Church members in Ohio were directed by a revelation in late December 1832 and another in early January 1833 to hold a solemn assembly and organize a school. In the “school of the prophets,” the church’s first elders were to be educated in a conventional sense while simultaneously preparing for a spiritual endowment of power.

These conference minutes were recorded during the solemn assembly that initiated the school of the prophets. Participants met in an upstairs room in the Whitney store in Kirtland, Ohio. The minutes described two days of meetings that included speaking in tongues and other spiritual manifestations.

Frederick G. Williams, who had been serving as JS’s scribe since 20 July 1832, took minutes of the meeting and entered a copy into Minute Book 1.