A Gentile Curiosity

When Arocet Hale was working his wheat fields and saw, for the first time, a group of gold seekers entering the Salt Lake Valley on their way to California, he went to their camp. What was the first thing they desired to see?

A)                 The Book of Mormon

B)                 Gold dust

C)                 Brigham Young

D)                 The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Yesterday’s answer:

(A)    Mary Whitmer

We know of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon and also the Eight Witnesses, nevertheless, what may not be familiar to some was the fact that there was another witness; and that witness happened to be the only female. The following is recorded by David Whitmer regarding a miraculous appearance by the Angel Moroni to his mother, Mary. This was at the time when Joseph, Emma, and Oliver moved into the Whitmer cabin at Fayette, New York to escape the persecutions in the Harmony, Pa. area.

   “My father and mother had a large family . . . the addition to it . . . of Joseph, his wife Emma and Oliver very greatly increased the toil and anxiety of my mother,” she was met by the Angel Moroni, who said to her, “You have been very faithful and diligent in your labors, but you are tired . . . it is proper therefore that you should receive a witness that your faith may be strengthened.” Thereupon, the messenger showed Mary the plates, turning them over leaf by leaf, that she might know that the work was true. He promised her that if she endured in faith to the end, her reward would be sure.

Millennial Star 40 (May 2, 1878): 772-73.

An Angel’s Verification

Which Latter-day Saint listed below did the Angel Moroni appear to?

A.      Mary Whitmer

B.      Emma Smith

C.      Lot Smith

D.     Warren Cowdery

Yesterday’s answer:

(D)   Utah

   William Paul Daniels was one of the first people of African descent to receive the gospel in Africa. He was born 28 August 1864 in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and served for 16 years as a deacon in the Dutch Reformed Church before being taught by the missionaries in 1913. Deeply impressed with the gospel message, he traveled with two of his sons to Utah in 1915 to observe Church members and more thoroughly study the gospel. During this eight-month visit, Brother Daniels was baptized. Prior to returning to South Africa, he received counsel from Elder David O. McKay of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who told him: “Don’t’ worry, Brother Daniels. If you don’t hold the priesthood on earth, you will hold it in heaven.” He also received a blessing from President Joseph F. Smith, which meant a great deal to him throughout his life.

   After Brother Daniels returned home he lived as a faithful Latter-day Saint, but the social atmosphere at the time made it difficult for his family to participate in Church meetings or activities. They usually held church in their home, and each Monday evening they studied Jesus the Christ. They called their family gatherings the “Branch of Love.”

Arnold K. Garr et al., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2000), 274

Baptism Abroad

Baptism Abroad

 William Paul Daniels was one of the first individuals of African descent to hear the gospel while residing in South Africa. Where was he baptized?

A.      England

B.      Africa
C.      Australia
D.     Utah

Yesterday’s answer:

 (D)   A wigwam

In the summer of 1862, President Brigham Young came through Dixie. The people were so glad to see him that they took every means in their power to make everything as comfortable for him as possible. I remember too, when he stopped at Harrisberg at the time Dr. Pridy Meeks, my brother-in-law, and I, with our families were living in willow rooms that joined. The President stopped with us. He sat at the head of the table and had me sit down at his right. The President, when everything was ready, asked a blessing, then all began to eat. He asked for some buttermilk; then crumbed some bread in it and began to eat. He conversed freely on the situation of the Saints in the mountains, and said that he dreaded the time when the Saints would become popular with the world; for he had seen in sorrow, in a dream, or in dreams, this people clothed in the fashions of Babylon and drinking in the spirit of Babylon until one could hardly tell a Saint from a black-leg. And he felt like shouting, "To your tents, Oh Israel!" because it was the only thing that could keep the people pure. "I know that my families court the ways of the world too much," said he, "And our hope lies in the Lamanites. I hope that you brethren who labor among the Indians will be kind to them. Remember that someday they will take their position as the rightful heir to the principles of life and salvation, for they never will give up the principles of this Gospel. Many of this people for the sake of riches and popularity, will sell themselves for that which will canker their souls and lead them down to misery and despair. It would be better for them to dwell in wigwams among the Indians than to dwell with the gentiles and miss the glories which God wishes them to obtain. I wish my families would see the point and come forth before it is too late. For oh, I can see a tendency in my families to hug the moth-eaten customs of Babylon to their bosoms. This is far more hurtful to them than the deadly viper; for the poisons of the viper can be healed by the power of God, but the customs of Babylon will be hard to get rid of."

Autobiography of Mosiah Hancock, Typescript, BYU-S; htpp://www.boap.org/

A Prophetic Concern

On one occasion pioneer Mosiah Hancock ate at the same table with Brigham Young when President Young stated the Saints should live in what?

A.      A sod roof cabin

B.      An adobe hut

C.      The largest frame house affordable

D.     A wigwam

Yesterday’s answers:

1.      (D)   30 years of age (see Numbers 4:1-3)

2.      (D)   All of the above
It is true that Adam helped to form this earth along with Jesus Christ. Others involved could be Enoch, Noah, and possibly even Joseph Smith.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1956), 1:74-5.

3.      (B)   The American Revolution
In Old Testament times, the Mosaic Law stipulated the age of the soldiers. All able-bodied men twenty-years-old and up were eligible for military service. This standard continued into the American Revolution.

Old Testament Student Manual, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1980), 226.

4.      (A)   A person who devoted their life to the Lord
A Nazarite was a man or woman who took a voluntary vow to separate his life for the service of the Lord, or to live consecrated unto Him. Being a Nazarite had nothing to do with coming from the town of Nazareth.

C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch. Commentary on the Old Testament. 10 bks. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., n.d.), 1:3:34.

5.      (B)   Abraham
Abraham’s vision of the Lord parallels Joseph Smiths experience at the time of the first vision, as it states that Abraham had “a horror of great darkness fell upon him.”

Genesis 15:12

6.      (C)   Is a celestial world
President Joseph Fielding Smith said: It is my opinion that the great stars that we see, including our sun, are celestial worlds; at least worlds that have passed on to their exaltation or other final resurrected status. This is in conflict, of course, with the teachings of scientific men, who declare that the sun is losing its energy and gradually cooling off and will eventually be a dead world. I do not believe the Lord has any such thing in his plan. The Lord lives in “everlasting burnings” we are informed. President Brigham Young had said that this earth when it is celestialzed will shine like the sun, and why not?
Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1956), 1:

Sunday Tidbits- The Bible and Church Teachings

1.      How old was a male when he first received the Aaronic Priesthood at the time of Moses?

A)     12

B)     75

C)     1

D)     30

2.      It is true that Adam (Michael) helped Jesus Christ in the creation of the world, but who are some other probable helpers in this endeavor?

A)     Enoch

B)     Noah

C)     Joseph Smith

D)     All of the above

3.      The Mosaic Law stipulates that 20 is the age when a man can first go to war. To what war was this the standard?

A)     World War II

B)     The American Revolution

C)     The Utah War

D)     The Civil War

4.      What is a Nazarite?

A)     A person that devotes his life to Heavenly Father

B)     A person from Nazareth

C)     A religious fanatic

D)     A sheep herder

5.      Prior to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ first appearing to Joseph Smith, he was over powered for a moment by Satan. What other Old Testament prophet had the same experience?

A)     Adam

B)     Abraham

C)     Enoch

D)     Jacob

6.      President Joseph Fielding Smith teaches that our sun is what?

A)     Slowly losing its energy and dying

B)     Made up of gases that keeps the earth warm

C)     Is a celestial world

D)     The place where Heavenly Father and Christ dwell

Yesterday’s answer:

(D) George Albert Smith

The church had gone full circle after being rejected by Martin Van Buren in 1839 to President George Albert Smith offering the prayer to open the U.S. Senate session (20^th May, 1947), the first Church leader to be so invited. President Hugh B. Brown repeated this same honor on 20^th May 1966 and then Elder Gordon B. Hinckley gave the invocation at the U.S. Congress on September 12, 1974.

Richard Neitzel Holzpfel et al., On This Day In The Church (Salt Lake City: Eagle Gate, 2000), 100, 177.

A Prophets Political Prayer

Who was the first prophet invited to open a Senate Session with prayer?

A)     Joseph Smith

B)     John Taylor

C)     Gordon B. Hinckley

D)     George Albert Smith

Yesterday’s answer:

(B) To elect territorial officers

Territorial officers were again discussed in the Council of Fifty on 4 March 1849, when a slightly modified slate was nominated by the council: Brigham Young, governor; Willard Richards, secretary of state; Heber C. Kimball, chief justice; Newel K. Whitney and John Taylor, associate judges; Horace S. Eldredge, marshal; Daniel H. Wells, attorney general; Albert Carrington, assessor and collector; Newel K. Whitney, treasurer; and Joseph L. Heywood, supervisor of roads. Further, the council voted to hold a general “election” on 12 March where the citizenry would be given the opportunity to ratify this slate. Such an “election,” unthinkable in any other part of the United States, was typical in Mormondom; officers were nominated by the Church leaders and then presented to the lay members for their sustaining vote. Despite a heavy snowstorm, the election came off as scheduled; 674 votes were polled in favor of the ticket, none in opposition.

Peter Crawley, “The Constitution of the State of Deseret.” BYU Studies, Fall 1989, 10.

Pioneer Election

The first election held in the Salt Lake Valley on March 12, 1849 was to vote for what?

 A)                 To determine if Brigham Young should continue to lead the church

B)                 To elect territorial officers

C)                 To elect a new Relief Society presidency, which had been disbanded in Nauvoo five years earlier

D)                 To determine if the Saints should relocate to Vancouver Island in Canada since they had gone full circle from fighting mobbers to fighting crickets

Yesterday’s answer:

(A) 1894

In order to boost the academic qualifications of his faculty in the short run, (Benjamin Cluff Jr.) Cluff broke with tradition and hired non-Mormons. In 1894, he hired his first gentile faculty member, Abby Calista Hale, a graduate of Clark College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the niece of U.S. Senate Chaplain Edward Everett Hale. Although she never embraced Mormonism, she loved Utah, regarded Mormonism favorable, and later quipped that she was “not so very ‘non’” as some feared.

Ernest L. Wilkinson, ed., Brigham Young University: the First One Hundred Years, 4 vols. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1975-76)1:258-59; Abby Calista Hale to Benjamin Cluff, April 6, 1897, President’s Records.

Professor for Hire

What year was the first non-LDS faculty member hired at the Brigham Young Academy?

A)                 1894

B)                 1903

C)                 1924

D)                 1897

Yesterday’s answer:

(C) An unattended yoke of oxen

“During our first day's travel we came to a bad slue crossing in the road, and we got stuck fast so that we were compelled to unload in order to get out, but even then our team was not able to pull the empty wagon out. But just then, a large, fine yoke of oxen came along the road behind us overtaking us, unattended by any person, and which we considered very providential aid. So I hitched them on the wagon with my own team, and pulled out easily. I then turned the strange oxen loose again, loaded in the things we had taken out, and traveled on. We looked upon that aid and help as being directly from our Heavenly Father. After that, we got stuck in bad places several times, and had to unload in order to pull out but only a few days passed, and Brother Ezra Clark with a small company overtook us, and then we had no more trouble. When we came to bad places, we were in duty bound to help each other.”

Autobiography of Jonathan Crosby, typescript, Utah State Historical Society. Holograph is also located in the Utah State Historical Society; http://www.boap.org/