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SALT LAKE CITY — Elder David A. Bednar says the reach of the now-completed "The Joseph Smith Papers" project is "stunning."
Remarkable blessings have come from the project and there are more blessings to come, said Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "All I would simply say is that you ain't seen nothing yet."
"The Joseph Smith Papers" project, which began in 2001, is a complete collection of all of the church founder's surviving papers, including letters, documents he signed, journal entries and revelations.
Elder Bednar said the 179th anniversary of Joseph Smith's death made Tuesday an appropriate day to announce the release of the final volume of the overall project. Volume 15 of the documents series covers documents from May 16, 1844, to June 28, 1844 — the day after Joseph Smith's death. Elder Bednar said people who opposed the prophet thought his death would be the end of the church, but "in fact, it was just the beginning."
He said "The Joseph Smith Papers" similarly are just the beginning, and the value of the compilation of all of the documents "has not even been, even in the smallest measure, fully realized."
Elder Bednar said reaching into the past for the information needed for "The Joseph Smith Papers" will bring remarkable things in the future.
"The lessons learned and all the work that has been done to prepare these documents will only make us more effective in telling the story of the ongoing restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in all the world as we move into the future," Elder Bednar said.
Brent Rogers, a historian working on the project, said seeing everything published and hearing apostles speak about the benefits of the work that he has contributed to is amazing and rewarding.
"I just feel very glad; it's quite an accomplishment to look at this row of books and to know all of the hard work and the dedication of all the team members that went into this," Rogers said.
While working on the project, he said the most significant things he learned about Joseph Smith were that he was human and needed to learn and grow just like everyone else, and that he was generous.
"This project represents a significant investment by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, unprecedented by almost any standard," Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said Tuesday.
He said there were two purposes of the project — to be complete and accurate "with full confidence in the integrity of our founding prophet" and to understand the early history of the church and God's hand in that history.
The 27 volumes contain 1,306 journal entries, 643 letters, 155 revelations, 18,822 pages and 49,687 footnotes — including some "toe notes" or footnotes to footnotes, Elder Gong said.
He said the careful work from scholars made this compilation "a leader in the world of document editing, both for its in-depth scholarship and for its website as a matter of accessibility."
Elder Gong thanked historians, editors and researchers along with the Community of Christ for making many documents used in the project available and the Larry H. and Gail Miller family for generous financial support for the project.
"Their deep spiritual commitment has been crucial to this effort," he said about the Miller family.
Elder Kyle S. McKay, a general authority seventy who serves as church historian and recorder, said the family made a decision to keep giving to the project at a time when there were financial struggles and there was only one volume out. He said Gail Miller continued to give generously, and says the family has been blessed because of that decision.
He said the significance of the Miller family's generosity toward the project "can't be overstated."
Brett Dowdle, a historian who worked specifically on the volume released on Thursday, said church historians are very proud of the work.
It contains one document written the day after Joseph Smith's death, a letter written by someone who did not yet know he had passed, legal documents explaining why he was in jail in Carthage, civic and military documents, and the official announcement of Joseph Smith's martyrdom.
Elizabeth Kuehn researched and wrote about letters from Joseph Smith to his wife, Emma Smith, during his final days. She talked about three of those letters on Thursday, and said they show how he was "genuinely worried."
"Do not despair, if God ever opens a door that is possible for me I will see you again," he wrote to his wife. He ended that letter with "'My heart bleeds. No more at present,'" Kuehn said.
The final letter Joseph Smith sent was written the morning of his death, and contained mostly information he wanted Emma Smith to pass to the acting major general of the Nauvoo legion, but it ended with a note to his wife that was found on one version of the letter printed in "The Joseph Smith Papers." Joseph Smith wrote to Emma Smith in a postscript: "I am very much resigned to my lot knowing I am justified and have done the best that could be done give my love to the children ... and all who inquire after me."
Kuehn said they do not have any of Emma Smith's responses to these final letters, but from Joseph Smith's letters, she said, readers can tell the two relied on each other and cared about each other.
The final document in the book, Dowdle said, is Doctrine and Covenants Section 135, which announced the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
Dowdle said the announcement draws from multiple writings about the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum published in July and August 1844, and it is moving that the thoughts and feelings of many members of the church, including multiple women, were represented in the section of the Doctrine and Covenants.
