I'm Here to Speak Good
- Laureen Simper
- Jan 28
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 4
I was privileged to speak to the youth of our stake and testify of the prophetic restorative mission of Joseph Smith. I have never had a talk given to me so quickly by the Holy Ghost - as if I had received a heavenly download. Except for looking up a few references, the talk in its entirety was given to me before any study or preparation had taken place.
The experience was so singular in its completeness that in the days leading up to presenting the talk, I started to worry about the few thoughts I had jotted down that first night. How could this brief outline refute the massive body of slander which was a mouse click away? How could I defend this man who had nearly become a personal friend - the way any do with whom you spend time - learning their voice by reading their own words? How could I convince the youth that everything this man said happened to him - really happened to him?
About three days before the talk, I had a panic-filled prayer. I had gone over the outline so many times, I nearly had it memorized. "Is this seriously all You want me to do to defend Joseph Smith?" I pleaded.
The answer came into my mind in a single phrase - instant and complete, the way the talk had come: "Your job isn't to defend him. Your job is to testify. My job is to send the Holy Ghost to bear witness that what you're saying is true."
The rest of this post comes from that brief outline, and stands as my witness of what I've learned about Joseph Smith the only way anyone can learn the truth of who and what he is - by the power of God as manifest by the Holy Ghost:
(Notes from Standards Night, Murray Utah Little Cottonwood Stake, September 24, 2017)
I'm here tonight to leave you with three admonitions, and one statement of fact:
Defend the absent
Check your sources
The statement of fact: Truth has no agenda
Catch a wave - shamelessly borrowed from the Beach Boys
Defend the Absent
Have you ever been in a position where someone has been criticized in your presence - gossiped about, or spoken about in a derogatory way? What did you do?
Has it ever been a friend who was talked about? A good friend?
I would challenge you to be a person who defends the absent. Even those who talk about others behind their backs will be safe with you if you make the decision to always be the person who defends the absent. But I would particularly challenge you to defend your friends, and tonight, I want to challenge you to use this next school year [or in our adult case - this next year of Come Follow Me] becoming friends with Joseph Smith.
Defending Joseph Smith doesn't mean you have to prove anything right or wrong - to anyone. It just means you would say about him what you would say about anyone you know well when they're not present: "You don't know him like I do." I challenge you to become a person who can say that about Joseph Smith. Angel Moroni told Joseph the first night of his visit that his name "should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people."
Joseph Smith is absent - for now. Decide to defend the absent. Become someone who can say: "You don't know him like I do."
Check Your Sources
When you get to know someone, what sources are you going to use? At school - if you wanted to get to know someone you didn't know - whom would you ask to learn something - his friends, or his enemies?
Beware of the voices - both inside and outside the church - that debase Joseph Smith by calling into question any aspect of his character. Ezra Taft Benson warned about attempts to bring a humanistic philosophy into our Church history by exposing weaknesses of Church leaders. (https://video.byui.edu/media/Jayson+Kunzler+%E2%80%9CMillions+Shall+Know+Brother+Joseph+Again%E2%80%9D/0_jun5hvww)
[Parenthetical to the talk and speaking to 2025 readers: This notion of humanizing historical figures isn't to simply point out that they weren't perfect; it is at the heart of the critical method and the cancel culture. A person is dismissed, in spite of his goodness, because of his human flaws - and even sins. It means you can never live past the worst moments of your life. It doesn't just cancel a human soul; it cancels redemption.]
The best sources are the words of prophets and those who loved him and knew him best - and the Book of Mormon itself, of course. The more you have a sure witness from the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, the more sure your witness will be that a 21-yr-old kid didn't write it on his own in 65 working days - over 85 calendar days!
Listen to the words of Brigham Young:
"I can truly say, that I invariably found him to be all that any people could require a true prophet to be, and that a better man could not be, though he had his weaknesses; and what man has ever lived upon this earth who had none?"
Or John Taylor - who was present at Joseph Smith's murder:
Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that has ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood. (D&C 135:3).
Years after his life, Lorenzo Snow said this:
"Joseph Smith, the Prophet, wit whom I was intimately acquainted for years, as well as I was with my brother, I know ... to have been a man of integrity, a man devoted to the interests of humanity and to the requirements of God all the days in which he was permitted to live. There never was a man that possessed a higher degree of integrity and more devotedness to the interest of mankind than the Prophet Joseph Smith. I dan say this from a personal acquaintance with him" (in Conference Report, April 1898, p. 64)
A British scholar by the name of Arthur Henry King joined the church because of Joseph Smith's writing style. He studied and taught language stylistics at Cambridge University, and was struck with the sincerity of Joseph Smith's writing. He believed that good men - and bad men - revealed themselves in the way they expressed themselves in writing. Imagine - making a career of studying that!
He has written about the genius of Joseph Smith as a writer - this New York farm boy with a 3rd-grade education. Listen to his impressions of reading an account of the First Vision:
"When I was first brought to read Joseph Smith's story as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price, I was deeply impressed. I wasn't inclined to be impressed. As a stylistician, I have spent my life being disinclined to be impressed. So when I read his story, I thought to myself, this is an extraordinary thing. This is an astonishingly matter-of-fact and cool account. This man is not trying to persuade me of anything. He doesn't feel the need to. He is stating what happened to him, and he is stating it, not enthusiastically, but in quite a matter-of-fact way. He is not trying to make me cry or feel ecstatic. That struck me, and that began to build my testimony, for I could see that this man was telling the truth." (emphasis added)
Truth Has No Agenda
To that end - as Joseph Smith wrote not to convince - truth doesn't seek to convince. It just sits there... being true.
Truth has no competition. It really can't be argued with - unless you've become untethered from reality. Satan only has one way to effectively attack truth - attack the messenger.
Joseph Smith simply said, "... I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it..." (Joseph Smith History 1:25)
Catch a Wave
There are two waves - one is flowing into this church, and one is flowing out.
The wave that flows in is focused on doctrine - eternal, unchanging doctrine. It centers on Jesus Christ and focuses on making covenants with Him. It focuses on your individual responsibility to God to be true to what you know. Not your truth; that's absurd. The truth as you know it.
The wave that flows out is focused on people - the flawed nature of the human beings running the church, and the rank and file inside the church. And you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an imperfect person in this church.
You get to decide which wave you want to be a part of. The wave heading out can't get past mistakes - and believe me - there are mistakes - because this church is FULL of humans who make them every day.
But the wave in preaches there's a solution for those mistakes - a cure. A rescue. Jesus Christ came into this world as the only perfect human so He could be the Lamb without blemish - suffer, and die to pay eternal justice for every single mistake every made - if I will accept His gift.
I love this doctrine, and I choose it. Everyone can know for himself - and choose it for himself. I invite you to do the spiritual work necessary to know for yourself - and choose the doctrine of Jesus Christ - as it was perfectly restored by an imperfect farm boy from New York.
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