Good morning ladies and gents.

How are you today? I can see that we have a holiday weekend here as our attendance is sparse.

I'm a little surprised though because the kids are getting school underway and it's hard to travel and stay in line with the kids' school schedules. Yes, Sam? Oh, that's not a bad idea.

The Jenson's are just staying home watching James Bond movies today?

Why didn't I think of that? Yes, Jessica?

Yes it is true that some of the representations in James Bond are just for effect.

To your point, on the show Myth Busters they did test the idea that a person would die if painted in gold paint. Yes, Frank?

I don't know about that, there is a lot of speculation about that, but we don't really know what Joseph had in the box or under the cloth that he said were the golden plates.

Jeez, I sound like President Hinckely on a TV interview.

Sorry!

Maybe it was for effect like we see in James Bond, or maybe it wasn't. Yes, Vicki?

I have read or heard of a couple of different studies on that.

One study I read had estimated that the golden plates would have weighed approximately 200 pounds.

Another study I had read said they weighed between 50 and 60 pounds. Calm down Todd!

No need to laugh out loud.

Well, you are right, man is that he might have joy, but this seems a little misplaced.

What is causing your outburst?

Yeah, that is kind of comical to imagine Joseph running through the forest with a 200 pound, or even a 50 pound set of gold plates. Hey, well let's get back to the lesson.

Today, we are talking about the time frame when the leadership of the church passed to Brigham Young.

I actually got quite a few chuckles myself when I read the official lesson's description of the transfer of power. Let's dispense with the opening prayer.

I would like to make something clear before we dive into the lesson.

I think there is much of importance to be learned in our lessons.

There is much to be learned from the early saints.

I do think learning about the history with accuracy is important.

Paraphrasing Todd Compton, "Authentic faith can only be built on authentic truth."

Juanita Brooks said, "Only the truth is good enough for my church."

And finally, Bruce R. McConkie said, "The best defense of the church is the true and impartial account of our history."

When I read the lessons from the manual, sometimes I chuckle at the sugar-coated nature of the lesson, but sometimes I find profound sadness as I read the de-humanized, sanitized history presented to the majority of the members.

But as for our ward, we will follow Juanita Brooks' philosophy, "Only the truth is good enough for our church." The lesson is broken up into four sections, prophetic keys and succession, Brigham Young as president, temple ordinances in Nauvoo, and trials on the journey west.

Since we have burned up a few minutes talking about the important topic of James Bond, I'm not sure how many topics we will cover, but let's get started and see how far we get. Last week, we talked briefly about the confusion regarding the succession of the role of president and/or prophet.

Joseph had told several people that each would be the president of the church if he were to die.

He had also set up several different councils or quorums of people, primarily men that may or may not have been equal in power, depending upon which of the Joseph's statements or revelations you read.

One of the funny things from the lesson is that it clearly states that Joseph had intended for the Quorum of the Twelve apostles to lead the church in the event of his death.

What a crock! Yes, Sally.

It is true in D&C 107 that we can read about the Twelve being equal to the first presidency.

But then again, so was the Quorum of the seventy, so was the high council.

Perhaps the Council of Fifty was, but it was really a theocratic council.

The Twelve has specific jurisdiction outside the stakes of Zion, not within the stakes of Zion, which was essentially Nauvoo at that point in time. You are right, Tom, that is pretty funny about Brigham ordaining almost all of the men seventies and then sending them on missions outside the stake boundaries, so the apostles had official jurisdiction over them, but let's get back to the succession first. Yes, Jessica.

Sidney Rigdon as the sole surviving member of the first presidency claimed authority in succession.

In fact, if you read some of Joseph's pronouncements, this is a valid claim. Yes, Tom.

No I haven't heard that one.

I don't really think Sidney and Brigham had one of Joseph's famous "stick pulls" to see who would lead the church next, but it is amusing the picture. Yes, Fred.

You are right, Brigham was an intimidating person and was also politically very savvy. Back to you Sally.

Yes, without going into a lot of detail, it is correct that both Sidney and Brigham spoke to a gathering of the saints.

As I understand it, Sidney gave a pretty compelling speech as to the veracity of his claims.

Being savvy as he was, Brigham adjourned the meeting until later in the afternoon so as to put distance in the memory of the audience between his speech and Sidney's.

Then in the afternoon, Brigham gave a powerful speech.

He did a fair amount of mudslinging towards Sidney and spoke of Joseph's increasing confidence in the Twelve.

In the later meeting, Sidney declined to rebut or speak on his behalf, and in doing so, made a serious tactical error.

He had asked William W. Phelps to speak on his behalf.

Unfortunately for Sidney, Phelps said, "If you want to do right, uphold the Twelve."

As Quinn says, "The result was an apostolic juggernaut."

The audience voted for a temporary leadership of the church by the Twelve. Yes, Tom.

The church today teaches that Brigham was transformed into a look-alike, sound-alike of Joseph, yet a search of the primary documents is far from convincing.

In current tradition, this was apparently taken as a sign that the apostles should be the temporary leaders of the church and not Sidney.

The funny thing is that the first recorded reference to this event was about three months after the conference and the vote.

Over time more and more people recorded the event in their journals.

To my understanding, most of the journal entries recording this event happened one to two decades after the conference actually happened.

This inconsistency in reporting leads to suspicion regarding the veracity of the accounts. No, Sam, the congregation did not sustain Brigham as president.

That is something that wouldn't happen for three more years, after which Brigham, as president of the Quorum of the Twelve, had been the defacto president of the church for an extended period of time. Okay, let's move on.

We could actually talk about all of the issues surrounding the succession for several weeks, but we don't have that luxury. To be clear, although the lesson manual implies by time association that Brigham was

the president in the Nauvoo time frame, it does mention that he was actually not sustained president until 1847 in the Salt Lake time frame. How about the Nauvoo temple and the temple ordinances?

What was the deal there? Yes, Sally.

The saints worked around the clock and gave their all to complete the temple.

Endowments, secret plural marriages, and regular monogamous marriages were performed.

It was considered to be a time of great, if not hurried, blessings as the saints were also preparing to leave Nauvoo. Yes, Sam.

I agree, it would have been difficult to have given your time, energy, talents, and money to the building of the temple, only to abandon it.

We see this time and again in the early church as the members were driven from their homes or followed the leaders from place to place.

The members were truly devoted and full of faith in their leaders. Yes, Jessica.

We don't know exactly what the endowment was at that point in time.

We do know that it changed significantly over time, subject possibly to the vagaries of the time and the whim of the leaders of the church.

To my understanding, the first time the endowment ceremony was actually written down was in the 1860's by John D. Lee.

We do know that at that time, the endowment had changed dramatically from the rarely mentioned "endowment" at Kirtland, which was essentially a form of washing and anointing.

We know that Joseph had implemented the Masonic rituals into the endowment at that point.

Although I understand that in the Salt Lake Endowment House, the endowment had grown in scope to be approximately a six hour event, I doubt it was that long in Nauvoo. Let's be clear, many members felt very blessed to receive their endowments and be married for eternity before leaving Nauvoo. Last topic.

As the saints hurriedly left Nauvoo, they were subject to many hardships.

The hardships that they endured and their faith to endure those hardships are inspirational to many.

They worked hard and endured much.

Their suffering was great.

My heart aches for what many of them endured, but I also see great human triumph in overcoming the challenges which they faced.

This initial exodus from Nauvoo is the start of the stories and histories of the Mormon Pioneers, among the most inspirational aspects of Mormon history. Okay, we are out of time.

Have a good labor day, and don't party too much.

I know it's Fast Sunday, but if you are interested, I have some left-over homemade fresh raspberry ice cream out in the van if you want to ditch priesthood meeting or relief society.