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

Insight to Come Follow Me D&C Official Declaration 1


By Steven C. Harper


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...

Read More

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


By Jennifer Ann Mackley


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...

Read More

The Encouragement of Marriage


Wilford Woodruff Quote of the Month


The young of both sexes should be taught that it is not necessary to happiness in marriage to be in the possession of wealth. In this country an industrious, economical married couple can soon surround themselves with all the...



Read More

Our Blessings, Privileges, and Powers


By Jennifer Ann Mackley


We are participants in the work of God and responsible for the choices we make in relation to all He has blessed us with. Wilford Woodruff said, “Every one of us … shall have to give an account before the God of Heaven … for the use of this Priesthood … the blessings, privileges, and powers which we enjoy in...

Read More

Gordon Gibb

December Spotlight

Gordon Gibb is a volunteer for the Crowdsource Collection on FromThePage of the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation. “It has been wonderful working with Gordon,” said Jason Godfrey, Lead Editorial Assistant. “The Foundation has added hundreds of pages of missionary letters that Wilford Woodruff received, and Gordon was always one of the first people to make sure these letters were transcribed. He was both efficient and careful in his process of transcription...

Read More

Request for Content Volunteers

The Wilford Woodruff Papers Project has formed a new team to gather meaningful and inspiring quotes from the writings of Wilford Woodruff. Volunteers are needed to read his discourses and select quote gems. We will then be able to organize his wisdom and insights and share it in articles, podcasts, curriculum, and social media.

We have hundreds of discourses to review and many other sources yet to come, so your help is greatly needed! We welcome all who are able to work from home computers and willing to donate a few hours a week or month to this worthy endeavor.

If you would like to contribute your time to this meaningful project, please respond to this email to get started!

Announcements

New Church History

Each quarter the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project adds additional documents to the online collection. In 2021, we have teams working on journals, letters, autobiographies, histories, and biographies.

On December 1, 2021 we added 7 new letters to the Wilford Woodruff Papers collection. Each one is a window into the faith and efforts of the early saints. In a letter just before Christmas 1849, Wilford Woodruff, then president of the Eastern States Mission, wrote to fellow Church members petitioning for the creation of a state called "Deseret" that would include Salt Lake City. Although far from Washington, DC, he wrote, "I will not ownly continue to pray for your success, But I feel to sustan you with evry feeling & sentimnt of my heart evy way in my power in accomplishing the object of your mission at Washington."

We released 460 pages of Wilford Woodruff's journal entries covering 1854-1859. During that intense period the United States sent a federal army to subdue the Latter-day Saints. President Woodruff's journal entries document that ordeal from the perspective of saints who had ample reason to fear for their uncertain future. The journal entries tell how the Lord led them safely through the ordeal as they followed his prophet, Brigham Young.

With the help of incredible volunteers, the Autobiographies & Histories team completed all of the available digitized documents ahead of schedule. On December 1st, we shared the three drafts that Wilford Woodruff prepared in anticipation of publishing his autobiography. These drafts are important because only 3 of the 4-part autobiography was eventually published in Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine. We also released the two Dreams and Visions records that Wilford Woodruff recorded detailing Joseph Smith and his own spiritual experiences from the 1830s to the 1880s.

We continue to add additional biographies to share the lives of people with whom Wilford Woodruff interacted and their impact on Church history.

Our Giving Community

You are a vital part of this work!

If you weren't able to make a donation yet, it is not too late to make a difference. We still need your help to move the work forward.

Give the Gift that Gives All Year and contribute a recurring monthly donation of $20.22 or $2022 each month.

Join the Giving Community
Contact us

ABOUT

GET INVOLVED

MEDIA

DONATE

Facebook          Instagram          YouTube