Articles

Big Questions Come, Follow Me Insights Volunteer Spotlights

May 25, 2022

Phebe Woodruff and Ruth: Dedication to Family and Faith

by Kristy Wheelwright Taylor

Covenants have everything to do with family, both creating our families here on earth and receiving assurance of their continuity in eternity. But the process of making and keeping those covenants can be accompanied with loneliness and loss, as both Phebe Woodruff and Ruth can attest.

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May 9, 2022

Insights in the Papers: Amy Hepworth

by Connor Olvera

“The doctors said I could not live,” Wilford Woodruff recorded. Just after the completion of the Salt Lake Temple, President Woodruff stood at death’s doorstep. Medical professionals gave a bleak diagnosis. However, he was preserved by the hand of God. In his June 24, 1894 discourse, he testified, “My life was spared because this people were putting up petitions in my behalf continually before God. I feel to bless you my brethren and sisters. May He help us ...

May 9, 2022

Volunteers Making a Difference

by Jennifer Ann Mackley

The success of the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project is due in large part to our dedicated volunteers who have shared their precious time and incredible skills. This month we would like to recognize four in particular: Matt Kotter, Jane Johnson, Howard Collett, and Gary Crittenden. Mandy and Matt Kotter In January 2020, when Matt Kotter was introduced to the vision of the yet-to-be-organized Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation, his first question was, "How can I help?" He continued to step up a ...

Apr 24, 2022

Wilford Woodruff’s Vital Question: How Does Eternity Feel Today?

by Jennifer Ann Mackley

Wilford Woodruff once asked, “What is there that can tempt any man to depart from the Gospel of Christ?” This question followed his stated belief in the resurrection, the promise of life with our loved ones, our Savior, and our Heavenly Parents. He said, “We have everything to encourage us. When you think of eternal life; when you think of the heavenly hosts; when you think of those that have gone before us, awaiting the final resurrection . . . [to] enter into His glory, what is there than can tempt any man to depart from the Gospel of Christ?”

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Apr 11, 2022

Insights from a Stellar Volunteer: Sarah Paul

by Connor Olvera

The words of prophets, modern and ancient, bring us closer to Jesus Christ. Studying their accounts gives us a front row seat to the challenges they faced and how their faith in Jesus Christ aided them. Sarah Paul, a volunteer at the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation, studies the powerful experiences and words of the prophet Wilford Woodruff every day as she researches members of Wilford Woodruff’s extended family. Sarah Paul Sarah graduated from BYU with a degree in history. She con ...

Mar 21, 2022

The Lord was with Wilford and Joseph

by Richard Woodruff Lambert

Children love stories, and as a child my mother Ruth would read to me from a children’s book of Bible stories. One of my favorites was the story of Joseph with his coat of many colors. As I learned about his life it was clear, as the scriptures recorded, that “the Lord was with Joseph“ always.

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Mar 2, 2022

“O Warren”: When Wilford Woodruff Lost His Best Friend to Apostasy

by Jordan Woodruff Clements

Wilford Woodruff’s experiences, when contrasted with the experiences of his older brother Azmon, and his missionary companion Warren Parrish, provide an interesting case study for those seeking to understand what actions and attitudes will sustain the faith of a young adult or any new convert.

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Feb 8, 2022

Wilford Woodruff and the Book of Abraham

by Kerry Muhlestein

As we begin our study of the Old Testament, including the great Patriarch Abraham, and read from the Book of Abraham, it is worth pausing to consider how blessed we are to have the writings of this fabled man of God. Our gratitude for his writings, and for the prophet Joseph Smith who translated them for us, can be increased as we look at the reaction of those who first received these writings. The example of Wilford Woodruff is particularly inspiring for me.

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Feb 1, 2022

The First Book of Wilford

by Jane Clayton Johnson

By Jane Clayton Johnson, Board Member During the final days of December 1833, twenty-six-year-old Wilford Woodruff began his first journal as a new convert. He titled his first entry, “The First Book of Wilford.” Wilford had a divine calling to keep a record. In the preamble of his first journal he writes, “It is at once beneficial and instructive to the reflecting mind to review the past with candor and rightly consider the present and be in perfect readiness for that which ...

Jan 31, 2022

Train Up A Child: Wilford Woodruff’s Biblical Foundation

by Jennifer Ann Mackley

Wilford Woodruff begins his autobiography, Leaves from My Journal, by explaining that he spent his childhood “under the influence of what history has called the ‘Blue Laws’ of Connecticut.” He said he suffered the most from the rules that forbade running and playing from sunset on Saturday through Sunday night. The length of this restriction was based on Old Testament scripture, “The evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:5), and Wilford felt his parents were very strict in enforcing it: “all day Sunday we had to sit very still and say over the Presbyterian catechism and some passages in the Bible.”

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