Serendipitous or Spiritual Experiences?

I'm an old architect...employed by Design West. Back in 2000, Design West had a client…Jerroll Winget, who was a friend of Merrill Osmond. Merrill was based in Branson, Missouri. He had been asked by then LDS Church President Kimball, to go to Branson to “make friends for the Church”. He did. He had been performing in Branson with his brothers for ten years.

I was in our Salt Lake City office one day for a conference call with Merrill Osmond. Jerroll was present. The bottom line was that there were some business opportunities in Branson…Merrill asked Jerroll to come to Branson, with an architect. To sweeten the invitation, Merrill said that whoever chose to come would be invited to the Osmond Brothers' dinner show as guests of the Osmonds…and also invited to a couple of special events. One event was the baptism of Merrill’s business manager, Kevin Reno…the other was the very first reunion of the Joseph Smith Jr. family, which Merrill was helping to organize. My associate Richard Heindel and I decided to go… and we took our wives.

Some time prior to this event, Merrill had met Kim Smith Davis. It was the habit of the Osmond Brothers to greet fans in the foyer after each show. Kim approached Merrill in this setting. She informed Merrill that she was the great, great grand daughter of Joseph Smith Jr…and she had some questions about the mainstream LDS church…she did not want to join his church, but she wanted to understand some of the history…why some Saints went west to Utah, while others stayed in Nauvoo. Merrill obliged…Kim later joined the LDS Church.

Shortly thereafter, Kim felt compelled to organize a reunion of the descendants of Joseph Smith Jr. and Emma Hale Smith. It was a sensitive assignment. Most descendants of Joseph had grown up being advised never to mention their heritage…there was embarrassment…there were shattered relationships within the family…and animosity toward mainstream Mormonism. Merrill agreed to help Kim organize a reunion.

Merrill had received his own compelling spiritual prompting. He had a dream in which Joseph Smith appeared to him….told him that his descendants were hurting…he asked Merrill to help “heal my family”. So Kim and Merrill collaborated on a reunion. The reunion was held in the Hughes Family Theater…it was poorly attended, but we thought it was wonderful.

Kim Smith Davis was the MC…the invocation was given by Joseph Fielding Smith (Kim’s father)…Merrill told his story…Gracia Jones, the first member of Joseph’s family to join mainstream Mormonism, spoke of her experiences…and her discovery that there were over 400 descendants of Joseph living in Australia. Merrill and Gracia made pleas to the family to come together in unity and love…and pledged their love and support to that end.

There followed some role playing: Jason Hughes, a descendant of Newel Knight, read from family records about the Knight family and their love for Joseph Smith. Nancy Eppert, dressed as Emma Hale Smith, presented a moving monologue about Emma’s life. The Hughes Brothers re-enacted the scene in Carthage Gaol, while Ryan Hughes sang “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief”…I don’t think that I have ever heard it sung better…or with more feeling. There was poetry and singing…and Kim closed the meeting. It was a very special experience. We were honored to be there.

Gracia’s words hit a chord with us. She said something like “Everyone here today was handpicked by the spirit of this family to be here.” We discussed this later, remarking that even though we were not part of the family, we somehow felt included in Gracia's prophetic pronouncement. What were we even doing there? There was a certain serendipity in our being present to witness this first reunion of the Joseph Smith Jr. family.

Kathie and I had the opportunity to meet Kim’s parents, Joseph Fielding and Sue Smith. We learned a lot about Kim. She was, on that very day, literally escaping from her husband, with her two children. It was a very tense, difficult time for the family. The Smiths were long-time members of the Temple Lot Group, the splinter Mormon group which owns/maintains the dedicated temple site in Independence, Missouri. The group had about 2,500 members. The Smiths were lovely people...and so proud of Kim. They were amazed by the transformation in their daughter since joining the LDS Church. “If you had known her before she joined the Church, you would not believe the change in her. That she could stand up there and conduct an event like this, is a miracle in itself.” Sue Smith confided to Kathie that she had had a dream herself, in which she was informed that there were big changes coming into her life. We have wondered about that over the years. We even stopped at the Temple Lot one year, during a visit to Independence, and asked the attendant if he could direct us to Joseph and Sue Smith. He acted as if he had never heard of them.

I had a video camera and actually videoed the Smith Family reunion. Without a tripod it was not easy…and without any real talent at filming it was not very professional. So I did nothing with the video for some time. We showed it to our study group, but that was it. Some time later I asked Scott Harris, who was a high school instructor in video production, if he could edit my video…take out some of the jiggles…insert some titles, etc. He agreed…but he did not do anything. It became almost a joke. Every time I ran into Scott, I would ask if he was ever going to finish editing my video. Years went by.

Scott’s wife Laura is a photographer...she photographs and videos weddings. Kathie met her at a wedding, liked her work and engaged her to photograph our family at our annual reunion in August. Since one can rely on women to get things done, Kathie asked Laura to apply pressure on Scott regarding the Joseph Smith DVDs. Within the month the job was completed. By the first week in September, 2008, we had 25 DVDs to distribute.

Then the problem was how to distribute the DVDs…to whom?…where?. I immediately thought of Gracia Jones who lives in St. George or Hurricane. But I needed her email address…or phone number.

Then I flew off to Sydney with Shane, Andy and Cody who were assigned to lay carpet in the Sydney LDS Temple. It was a pure whim on my part. Because Andy is a commercial pilot I can fly anywhere inexpensively. For those who don't know, I was born in Perth, Australia...joined the LDS Church in 1961. Sydney is where I served a mission in 1964/65...where Kathie and I met...where we have a lot of friends.

We were assigned to the Temple Patron Housing. We were told that there were other people staying there who were making a documentary about Joseph Smith’s descendants in Australia. We met a couple of women that first day. I asked if they were “with the movie group”…they were…so I asked if the movie was based upon Gracia Jones’ research?...yes…did they know her email address?…yes they did. Wow! That was easy. So I emailed Gracia…she emailed back, saying that she would be happy to help. I noticed that she had copied Michael Kennedy. I did not know who he was.

A couple of days later we were invited to a special showing of the movie "Emma". The gentleman who introduced the movie to the mainly LDS crowd was Michael Kennedy. Wow! Another surprise. He turned out to be the president of the Joseph Smith Jr. and Emma Hale Smith Historical Society. After the movie I asked him for his card, telling him that I would like to send him a DVD, which he might appreciate.

The very next morning I met the woman who had given me Gracia Jones’ email address. She turned out to be the wife of Michael Kennedy. This was getting weird...I could not believe it...we were all living in the same building. I thanked Sister Kennedy for giving me Gracia’s email address and explained that I had received a response from Gracia…and that Gracia had agreed to help me distribute the DVDs of the first Joseph Smith Jr. reunion. I told her that I especially wanted to get DVDs to Kim Smith Davis and her parents. She smiled and said “Come with me”. She led me to the kitchen where a group was gathered for breakfast. She said…”Kim, this gentleman would like to speak with you.” It was Kim Smith. My head was spinning. What was happening?

Kim and I talked. She divorced her husband shortly after the reunion in 2000 and dropped the name Davis. She introduced me to her two children, now teenagers. She is now living in Nauvoo, Illinois. I asked about her parents. Her mother Sue joined the LDS Church...her dream came true... but her father Joseph has not…not yet. Kim was actually embarrassed by the poor turnout at the 2000 reunion…I'm not sure that she was happy to discover that someone had recorded the event. But I suggested that her 2000 reunion was a wonderful “gentle beginning”, from which great things have evolved.

I still cannot believe it. I had goose bumps on goose bumps. I flew to Australia for five days, on a whim, and found the very family which I needed to locate in order to distribute the Joseph Smith Jr. reunion DVDs.

How does one explain this? It certainly cannot be explained in any rational, pragmatic sense. It was definitely serendipitous…more likely spiritual. Time will tell. Kathie even asked “Are you sure that you do not have any Smiths in your Australian family lines?” Since I am a family history nut, I had better check.

After writing this entry, I woke in the middle of the night with the strong impression that I should not equivocate. Rather, I should testify boldly that this entire series of events is clear evidence of the hand of the Lord in our affairs here on earth.