Joseph and Emma Smith
Last night we attended a most interesting fireside presented by Michael Kennedy and his wife, Darcy. Brother Kennedy is the first descendant of Joseph and Emma Smith to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and he has quite a story to tell, and an even more important message to share. The quick version of the story is that he was living in a very small town in Nevada in the 70's as a youth with his family and needed to write a report about someone who had influenced American history. His father suggested that their great, great, grandfather, Joseph Smith, of whom he had never heard, had "discovered Utah". Thinking that was relevant to his assignment he began to try to research this Joseph Smith, and surprisingly, two Elders knocked on their door. These missionaries were only in this tiny town for a matter of weeks as a mission experiment. Brother Kennedy's story is very interesting and comical but the short of it is that he did get baptized and was invited to meet with President Kimball and then Elder Bruce R McConkie because of his membership in this family.
At this time, Bro Kennedy wanted to marry his new girlfriend, who was also a convert from this small town in Nevada, but she wanted only to marry in the temple. After attending to due process he received the Melchizedek priesthood and asked if he could now marry in the temple. She then told him that he needed to serve a mission, and after prayerful counsel from Elder McConkie it was decided that he should marry at that time and then they would serve together what would become a life-time mission to his, the Joseph and Emma family.
And here is where the important message on family history work comes in. Elder McConkie instructed them that no proselyting efforts would be effective until after all of the family history work and necessary ordinances for their dead had been completed. (Incidentally, the posterity of Joseph and Emma is shockingly small, because of the many who did not marry or have children for various reasons. And sadly, they have not been able to enjoy the sealing blessings of the temple that meant so much to Joseph.)
Brother and Sister Kennedy began at that time a long and earnest effort and completed this sacred work for Joseph and Emma's posterity who were dead. They learned that before missionary work would be effective for a people, the ordinance work for the ancestors of the same must be completed, freeing and empowering them to participate on the other side of the veil. He said that the work of salvation goes in this order; family history and temple work for our ancestors, then these departed and empowered family members (who have received their priesthood ordinances) are able to work on their living descendant's hearts, preparing them to receive the word, then the preaching of the gospel to a prepared people and attending ordinances. He says you can tell where family history is being done by where the temples pop up in the earth. I found this all very interesting. He said that the reason missionary work is so effective among the Lamanite nations is because of the millions who had been converted unto the Lord after the visit of the Savior to the Americas who are now in the spirit world, preparing the hearts of their children to receive the gospel.
Well, the work for Joseph and Emma's family goes forward. After the work for their dead had been fully completed, they were freed to begin the missionary work on this side of the veil. Much effort has been made, and many priesthood blessings have been offered on their behalf, including the dedicatory prayer of the farm house where the church was organized at it's sesquicentennial, as well as part of the dedicatory prayer of the Kirkland temple in D&C 109 : 68-70, which reads in part, "O Lord, remember thy servant, Joseph Smith, Jun.....Have mercy, O Lord, upon his wife and children, that they may be exalted in thy presence, and preserved by thy fostering hand. Have mercy upon all their immediate connections, that their prejudices may be broken up and swept away as with a flood; that they may be converted and redeemed with Israel, and know that thou art God." The Church has also reached out to these members of Joseph and Emma's family in other ways, such as organizing large family reunions where our common interests are shared.
I wish I could remember the details about how many members of this family have now been converted to the gospel and received temple ordinances, but the work is going forward, and I do remember him saying that 18 families are at this time working with the missionaries.
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