On 19 April 1843, JS met with members of the in , Illinois, and instructed them on their assignment to raise funds for the construction of the , an edifice designated by revelation to be built as “a house for boarding” for “strangers . . . from afar” and “the weary traveller.” JS’s direction to the apostles stemmed from the belief that members were not sufficiently supporting the building of the Nauvoo House because they were more concerned with construction of the Nauvoo . In April 1842, the Twelve circulated a letter reminding church members that God had commanded the construction of both houses, and in August 1842, told appointed to travel to the eastern not only to raise funds for the temple but to “get the people to take stock in the Nauvoo House” as well. In February 1843, , the architect of the Nauvoo House, complained about the lack of support for the project, after which JS declared, “I want the Nauvo[o] House bui[l]t[.] it must be built, our salvation depends upon it.” JS counseled the Saints to “do what they can for the Nauvoo House. We never can accomplish our work at the expence of another.” Accordingly, at the of the church held in early April 1843, JS stated that one of the purposes of the meeting was “to take into consideration the sending out of the twelve or some porti[o]n of them or some body else to get means to build up Nauvoo. House.” Later in the meeting, JS appointed the Twelve to “this spicial mission of collecting funds for the Nauvoo House,” an action the conference ratified.

At this 19 April meeting in JS’s office, JS met with apostles , , , , , , , and to elaborate on the ’s fund-raising assignment. Woodruff recorded in his journal that JS “counciled us to take a mission in the East to obtain a means to build the as we were appointed So to do by the Conference.” JS also instructed the quorum on the need for others besides the apostles to proselytize in and directed them to write a letter to , an early leader of the church who was excommunicated in 1838, to ask if he was ready to return to the church.

, an apostle and one of JS’s clerks, took the minutes of the meeting in his role as clerk of the Quorum of the Twelve. The hurried nature of these minutes and the fact that Richards went back over them to correct misspellings, clarify words, and add information suggest that these were the original notes he took during the meeting. Richards made a cleaner copy of the minutes in JS’s journal. Substantive differences between the minutes and the journal version are identified in the footnotes.