One of the most remarkable facts about Joseph Smith as a revelator is that many intelligent, faithful people went to great lengths to seek, receive, and obey his revelations. Jared Carter embraced Joseph’s revelations and went on a mission because of them. After he returned, he went to the home where Joseph was living to ask “the seer to inquire the will of the Lord concerning my ministry the ensuing season. And the word of the Lord came forth.”1
Jared noted that April 25, 1832, marked “the commencement of a mission by Jared Carter, a servant of the Lord.” He followed section 79 specifically, going from town to town in the power of his ordination, “which was to the high privilege of administering in the name of Jesus Christ.” Jared went northeast along Lake Erie and continued on to Benson, Vermont, his birthplace, proclaiming the everlasting gospel in each location. He battled opposition and bouts of depression. He kept careful track of his obedience to the revelation and the fulfillment of the promised blessings. His records testify that, as promised, the Lord sent him the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, to teach him the truth and where he should go. Since Jared was faithful to section 79, the Lord crowned him again with a bountiful harvest. Jared summarized his service after returning in October: “I have been gone six months and two days. The Lord has permitted me to administer the Gospel to 79 souls and many others by my instrumentality have been convinced of this most glorious work.” He rejoiced on the completion of his difficult yet successful mission. “God has blessed me according to the prophecy of Brother Joseph before I went from Ohio,” Jared wrote.2
1. Jared Carter, Autobiography, typescript, p. 9, Church History Library; “Revelation, 12 March 1832 [D&C 79],” p. 12, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed July 7, 2020.
2. Jared Carter, Autobiography, p. 7. Here Jared confused his first mission with his second. In both instances the Lord crowned him with sheaves as prophesied for his second mission in section 79.
From Doctrine and Covenants Minute
Jared Carter was a convert to the Church from Chenango, New York. He received the gospel and was baptized by Hyrum Smith on February 20, 1831. When the call came to gather to Ohio, Jared traveled along with members of the Colesville Branch, giving up his life and home in New York.1 He spent much of the later part of 1831 and early 1832 preaching the gospel in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont. A few weeks after he arrived home from his mission, he traveled to Hiram, Ohio, to meet with Joseph Smith, who was staying at the home of John and Elsa Johnson.
Jared wrote in his journal about the experience of being present when this revelation was given: “I at length went to Hiram to the Seer to inquire the will of the Lord concerning my ministry,” he recorded. “The ensuing season and the word of the Lord came forth that showed that it was his will that I should go forth to the Eastern countries in the power of the ordinance wherewith I had been ordained which was to the high privilege of administering in the name of Jesus Christ even to seal on earth and to build up the Church of Christ and to work miracles in the name of Christ.” He added, “Now I have received a revelation of the will of the Lord to me by the mouth of Joseph the Seer, that I should not only preach the gospel from place to place, but from city to city.”2
See “Historical Introduction,” Revelation, 12 March 1832 [D&C 79]
1. “Jared Carter,” Biography, JSP.
2. Quoted in Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 1985, p. 169.
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