George A. Smith — Preserved from Cholera during Zion's Camp (1834)

In 1834, during the Zion's Camp expedition to Missouri, George A. Smith—then the youngest member of the company and serving as the personal guard/armor bearer and cousin of the Prophet Joseph Smith—was present when a severe cholera outbreak struck the camp near the Fishing River. While many participants fell ill and thirteen died, George A. Smith remained entirely unaffected and was preserved throughout the journey. He later attributed his safety to the promise and counsel given by Joseph Smith that those who remained faithful and did not murmur against the Lord's servants would be protected; Joseph had instructed him to follow counsel and to deliver his sermons with a “prayerful heart.”

In his own account of the expedition, Brigham Young provides details regarding the cessation of the cholera outbreak at Burket's farm. He records that after the disease had already claimed eighteen lives, Joseph Smith called the members of the camp together and promised that if they would humble themselves and covenant to obey his counsel, the plague would be stayed from that hour. Young notes that the brethren complied with this covenant by raising their hands, and the plague immediately ceased.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Brigham Young, 'Autobiography of Brigham Young (1801-1844)', in Elden Jay Watson (ed.), Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801-1844 (1968)):

President Joseph Smith called the members of the camp of Zion together, and told them if they would humble themselves before the Lord, and covenant that they would from that time forth obey his counsel, that the plague should be stopped from that very hour, and there would not be another case in camp, whereupon the brethren with uplifted hands covenanted that they would from that very hour hearken to his counsel and obey his word, and the plague was stayed according to the words of the Lord through his servant.