The Encouragement of Marriage

The Lord has informed us that marriage is ordained of God unto man. The institution of marriage, in some communities of which we read, is falling almost into disrepute. It is alleged that there is a growing tendency in this direction among us.  The cause is doubtless, traceable to the increase of wealth and the disinclination of young men to take upon them the burdens of a wife and family. As we depart from the simplicity of early days, we may naturally expect that this tendency will incre ...

On the Abrahamic Test of Plural Marriage: Revelations to Wilford Woodruff and Lorena Larsen

Plural marriage was an Abrahamic test. The Church’s essay on the topic begins, “Latter-day Saints believe that the marriage of one man and one woman is the Lord’s standing law of marriage. . . . By revelation, the Lord commanded Joseph Smith to institute the practice of plural marriage among Church members in the early 1840s. For more than half a century, plural marriage was practiced by some Latter-day Saints under the direction of the Church President.” The next line acknowledges, “Latter-day Saints do not understand all of God’s purposes in instituting, through His prophets, the practice of plural marriage.”

The Word and Will of the Lord and the Law of Adoption

On January 21, 1847, Wilford Woodruff recorded the only revelation received by Brigham Young that was later canonized. It is now included in the Doctrine and Covenants as section 136. Because it includes instruction “concerning the camp of Israel in their journeyings west,” this section is sometimes overlooked or considered inapplicable to current Church members. However, the “Word and Will of the Lord” revealed in 1847 is a reminder to us of the significance of the covenants we have made and the fact that our salvation and our work within the Lord’s Church depends entirely on seeking and following His counsel.

The Conduct of our Lives

It should be the aim of all the members of the Church to carry out practically the principles of the Gospel. In no way can we better convince the world of their truth than in showing in our acts and dealings with one another and with mankind the elevating effect they have upon us. … If our religion does not lead us to love our God and our fellow man and to deal justly and uprightly with all men, then our profession of it is vain. The Apostle says: "If a man say, I love God, and hateth hi ...

How the Missionary Wilford Woodruff Became a Father, Almost a Widower, and Finally an Apostle

Phebe and Wilford worked for a few weeks after their wedding but then Wilford, a new member of the First Quorum of Seventy, set out for New England to preach the gospel to his relatives and others in the Farmington River Valley of Connecticut, not far from the Atlantic Coast. Planning to meet Wilford at the home of his father and stepmother, Phebe followed him, hoping to bring her parents and siblings, who lived in Maine, into the new covenant too, as she served alongside her husband, and they started their own family.

Our Spiritual Foundation

In Doctrine and Covenants 133 we are reminded of the need to “Prepare [ourselves] for the great day of the Lord,” the Second Coming of the Savior, and warned of “those things which are coming on the earth.” We need to establish a spiritual foundation built on our relationship with our Savior to withstand the prophesied plagues, wars, floods, famines, and earthquakes, and have peace of mind.

Foundation Names New CTO

Mark Pollmann has recently joined the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation as our Chief Technology Officer. Mark is passionate about data, technology, and making new things, and loves to learn about the history of how things came to be. “This is a fun project for me,” said Mark. “In reading and learning about Wilford Woodruff through his journals, I can identify with his sense of numbers. Being a statistician, I relate to tracking the transactions of life, like the number of l ...

Our Blessings, Privileges, and Powers

We are participants in the work of God and responsible for the choices we make in relation to all He has blessed us with.

In the third article of faith, Joseph Smith stated, “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.” All mankind … those yet to be born, those who have passed beyond the veil, and those now living into whose hands blessings, privileges, and powers have been mercifully given.

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How Wilford Woodruff, the Missionary, Became a Father, Almost a Widower, and Finally an Apostle

“Her name is Sarah Emma Woodruff,” Wilford, a proud, new father, wrote in his journal. He penned, “She was born July 14th, 1838 at half past five oclock in the morning,” then prayed, “O Lord prepare her for thyself.” Thirty-one-year-old Phebe Carter, the baby’s petite mother, had married Wilford shortly after he returned from a mission in Tennessee and Kentucky, in the spring of 1837 at Kirtland, Ohio, where she was teaching school.