Joseph F. Smith Family Reunion – 2020 Program

Welcome to the 2020 Joseph F. Smith Family Reunion program. As the rules for meeting together in Salt Lake City have shifted over the past months, we, the trustees of the Joseph F. Smith Association, decided our best approach would be to provide an outline and presentation for you to use in your own Family Home Evening, to remember our dear prophet, Joseph F. Smith.

We love you, and hope that what we’ve prepared for you here helps you remember our grandfather Joseph F. Smith, and with his example, encourages you in your goals to do what’s right.

I am Paul Smith, and I am the chairman of our reunion this year. We would like to recognize the Trustees of the Joseph F. Smith association, who are: Paul Smith (Mary), Alice Watson (Alice), Shauna Sandberg (Sarah), Sarah Adams (Julina), and Craig Smith (Edna). We also recognize: Mary Donoho, our principal genealogy data steward and address coordinator; Jared Glade, our website and online database coordinator; Chris Rasmussen, our secretary, and Paul Smith, our treasurer. Keeping track of the family is a tough job, and we thank our data stewards: Mary Donoho (Julina), Chris Rasmussen (Sarah), Marilyn Wood (Alice), Jared Glade (Edna), and Becky Lowe – recently replaced by David Scott (Mary). As you have changes in your family, please let your family data steward or Mary Donoho know.

Please recognize those in your family who have been or will be baptized this year or who have turned 12. We plan to have them join us on the stand when we meet in person next year. We also encourage you to appreciate Joseph F. Smith’s living grandchildren, and those you have passed on.

For our primary-age children, we have a coloring book you can download here: Joseph F. Smith Booklet.pdf

Due to the format of our reunion this year, President Ballard has also recorded his message. We are grateful to have both he and President Oaks as part of our family.

Here is the outline we encourage you to follow, including links to music you can play and sing along with, hosted on the website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Feel free to adapt it to the special needs of your family.

Opening Hymn: 19 We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet. After clicking on this link, you’ll see a ‘Play’ button that will let you play the music. When you’re done with the song, come back to this page.

Opening Prayer: Someone from your family

Paul Smith

Paul Smith – Joseph F. Smith

As a family, discuss how being related to the Lord’s prophet Joseph F. Smith, encourages each of you to do and be better. How do his example, and that of his wives, help you be kind to everyone, and to focus on the Gospel, your own family, and all of God’s children?

President M. Russell Ballard

President M. Russell Ballard – Joseph F. Smith

Closing Hymn: 21 Come, Listen to a Prophet’s Voice. After clicking on this link, you’ll see a ‘Play’ button that will let you play the music. When you’re done with the song, come back to this page.

Closing Prayer: Someone from your family

Refreshments of your choice 😉

Looking for a Name

Back in the late 1960’s I was the home teacher of one of the sons of Joseph F. Smith. He loved his father very much.

He lived in the Salt Lake City avenues at about 5th Avenue and “N” street. I have forgotten his name. Would [anyone] happen to know the name of this man? I would be most appreciative of any help you can give me.

Joe Spendlove

No Ordinary Life

An autobiography of Helen Mar Carter Monson

https://outskirtspress.com/noordinarylife

A Vivid Memoir of a Unique Childhood

In our modern age of streaming media and scheduled recreation, it’s easy to forget what childhood used to be like—the everyday discoveries and delights, the hilarious catastrophes and small triumphs. No Ordinary Life is a time machine taking us back to Depression-era Salt Lake City, where Helen grew up making wonderful memories: “Spring was here! I coaxed Mama to let me leave my coat home. That way everyone could see my new dress! And that gave me two things to brag about, because most of the children were still cumbered with their winter coats. I was so excited at being center stage, I was talking non-stop as we arrived at school, and opened the doors to the long closet in back to remove our coats. As I sat, I became aware of an unusual silence. Strange. The bell hadn’t rung. I looked around to see what was the matter, and I heard some giggles and whispers, and I saw a girl point at me. I looked at me too. I was sitting there in my petticoat. Instantly I knew what had happened. I had absent-mindedly taken off my button-down-the-front-dress as if it were my coat, and hung it up with everyone else!” Despite poverty and stress, Helen’s stories focus on joy and adventure . . . while providing a poignantly authentic lens on her family and herself. No Ordinary Life is the first book of The Greatest Gamble series, and covers Helen’s life from her earliest memories through junior high.

Ever After, I Knew

Ever After, I Knew
Emily Reynolds see http://emilyreynoldsart.com

JOSEPH F. SMITH TELLS HIS STORY

In the fall of 1847 Mary Fielding Smith and her brother, Joseph Fielding, made a trip down the Missouri River to St. Joseph, Mo., for the purpose of obtaining provisions and clothing for the family, and for the journey across the plains the following spring.   Joseph F. Smith was almost nine years of age at this time and accompanied his mother and uncle on this journey as a teamster.  The following excerpts are from Life of Joseph F. Smith,” pp. 131-134.

Returning to Winter Quarters, we camped one evening in an open prairie on the Missouri River bottoms. We usually unyoked our oxen and turned them loose to feed during our encampments at night, but this time, on account of the proximity of [a] herd of cattle, fearing that they might get mixed up and driven off with them, we turned our oxen out to feed in their yokes.  Next morning when we came to look them up, to our great disappointment our best yoke of oxen was not to be found.  Uncle Fielding and I spent all the morning, well nigh until noon, hunting for them but without avail. Tramping through this grass and through the woods and over the bluffs, we were soaked to the skin, fatigued, disheartened and almost exhausted.

In this pitiable plight I was the first to return to our wagons, and as I approached I saw my mother kneeling down in prayer.  I halted for a moment and then drew gently near enough to hear her pleading with the Lord not to suffer us to be left in this helpless condition, but to lead us to recover our lost team, that we might continue our travels in safety.  When she arose from her knees I was standing near by.  The first expression I caught upon her precious face was a lovely smile, which, discouraged as I was, gave me renewed hope and an assurance I had not felt before.

A few moments later Uncle Fielding came to the camp, wet with the dews, faint, fatigued and thoroughly disheartened.  His first words were, “Well, Mary, the cattle are gone!”

Mother replied in a voice which fairly rang with cheerfulness, “Never mind, your breakfast has been waiting for hours; and now, while you and Joseph are eating, I will just take a walk out and see if I can find the cattle.”

My uncle held up his hands in blank astonishment, and if the Missouri River had suddenly turned to run up stream, neither of us could have been much more surprised.  “Why, Mary,” he exclaimed, “What do you mean?  We have been all over this country. . .and our oxen are gone–they are not to be found.  I believe they have been driven off, and it is useless for you to attempt to do such a thing as to hunt for them.”

“Never mind me,” said mother, “get your breakfast and I will see,” and she started toward the river, following down spring creek.  Before she was out of speaking distance the man in charge of the herd of beef cattle rode up from the opposite side of the creek and called out, “Madam, I saw your oxen over in that direction this morning about daybreak,” pointing in the opposite direction from that in which mother was going.  We heard plainly what he said, but mother went right on, paid no attention to his remark and did not even turn her head to look at him.  A moment later the man rode off rapidly toward his herd. and they were soon under full drive for the road leading toward Savannah.  My mother continued straight down the little stream of water until she stood almost on the bank of the river, and then she beckoned to us.  I outran my uncle and came first to the spot where my mother stood.  There I saw our oxen fastened to a clump of willows growing in the bottom of a deep gulch . . . perfectly concealed from view.

Joseph F. Smith later said, “It was one of the first practical and positive demonstrations of the efficacy of prayer I had ever witnessed.  It made an indelible impression on my mind, and has been a source of comfort, assurance and guidance to me throughout all of my life.” I chose to title this painting by Emily S. Reynolds of that formative event: “EVER AFTER, I KNEW.”  Joseph knew God answers prayers; he knew of his mother’s profound faith.