There are few places in the world where the Saints are not currently welcome or at least tolerated.  It hasn’t always been so, and it won’t always be.  The fact of the matter is, however, that the presence of the Church in an area and among a people is a protective influence.  It is not something that anyone recognizes unless and until the non-member elements of a city or a region cast the Saints out of their midst.  The protective influence is then gone, and the area is left vulnerable to all manner of destructive elements, both natural and manmade.

The people of Ammonihah could bear witness to that.  Prophets warned them that they were ripe for destruction if they didn’t repent.  They scoffed at the warnings, proclaimed that they were strong, that it was impossible for them to be destroyed, killed many believers, and cast the rest out of their land.  Less than four months later an army of Lamanites invaded the land and killed every single Ammonihahite before the Nephites were able to raise an army to drive the invaders away.  (Alma 16:1-3, 9).

The people in the Nephite cities that were destroyed at the time of Jesus’ death could also bear witness to that.  As the survivors of that holocaust sat in the darkness that followed, they heard the Lord’s own voice giving an account of the cities that had been destroyed, and the reasons therefore.  In each case the Lord declared that their destruction had been because they had cast out the prophets and the saints.  He said, “And because they did cast them all out, that there were none righteous among them, I did send down fire and destroy them.”  (3 Nephi 9:11).

In our own day, the inhabitants of Jackson County and surrounding counties in the state of Missouri could bear witness to that.  They drove the Saints out of the state.  Ultimately the Saints were driven clear out of the United States, and into the wilderness.  This was a huge affliction to the Saints, who suffered much.  Their expulsions were often in the cold of winter.  Ultimately, however, their expulsion proved to be a great blessing.  Because of their expulsion they were a thousand miles away when the Civil War broke out which killed hundreds of thousands of people.  Jackson County, Missouri, and the surrounding area, were left in ruins.  Some claim that the destruction was so great that it fulfilled Brigham Young’s prophecy that there would not be left so much as a yellow dog to wag its tail.  I am of the opinion, however, that fulfillment of his prophecy is yet future.