“Have you heard of the four Prophets?”

President Monson

Who were the four Prophets?

A)     The Three Nephites plus John the Revelator

B)     Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel

C)     Parley P. Pratt, Ziba Petersen, Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer Jr.

D)     Joseph Smith, Joseph F. Smith, George Albert Smith, Joseph Fielding Smith

Yesterday’s answers:

1.      (A)   The most important non-Mormon city

. . . in St. Louis, a location that historian Stanley Kimball dubbed as “the most important non-Mormon city in Church history,” knowledge of the Church came readily to hand. For example, newspapers in St. Louis often detailed the conflict between Mormons and Missourians. Some Latter-day Saints appear to have sought employment and safety in St. Louis after an October 1838 executive order from the governor demanded that they leave Missouri. Many residents of St. Louis expressed sympathy and support for the Mormon exiles. Dissident Mormons also found a safe haven in St. Louis. Later, the burgeoning city served as an “emigrant center” for those migrating west.

Frederick S. Buchanan, “The Ebb and Flow of Mormonism in Scotland,” BYU Studies 27, no. 2 (1978): 28.

2.      (B)   1854

It was announced at the April 8, 1854, general conference “that St. Louis was to be organized into a Stake of Zion.” Erastus Snow reported that upon hearing this “some smiled and some laughed outright, and some as guileless as Phillip, said, can any good come out of Saint Louis?” Many Latter-day Saint at the time believed St. Louis to be “a sinkhole of corruption and iniquity.” They saw troubles ahead for latter-day Saints who remained in that city. In contrast, Church leaders saw great value in St. Louis as a gathering place for the Saints.

Susan Easton Black, St. Louis Luminary: The Latter-day Saint Experience at the Mississippi River, 1854-1855, BYU Studies, 49:4, 158.

3.      (C)   The LDS are more respected

[Erastus] Snow found St. Louis to be a haven, a respite for Latter-day Saints. He wrote:

St. Louis is a fine, large, and flourishing city, and has furnished employment to many hundreds and thousands of our brethren, who have here in a short time made a good outfit for the gathering places of the Saints. This city has been an asylum for our people from fifteen to twenty years. There are few public buildings of any consideration in this city that our brethren have no taken an active and prominent part in erecting and ornamenting. There are few factories, foundries, or mercantile establishments, but they have taken, or are taking an active part in establishing or sustaining, either as employers, as artisans, or as customer. . . . There is probably no city in the world where the Latter-day Saints are more respected, and where they may sooner obtain an outfit for Utah than in this city.

Susan Easton Black, St. Louis Luminary: The Latter-day Saint Experience at the Mississippi River, 1854-1855, BYU Studies, 49:4, 159.

4.      (B)   2 

Better attendance at the second conference was reported [April 6, 1855]. “Erastus Snow was sustained as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Western States,” and Milo Andrus was sustained as president of the St. Louis Stake of Zion, along with other local leaders.

Susan Easton Black, St. Louis Luminary: The Latter-day Saint Experience at the Mississippi River, 1854-1855, BYU Studies, 49:4, 168.

5.      (B)   6 wards

It should be noted that six wards were organized in St. Louis and nine branches in Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois. At the time, there were 788 members residing in the six St. Louis wards, the largest number being in the St. Louis Sixth Ward. There were 532 members residing in the nine branches.

Susan Easton Black, St. Louis Luminary: The Latter-day Saint Experience at the Mississippi River, 1854-1855, BYU Studies, 49:4, 176.