Organizing the Relief Society in Nauvoo
The Relief
Society was formed by Joseph Smith on March 17, 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, with
Emma Smith as its first president. The Society was disbanded exactly two years
later on March 17, 1844. It wasn’t until 1854 that some wards started to
re-form the Relief Society, but it wasn’t called that. In fact, it wouldn’t be
officially the Relief Society again until 1867 when Brigham Young pushed for
its reorganization. What were these societies referred to in 1854?
a. The Indian Relief Society
b. The Good Samaritan Society
c. The Charity Never Faileth Society
d. The New Relief Society
Yesterday’s answer:
a. To pass through and support her
husband in the trials he would face
“On the 23rd of November my wife,
Phoebe, was attacked with a severe headache, which terminated in brain fever.
She grew more and more distressed daily as we continued our journey. It was a
terrible ordeal for a woman to travel in a wagon over rough roads, afflicted as
she was. At the same time our child was also very sick.”
In the ensuing days, Sister Woodruff’s
condition worsened, even though they had been able to pause on their journey
and find places to rest. Brother Woodruff recalled: “December 3rd
found my wife very low. I spent the day in taking care of her, and the
following day I returned to Eaton [a nearby town] to get some things for her.
She seemed to be gradually sinking, and in the evening her spirit apparently
left her body, and she was dead.
“The sisters gathered around her body,
weeping, while I stood looking at her in sorrow. The Spirit and power of God
began to rest upon me until, for the first time during her sickness, faith
filled my soul, although she lay before me as one dead.”
Strengthened in his faith, Wilford Woodruff
gave his wife a priesthood blessing. “I laid my hands upon her,” he said, “and
in the name of Jesus Christ I rebuked the power of death and the destroyer, and
commanded the same to depart from her, and the spirit of life to enter her
body.
“Her spirit returned to her body, and from
that hour she was made whole; and we all felt to praise the name of God, and to
trust in him and keep his commandments.
“While this operation was going on with me
(as my wife related afterwards) her spirit left her body, and she saw her body
lying upon the bed, and the sisters weeping. She looked at them and at me, and
upon her babe, and, while gazing upon this scene, two personages came into the
room. . . . One of these messengers informed her that she could have her choice:
she might go to rest in the spirit world, or, on one condition she could have
the privilege of returning to her tabernacle and continuing her labors upon the
earth. The condition was, if she felt that she could stand by her husband, and
with him pass through all the cares, trials, tribulations and afflictions of
life which he would be called to pass through the Gospel’s sake unto the end.
When she looked at the situation of her husband and child she said” ‘Yes, I
will do it!’
“At the moment that decision was made the
power of faith rested upon me, and when I administered unto her, her spirit
entered her tabernacle. . . .
“On the morning of the 6th of
Dec., the Spirit said to me: ‘Arise, and continue thy journey!’ and through the
mercy of God my wife was enabled to arise and dress herself and walk to the
wagon, and we went on our way rejoicing.”
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