The exact process of the latter-day Gathering of Israel is likely not that which has historically been conceptualized. Some such conceptualizations have been that suddenly the individual tribes clearly defined will appear. Some vast literal roadway will be casted up and they will at one time come streaming down from the 'north' or even perhaps return from another planet where they've all been since we have failed to locate them and individually find them as distinct separate tribal groups here on earth. Actually 'I don't think so.

Even when the tribes of Israel were living in their 'lands' of inheritance given and assigned out by Joshua, the various individauls of each of the tribes did not strictly adhere to just remaining precisely to and within their such divided land parcels and borders. Case in point is the fact that a number of all the various tribes did actually come to live in Jerusalem, the 'capitol city' of the nation. King David himself had brought various numbers of representatives from each of the tribes to Jerusalem to be there to speak for and represent their individual tribes. Further, marriages between tribes was a common practice. And sometimes practiced in mass such as when the tribe of Benjamin had become depleted because of inner war and strife, the men of Benjamin were given wives out of other tribal resources.

Even in the time and day of Jesus Christ this was a readily seen fact among the various tribes that had remained/returned to Judaea. John the Baptist's family was one such mixed tribal example. Elisabeth was Mary's cousin in some respect, denoting that the tribe of the House of David and that of the Levite Priesthood had married together. And thus was Jesus and John the Baptist also cousins, each retaining their own tribal affiliations of being of the House of David and of being of the Levitical linage of the priesthood in the case of John, son of Zacarias the temple priest.

When the ten tribes, regardless of their state and stage of inter-distributions as of 720 A.D., were taken and scattered among the various nations 'of the north' it is a true reality that they were 'sifted' among many nations and regardless of how they may have 'tried' to keep unto themselves, in all likelihood their blood lines became intertwined and mixed with those of the other nations who were also being mixed about by the conquering nations. If such mixing of peoples of various nations of today are any indications, then it would most likely be found few and far between, if any, 'pure blooded' tribe this or tribe that in the world of today. And that is most literally what we have found as for the most part the people of the world are all known and accounted for in varying degrees today.

Yes there are many cultures and cultural differences, but even many of those are being 'melted away' into such great 'melting pot' gatherings of the people of which I suppose the United States of American is one of those such leading melting-pot nations of the world today. And yet the people are there. The tribes of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, have likely been spread out and are to be found in most every nation of the earth today. And if so, then that is were they would have to be 'gathered' and or located out from.

This brings us to the next reality of the situation, will all such people could be 'gathered back to live in a Zionistic state', it is certainly not feasible that all could be expected to be returned back to the small national confined land region of just Israel. That region is already being crowded by the return of the Jews and those nations surrounding them who also lay claims to that land as well. And wars have been fought over that land and are still being fought and are still threatening to be fought over that tiny slice of land region.

Thus, for any such 'gathering in' which is expected to leave the earth still populated and not all just crowded into one small limited parcel of Israel, some other type of in-gathering and land distribution must be an actual part of the 'literal gathering of Israel'. And here it is that enters in the two representative nations in Israel's actual roles. That is those of Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions, and also Joseph/Ephraim, an all of the house of Israel his companions (Ezekiel 37:16). That was the real two representative nations of Israel back in the days of Israel and Judah and their many kings for the most of those ages.

There was the Kingdom of Judah, that generally held the southern kingdom primarily numbered as being the tribe of Judah and half the tribe of Benjamin with further various remnants of other tribes and even a mixture of non-Israelite citizens as well. And also there was the northern kingdom which was viewed to contain for the most part the other 10 tribes as being members of the kingdom of Israel and/or Ephraim along with the other half of the tribe of Benjamin. And they also had a representative population of non-Israelites living among them. The same may be so divided today.

So, fast-forward to the 21st century. Today, basically the British 'kingdom' and the Americas have a fairly recognized claim to being those of the descendants of Joseph, that is of Ephraim and Manasseh, though the crown also touts descents from Judah as well, etc. And of course it is well known that the Jews have been scattered and are being gathered from amongst many nations on their various ways back to Israel, though for the most part they also remain distributed throughout the world as well.

Now consider some number of centuries back. Just where was it possible to 'gather' people to when the 'civilized world' was already populated? Well it helps to have a 'national location that is relatively free of advanced people'. And where was that but the Americas in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and even 20th centuries? Just where would it be feasible to 'in gather a people' from the northern counties of Europe and even Eur-asia, Asia and the Pacific Islands and elsewhere such as even Africa? And who, according to the Book of Mormon, are the 'natives' there to whom that 'initial in-gathering' would be unto. And in the case of the early centuries it would even be at whose expense? The family of Lehi was of the tribe of Manasseh and the family they married into, the family of Ishmael was of the family of Ephraim as documented by the Book of Mormon. And as further included there, we would have a second influx of those associated with the party of Mulek. And Mulek was the son of Zedekiah of the royal house of Daivd, who we have been setting forth here that though David's house is of the blood of Judah, by the Lord's Law of Marriage Adoption (Deuteronomy 25:5-10 & Ruth 4:5 & 10) Obed the first born son of Ruth, releck of Mahlon son of Elimeleck, and Boaz the kinsman of Elimelech by what would have been a maternal marriage, was the ancestor of Jesse and David and the 'son of the living Naomi' and heir and son of the dead house of Mahlon and Elimelech, those Ephrathites of Bathlehem Judaea. This is they resided in Bethlehem of the land of the Jews but in fact the household of Elimelech were Ephraimites of the tribe of Ephraim. And from LDS patriarchal blessing evidence, the majority of the American and even Polynesian members of the Church are of the houses of Ephraim and Manessah, which would infer that those of Mulek were counted as being of the house of Joseph as well.

The Book of Mormon promised land, as elsewhere pointed out, has been reserved by the Lord's blessing to the house of Joseph. And that is consistant with the scriptural documentations of the 'gathering' and the traditions of England and Northern Europe, that they are of the remnants of Joseph and the lost tribes of Israel, primarily those of Joseph and of the house of David, which we have set forth here as also being rightfully and legally also according to the laws of God, of the tribe of Ephraim as well. So it is that in Europe's discovery of America and North America's being populated by the British and other northern European nations, we basically have those recognized as the tribe of Joseph coming to American, in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere, from those nations European nations of the scattering to America, the nation of the Lord's location of the remnant branch of Joseph as so foretold in the Lord's blessing to Joseph of Egypt and confirmed to Lehi's party and associates already in America.

"¶ Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well [water]; whose branches run over the wall [ocean]:
"The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
"But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)
"Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
"The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills [of America]: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." ~ Genesis 49:22-26

From that patriarchal blessing by Jacob on the head of Joseph we can extract that the house of Joseph would be a fruitful bough whose branches would travel over the ocean both in the time of Lehi's and Mulek's habitation of America and also later in the Colonization of America by northern Europe, with primarily Britian being the source to North America. It even recites that it would be to the 'utmost bound of the everlasting hills', which are that backbone mountain range of the Americas from Alaska in the north to the tip of Southern America in the south the include such as the Rocky Mountains of North America and Utah and the Andean range of western South America. And there is also a direct blessing specifically noted under the hand of Jacob upon the head of Joseph that states, 'from thence is the shepherd, [even] the stone of Israel'. The Shepherd and The Stone of Israel who would be he who is Jesus Christ, that Messiah ben Joseph/Ephraim, even the Lord God Jehovah in the flesh.

And the further blessing of the 'tribes of Joseph' by such of Moses states:

"¶ And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,
"And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon,
"And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
"And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush [Jehovah]: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.
"His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns [wild ox]: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh." ~ Deuteronomy 33:13-17