thank God.” He then related to me some portions of his history. His name was Marcus Holling; he was born in Holstein and received a good education; he came to this country and lived near Albany, N.Y., where he practiced medicine as a homeopathic doctor. He was also a preacher, as I afterwards learned. He had some scruples about his religious ideas, and one night while lying on his bed he was visited by a supernatural personage, who said to him, “Go to Brigham Young and he shall tell thee what to do to be save.” Deeply impressed, he related what he had heard to his friends, but they scouted him as a lunatic. Precisely the same scene occurred the two following nights; so he hesitated no longer but wrote to Pres. Young, recounting his experience, and asking his advice. He showed the President’s reply, which was in German, in which language the letter of inquiry was written. The advice was that Holling should come on to Omaha and join some of our emigrating companies and proceed to Utah. Against the advice of former friends he sold all his property for money, greenbacks, packed same in his trunk preparatory to starting on his journey, and during the night lost all by fire except the clothes he wore, and the money happened to have been upon his person. With this scanty outfit he commenced the journey and was thus far on the road. I was the first Latter-day Saint he had ever met. I advised him to stop with me at Wyoming, as our outfitting point had been changed from Omaha to that place, but he held to the letter and the letter said Omaha, and there he would go.

Oliver R. Smith, ed., The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith-1834-1906 (Provo: Jesse N. Smith Family Assn., 1970), 170.