"Joseph stood on the
shore when his father came out of the water and as he took
him by the hand," remembered Lucy Mack Smith, "he cried out
Oh! my God I have lived to see my father baptized into the
true Church of Jesus Christ! and covered his face in his
father's bosom and wept aloud for joy as did Joseph of old
when he beheld his father coming up into the land of Egypt."
Lucy Mack Smith, "The History of Lucy Smith," ca. 1845, Church Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah; punctuation modernized.
Spencer W. Kimball, 12th President of the Church, 1973–1985
On the 150th anniversary
of the organization of the Church, President Kimball spoke
in a broadcast from the restored Whitmer home in Fayette:
"The mission of the Church today, as it has been from the
beginning, is to teach the gospel of Christ to all the world
in obedience to the commandment . . . 'Go ye into all the
world, preach the gospel to every creature, acting in the
authority which I have given you, baptizing in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost' (D&C 68:8)."
"Proclamation," Ensign, May 1980, 52.
