Joseph Fielding Smith - Church Service

Church Service

After completing his mission in 1901, Smith began working in the office of the Church Historian and Recorder. He authored the book entitled The Origins of the Reorganized Church and the Question of Succession in 1909, which was written to defend the LDS Church against the recent proselytizing of missionaries for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS Church) in Utah. He was the acting recorder of the general conference in 1910 when he was called as an apostle. Prior to his call as a general authority Smith served as the secretary and treasurer of the Genealogical Society of Utah. In 1921 Smith assumed the office of Church Historian and Recorder which he held until 1970. Early in his apostleship, his creationist views on the dispute between Mormonism's Biblical teachings and the theory of evolution brought him attention. (See Mormonism and evolution.)

Smith spent most of his time as an apostle living in Salt Lake City. He also was president of the Salt Lake Temple from 1945 to 1949. During this time, Smith was sent on a tour of the Spanish-American Mission of the church. Before his return to Salt Lake he informed the president of the Arizona Temple that he would recommend to the First Presidency that the temple ceremonies be translated into Spanish.

Smith served as president of the Genealogical Society of Utah and its successor the Genealogical Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1934 to 1961. At the time of his release from this position he had already been president of the Quorum of the Twelve for over a decade. During the late 1950s, Smith attempted to reduce staff turnover at the Society by trying to convince the First Presidency that women should be permitted to stay on as employees after they married. However, Smith was only able to get a change to allow them to work six months past marriage.