In July of 1836, Joseph Smith, Iron Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and Sydney Rigden traveled to Salem, Massachusetts.

They arrived on the 5th of August and rented a house on Union Street for the next three weeks.

The revelation in Section 11 might have been received there, but there is no contemporary evidence that tells us why they were there.

The contemporary evidence we do have included in the Joseph Smith papers

is a letter from Oliver to his brother Warren and a letter from Joseph to Emma.

They talk of preaching and visiting historic places,

of their financial worries for the church, but little else.

And this was a long trip for little else.

Finishing the Kirtland Temple, known as the House of the Lord and Binapland in Ohio,

left the church in a precarious financial situation. There are two late accounts of individuals

who are not on that trip that suggest that they went to Salem to find hidden money.

My name is Janice Johnson, and I'm a Willis Center Research Associate at the Institute.

Joseph Stewart is the public communication specialist at the Maxwell Institute,

and we will be discussing each week's block of reading from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

Come Follow Me, Curriculum.

We aren't here to present a lesson, but rather to hit on a few key themes from the scripture block

that we believe will help fulfill the Maxwell Institute's mission to inspire and fortify

Latter-day Saints in their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and

to engage the world of religious ideas. Wait, so you can't leave us hanging there. What do you mean

two light accounts of individuals who weren't on the trip? That suggests that these church

leaders went to Salem to find money. So it's a fascinating thing.

B.H. Roberts, when he is writing his comprehensive history of the church, is trying to figure

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