I’m going to show you a photograph, and I want you to tell me where you think this is
located. So here we go, now where do you think this picture was taken? In Hawaii,
in Samoa, in Tonga, in Tahiti, in Kiribati? Well let me give you a little clue that might
help. That white area you see on the back of the statue is frost. So where could you find a statue
that looks like this that also has frost on the backside of it? Well, this photograph was taken
in a ghost town in Utah called Iosepa. Iosepa is a ghost town located in the Skull Valley about
75 miles to the west of Salt Lake City and the reason there’s a statue of a Hawaiian figure there
is because Iosepa was a community consisting almost entirely of Hawaiian Latter-day Saints.
These Saints moved here to Utah, and because of persecution, had to build their own community.
Sometimes they were even persecuted by members of their own Church.
So, the First Presidency assisted them in setting up a community in the Skull Valley,
where they could raise crops but where they could also be close to the Headquarters of the Church.
It’s an interesting experience to wander through the cemetery that remains at Iosepa because you’ll
see Hawaiian names born in Hawaiian locations that then died in Utah, and why did these people
sacrifice and give up a tropical paradise to live in a frozen desert? It was because of the Doctrine
of the Gathering. They wanted to be near where the headquarters of the Church was so that they could
be near a temple, so that they could participate in and receive the blessings of the Temple.
In the early 20th century President Joseph F. Smith, the Joseph that Iosepa (which is
Hawaiian for Joseph) was named after, announced that he was going to build the temple in Laie,
Hawaii. Within a short number of years Iosepa was completely abandoned because,
we can all agree, that Hawaii is an objectively nicer place to live than a frozen valley in Utah.
So, most of the Saints emigrated back there and now participate, and their descendants
continue to participate, in the ordinance of the temple in Laie, Hawaii, and not Iosepa Utah.
Now why did these Saints give up and sacrifice so much? Partially because of something that happened
in the 1830’s. In section 37 of the Doctrine & Covenants, Joseph Smith was given a very
simple, straightforward command. The Lord said to him, “a commandment I give unto the Church,
that it is expedient in me that they should assemble together at the Ohio.” If you remember,
from one of our previous stories of the Doctrine & Covenants, that the missionaries led by Oliver
Cowdery stopped in Kirtland Ohio on their way to the frontier. While they were there,
they converted a whole congregation of Saints and now there were more church members in Kirtland
than there were in the cradle of the Restoration in New York. So, the Saints
in New York were commanded to gather together to sell their goods, to give up their farms,
to sometimes sacrifice their entire livelihood in order to meet together in one central location.
Now section 37 is just the commandment to gather. You have to go to section 38 to actually find out
why they were commanded to gather. In there the Lord gives two distinct reasons for the gathering.
He said, “Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto you the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio;
and there I will give unto you my law; and there you shall be endowed with power from on high.” So,
there were two reasons why they were asked to go to Ohio. Number one was to receive the law,
that’s going to come in section 42, and number two was to be endowed with power from on high.
Now “endowment” is a word that just means gift, and the endowment as the early Saints understood
it was a complicated thing. Today the endowment is almost always synonymous with the ordinances
we receive in the temple, but in the early Church the endowment came in a number of forms. Whether
it was the doctrine that the Savior revealed to them in Ohio, or the authority and Priesthood
that he gave to them, or the ordinances that were revealed later on. Joseph Smith,
later on in his life, explained the reason for the gathering, and how it tied back to the word
endowment and the way we use it now. He said, “What was the object of gathering the people of
God in any age of the world?... The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He
could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom,
and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that,
when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose. It is
for the same purpose that God gathers together His people in the last days, to build unto the
Lord a house to prepare them for the ordinances and endowments, washings and anointings, etc.”
So, part of the reason why they were gathering was to build a house. They had to gather the
strength of the Church and its resources so that they could construct a house of God. Now
we might ask ourselves in the 21st century today, is the gathering still happening and the answer,
unequivocable is yes. The Latter-day Saints still gather in a number of different ways. For
instance, a later revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1838, section 115 of the Doctrine & Covenants,
clarified that the Lord was asking the Saints to gather to the stakes whether it was a
stake in Kirtland or a stake in Missouri or, later on, stakes in Nauvoo, Winter Quarters,
or Salt Lake City, the stakes were intended to be a place of protection. The Lord said,
“Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations; And that the gathering
together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge
from the storm and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole Earth.
Starting in the early 20th century, the leaders of the Church asked the Saints to not gather to
Church headquarters any longer, but to stay in the countries where they initially accepted the Gospel
and build up the Church there; and today the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
is found in dozens of different nations; and communities of Saints exist around
hundreds of different temples. These temples, these houses, that have been built are now the
places where the Latter-day gathering happens. President Spencer W. Kimball explained this
change. He said, “In the early days of the Church we used to preach for the people to come to Utah
as the gathering process largely because that was the only place in the whole world where there
was a temple. Now… it is no longer necessary that we bring the people all to Salt Lake,”
and the gathering is still taking place. Korea is the gathering place for the Koreans,
Australia for the Australians, Brazil for the Brazilians, and England for the English.
So, is the gathering still happening? Absolutely! Is the gathering physical or spiritual? Yes,
we gather spiritually when we accept Jesus Christ in our hearts, and we follow his commandments.
We gather physically when we go to the temple and when we go to the chapels to receive the
ordinances and make the covenants that Jesus Christ has asked us to make to maintain a special
relationship with Him. When we can’t gather physically, we still need to gather spiritually.
When we gather, we receive blessings and the Lord helps us along our way so that we can
travel and continue to gather until we gather in that last place, the Celestial Kingdom.