on trying to get the hill coordinated between Smith and Willard Bean on the part of the church and the local landowners. In 1930, Smith invited a group of his friends who shared his interest in the history of the LDS Church to his house. They organized the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association. Smith was made the first president of this organization. They placed a large number of historical markers in the western United States over the next five years. The group would eventually erect more than 100 monuments and markers. With the death of quorum president, Rudger Clawson, in 1943, Smith was sustained as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and served in the position for two years. Church president With the death of Heber J. Grant, Smith became president of the church on May 21, 1945. When World War II ended, Smith helped send supplies to Europe and was also known for his efforts to revitalize missionary work. He publicly denounced the activities and political influence of the American Ku Klux Klan. Smith dedicated the Idaho Falls Temple on September 23, 1945. Over his lifetime, he traveled approximately a million miles fulfilling church assignments. Smith was the first church president to visit Mexico while in office. He went there to complete the reconciliation of and return to the church a group of apostates in Mexico known as the "Third Conventionists". Also during his presidency the first translation of the endowment ceremony was done. The translation was done by Antoine R. Ivins and Eduardo Balderas, with the approval of the First Presidency. Emotional illness While not common knowledge among contemporary members of the LDS Church, nor even in Smith's day, it was well known to his close friends, church associates, and family members that Smith suffered from chronic depression and anxiety, which at times could be debilitating, including one nervous breakdown that left him largely bedridden from 1909 to 1912. Throughout his life, Smith took to his bed, sometimes for days at a time, with emotional and mental illness related issues. Smith professed that these experiences helped deepen his understanding of the Gospel and personal belief in the existence of God, stating in a 1921 general conference session, "I have been in the valley of the shadow of death in recent years, so near the other side that I am sure that for the special blessing