One of Wilford Woodruff’s earliest recorded Christmases as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was in 1837, when he was a young newlywed missionary in the Fox Islands, Maine. He wrote that he had preached to a large group in a schoolhouse on the island, but his “soul was vexed with the wicked proceedings”[1] of a certain school teacher who had rejected his testimony. Perhaps he expected better from the school teacher on Christmas Day.
As a tireless disciple of Christ, he didn’t always get to spend Christmas Day relaxing with his family—relaxing wasn’t really in Wilford’s vocabulary—but when he did, he often wrote warmly about the festivities. In 1841, he spent the day with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and their wives in Nauvoo, traveling to dinner in a horse and sleigh, remembering that the previous year he had been in England with Heber C. Kimball, “but we are now again with our families.”[2] Two years later he attended a large party at the Mansion House in Nauvoo with his family and friends. By the next Christmas, the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum were gone, and Wilford and Phebe were on their way to England—together this time—to preside over the European Mission, managing the affairs of the Church and its members there.
Wilford Woodruff, Aug 23, 1844, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org
Christmas in England
Wilford was a curious and very social man and, as such, his Christmas of 1845 while still in England was particularly remarkable. On Christmas Eve, he and Phebe visited a bustling Christmas market in Liverpool. He recorded that “it was quite a splendid sight” with all the food and decorations. Later that night, they attended Midnight Mass at the local Catholic church. He seemed to be fascinated by the ceremonies, the incense, and the portrayal of the Nativity, saying “they presented something to represent Jesus in swaddling clothes.”[3] It was the first time he had attended High Mass in a Catholic church, and we are left wondering what he really thought about the whole experience.
Contrast that with the next day, Christmas 1845, as he gathered with three or four hundred Saints in a nearby music hall for a large dinner, followed by preaching from himself and his mission counselors, Elders Hedlock and Ward. While we don’t have the text of the messages they shared, he does write that the evening passed well and was interesting.
The Fire of Testimony
Three days later was Sunday, very much still the Christmas season, and Wilford was back in the music hall preaching a message of the Savior taken from Hebrews chapter 12, a discourse that “was given [him] of the Lord.”[4] It was a very different Christmas than the one in Maine, in 1837, that left him feeling “vexed.”[5]
Hebrews 12 teaches of the Redeemer as “the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (verse 2). It’s a message of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, of His divinity as the Son of God, as the bedrock of our faith. This chapter of scripture ends with these two verses: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28–29).
The Chosen One by Dan Wilson
For Wilford Woodruff, Christmas season or otherwise, his testimony of the Savior and the work of God was a consuming fire, a “fire shut up [in his] bones”[6] that manifested itself as dedication and service to the God he loved so much. In a discourse he gave as President of the Church on April 8, 1894, he expressed his firm testimony and hope for the Saints of the growing faith: “I pray God that as a people we may have power to magnify our callings in this great and mighty dispensation while we dwell in the flesh, that when our work is done we may be satisfied with this life and this work. This is my prayer and the desire of my heart.”[7]
At this Christmas season, may we all follow the Savior’s example of love and dedication as we remember our own divine heritage as children of God, serving together as brothers and sisters in a heavenly family.
Kristy has a master’s degree in Humanities from Brigham Young University and has since been an English Instructor at Purdue University, a copy editor, technical writer, caterer, travel writer, and historical researcher and writer. A native of Boston, she lives in Fort Worth with her husband and four kids and still misses New England every fall. She spends much of her time in volunteer work and writing for various websites and publications. Along with serving on the Board of Directors and working with the Wilford Woodruff Papers team and our donors, Kristy spends some of her time as a transcriptionist on the Wilford Woodruff Papers Project. She has loved getting to know Wilford Woodruff better through his writing and is always inspired and surprised by his dedication, tenacity, personality, hard work, and faith, and hopes to share President Woodruff’s testimony with a wider audience.
The Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation’s mission is to digitally preserve and publish Wilford Woodruff’s eyewitness account of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and make his records universally accessible in order to inspire all people, especially the rising generation, to study and to increase their faith in Jesus Christ. For more information, please explore wilfordwoodruffpapers.org.
Notes:
[1] Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, December 25, 1837, p. 182, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/journal/1837-12-25.
[2] Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, December 25, 1841, p. 121, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/journal/1841-12-25.
[3] Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, December 24, 1845, p. 172–73, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/journal/1845-12-24. Spelling standardized.
[4] Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, December 28, 1845, p. 174, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/journal/1845-12-28.
[5] Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, December 25, 1837, p. 182, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/journal/1837-12-25.
[6] Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, February 24, 1850, p. 262, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/journal/1850-02-24.
[7] Discourse by Wilford Woodruff, April 8, 1894, p. 4, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/discourse/1894-04-08.
