Church Service
Smith served in many leadership positions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His cousin George A. Smith, serving as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, sent a letter informing him he was to serve as a missionary in Europe. When he arrived in Salt Lake City for departure he was told he would serve in the Scandinavia Mission. In the spring of 1862, at the age of 27, he was asked by Brigham Young to serve as Mission president of that mission. He went home for a brief period, but returned again in 1868 to serve as the mission's president for a second time. He assisted almost 3,000 members of the church in emigrating to America. Smith learned to read and speak Danish on his missions.
Smith served as the first Stake President of the Eastern Arizona Stake from 1879–1887 and as the first president of the Snowflake Stake from 1887 until his death. In 1882, he predicted that a temple would be built in Pima, Arizona. The Gila Valley Arizona Temple is between Pima and Thatcher.
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Famous quotes containing the words church and/or service:
“The church is precisely that against which Jesus preached—and against which he taught his disciples to fight.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“A man’s real faith is never contained in his creed, nor is his creed an article of his faith. The last is never adopted. This it is that permits him to smile ever, and to live even as bravely as he does. And yet he clings anxiously to his creed, as to a straw, thinking that that does him good service because his sheet anchor does not drag.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)