Samuel Smith — The First Missionary Whose Book of Mormon Copies Led to Brigham Young's Conversion

Samuel Harrison Smith (1808–1844) was a younger brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith, one of the Eight Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, and the Church's first officially called missionary. His brief June 1830 mission is one of the most quietly spectacular missionary miracles in Latter-day Saint history.

Samuel had prayed and received his own spiritual witness of the Book of Mormon before his baptism on May 25, 1829 — the third person baptized in this dispensation, following Joseph and Oliver. Joseph recorded that Samuel 'retired to the woods in order that by secret and fervent prayer he might obtain of a merciful God, wisdom to enable him to judge for himself. The result was that he obtained revelation for himself.'

On June 30, 1830, Samuel was set apart as the first official missionary of the Church and set out alone on foot through western New York carrying a knapsack of freshly printed copies of the Book of Mormon. He was rejected at nearly every door. On his first night, an innkeeper called him a liar and threw him out, and he slept under an apple tree in the cold.

But along the way he left a copy of the Book of Mormon with John P. Greene's wife Rhoda — who was Brigham Young's sister. She wept with gratitude when Samuel explained how to read and pray about it. A second copy went to Phineas Young, Brigham's brother, a Methodist preacher who read it twice in two weeks and then stood before his congregation to defend it — and 'suddenly the Spirit of God came on him with such force that in a marvelous manner he spoke at great length on the importance of it.'

Through those two copies of the Book of Mormon, Samuel Smith indirectly brought into the Church Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and a network of converts that would form the backbone of the Church's future leadership. Samuel himself never knew the full fruit of his mission. He died in July 1844, just weeks after the martyrdom of his brothers Joseph and Hyrum. He was 36 years old.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

In April 1830, I was on my way home from the town of Lima, where I had been to preach, when I rode up to a farm house to get some refreshment. I saw a man there, and asked him if he had any books to sell. He said he had the Book of Mormon. I asked him what it was. He said it was a revelation from God, translated by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, and that his brother, Joseph Smith, Jr., was a Prophet, Seer and Revelator. I asked him if he was one of the witnesses. He said, 'Yes, I am one of the witnesses, and I know the book to be a revelation from God.' I took the book, and told him I would read it, and if I found it to be what he said it was, I would believe it. He said, 'You will find it to be the word of God.' I took the book home, and read it through twice in two weeks. I then went to my congregation, and told them that I had found the Book of Mormon to be a revelation from God, and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, Seer and Revelator. The Spirit of God came upon me with such power that I spoke at great length on the importance of it.