Paisley: Hey everybody. Happy Monday. We are right in the
middle of January. January 13 through the 19th. I saw a pillar
of light. So this week we are going to be talking about Joseph
Smith's first vision, specifically, all of the
versions. Actually, we'll get there in just a second. But
there is right here, just Smith history, chapter one, section
one, verses one through 26 and as we scroll, we can see
references to just a couple of verses. Then we get down here.
There's big chunks of verses, verse like five through 26 right
here. Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration. See
also saints. Volume One, pages three through 19, which we'll
get to here in just a second, talking about how I can receive
answers to my prayers, and using the first vision as kind of a
pattern, which is right here. President Eyring gave a talk
about that back in 2020 the First Vision, a pattern for
personal revelation. So that's on our list. There's gospel art.
Come follow me. Books can give you ideas. And then President
Nelson's talk, hear him is also in this week's study. We did
that back here when we started with the Doctrine and Covenants,
and we did just the restoration of the fullness of the gospel of
Jesus Christ back at the very, very end of December, beginning
of January. And so I actually included that in one of the
plans that I put together, but did not include that in the
second one, and I'll show you why here in just a minute. We
keep going. He saw God, the Father and His Son, Jesus
Christ. There's a video right here that is six and a half
minutes long. It's called Joseph Smith's first prayer. Sorry,
just kidding. It's called ask of God, Joseph Smith's first
vision. I knew that didn't sound right. Joseph Smith's first
prayer is hymn number 26 if you want to go, take a listen to
that this video. I actually watched this video with my
family tonight, as part of our family night, family home
evening. And my girls are young, and they got a little scared at
first, but they were okay, and we actually watched this one and
the two animated ones that I'll show you here in just a second.
So it's fine for kids, but the animated versions, they liked
better. Surprise, surprise, right? So keep scrolling. See
also topics and questions. First Vision accounts. So there is
more than one account of the first vision that may be, that
might be the first time that you've ever heard that. It was
probably 10 years ago or so, the first time I heard that, and I
remember just thinking, Wait, what? There's more than one
version? What do you mean there's more than one version,
and it kind of broke my brain for just a minute. I grew up in
the church. How did I not know that there was more than one
account or more than one version of the First Vision? But it
makes sense, if you think about it, how many times have you told
a particular story from your life multiple times and told it
just a little bit differently, like sometimes you remember
something that you didn't remember the last time you told
the story. Sometimes you leave something out because of the
person that you're talking to. It happens. Why would it not
happen with something with this? Why would it not I mean, he was
just a normal guy, right? Joseph Smith was a normal guy who had
the same human frailties that we do anyway. So topics and
questions, first, Vision accounts, I did add that to the
list. And then there's a talk here by Elder Stevenson,
nourishing and bearing your testimony, which I think would
be great for all of us to just kind of take a refresher and
remind ourselves that our testimony shouldn't be a travel
log. It should be focused on the Savior, moving on, people,
places and events. We'll come back to that ideas for teaching
children. Here's one of the animated videos that I mentioned
before. This one talks about Joseph Smith's family and tells
the story about his leg when he was a kid and how the the
doctors had to cut part of his bone out part of the bone out of
his leg. God, can answer my questions through the
Scriptures, which that was actually a really fun
conversation to have with my girls tonight. How Joseph went
to the scriptures to get his answer because he knew he could
find answers in the scriptures and the scriptures the answer
that he found in James. One five was that he needed to go say a
prayer. So his answer that he found in the Scriptures was to
pray was more than just finding an answer in one spot, there's a
primary song, search, ponder and pray. Heavenly Father hears and
answers my prayers. Here's the other video that I was talking
about this one is about the First Vision, specifically, some
artwork and an activity page. Alright, let's go back up to
this, people, places and events. There's a lot this week. A lot,
a lot. So click to see more. I just clicked there, and it
brings me to here. There is a chapter in saints, the story of
The Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day. Saints, Volume One,
chapter two. Hear him so that when I added to the second list,
Plan B. There's also this podcast, a Joseph Smith papers
podcast, the First Vision. There are six episodes about the First
Vision. One of them number five is about 45 minutes long. We'll
get into that here in just a second. The let's see people
places. I kind of skipped over those. And to be honest, I
skipped over topics this week as well on both lists, because Plan
B already has us at like, 45 minutes a day. But if you want
some extra credit, I don't know where the extra whatever. If you
want some extra credit, go look up these topics. There's the
Joseph Smith's first vision accounts. Again, that one I did
include in the checklist, but I did not include any of the rest
of these. And then these ones I did include, because these are
primary accounts of Joseph Smith's first vision of deity.
These ones I included, and these early contemporary accounts by
other people, Orson Pratt. Orson, hi, Levi Richards, an
interview that Joseph gave to David Nye and then Alexander.
We'll just call him Alexander. I don't know how to pronounce that
last name. I did include those in plan B. Okay, it's a lot.
It's a lot. So let's look at Plan A, really quick. Plan A is
pretty simple, pretty straightforward. All the stuff
at the top right, Plan A on Monday is Joseph Smith history
verses one through 26 and the video ask of God Joseph Smith's
first vision. And all said and done, that's about nine and a
half minutes, if you're if you just do verses one through 26
and that's an estimate, just based on like, I think I did one
minute, not one minute. I think I did. I don't remember 10
seconds per verse or something like that. So that's an
estimate, but it's about nine and a half minutes. And then on
Tuesday, that talk by President Eyring is 13 and a half minutes.
On Wednesday, that talk by President Nelson is all by
itself. It's 24 and a half. And then on Thursday, the topic the
First Vision accounts, I put 20 minutes in there because that
one it's it's kind of a long read, but also something that's
good to have in our brain, like that, there was more than one
account of the First Vision on Friday, nourishing and bearing
your testimony by Elder Stevenson, that one is just over
13 minutes. And then on Saturday, those two videos
together combined is almost seven minutes, not even a full
seven minutes. So you're looking at about 14 and a half minutes a
day. If you go with Plan A, Plan B is a lot more. It's about 44
minutes a day Monday. I put most of the First Vision accounts
into Monday. So we've got Joseph Smith history. That's the
officially like the officially recorded version in the in the
Joseph Smith history in the back of our standard works, our
scriptures.
So that one is on there. And then I wanted to look at all of
the different versions of the first vision on the same day. So
I did podcast episode number one, and then all of those
different versions, except for this one right here, the Orson
Hyde one, because that Orson hide one is kind of long I
estimated. So these other ones starting right here with circa
summer 1832 history. Three, starting right there and going
all the way down through the bottom of Monday. Those are not,
you can't listen to those. You have to read them. So those are
estimates, but they're all pretty short. Some of them are
only one paragraph. Some of them are two paragraphs. Except for
this one by Orson Hyde. This one was like, this one was really
long, and it's a modern English translation. The original
version was given in German, and so it's a modern English
translation. And I, just as I kind of tried to skim through
it, realized I want to take my time reading it, so I put it
down for 20 minutes by itself, and that's why it's got some
short stuff here. It's got the two it's got two of the three
videos, and then episode two of that podcast, and episode two of
that podcast is still about 20 minutes by itself. So these may
or may not take you like Monday, may or may not take you the full
45 minutes episode one of the podcast is 18 minutes by itself.
The rest of this, I have estimated it like one or two
minutes apiece, all right. Wednesday, the first vision of
pattern for person revelation with President Eyring. Wednesday
is about 42 minutes. We've got two conference talks and a
podcast episode. That podcast episode is 15 minutes. Thursday,
there's the topic, first vision accounts, and then there's a
video, and then episode four of that podcast, that one is just
under nine minutes long. So this one right here, depending on how
deep you go into, the First Vision accounts could take. I
have, I have my Thursday marked at about 32 minutes. This is the
shortest of the days right here, on Thursday, Friday. Episode
five is 44 minutes and seven seconds. So that one is there
all by itself. And then on Saturday, I put in Saints volume
one, chapter two, and episode six of that podcast, which is 20
it's about 29 minutes. It's just under 29 minutes. Notice that I
did not include hear him from President Nelson on this
particular plan, I left it off because that talk is 25 minutes
by itself, 24 and a half minutes by itself, and we just looked at
it two weeks ago. So I left it off of here. But again, if you
want some extra credit in heaven, go ahead and read hear
him or listen to hear him again by President Nelson. And then
feel free also to check out these other, these other topics,
awakenings and revivals that would that sounds super
interesting to me. Excuse me. So that's it. We've got Plan A,
which is about 1415, minutes a day, and plan B, which is about
three times that long, if you've got the time for that. And
remember, you can take and like, I'm not here to hold you
accountable to your plan a or plan B. Nobody's keeping track
of what you're studying and what you're not except for you do
what you can if you are ambitious and you want to try
Plan B. And you get through Joseph Smith history one through
26 and you're like, I cannot listen or read one more thing,
then don't just do what you can do. It's all going to be fine.
And just Just do your best. Be honest with yourself and do your
best. That's all that any of us can do, right? Okay? Also, I'm
just throwing it out there, but this section right here, on
people this week only, Joseph Smith Jr and Joseph Smith senior
are listed on here, which I find really interesting, given that a
couple of orsons, Orson Pratt and Orson Hyde gave second hand
accounts of the First Vision. So I think it's kind of interesting
that the two people to focus on this week are Joseph Smith Jr
and his dad. Joseph Smith senior, I have always loved how
his dad believed in him. It's reminiscent, at least to me, of
Nephi in the Book of Mormon, and how his dad, his dad believed in
his dad was the prophet, but Nephi, he. Yeah, his he was
always believed in his father, believed in his, in him, in him.
And when I think of Joseph Smith senior, I always think he never
and maybe I'm wrong. I have not read a documented instance of
senior being like, Why is it my kid, and why is it my 14 year
old kid? Instead, he had older brothers. Why is it my 14 year
old kid? I No, I don't I have no idea. I've never seen a
documented account of him thinking, why wasn't it me? Why
is it my teenager? He just believed in his kid and he
supported him. He and He did. He did everything that he could to
support Joseph and his calling. I love, I just love that. I love
that about his dad and about his mom. They were very supportive
parents, and when, in fact, when you watch one of these videos,
this one right here, a family of faith, when you watch that
video, it talks about how his mom actually said a prayer that
they would find the right church. And can you imagine, you
say a prayer, I that you you just want to find the right
church, and it comes to you through your kid. I It's anyway.
I just love it. This is going to be a really fun week and a
really, really full week. Thank you so much everybody for being
here. Good luck. Enjoy it. Do what you can to enjoy it. Don't
push yourself so that you're not enjoying what you're learning.
If you're just trying to get through it, because it's a
checklist and you just want to check it off, you might miss
something. Go through it at your own pace. Do what you can and
learn something new. It's more important that we learn
something than it is to get it all done. Thank you so much for
being here, you guys. I'll see you next time you.