Documents, Volume 1, Part 4 Introduction: October 1830–January 1831
Part 4: October 1830–January 1831
Soon
after the second conference of the Church of Christ on 26 September 1830, led a group of men on a
mission to evangelize American Indians,
who were believed by church members to be descendants of peoples
described in the Book of Mormon.
The missionaries’ travels eventually took them to and to the area now known as eastern
Kansas, where several Indian tribes had
recently been relocated by the federal government. A September 1830
revelation appointed Cowdery to this mission, and
subsequent revelations in September and October directed , , and to join him. By late October they “commenced their
journey, preaching by the way.”
The
group briefly preached to a group of Seneca Indians near , New York. En
route to the West, encouraged
the missionaries to stop in , Ohio, to approach his former spiritual leader,
, a preacher associated
with . There
the missionaries met with success, and within a few weeks Rigdon and
many members of his congregation in northeastern
joined the Church of Christ.
In November, , , , and , accompanied by new convert ,
left the area and continued on their mission to the American Indians
living west of . Soon after the missionaries
departed, Rigdon, along with fellow inquirer , traveled to to meet JS. The two stopped
in , where they visited with the Smiths’ former
neighbors and inspected the farm that had belonged to They then traveled
to Waterloo, where they found JS preaching a
sermon at the residence of his parents. At the conclusion of JS’s
sermon, Partridge rose to speak and asked JS to baptize him.
Until
left to fulfill his
preaching mission, he and JS had been actively
working on a “” or revision of the Bible. This was not a translation in the usual
sense, and neither JS nor his scribes mentioned use of the or a seer stone, which JS had earlier
used to translate the Book of Mormon. Instead, working from a
published copy of the King James Bible, JS dictated to a scribe
corrections, refinements, and additions to the Old and New
Testaments as he felt inspired. In
Cowdery’s absence, and served as JS’s scribes
until , who extended his stay in , assumed the role in December.
JS and worked on the Bible revision until late December,
when a revelation commanded the church members to “assemble together at the .” They were to stop translating until they had relocated
but in the meantime were to preach to the various congregations of
the church. They accordingly “went
to the several churches preaching and propheceing [prophesying].” On
2 January 1831, the members
of the Church of Christ met in , New York, for their third conference, during
which a revelation repeated the earlier commandment to gather to
Ohio and promised, “There I will give unto you my law & there
you shall be endowed with power from on high.” Days later, JS sent to Ohio. Whitmer became the first church
member to relocate from New York to Ohio, carrying with him “the
commandments and revelations . . . to comfort and strengthen”
converts there. JS and left for Ohio in late January
1831.