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November, Week 1

Day 1

Primary
1. Today, read Doctrine and Covenants 124:1-36.
2. Watch the video “Building Nauvoo.”
3. As difficult as the last six years had been for the Saints, things started to look better in the spring of 1839: The refugee Saints had found compassion among the citizens of Quincy, Illinois. Guards had allowed Joseph Smith and other Church leaders to escape captivity in Missouri. And the Church had just purchased land in Illinois where the Saints could gather again. Yes, it was swampy, mosquito-infested land, but compared to the challenges the Saints had already faced, this probably seemed manageable. So they drained the swamp and drafted a charter for a new city, which they named Nauvoo. It means “beautiful” in Hebrew, though it was more an expression of faith than an accurate description, at least at first. Meanwhile, the Lord was impressing His Prophet with a sense of urgency. He had more truths and ordinances to restore, and He needed a holy temple where He could “crown [His Saints] with honor, immortality, and eternal life” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:55). In many ways, these same feelings of faith and urgency are evident in the Lord’s work today.

Youth
1. Today, read Doctrine and Covenants 124:1-36.
2. While the Prophet Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail, thousands of Saints were driven out of their homes in Missouri. After his release, Joseph reunited with his family and almost 5,000 other refugees from Missouri who had been taken in by the kind people of Quincy, Illinois. The Lord directed the Saints to buy and gather on inexpensive swampland near the edge of the Missouri River. They lived in tents and wagons while they began to build a city they would later call Nauvoo. Mosquitos infected many Saints with malaria, which caused severe fevers, chills, and many deaths.
3. One person they visited was Elijah Fordham. He was so sick that his wife, Anna, was weeping and preparing his burial clothes.

Joseph approached Elijah and took his hand. “Brother Fordham,” he asked, “have you not faith to be healed?”

“I am afraid it is too late,” he said.

“Do you not believe that Jesus is the Christ?”

“I do, Brother Joseph.”

“Elijah,” the prophet declared, “I command you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, to arise and be made whole.”

The words seemed to shake the house. Elijah rose from his bed, his face flush with color. He dressed, asked for something to eat, and followed Joseph outside to help minister to many others. (Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, vol. 1, The Standard of Truth, 1815–1846 [2018], 402–3)