Today we will consider two visions received by two different prophets named Joseph Smith and separated by almost a hundred years.

The first was received by Joseph Smith Jr. in January of 1836 as they completed work on the Kirtland Temple.

The period surrounding the dedication of the Kirland Temple was a time full of manifestations of the Spirit. As Lorenzo Snow said,

the spirit poured out in copious effusion. The day they first introduced preparatory ordinances of the

endowment, Joseph Smith received a vision of the celestial kingdom. 82 years later, Joseph F. Smith,

nephew of the prophet and now the fifth prophet to follow his uncle,

he pondered a verse in First Peter that talked of Christ's descent into hell after his death.

Perplexed, he asked the Lord for help to understand. In response, he too saw a vision, this time a vision

of the spirit world. My name is Janice Johnson. I'm a Willis Center Research Associated at the Maxwell Institute,

and I, along with Joseph Stewart, the public communication specialist at the Institute,

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 us

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. Now, this is different. Visions. We've been having lots of revelations,

but now suddenly we've got some visions. What do you think? Well, I think it's fascinating because

growing up, I actually thought essentially of all revelations as coming through visions,

these grand events like the first vision or Moses in the Burning Bush, when in reality,

most of Joseph Smith's revelations came through asking questions and then listening and writing

what he was learning through the Holy Spirit. But with these visions, he is actually seeing

something that is taking place and then he's describing it to other people. Or in Joseph F. Smith's

case, he's describing it to his son. Or in Joseph F. Smith's case,

...