Trusting Your Ancestral Pioneers Over Uninformed Keyboard Warriors

Who is a better judge of your character? Someone who knows you, has lived with you, and witnessed your words and actions first hand, or someone who can only testify of what they’ve heard others say?

Better yet, if you were on trial for a crime, who would you want speaking to your character? A close associate or a stranger with no first hand knowledge of you or your behavior?

I grow a little tired of the triggered and traumatized keyboard warriors who attack early prophets of the Church and claim they are “devil worshipping conmen and pedophiles who manipulated naïve bystanders.”

My wife is a descendant of Isaac Morley, one of the first converts in Kirtland, Ohio in 1830. In 1831 the Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife Emma resided on the Isaac Morley farm. On June 3-6, 1831, the fourth general conference of the Church was held in a schoolhouse on the Morley farm.

Isaac’s daughter Lucy was a teenage girl at the time and would tend Joseph and Emma’s children. Here is a brief account of Lucy Diantha Morley Allen, my children’s 4th great grandmother, found in the Young Women’s Journal of December 1906.

The first time Joseph and family came to Kirtland they lived with Isaac Morley, Lucy’s father. Later “Father Morley’* built a small house for them on his farm. The twins were born here. Lucy and her elder sister kept house for Emma Smith while she was ill.

Sister Allen is now ninety years of age, but she still remembers the Prophet, and never tires of telling of him and the early experiences of the Church and the settling of Utah.

Sister Allen says : “I’ve seen the Prophet wrestle, and run, and jump, but have never seen him beaten. In all that he did he was manly and almost godlike.

Tears come to Sister Allen’s eyes when she recalls his looks, while speaking to his Saints, and also how majestic he looked when he rode on his great black horse at the head of the Nauvoo Legion.

She says the only words that express his looks and actions are: “Surely he was a man of God.”

I love that my children have a rich heritage. I am so glad I get to testify to them of the words of their ancestors – that those are the words that are true, that those are the words to be trusted, that those are the words to be cherished.

“There is no end to the adversary’s deceptions. Please be prepared. Never take counsel from those who do not believe. Seek guidance from voices you can trust…” – Russell M. Nelson

For those who are looking to learn about the Prophet Joseph Smith from people who actually knew him (instead of from social media influencers with no personal knowledge of the man) I would highly recommend this book: They Knew the Prophet. This book contains half page to two page entries from over 100 people who knew Joseph Smith personal. No book has made me want to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith more than this one.

 

One reader of this book said:

“I’ve sometimes avoided studying Joseph too closely because I didn’t want to spend time on any of his faults, which some people love to emphasize these days. This book was such a blessing! It’s just a bunch of testimonies by people who knew and loved the man and revered him for his honorable character. I’ve recommended this to several people, who’ve all called with highest praise and thanks for the way it bolstered their testimonies of the Prophet.”

As I write this post, it is Pioneer Day in Utah, a state holiday. We will again be reading the story of Lucy Diantha Morley Allen to our children and trusting in her words and testimony for she personally met the prophet Joseph and knew who he was. What a blessing to have these recorded words of those who knew the Prophet Joseph Smith.