See Romans 9:28.

See Matthew 12:20.

This “Pattern” provided further guidance in dealing with the persistent problem of what JS deemed unacceptable spiritual phenomena since his arrival in Ohio four months earlier. (See Historical Introduction to Revelation, 9 May 1831 [D&C 50]; see also Letter to Hyrum Smith, 3–4 Mar. 1831.)

Ezra Booth later noted that he preached in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri before reaching Independence, Missouri. (Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—No. V,” Ohio Star [Ravenna], 10 Nov. 1831, [3].)

Ohio Star. Ravenna. 1830–1854.

Lydia Clisbee Partridge left an account of the circumstances under which her husband, Edward, received this revelatory injunction. Their children had all contracted the measles from some of the recently arrived New York members who were staying with their family. She wrote that their “eldest daughter was taken down with lung fever, and while she was at the worst, my husband was called by revelation to go with a number of others to Missouri to locate a place for the gathering of the Saints, the unbelievers thought he must be crazy or he would not go. And I thought myself that I had reason to think my trials had commenced, and so [they] had, but this trial like all others was followed with blessings for our daughter recovered.” (Partridge, Genealogical Record, 6.)

Partridge, Edward, Jr. Genealogical Record. 1878. CHL. MS 1271.

On their way to Missouri, Whitmer and Whitlock passed through Paris, Illinois, where William E. McLellin heard them preach. He recorded in his diary that they “expounded the Gospel the plainest I thot that I ever heard.” Whitmer “bore testimony to having seen an Holy Angel who had made known the truth of this record to him.” As a result, McLellin decided to accompany the Mormon elders to Missouri and listen to them preach along the way. Though the men eventually separated in their travels, McLellin went on to Independence, Missouri, where on 20 August he was baptized by JS’s brother Hyrum Smith. (McLellin, Journal, 1, 6–7.)

McLellin, William E. Journal, 18 July–20 Nov. 1831. William E. McLellin, Papers, 1831–1836, 1877–1878. CHL. MS 13538, box 1, fd. 1. Also available as Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831–1836 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies; Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).

Hancock later related how he felt after being named in this revelation: “At knight A Revelation came from Joseph to many Elders to go to Missouri and preach by the way Among the rest was my name with Zebed[ee] Coltrin this was a tryal indeed I had not thought of being called upon to go so far I had a little money to be sure left but I spent nearly all for other Elders that I had traveled with I began to think that all I traveled with depended of me for money and I must not look back I had just hired a room and moved my tooles there I had left it nearly filled with furnature and I knew that some people must be disapointed all of these things together with a promis to a young Lady wrought on my mind all manner of impressions but when I would think of the old jack and the man of sin who had bin revealed before us all I found myself harnessed and I said let all other things go I will do as I am told in the Revelation.” (Hancock, Autobiography, 94–95.)

Hancock, Levi. Autobiography, ca. 1854. Photocopy. CHL. MS 8174.