Text by Maurine Jensen Proctor, with photos by Scot
Facer Proctor
It
is bitter cold in Vermont in the dead of winter. Reporters from local Vermont
newspapers, Salt Lake and Japanese TV stations and the Boston
Globe, stamp their feet against the cold and stay out in the
biting weather for only a few minutes before they hurry back
in to the Visitors’ Center at the Joseph Smith birthplace
in Sharon and huddle for warmth on this December 22nd.
Satellite uplink trucks are in place here to
broadcast the commemoration from this obscure location at
Joseph Smith’s birthplace.
They
are waiting for President Hinckley to arrive, who is coming
to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth
of Joseph Smith and arriving a day early for a press conference.
It is the shortest and darkest day of the year as the sun
scoots across the horizon, low in the sky.
The winter solstice sun reflected for a brief few moments
on the 38 ½ foot granite shaft that was placed here Dec. 23,
1905.
Thoughts
turn to that moment, so long ago when, on the 23rd, just after
the winter solstice, as the light begins to return to the
earth, a baby Joseph Smith was born, who would revolutionize
the world. It was a timely, symbolic birth.
It
would have been cold like this in a draughty cabin for a baby
to be born, a deep freeze of a place where if you just stepped
out of the door for a few minutes, cheeks, toes and fingers
began to painfully numb. Here on a rented farm in the most
meager of circumstances and with the plain name of Joseph
Smith, the Lord sent his Latter-day Elias who would restore
all things.
The original stoop to the rented cabin where
the
baby Joseph Smith was born is still in place.
Now,
200 years later, with the sun still low in the sky, a 95 year-old
prophet has traveled across the country and braved the frigid
weather, to be at this place for what he called in October
conference “a great celebration.”
Why
Not Stay Home?
You
would think that at his age, at Christmas time, and with his
dislike of travel, it would be enough to stay home in Salt
Lake and preside at the Conference Center. Yet President
Hinckley told the Saints at conference, “I intend, if possible,
to go to the place of his birth to repeat what Joseph F. Smith,
the sixth President of the Church, did on December 23, 1905,
a century ago. On that occasion he dedicated the monument
which marks the place of the Prophet’s birth and where a memorial
cottage has also been built.”
President Hinckley and Elder
Ballard stood at the same place where Joseph F. Smith had
stood one hundred years earlier.
True
to his word and his determination, President Hinckley arrived
at the birthplace and, while photographers clamored for pictures,
stood before the 38-1/2 foot solid granite shaft and marveled
at the mission of Joseph Smith. (While he also quipped, “Where’s
the Vermont sun?”)
President Hinckley poses with Elder
Ballard and many family members at the monument to Joseph
Smith.
President
Hinckley has both an enormous knowledge and sense of history.
He said, “This is a very significant event. It happens only
every 100 years.” And, at 95, he acknowledges, “I’m within
5 years of being part of all that hundred years... I’m glad
I made it today.”
President Hinckley looks on as the media clamor
for just the right angle, just the right shot.
A
reporter asked, “Why was it significant for you to personally
travel here?” President Hinckley answered, “Because this is
the ground. This is the starting place. This is the place
where we can look back. We are grateful that Junius
Wells bought the old Mack farm [in 1905]… More come to see
it than ever did in the past and more will come in the future.”
President Hinckley and Elder Ballard share a
few moments talking together at the monument.
“The
boy who was born here became the prophet of the Church, and
today that Church has a membership of approximately 12 million
in 160 nations. The growth of this work is an absolute miracle,
and to think that it all came from a little boy with a common
name who lived in a remote area with very little education,
but his name has become known for good all over this world.
It is for that reason that we are here to celebrate the 200th
anniversary of his birth.”
President Hinckley and son, Clark Hinckley, share a moment
at the monument.
The
38-1/2 foot solid shaft of polished granite that stands as
a monument to Joseph Smith at his birthplace was placed here
with great difficulty in 1905. The heavy obelisk was transported
by wagon with 22 horses to this remote spot over ground that
was sometimes surprisingly boggy in that December. Junius Wells spearheaded the effort.
President
Hinckley said, “As we came up the road, I just marveled at
the ingenuity and the work and the faith of Junius
Wells, who got it here.”
When Joseph F. Smith came here
in 1905,
he was 67 years old. President Hinckley is 95.
“Tomorrow
[December 23], we’re going to be talking via satellite back
and forth with Salt Lake City. Our conference center, which
seats 21,00 people, will be filled
to capacity. The services will be broadcast on local television
stations and via satellite all over the country and all over
the world because this is a significant occasion.”
President
Hinckley said that Joseph would be amazed. “I think he would
be pleased.”
Was
this Latter-day prophet who succeeded Joseph Smith in that
important calling feeling connected and close to him as he
walked these historic grounds? “Yes. There is something very
subduing about being here,” said President Hinckley.
President
Hinckley met with the press right by the fireplace that contains
the hearthstone from the cabin where Joseph Smith was born.
Hyrum’s
Great-Great-Grandson
Fittingly,
accompanying President Hinckley on this trip is Elder Russell
M. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve. He is the great-great-grandson
of Hyrum Smith, who was martyred at Carthage Jail with his
brother Joseph, and a great-grandson of Joseph F. Smith, who
was President of the Church in 1905 and came to this spot
on December 23rd to dedicate the monument.
Elder M. Russell Ballard knows
of his heritage as a great-great-grandson of the Patriarch,
Hyrum Smith.
Elder
Ballard said, “Any time we go to a historic cite it draws
our memories to our forefathers. If you love your forefathers
you can have very tender feelings. My feelings are very tender.
“President
Hinckley has a great affection for Joseph F. Smith, and I
think in some ways that was a draw for him to be here to celebrate
this 200th birthday.” He said, “We mustn’t underestimate
what it means to have the President of the Church whom we
sustain as a prophet, seer and revelator here today. That’s
no small thing.”
“President
Hinckley has talked about this for the last 6 months. It
is a privilege for me to be here.”
The
Most Profound Celebration
It
has been a year of celebration for Joseph Smith. Academic
conferences have been held, including one sponsored by the
Library of Congress. Books and papers have been written.
The media have given renewed attention in positive ways to
the Church, including stories on CBS, the Boston Globe,
NPR and many, many more. Reporters from a Japanese television
station are not only in Sharon for this event, but have spent
at least 10 days in Salt Lake putting together a documentary
because — as the reporter said when President Hinckley gave
her a greeting in Japanese — “Japanese people are very interested
in the Church.”
The press love being with President
Hinckley and he seems to love being with them.
Yet
for President Hinckley, perhaps the most profound celebration
is the challenge that so many members of the Church have taken
to read the Book of Mormon before the year’s end. “There has
been a great flowering of faith,” he said. People have been
reading the Book of Mormon everywhere they go — in offices,
on trains, while they are waiting for appointments. President
Hinckley said, “Never before in the history of the Church
have you seen so many people reading the Book of Mormon as
you have in the past few months.”
President
Hinckley often cites the amazing accomplishments of the past
two hundred years of the Church and then adds, “but
we have not begun to scratch the surface.” What he sees for
the future is this: “This Church will grow and continue to
grow. That’s the prophetic destiny of it.”
In
the press conference a reporter asked the inevitable question.
Does the Church focus too much on Joseph Smith? President
Hinckley answered that Joseph was born on December 23rd
and we celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th.
He said, “There has been no greater testator concerning the
reality and divinity of Jesus Christ than Joseph Smith the
prophet.
“For
someone who is not a member of the Church, I’d want them to
know that I believe with all my heart, I have not the slightest
doubt that Joseph Smtih was an instrument in the hands of God in restoring the
ancient Church. I have no doubt about that. That’s my conviction,
that’s my witness, that’s my testimony.”
—
The
Joseph Smith Commemorative Broadcast will originate from the
Conference Center, December 23, 2005 at 6:00 p.m. MST with
a coordinating broadcast from Sharon, Vermont. It will be
available at stake centers via satellite. For other viewing
options see www.lds.org
The
Church website at LDS.org also mentions these other available
resources for learning more about Joseph Smith:
- JosephSmith.net
— An official
Church Web site that provides stories, research articles,
quotes, and other historical information about the Prophet
Joseph, as well as photographs, paintings, and archive documents.
For more details about the site, see a related article in
News from the Church.
- "The
Worlds of Joseph Smith" — Audio
and video archives of an international academic conference
held at the Library of Congress in May 2005.
- Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration
— This new
film about the life and legacy of Joseph Smith, founding
prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
will be shown in the Legacy Theater of the Joseph Smith
Memorial Building beginning Saturday, December 17, 2005.
