Craig J. Ostler:
The gravestone of Alvin Smith, the Prophet Joseph Smith’s oldest brother, is located on the farthest south edge of the Jonathan Swift Memorial Cemetery. At the time of his premature death Alvin was in the midst of building the frame house for his family to repay his parents for all of their toil in raising their children and to enable them to spend their last years in some degree of comfort.1Mary Jane Woodger: One of the last things that Alvin said to Joseph was “you do everything you can to bring that record forth.”2 It was almost a justification, I think, for Joseph of Alvin’s death that he would fulfill that last request. Joseph just loved his older brother. He was the epitome for Joseph of a Christian, of a good, loving man. Of course when the minister said that he would be confined to hell, Joseph must have been totally riddled by that.3
Craig J. Ostler: Nearly twenty years later, Joseph Smith recounted his feelings at the time of Alvin’s death, saying: “I remember well the pangs of sorrow that swelled my youthful bosom and almost burst my tender heart when he died….He lived without spot from the time he was a child… and when he died the angel of the Lord visited him in his last moments.”4 Years later on January 21, 1836, the Prophet Joseph Smith and other Church leaders met in the west school room on the third floor of the Kirtland Temple. The Prophet Joseph Smith recorded that at that time: “The heavens were opened upon us and I beheld the celestial kingdom of God….”(D&C 137:1)
Video Clip: “All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God. (D&C 137: 1, 5–9). Mother, Alvin is not lost.”
Mary Jane Woodger: What a wonderful blessing as Joseph later on receives the great revelation that no, just because you died without the gospel ordinances, does not mean that you will be damned. And who is the great example that the Lord gives? He gives him Alvin. That must have been a heartfelt, joyous experience when Joseph realized that the very gospel that he had restored would save that wonderful older brother who had not had the opportunity in mortality.
Craig J. Ostler: Thus, the Lord chose Alvin Smith to represent the millions of souls that have passed from this life without ever having the opportunity to receive the gospel, yet will eventually receive all of the blessings that the Father has prepared for his children.
1 Lucy’s Book, ed. Lavina Fielding Anderson (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2001), 349.
2 Ibid. 352.
3 Ibid. 332n13.
4 Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith Papers: Journals Volume 2, December 1841- April 1843, eds. Andrew H. Hedges,Alex D. Smith, Richard Lloyd Anderson, (Salt Lake City: Church Historians Press, 2011), 117.
