Parley Street in Nauvoo, Illinois marked the beginning terminus of the Trail of Hope and the start of a 1,300 mile (on foot) trek by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to safety in the Rocky Mountains in 1846. Religious persecution and political conflict had led to the untimely assassination of their prophet and leader Joseph Smith Jr.
A barely literate farm boy, Joseph had prayed earnestly to know which of the Christian churches was the true one established by Jesus Christ during His mortal ministry. To his astonishment, in 1820 Joseph experienced a divine visit from both The Father and The Son, who explained that all of the sects of the day had strayed from the original and true Church.
In time Joseph would be taught how to restore and organize Christ’s church and kingdom on the earth. Over the succeeding years, Joseph was visited by angels and resurrected beings who instructed him and gave him the keys and authority to restore the priesthood, the power of God, to the earth once again. In 1830, after having translated an ancient American historical record from gold plates buried in the hillside in New York, The Book of Mormon, named for the ancient American prophet, was printed and available to read. This history was a compilation of almost 1,000 years of the story of a branch of the House of Israel, one who had been led away from Jerusalem just before it fell in the days of King Zedekiah.
Mormon’s son Moroni had been tasked with keeping the record safe just before his people were wiped out in a genocide in the 4th Century. The resurrected Moroni, also known as the Guardian Angel of the Americas, visited Joseph many times giving him instruction and guidance in preparation for restoring God’s church and priesthood to the earth before Christ’s second coming.
In the 19th Century, the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth along with the divine keys of the priesthood and the power and authority to gather Israel before Christ’s Second Coming. The reconstructed town of Nauvoo, Illinois gives a powerful lesson about obedience, temerity, loyalty and reliance on the Lord through good times and bad. The beautifully rebuilt Nauvoo Temple stands as a witness to the reality of eternal families and shows the love of God by a band of refugees that had not reached the end of the trail of discipleship but only the beginning. Next, our family’s history and experience in Nauvoo.
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