Joseph Smith's Prophecy to the Lightners: Sorrow Away from the Church, a Deathbed Baptism, and a Return at the Last (1843)

“My husband could get no work, and I commenced teaching painting to Julia Murdock Smith, to Steven Mark’s daughter; and to Sarah Ann Whitney. I also procured a lot a block below the Prophet Joseph Smith’s mansion; but as we could get no more work in Nauvoo. Mr. Lightner found a job cutting cord wood, 15 miles up the river, at a place called Pontusuc. He got a little log room with a floor made of logs split in two, and very rough. Before leaving Nauvoo on the 4th of July there was a general parade of the Legion; about noon Emma came to me to borrow my dining table, as the officers were to dine with her, and the Prophet Joseph came also, he said the Lord commanded him to baptize us that day. Emma asked, “Why is this?” He said, “The Lord has commanded me to baptize you, and if you don’t do it today, you will have to do it, but it will be much harder for you.” He prophesied that if we attempted to leave the Church we would have plenty of sorrow; for we would make property on the right hand and lose it on the left, we would have sickness on sickness, and lose our children, and that I would have to work harder than I ever dreamed of; and, “At last when you are worn out, and almost ready to die, you will get back to the Church.” I thought these were hard sayings, and I doubted them. But the sequel proved them true. Brother Henry and wife, Aunt Gilbert and myself were baptized and confirmed. The Prophet Joseph tried hard to get Mr. Lightner to go into the water, but he said he did not feel worthy, but would, some other time. Joseph said to me that he never would be baptized, unless it was a few moments before he died. We moved to Pontusuc. In a few months our little boy George died. I felt that the Prophet’s words were beginning to be fulfilled. We had sickness, and trouble, and lost more children, and I had to work very hard, and we were moved from place to place, and lost our property, until at last, worn out, we made our way back to the Church in the West.”

— Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, Autobiography