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Reunion News – April 27, 2018

Scholarship Contest

The Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association is offering annual scholarships to college, high school and junior high students who are planning to attend college or similar institution.

Up to $1,000

Deadline is July 1, 2018

How learning about the values and sacrifices of Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith’s family can help me and my family honor their legacy.

Applicants do not need to be Smith Family descendants to enter. For more details go to https://josephsmithsr.org/scholarship/.

Inside the Smith family home in 1818, which was their second home in Palmyra.

  • The reconstruction is located on the site of the original.
  • The eight witnesses saw the golden plates in a grove near the log home.
  • Joseph’s first visit from Angel Moroni was here.
  • Joseph lived here at the time of the First Vision which occurred in the woods behind the home.

“Dreaming of a Heavenly Home”

Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Reunion

August 2-5, 2018

Reunion Registration Is Now Open!

Click on the above registration link or use: https://josephsmithsr.org/reunion/registration/.

You can look forward to:

  • Thursday night registration will be held in the lobby of the Church Office Building.
  • Friday morning, we will have a family gathering at the Conference Center’s Little Theater. The afternoon will be open for individual family groups to take tours and enjoy time together. In the evening we will have a family dinner in the lobby of the Conference Center. This is a unique opportunity to sit down and enjoy a meal together as one large happy family group. A devotional will be held after the dinner in the Conference Center’s Little Theater.
  • Saturday, we will have our service project, family memorial and photo, and a picnic lunch at This Is The Place Heritage Park at 2601 East Sunnyside Ave. There will be free time in the afternoon to enjoy This Is The Place Heritage Park. Saturday evening, we have a family meeting in downtown Salt Lake at the Assembly Hall.

Then of course we will have our last gathering attending Music and the Spoken Word on Sunday.


The Spring Family Newsletter Is Here

We had an unfortunate mix up on the database and we are sorry for the confusion with the newsletter mailing. You may have received someone else’s name to your address. We apologize for the error. We hope you understand that we won’t be able to resend the newsletter.

The pattern used on the cover of the newsletter was taken from a shawl that belonged to Lucy Mack Smith under the design work of Danielle Maddox.

We have attached a copy of the Spring Newsletter to this email blast. You can also view this information here: https://josephsmithsr.org/newsletter/2010-2019/spring-2018/.

Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association Is Working with Sleep In Heavenly Peace

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

The Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family Association is working with Sleep In Heavenly Peace for our summer’s service project. Sleep In Heavenly Peace was featured this month on a program called Returning The Favor. Please watch this clip https://www.facebook.com/ReturningTheFavor/videos/2020109721593621/ and see why their team stopped by Twin Falls, Idaho to meet Luke Mickelson who started Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an organization whose mission is to ensure that no child in their town ever has to sleep on the floor.

 

Click to donate toward our service project.

Or contribute by mail with checks or money orders to:

Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association
c/o Frances Orton
381 W 3700 N
Provo, UT 84604

Make a notation on the check: Sleep In Heavenly Peace.

2013 – This Is The Place Heritage Park
2014-Independence Temple Lot
2016 – Nauvoo Smith Family Cemetery

Steve & Frances Orton
Steve: steve.ortonio@gmail.com
Frances: ortonfrances@gmail.com
c/o Steve and Frances Orton
381 West 3700 North
Provo UT 84604

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Coming Soon In Emma’s Footsteps

From the writer of Singing with Angels and the Joseph Smith Jr. and Emma Hale Smith Historical Society, this new movie is coming to theaters June 1 in Utah. For other areas, please send us a request. See the trailer below!

After the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, Jr., his wife Emma Hale Smith was left with much to shoulder: salvaging Joseph’s estate, the safety of her family, her own grief, and growing isolation as danger and rumors increased. Through the eyes of one of her sons and Lucy Mack Smith, Emma’s struggles are shown with new light and understanding, revealing a courageous woman who stood as a pillar of strength for her family.

Send us your request for where you would like to see the movie, and see what areas we are already planning to show In Emma’s Footsteps!

LOCATIONS

 

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RE-MEME-BER US

Youth Meme Contest

RULES:

Connect us to the Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith Family

Use a relatable picture

Keep it uplifting

Ages 12-18

PRIZES: 

$50, $25, $10

DEADLINE:

Winners will be announced on the Facebook page and at the 2018 SLC Reunion.

ENTRIES:

Post your meme to https://www.facebook.com/groups/JSSR.LMS/ or https://www.facebook.com/groups/126771836337/?ref=br_rs

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2018 Reunion Highlights

  • Registration and Meet & Greet at the LDS Church Office Building Lobby and Auditorium.
  • Showing of the Youth Media Scholarship Competition in the Conference Center Little Theater.
  • Dinner in the lobby of the Conference Center.
  • Saturday Service Project and events at This Is The Place Heritage Park.
    – Building bunk beds.
    – Wreath placing at Mary Fielding Smith cottage.
    – Big family photo.
    – Picnic lunch.
    – Individual family time.
  • Family devotional at Temple Square Assembly Hall.
  • Music and the Spoken Word Sunday morning.
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Dreaming of a Heavenly Home

By Daniel Adams

Father and Mother Smith knew as well as anyone what it meant to be refugees. But their trials had also allowed them to glimpse eternity. They saw their heavenly home and what their family could be, and this knowledge, like that of the saints before, gave them the strength to endure, to continue to dream of their heavenly home.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Father and Mother Smith being driven from their home, and having to rebuild once again, in a tiny log cabin in Palmyra, New York. Here they would find a short refuge until they would be forced again to leave. Here Father and Mother Smith read the Bible to their children and plead for divine protection. Here, Joseph Sr. told his children of his remarkable dreams of the restoration. Here Lucy would tell her children how God answered her desperate prayers in a grove of trees. Here Joseph would read the invitation of the Apostle James and determine to ask of God
what he should do. Here the heavens would rend and the Angel Moroni would descend to reveal a mighty work and a wonder. Here, the family gathered nightly to hear Joseph recount his remarkable visions of the ancient inhabitants of this continent. Here the Smith boys and girls grew
strong in faith and work, believing that God was watching over their family. This place, more than any other, symbolized what can be ours – no matter the coming persecution, trials and difficulties – when we dream of our heavenly home.

On this 200th anniversary, the Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith descendants have the opportunity to gather in Salt Lake and help current refugees who
have been driven from their homes and lost their worldly possessions. We will be building bunk beds for refugee children and their families. We would like them to know that God is aware of them, that our family understands to some degree what it means to be refugees, and now with this gift, perhaps they too can dream of a heavenly home.

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We are a Visionary House

By David Adams

Sometime between the fall of 1829 and March 26, 1830, while the Book of Mormon was being printed, a curious visitor came to the Smith home in Palmyra.

Solomon Chamberlain set out from home carrying copies of a tract with information about his own visions. He started out to go to Canada, but when his boat stopped in Palmyra he had a distinct impression to get off the boat. The Spirit directed him to travel south, which he did for some three
miles until evening where again the Spirit directed that he stop at a farmhouse for shelter.

In the morning the family was talking about a gold Bible. Solomon said,

“When they said Gold Bible, there was a power like electricity went from the top of my head to the end of my toes. This was the first time I ever heard of the Gold Bible. I was now within half a mile of the Smith family where Joseph lived. From the time I left the boat until now, I was wholly led by the Spirit …. I said to myself, ‘I shall soon find why I have been led in this singular manner.’”

At the time the Smiths were accustomed to intruders of various kinds, arriving unannounced and seeking to stop the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon.

When Solomon Chamberlain arrived, he found Hyrum pacing the floor. Solomon entered with the greeting, “Peace be to this house.”

“I hope it will be peace,” Hyrum replied, astonished.

“Is there anyone here that believes in visions or revelations?” Solomon asked.

Hyrum responded, “Yes, we are a visionary house.”

“Then I will give you one of my pamphlets, which was visionary, and of my own experience,” Solomon said.

Hyrum, Father Smith, and some of the Whitmer boys gathered and took turns reading from Solomon’s pamphlet.

“I began to preach to them,” Solomon said, “in the words that the angel had made known to me in the vision, that all churches and denominations on the earth had become corrupt, and [there was] no church of God on the earth, but that he would shortly raise up a church that would never be confounded nor brought down and be like unto the Apostolic Church. They wondered greatly who had been telling me these things, for said they we have the same things [written] down in our house, taken from the Gold record, that you are preaching to us. I said, ‘The Lord told me these things a number of years ago.… If you are a visionary house, I wish you would make known some of your discoveries, for I think I can bear them.’ They then made known to me that they had obtained a gold record, and just finished translating it here. Now, the Lord revealed to me by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost that this was the work I had been looking for.”

Solomon took pages of the Book of Mormon, continued on his journey, and preached to all who would listen. He joined with the saints and traveled from Kirtland to Missouri to Nauvoo and then west with the saints.

Solomon Chamberlain’s life demonstrates the value and relevance of personal visions and spiritual experiences. So did the lives of Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith and their children. It is good to seek for and find the hand of God in our lives. That’s what Smiths do. We are a visionary house.

– Read full article at http://avisionaryhouse.blogspot.com

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Share Your Vision – Children’s Coloring Contest (ages 3-11)

Father and Mother Smith have been so busy moving and trying to plant crops, they haven’t had time to plant trees, flowers, or decorate their home in Palmyra New York. How would you help them decorate their home? Print and color the picture. Pictures will be displayed and prizes will be awarded at the August 2018 Reunion. Submission Deadline: July 15, 2018.

Send pictures to J. Maddox 875 N 140 W American Fork, UT 84003 by July 15, 2018.

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Lucy’s Shawl: Wrapped in Her Love

Budd Porter (recently deceased) and Debbie Porter Nelson wrap themselves in Lucy’s shawl and feel her love around them.

Sarah Milikin owned 3 shawls originally belonging to her grandmother, Lucy Mack Smith. Upon Sarah’s death, the three shawls were found and later given to dear friends and relatives. The first went to her daughter-in-law Jennie Peterson, who eventually donated it to the LDS Church History Museum.

The second went to Jennie’s niece, Kathryn. When Kathryn became very ill, the shawl was given to her youngest sister Helen. Helen sent the shawl to the LDS Church History Museum via some friends.

The third shawl was given to Helen. Before her death she asked her son to safeguard it. Faithful to his promise, in 2005, he returned the shawl to the Joseph Smith Jr. Family.

Large enough to cover a bed, this shawl helped inspire our wish to cover the “Build a Bed” bunk beds with an embroidered coverlet.