Lessons Learned

I am not sure where you were a year ago today, but I was undergoing what would turn into a 12 1/2 hour surgery on my brain at the U of U Medical Center in Salt Lake City. COVID-19 had forced hospitals in to a "no visitor" restriction, so at 4:30 a.m. that morning my son dropped me off at the curb and I walked through the doors of the hospital to check in all alone.

COVID-19 proved to be a formidable foe to conquer. It was hard to get any information for my wife and family. They became concerned as the hours wore on into the early evening. What could be taking so long? Finally, they received a phone call from one of the residents who had been in the operating room, who reported that the surgeon, Dr. Schmidt, had been required to do a lot more "chipping and hammering" than he had originally thought he would. 

Um, yeah, when I heard that I thought someone might want to give that resident a few tips on his bedside manner with the wives of their patients, even though it was a phone call. Turns out my particular brain surgery for the removal of a meningioma tumor (benign) involved chiseling inside my skull to remove the tumor that had adhered to the inside of my skull in the frontal lobe. It involved a little artistic advanced carpentry for Dr. Schmidt, who was more than up to the task. My vision in my right eye had deteriorated to 20/50 because of the tumor's tentacles that were wrapped around the optic nerve, so that was delicate. I went back to the ophthalmologist for a follow-up recently, who confirmed what I had known for months - my sight was restored to 20/20.

In fact, that word "restored" is an apt description of what happened to me. All the symptoms and the deficiencies caused by the compression of the brain tissue by the tumor that I had encountered for years leading up to the diagnosis and the surgery have been eliminated. Bodily functions have returned to their pre-cancerous condition. My strength in body and limbs has been restored through rehabilitation and therapy. I can now bear witness in part what the resurrection might someday look like. I know what it is to come through the dark valley of the shadow of death and back up to the mountain top of hope and sunshine.

So, what of the lessons learned? President Russell M. Nelson suggested some lessons that we might have learned during this past year in his recent General Conference address. In addition there are many sobering lessons I have learned personally that will never be forgotten. Among them:

Carl Bloch, The Pool of Bethesda

1. Never underestimate the adversary, who will destroy you in a moment if he could. I was in a weakened state unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. The doctors were pleased to inform me pre-surgery that their workup of my physical condition revealed that I had a strong heart and strong lungs. That was about all they could tell me that I was contributing to the operation. Everything else had been compromised. And Satan took full advantage of that reality. I was rescued more than once during my ordeal by ministering angels from the other side of the veil who strengthened me and protected me from the spirits who sought my destruction. I sensed there was a titanic struggle for my soul that was raging while I was so weak, and there was little I could do about it. The Savior is truly a Healer, as depicted above in Bloch's masterful painting.

2. The love we have for one another, though it may seem intangible and practically indiscernible on occasion, is in fact eternal in its nature and binds us to one another in every conceivable way. I came away from this year of isolation yearning for interaction with my family and friends. I plan to continue cherishing those relationships more than I ever have in the past. The restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, whether government- or self-imposed are gradually sliding into oblivion. Of course, some areas of the world are more affected than others, and we are grateful for where we are and we continue praying for nations like India where the pandemic continues to rage. I am grateful for the renewed perspective of love for others.

3. Enjoyment of the reality of home-based, Church-supported curriculum for our scripture study. This past year has seen the Church mature into a place I could only wish for many years ago when I lamented quietly and patiently in my personal journal that the Church seemed mired "in the thick of thin things," as Elder Neal A. Maxwell once expressed it. Today, we are a Christ-centered Church, and that development has been enhanced by the adversity we have passed through this last year. President Nelson saw it coming in the preparations and direction he gave for our home-based emphasis on gospel learning and application. The privilege of having the sacrament in our own homes while we were in isolation was profound and much appreciated. It has been years in the making, but it seems we are poised now to make major strides forward into the future with a laser-like focus on Christ's gospel.

4. I have learned never to take good health for granted. Recently, we were at dinner with two couples at a restaurant, something we haven't done for at least a year because of the pandemic. How rich that experience was for all of us. We are all of a certain age where it seems the main topic of conversation was health and wellness. One had recently had his third operation on a shoulder, after replacement surgeries on both hips and knees. The other had recently had a malignant skin cancer tumor removed from his neck, which followed three stents in his heart arteries that had saved his life. He joked that he's just giving up one body part at a time as he ages. We all had a story to tell, and that's what we all have to look forward to as we age. The law of entropy - that all things fail eventually - has never been more true. When you are young and vigorous, such thoughts of entropy are remote and seldom considered.

5. My love for my Savior has never been more full and complete. I was reminded of a great book that President Spencer W. Kimball wrote years ago entitled, Faith Precedes the Miracle. He is echoing the inspiration of Moroni, who wrote: ". . . it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief and all is vain." (Moroni 7:37). I have been rescued during this past year, beginning with my hours-long surgery one year ago today. I have never been so grateful for an outcome over which I had so little control. Just to be able to sit at my computer again and write the things of my soul is a gift of inestimable worth to me, all possible by the grace and goodness of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

"He Was Wounded For Our Transgressions"

Enough days have passed since a recent automobile accident that I can finally write about it. Up until three weeks ago all my near death experiences had involved horses. Now I can add a one-car roll over to that list.

It was a Thursday afternoon, and I was near home on my way from the office. The skies were clear, the air was warm, it was a perfect spring day. The stealthy all-electric Nissan Leaf I was driving was silently humming along. I put the car on cruise control at the posted speed limit, 50 mph. That was my last conscious memory until the car left the highway and started tumbling.

I hit a tree on the passenger side, and the force of the accident flipped it in midair and landed it on all four wheels in the opposite direction I had been traveling. The force of the impact came from the rear, smashing six of my ribs in my back. When the car came to rest I was strapped into my seat belt surrounded by destruction. All the windows were broken and shattered, and the interior was mangled beyond recognition. All the air bags deployed and I found myself in a protective cocoon inside the car. The car was a total loss.

I first moved my hands that had sustained some broken glass scratches and nicks, then my arms and legs, then my neck. I tried to reach for my cell phone, but the pain in my back was excruciating and I couldn't get it out of my pocket. I knew I had broken ribs, but I also knew my spine was not involved. I would live. I didn't lose consciousness throughout the ordeal. A passing motorist called for help on his cell phone and alerted Patsy.

In due time the paramedics arrived with an ambulance and I was transported on a back board with a neck brace to the emergency room at the Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake. The trip was nearly unbearable as I felt every bump in the road and the pain registered in my back.

I will spare the readers all the medical details. Suffice it to say I had never stayed overnight in a hospital in my entire life as a patient. I was told pain management was the only thing medicine had to offer me with my broken ribs. The trauma team put me through a CT scan from head to toe, and discovering no other injuries other than the cracked ribs, offered surgery to mend the bones with titanium plates on the six ribs, but when they described the benefits their case was not compelling enough to me. I opted for no surgery. They loaded me up with eight different meds in varying cocktails until they found a combination and frequency that worked. I was there for three days. Oxygen was added to aid my breathing.

When I left to go home, I discovered everything had changed and I had to begin again with even rudimentary tasks like learning how to go to the bathroom again with regularity. Showering was painful, but efficacious and it felt wonderful. Tiny shards of glass kept appearing as I showered and I meticulously picked them out of my skin. Eating was a chore, and nothing tasted right. My head was spinning. I was light-headed and dizzy. For those who talk about the benefits of masking pain with narcotics, I found them to be the antithesis of a desired life. I was walking with a walker to keep my balance, and I was admonished to practice my deep breathing to avoid pneumonia. Sleeping in a bed was nearly impossible, and I finally gave that up in favor sitting up in an overstuffed couch with pillows bracing my back. I was awake most nights, slept most days, and I found it difficult to discern the difference between night and day. Patsy was setting an alarm every two hours during the night and day to administer my meds.

Then, finally, after a week of all that at home I decided I'd had enough. I told her no more meds. I wanted to discover what my baseline of pain was without the meds, so I quit everything one night to see what would happen. I awoke to discover that I had slept and the pain was tolerable. Soon thereafter I quit the oxygen. By the time I went in for a follow-up exam with my doctor about a week and a half after the accident, I was walking unaided without oxygen and my blood was sustaining normal oxygenation levels again. His comment: "Your speedy recovery is an indication that your underlying health profile is excellent."

Based upon what I had been told at the hospital, I had expected 6 to 8 weeks of agonizing pain in the recovery process. In fact, I had gone back to the office and was driving again after 2 1/2 weeks.

I still feel some pain, but it is manageable. I am sleeping on both sides in bed without pain. My energy and stamina are still lagging, but I feel so blessed. My bruised and broken body is healing rapidly.

The rest of the story is that on scene at the accident site, the tow truck driver who came, along with the paramedics and the local police and volunteer fire department were all members of my ward. Patsy insisted that they give me a blessing before I was transported to the hospital, which they did. Then at the emergency room my sons who were nearby gathered and gave me another priesthood blessing. I was not appointed unto death (see D&C 42:48), and I am still healing and living on in mortality for purposes yet unknown to me. I am so grateful for this merciful deliverance. But for an inch or two here or there in that event, the outcome might have been very different.

Fifteen years ago this week, my mother passed away after a courageous battle with ovarian cancer. I became aware of her presence seated next to me last week in the chapel of the Woodland Ward at our fast and testimony meeting. I felt a distinct impression from her, "The time for us to be reunited is not yet. You have a work yet to do." My father, who still lives and is 93, was less comforting. He reminded me that I had arbitrarily taken away his car keys and sold his car to prevent this very kind of thing from happening to him. And now it had happened to me. Touche, father.

I have no idea what that work might involve, but I know I have gained added perspective on the suffering of our Savior in this Easter season. Never again when I read or sing the words about His broken and bruised body bleeding at every pore will I not personally connect and have immediate recognition of the degree of pain that was inflicted upon Him in the agonizing hours preceding His death and resurrection. While I may never know in full what that pain might have been, I have come to appreciate only in a small part what He must have suffered for each of us.

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5).

Elder Neal A. Maxwell offers this perspective:

". . . we are told that Jesus took upon Himself the infirmities of all of us in order 'that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.' (Alma 7:12. Italics added.) Being sinless Himself, Jesus could not have suffered for personal sin nor known what such agony is — unless He took upon Him our sins, not only to redeem us and to save us, but also in order that He might know how 'according to the flesh . . . to succor his people according to their infirmities.' A stunning insight!

"Thus the compassion of the divine Jesus for us is not the abstract compassion of a sinless individual who would never so suffer; rather, it is the compassion and empathy of One who has suffered exquisitely, though innocent, for all our sins, which were compounded in some way we do not understand. Though He was sinless, yet He suffered more than all of us. We cannot tell Him anything about suffering. This is one of the inner marvels of the atonement of Jesus Christ!" (Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, 35).

May we come to appreciate and understand what His liberating agony in Gethsemane and on Golgotha might mean to each of us, is my prayer.

Priesthood Blessings - Asking and Giving

Many years ago our son Rich was serving as a missionary in Canada. The question arose about when it was appropriate to give a priesthood blessing. Should we extend blessings only when the recipient asked for it as a demonstration of their faith? What about those who feel it would be inappropriate to impose upon other priesthood bearers because their request might be viewed as a sign of weakness that they weren't able to muster enough faith to be healed on their own?

For those who are unfamiliar with this practice in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is the privilege of those who hold the Melchizedek Priesthood to lay their hands on the sick after anointing them with consecrated oil and to pronounce a blessing as directed by the Holy Spirit. In the act of blessing there are often words of comfort expressed, as well as specific promises of healing when prompted to offer them.

These and other questions are addressed in my answer to his letter and then my subsequent commentary afterward.

January 18, 2001
Elder Richard Goates
4-957 7th St. E.
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan S6V 6T3
CANADA

Dear Rich:

That rarest of rare occurrences:  A personal letter to you!  [During those years we often had two missionaries out at the same time and they sometimes got the same letter].  Don’t panic, just some extra time to address a couple of thoughts that I’ve had concerning your recent journal pages.
 
First, it’s a joy to hear of your recent baptisms.  I always knew the harvest would come.  That’s just the way things tend to work out – after the sowing, nurturing and tending to the budding plants, then the harvest!  You have done everything and more that I could have hoped would happen when you planted your feet on the ground in Saskatchewan and went to work.  What a great legacy you have left to other missionaries who will come behind you!  Your labors and your efforts have been rewarded, when others around you have tended to falter!  There is no greater joy, trust me, than to come to the declining days of your mission and realize, looking back, that there isn’t a thing you would have changed (well, maybe only a few).  You are awesome, and the Lord has crowned your labors with success because of your faithfulness.

Having said that, there are still more days ahead for you.  The end is not yet!  Keep pushing, keep leading, keep encouraging and keep blessing. 

There was a reference in your journal pages to an elder who you didn’t know for sure that you should offer a blessing to, since you were waiting for him to ask.  This is a classic Mormon myth – that those seeking a blessing must first ask for it as a pre-requisite demonstration of their faith. 

Well, poppycock!  You offer to lift, to bless, to sanctify and to edify whenever you can.  Never hesitate to offer a blessing from the Lord’s hands if you are impressed to do it.  Sometimes people feel it in their hearts, but have to be invited to receive the blessing.  Sometimes it’s just shyness, or uncertainty, or whatever – a host of reasons – but you be swift to offer if you think it will help. 

One time in the bishop’s office, after meeting a new couple for the first time, the Spirit whispered and prompted me to ask, “So, Sister ____________ how’s your faith?”  I don’t know to this day where that comment came from – I don’t think I had ever asked that question before, especially to a stranger I had only met moments before for the very first time.  Tears welled up in her eyes, and she began to cry.  She said, “Well, I don’t think it’s very good.”  Then she proceeded with that gentle invitation to pour out a story about her medical condition that seemingly had no answer.  She had struggled with it for years, and there seemed to be no explanation why she was suffering so much. 

Long story short, we set a date where we could meet in her home later in the week to give her a blessing.  Her husband and I blessed her at the appointed hour after fasting and prayer for a day before we actually laid hands on her head.  She was healed.  As I blessed her I had words given to me.  She told me later that it was as though the Savior himself were pronouncing the blessing.  And that’s what the priesthood is all about – doing for others what the Savior himself would do if he were here in our shoes.  She said there was a tangible warm feeling that flowed through her that night from the top of her head down to the tips of her toes.  She knew she was healed that night, though the actual cessation of her symptoms did not occur until some weeks later.

And that’s just one example.  When Grandpa Brent was approaching his knee replacement surgery date a few weeks back, my sister Jane had filled me with all kinds of doubts and fears about it.  Early one morning – the clock said 5:22 a.m. – I was awakened with specific words in my mind about him.  I was told in certain detail about the surgery, its outcome, and his miraculous recovery from it despite the improbability of it given all Jane’s concerns.  The next time I saw Grandpa, I told him, “When the surgery gets closer, I have a blessing for you.”  Then I told him how it had come.  When we laid our hands on his head that night before the operation, I merely spoke the words as they had been given to me early that morning.  It was fulfilled even beyond my expectations, Dad’s, and even the doctor said, “This might just be the greatest surgical result I have ever seen with this operation.” 

I can’t explain it in rational terms.  Suppose he had died on the operating table?  It doesn’t make sense, except that those who are not appointed unto death are healed (see D&C 42:48).  That’s the Lord’s promise to the saints. 

Elders who, in administering to the sick, manifest such faith that it ignites faith in the individual who is ill “or otherwise afflicted,” have greater success than others who administer without sufficient faith.  Too often, we just go through the motions in administering blessings.  But the actual healing power of God enters the sick only when faith in Christ is present.  The recipient must exercise faith and also the giver.  We say of those who have great success in administration of the sick that they have the "gift of healing."  All the gifts of the Spirit, as enumerated in the scriptures (see D&C 46; Moroni 10; 1 Corinthians 12), rest on faith in Christ, and faith always precedes the miracle, not the other way around.  God rarely heals people so that others may believe – the faith always comes first.

After making clear in Section 42 of the Doctrine and Covenants that many who are administered to will not have faith enough to be healed, and urging the saints to use other healing methods on them as well as to administer to them, the Savior refers to a second group, those who have sufficient faith to be healed.  These will be healed "unless appointed unto death."

We must not misinterpret this passage, but it must be read in the light of the accompanying verses.  All who die are not appointed unto death.  Sometimes their death is due to lack of faith or our ignorance of how healing happens.  Sometimes their lives are cut short because of their own carelessness or the misused agency of others.  What is the significance of the passage "appointed unto death," then?  If all men were appointed unto death at a fixed time, our free agency would be lost. 

Such a doctrine is fatalism.  If fatalism were true, nothing we could do would either shorten or prolong our lives.  Births and deaths would become simply events that were predetermined before we were born.  Martin Luther and Calvin taught such doctrines and declared that the end of men was predestined from the beginning.  Joseph Smith denounced that idea, and always sought to increase the health of his people and to lengthen human life.

Having said that, we know from our own experiences in our family that sometimes life is shortened (as in the case of Adrienne, whose death was inexplicable by our finite reasoning), and in those cases it is appropriate to say that she was “appointed unto death,” simply because there is no other explanation available.  The Lord is so generous, and he is so anxious to bless, to comfort and to heal. 

Never hesitate, Rich, when you feel the impression to bless others – God would do it if he were in your shoes.  Once I even asked a husband who was a non-member to lay his hands on top of mine as I administered to his wife over some infertility concerns that they had.  He had the faith to do it.  But he didn’t even know the question.  That was all that was necessary.  The last time I talked to her she had four children!  He already knows that for the most part our faith as his children is weak.  If they respond, “Yes,” to your invitation for a blessing, that’s all the faith that’s needed – for heaven’s sake, it doesn’t matter who initiates the request.  It’s just a bogus Mormon myth without merit.

So, that’s it, that’s all I had on my heart for you today.  Based on your journal entries it sounds like you might be headed to Winnipeg?  Whatever path your remaining days may take, rest assured of my love for you.  I thrill with every letter, every new adventure.

I love you,

Dad

* * *

As to the second question about not wanting to "bother" others with our need to request a priesthood blessing, this often occurs in righteous, humble men who may be leaders in the Church, but are filled with an insidious and subtle form of pride. They won't ask for help from others until they reach the utmost boundaries of their extremity because they think asking for the Lord's help would be showing a sign of weakness to those whom they lead. I've seen this phenomenon not once but many times in fine men and women whose lives demonstrate nothing but the highest degree of integrity and altruistic desires to bless and serve others.

It's sad to see this in otherwise intelligent and strong-willed men. It's like trying to cure oneself of cancer with homeopathic remedies (nothing wrong with that), but before they seek out skilled physicians for a scientific diagnosis, people who may possess the healing cures they so desperately need. So it is with accessing the atonement in our lives. We often think we must somehow "prove" ourselves worthy before we approach the throne of grace. How backward is that? I've never yet seen a man, woman or child blessed who figuratively laid their own hands on themselves. We serve one another and there is no other way.

The healing powers of the atonement of Jesus Christ extend into every conceivable facet of our lives. If we are sinners (and we all are), we may seek forgiveness because of the atonement's healing balm. If we have been sinned against (and we all have), we may extend forgiveness to others because we ourselves have felt the healing we have received from the atonement's power. If we are sick, no matter who we are and regardless of which position we hold or don't hold in the outward Church, we can submit our iron-clad will, humble ourselves sufficiently and seek to be healed no matter what label our ailment may have.

Perhaps we hold back not from asking only for reasons that we don't want to disturb others by having to ask them to administer to us, but also because secretly we may not believe we have sufficient faith to be healed. Whatever the reasons may be, what is needed is enough humility and meekness to submit our will to His. When we need help it is always and forever instantly available. And sometimes the need for repeated blessings at frequent intervals for the same ailment is just the opposite of what may appear to be weakness of faith. It may, instead, be an expression of deep and abiding faith in whatever outcome the Lord has in store for us.

We had a woman in our ward who bore a simple testimony when her husband returned to the Church after years of inactivity. She simply said, "I put his name on the temple prayer rolls of five temples every week." Some miracles take time.

All of the thoughts - I would say ANY thought - that keep us from accessing healing powers are satanic thoughts by their very nature, and are designed to block us from the power of the atonement through our Lord Jesus Christ's suffering for us. He has already felt our pain no matter what its source or the form it takes. Our pain could be psychological, mental, physical or spiritual. He knows our doubts and fears because He was besieged with those same doubts and fears in much larger doses at the hands of Satan. He bowed under the weight of all of it in Gethsemane, which included the weight of all our sins, all our pain, all our doubts and fears, and all our uncertainty and lack of faith. He is able to save us from all of it. That is the reason the atonement is so frequently referred to as "infinite and eternal" in the scriptures. No one in the human family of God, dead, living or unborn, is excluded from its far-reaching benefits.

All that is required from each of us is the humility and meekness to access its power through our humility and faith. Asking for THAT kind of help was NEVER a sign of weakness. What is subsequently required after receiving the blessings is listening carefully to the voice of the Lord as He answers in His timing of what is best for our eternal welfare.

Beware of False Doctrines

In the past week I have been exposed to three false doctrines. I'll confess this is not a rare occurrence, though I wish I could say our members were well grounded in the true doctrines so the false ones wouldn't ever see the light of day.

Here they are:

1. That openly gay men are holding positions of authority in the priesthood and the Church is softening its position over the LGBT agenda. These stories often come as anecdotal references like, "I have a friend who lives in Southern California in a ward where an openly gay man in a relationship with another man is the president of the elders' quorum." Beware of these kinds of stories, because they simply are not true. Someone is soon going to have to start a Snopes page to sniff out these falsities and expose them for what they are.

After responding to the person who shared this latest story with me, the Church issued a statement on its Newsroom Blog page refuting these kinds of claims. In part the blog post said:

"In this period that many are calling another 'Mormon Moment,' Mattingly correctly asserts, 'If people make claims about evolving Mormon doctrines, look for names, titles and clear statements of attribution.'

"There is a lot of interest in the Church and a lot being written about it. It's important for the public to distinguish between fact, opinion and personal advocacy."

2. I received an e-mail from a well-informed young man who is a student of the scriptures. In the e-mail he quoted Heber C. Kimball to the effect that our Heavenly Father was not only the Father of our spirits, but also the Father of our physical bodies.

"I have a question that I’ve been pondering for some time and thought you might be able help me with it.  As I have studied the creation more I find the verses in Moses 2:27-28 and Genesis 1:27-28 perplexing.  When it speaks of creating man it does not mention that they are created of the dust in these verses until the next chapter in verse Moses 3:7 - It mentions that they form man again this time out of the dust and man becomes the “first flesh upon the earth”. So I conclude that the account of the days 1-6 of creation is actually the spiritual creation, and the physical creation happened on the 7th day or at least the creation of man (D&C 77:12).  This brings me to my question, I want to know what the above verses mean when it says '…be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth'? Because Adam and Eve are only spirits at this point… So, Is Heavenly Father teaching them that this will be their role in life…? Or is he asking them to spiritually pro-create at this point? And this would allow them to create spiritual tabernacles in the same way we create physical tabernacles in mortality…?"

Elder Harold B. Lee

His question reminded me specifically of a quote from Elder Harold B. Lee that arose out of his summer lecture series in 1954, where his audience was comprised of Seminary and Institute instructors. During the summer he discussed many and varied doctrinal topics, and in particular this one referenced in the e-mail to me. I responded by saying I had read the entire Heber C. Kimball discourse in its original source and that one statement appeared to me to have been lifted out of context. This is a favorite tactic of anti-Mormon writers who delight in this practice to misrepresent and embarrass current leaders of the Church whose statements are pitted against the early leaders of the Church to create intentional conflict. Said Elder Lee:

"It is just as dangerous for teachers of religion to teach as absolute facts that can't be controverted, something that still is in the realm of speculation and theory, and when you find someone who is writing a book in which they speak with a pedantic authority as though it were an accomplished fact and couldn't be gainsaid, then you put a question mark by it and write 'theory.' I will tell you what I do, as I read these many books that come (and I think the day is here when we have got to be more discriminating in our reading than ever before).

"Let me suggest a method. As you read these books, no matter who writes them, read carefully down the record and where their teaching is in complete agreement with the revelations that the Lord has given us and with the teachings of the scriptures, accept it as being fact, but where they go off into imaginative suppositions or speculations that are not fully proved by the scriptures, write out in the margin, the name of the author. It is his idea, you see. Distinguish as between the individual's idea and that which is supported by scriptures. It is perfectly all right for us to get another's idea. . .

"Talk in simple language -- keep your teachings just as simple as the Lord has told it -- simple for the purpose that he told Moses, 'To bring to pass the immortality and the eternal life of man.' (Moses 1:39). He showed Moses the history of this world, who saw it in vision, but of all things else pertaining to the rest of the universe, he didn't show him. Perhaps if we had the full story of the creation of the earth and man told to us in great detail, it would be more of a mystery than the simple few statements that we have contained in the Bible, because of our lack of ability to comprehend. Therefore, for reasons best known to the Lord, he has kept us in darkness. Wait until the Lord speaks, or wait until that day when he shall come, and when we shall be among the privileged either to come up out of our graves and be caught up into the clouds of heaven or shall be living upon the earth likewise to be so translated before him. Then we shall know all things pertaining to this earth, how it was made, and all things that now as children we are groping for and trying to understand.

"Let's reserve judgment as to the facts concerning the creation until we know these things for sure. Then let us answer those who offer their theories with reference to the creation, which come from men: 'We don't know, and nobody knows.' Label 'theory' by the name of the man who gave us the theory and think of it as has been said by Elder [James E.] Talmage, as merely the scaffolding, until the walls of our faith are built and that glorious day when we are permitted to enter into the presence of the Lord and receive greater instructions."
(Elder Harold B. Lee, manuscript copy of 1954 lecture series at BYU for Seminary and Institute instructors [unpublished], pp. 38, 44).

3. A text message asking if I was aware that the "matriarchal priesthood" was going to be restored to the earth before the Second Coming. When I inquired further into the origins of the statement, I discovered there are many women who have spiritual gifts enabling them to heal physical, emotional and spiritual ailments of all kinds. These women are wonderful examples to me of deeply spiritual and committed individuals who exercise supernal gifts of the Spirit. One of those enumerated gifts in the scriptures (see Moroni 10; D&C 46; 1 Corinthians 12) is the gift of healing. Spiritual gifts, of course, are not distinguishable between male and female, and often operate outside the authoritative priesthood keys that are the domain of men only. They are clearly explained in the context of the spiritual keys of power available to men and women without regard to their free exercise by males or females. In the past Scott Strong and I have written extensively about these distinctions, and I would refer you to our compilation on these topics.

There can be little doubt these spiritual gifts can, do and have always existed among women in the Church. The evidence they are efficacious and beneficial for many is irrefutable. However, there is no need to force the invention of a modality linking this spiritual gift to the priesthood keys of authority to somehow reach for authenticity. Such is a false idea and if pursued would foul the pure channel from which the gift flows to those individuals so endowed.

That said, the exercise of the spiritual gifts and discerning of how the those gifts exercised by others within the boundary of his congregation is clearly within the domain of priesthood leaders and the priesthood keys of authority he holds. (See D&C 46 and 50). However, to assert that women must have something called the "matriarchal order of the priesthood" to freely exercise their spiritual gift is absolutely false on its face.

Ask yourselves, when confronted with such ideas, "In all my life in the Church, have I ever heard anyone in a position of authority offer such an idea?"

If the answer to that simple question is "NO," then leave it where you found it and don't pick it up again. Left unchecked and unchallenged, repeated to the uninformed and gullible, these ideas gain more power than they deserve to garner.