Friday Forum: are you ready to gather to Missouri?

We shall go back to Jackson County…when we go back, there will be a very large organization consisting of thousands, and tens of thousands, and they will march forward — Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 15:364

So, imagine you arrive at your ward one Sunday, and there is an announcement that your stake president will speak to all the adults.  He tells you that the time to return to Missouri has taken place.

To continue this hypothetical event, your stake president says he has been in contact with the First Presidency, and they are asking members of some stakes, in an orderly fashion, to move to Jackson County and the nearby areas.  Not all stakes will be moving at the same time.  The stake president asks you to sell your house or apartment and be prepared to move within the next six months.  Land and houses have been purchased in Missouri and will be given or sold to members upon their arrival.

So, to continue the hypothetical, you go home and you pray about your stake president’s talk.  You receive no immediate answer.  You call a relative in another part of the country and find out that no announcement has taken place there.  But another relative calls to say that in their part of the country the stake president issued a similar calling.  Over the next week, you find out that members in different countries have also been told to prepare to gather to Missouri.

So, dear reader, what do you do?

Here are some things to ponder while you think about it.

D&C 82 2-4:

2 Yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, established in the last days for the ^arestoration of his people, as he has spoken by the mouth of his ^bprophets, and for the ^cgathering of his ^dsaints to stand upon ^eMount Zion, which shall be the city of ^fNew Jerusalem.

3 Which city shall be ^abuilt, beginning at the ^btemple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and ^cdedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord was well pleased.

4 Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city ^aNew Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which ^btemple shall be ^creared in this ^dgeneration.

When God leads the people back to Jackson County, how will he do it?…They will find the journey back to Jackson County will be as real as when they came out here. (JD 24:156-157)