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Presidents of the Church Teacher Manual Religion 345 Presidents of the Church T EACHER M ANUAL Religion 345 Presidents of the Church Teacher Manual Religion 345 Prepared by the Church Educational System Published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Salt Lake City, Utah Cover photo: © IRI Send comments and corrections, including typographic errors, to CES Curriculum, 50 E. North Temple Street, Floor 8, Salt Lake City, UT 84150-2722 E-mail: [email protected] © 2005 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America English approval: 3/00 iii Contents Introduction . iv Chapter 1 Joseph Smith—First President of the Church . 1 Chapter 2 Brigham Young—Second President of the Church . 21 Chapter 3 John Taylor—Third President of the Church . 37 Chapter 4 Wilford Woodruff—Fourth President of the Church . 51 Chapter 5 Lorenzo Snow—Fifth President of the Church . 69 Chapter 6 Joseph F. Smith—Sixth President of the Church . 84 Chapter 7 Heber J. Grant—Seventh President of the Church . 97 Chapter 8 George Albert Smith—Eighth President of the Church . 110 Chapter 9 David O. McKay—Ninth President of the Church . 123 Chapter 10 Joseph Fielding Smith—Tenth President of the Church . 135 Chapter 11 Harold B. Lee—Eleventh President of the Church . 146 Chapter 12 Spencer W. Kimball—Twelfth President of the Church . 161 Chapter 13 Ezra Taft Benson—Thirteenth President of the Church . 177 Chapter 14 Howard W. Hunter—Fourteenth President of the Church . 190 Chapter 15 Gordon B. Hinckley—Fifteenth President of the Church . 201 iv Introduction OVERVIEW The Presidents of the Church Teacher Manual consists of 15 chapters. Each chapter covers one Church President and is divided into two parts: “Part 1: The Early Years” and “Part 2: The Later Years.” The time period covered in the life of the prophet being studied in each part varies from prophet to prophet. An attempt was made to balance the material in each part to cover one class period. ORGANIZATION OF CHAPTERS IN THIS MANUAL Historical Background. Each part of a chapter—“Part 1: The Early Years” and “Part 2: The Later Years”—begins with an introduction focusing on the prophet being studied and related events or facts about the Church at that time. Events, Highlights, and Teachings. The “Events, Highlights, and Teachings” section contains suggested teaching ideas related to the subtitles under which they occur. Each teaching suggestion is designated by an icon ( ). In addition to suggestions for student participation, additional stories or information of interest about the prophet are provided in this section of the teacher manual. Teachers should help students study the lives of the prophets and identify principles that guided their lives. Students are encouraged to adopt and apply those same principles in their own lives as they seek to become more like the Savior. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Presidents of the Church Time Line. A time line showing the lives of the Church Presidents from Joseph Smith through Gordon B. Hinckley is printed in the back of the student manual. The time line also shows some of the major Church, United States, and world events. It may be helpful to refer to this chart as each new chapter is introduced. Presidents of the Church DVD. Presidents of the Church, Supporting DVD Media (religion 345, 2003; item 54047) is available separately from Church Distribution. This is a three-disc set of DVDs containing a documentary, a testimony, and a photo gallery for each Church President from Joseph Smith through Gordon B. Hinckley. Presidents of the Church Teacher Manual 1 CHAPTER 1 Joseph Smith FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH by Alvin Gittins; © 1959 IRI Joseph Smith Presidents of the Church Teacher Manual 2 Chapter 1 Joseph Smith PART 1: THE EARLY YEARS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Joseph Smith was born December 23, 1805, in Sharon township, Windsor County, Vermont. At that time, much of the eastern United States was unsettled wilderness. Hardworking families could clear the land and make a living. After residing in several communities in Vermont and New Hampshire, the Smith family moved to Palmyra, New York, in 1816. Later, in 1818, they purchased a farm in the nearby Farmington township (later called the Manchester township), and cleared about 100 acres. The Hill Cumorah, where the plates lay buried, was three miles from the Smith farm. EVENTS, HIGHLIGHTS, AND TEACHINGS The Presidents of the Church are prophets of God. Play five or six testimonies of the more recent Presidents of the Church found on the Presidents of the Church, Supporting DVD Media (religion 345, 2003; item no. 54047). Do not tell students who is speaking. (Note: The testimonies of Wilford Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith through Gordon B. Hinckley are their actual voices. The testimonies of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Lorenzo Snow use voice-over talent.) Ask students if they recognize any of the voices of these prophets. You may want to have them listen to all of the excerpts and write down their answers, and then give them the correct answers. After listening to all of the excerpts, have students read Doctrine and Covenants 1:4–5, 14, 38. Ask the following questions: • What do each of these verses teach about prophets? • What are the roles of prophets in the Church? • Why is it a worthy endeavor to study the lives of the Presidents of the Church? Joseph Smith was born into a strong, religious family. At least one day before class, select two students and give each one a copy of pages 15–19 of Church History in the Fulness of Times (religion 341–43, 2nd ed., 2000). Ask one student to summarize for the class the religious background of Joseph Smith’s paternal grandparents and the other student to summarize the religious background of his maternal grandparents. Presidents of the Church Teacher Manual Joseph Smith Chapter 1 3 On the board, draw Joseph Smith’s ancestry chart as shown below: Asael Smith Joseph Smith Sr. Mary Duty Joseph Smith Jr. Solomon Mack Lucy Mack Lydia Gates Discuss with the class briefly the religious background of Joseph Smith’s parents and grandparents: Refer students to the third paragraph in the left column on page 3 of the student manual, which tells about the religious beliefs of Joseph Smith Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith. Have the previously assigned students report on the religious background of Joseph Smith’s grandparents. Help students understand that Joseph Smith’s ancestors provided him with a religious heritage that helped prepare him for the Restoration of the gospel. Share the following statement of Asael Smith before his grandson Joseph Smith was born: “It has been borne in upon my soul that one of my descendants will promulgate a work to revolutionize the world of religious faith” (quoted in George Q. Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet [1986], 26). The Prophet Joseph Smith wrote: “My grandfather, Asael Smith, long ago predicted that there would be a prophet raised up in his family, and my grandmother was fully satisfied that it was fulfilled in me. My grandfather Asael died in East Stockholm, St. Lawrence county, New York, after having received the Book of Mormon, and read it nearly through; and he declared that I was the very Prophet that he had long known would come in his family” (in History of the Church, 2:443). Presidents of the Church Teacher Manual 4 Chapter 1 Joseph Smith Share your testimony of the Lord’s preparation for the Restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith long before his birth. Joseph Smith was born into a family where he could develop character traits and learn truths that would prepare him to do the Lord’s work. Ask: What can parents do to encourage their children to live righteously? Share the following testimony of President Brigham Young: “The Lord had his eye upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father’s father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man. He was foreordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation” (in Journal of Discourses, 7:289–90). Joseph’s experiences and character traits prepared him to serve the Lord. Ask students: What are some of the character traits the Prophet Joseph Smith displayed? Explain that young Joseph Smith had experiences in his youth that influenced him in later years. Using examples from the student manual (see pp. 3–4) and from the following three examples, share experiences from Joseph Smith’s life. Invite students to suggest how each experience may have prepared Joseph Smith for the work the Lord foreordained him to do. 1. Joseph Smith showed persistence during hardship. In 1816, Joseph Smith Sr. went to Palmyra, New York, with a Mr. Howard, to prepare for the family’s subsequent move there. In the meantime, the family packed their belongings and prepared to leave as soon as they received a letter from Joseph’s father requesting that they join him. The family was to travel with another Mr. Howard, who was a cousin of the man who had gone to Palmyra with Joseph’s father. Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph’s mother, soon discovered that “the man who drove the team in which we rode was an unprincipled, unfeeling wretch by the manner in which he handled my goods and money, as well as his treatment of my children, especially Joseph.” Joseph was only 10 years old at the time and not yet fully recovered from his leg operation (see pp.
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