Be sure to check out the December 2009 Ensign, which has a wonderful article by BYU professor George S. Tate on President Joseph F. Smith, his intimate acquaintance with death, the catastrophic loss of life in World War I and the Spanish Influenza, and the great vision of the redemption of the dead. It is a wonderful complement to the very first entry in this blog, with additional details on the family deaths, and some beautifully poetic journal entries President Smith wrote in his loss. It also tells us that just before the pandemic mysteriously waned in January of 1919 and then disappeared (with just a brief resurgence the following spring), the Church leaders had designated December 22 as a day of fasting "for the arrest and speedy suppression by Divine Power of the desolating scourge that is passing over the earth."
George S. Tate, "I Saw the Hosts of the Dead," Ensign, December 2009, p. 54-59
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