President Grant’s Dilemma

President Heber J. Grant

Shortly after President Joseph F. Smith’s death, and then Heber J. Grants call to lead the Church, what dilemma did President Grant face?

a.      Who to fill the vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve

b.      How to get the Church out of debt

c.       Where to host the first all-Church basketball tournament

d.      How to get supplies to the Saints in war torn Europe

Yesterday’s answer:

(C)                 Canada

In the fall of 1833, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon went to Upper Canada at the urging of Freeman Nickerson, a recent convert, who convinced the brethren that his sons who lived there would be receptive to the gospel. The journey was historic. While it was not the first time missionaries had been in Canada (brief excursions had been made in 1830, 1832, and 1833), Joseph’s visit gave the work there considerable spark. The Prophet developed such a love for the Canadians that he visited them again in 1837 and saw to it that missionary work there continued throughout his life.

In Mount Pleasant, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon baptized twelve people, including the sons of Elder Nickerson and their families, who became the nucleus of the branch there.

Lydia Bailey was one of those in the Eleazer Freeman Nickerson household in Mount Pleasant who responded to the gospel with all of her heart. She was raised in Massachusetts and New York and at age sixteen married Calvin Bailey. Because he drank, her life with him was unhappy. After three years of marriage, he abandoned her, her daughter, and the child she was expecting. Her son died at birth, and less than a year later her daughter also died. At age twenty Lydia went to Canada with the Nickersons to recover her emotional health. There she met Joseph Smith who told her, “You shall yet be a savior to your father’s house.” Lydia later moved to Kirtland, where she met and married Newel Knight, a widower. Many years later, in Utah, Lydia did the ordinance work for seven hundred of her kindred dead in the St. George Temple, thus fulfilling Joseph’s prophecy.

Lydia Knight’s History (Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883), pp. 10-13, 23, 101.