S5E1 Joseph Smith Raising the Dead

Summary

Podcast Summary: Standard of Truth S5E1 – "Joseph Smith Raising the Dead"

Introduction

Standard of Truth, hosted by Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU, delves into the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) to enhance understanding and strengthen faith among its listeners. In Season 5, Episode 1, titled "Joseph Smith Raising the Dead," Dr. Dirkmaat explores one of the more miraculous aspects of Prophet Joseph Smith's ministry: his ability to heal the sick and purportedly raise the dead.

Listener Engagement and Mailbag Insights

The episode begins with light-hearted banter between Dr. Dirkmaat and his co-host, Dr. Richard Leduc, as they navigate the commencement of a new season and share amusing anecdotes about listener interactions. A significant portion of their emails originates from missionaries, particularly those in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission. Dr. Dirkmaat humorously notes the influx of emails from individuals falsely claiming missionary status to gain airtime.

Notably, they highlight the "Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown" mailbag, celebrating a notable female figure in LDS history who exemplifies dedication and resilience. A listener, Ryan, identifies as a descendant of Brown, prompting a discussion on her impactful contributions, including her role as the first postmaster in Draper, Utah, and her involvement in the Mormon Battalion march.

Historical Accounts of Miracles in Joseph Smith’s Ministry

The core of the episode focuses on historical accounts and personal testimonies surrounding Joseph Smith's miraculous abilities:

1. Wilford Woodruff's Testimony ([20:07]):

   • Dr. Leduc shares an email from Elder Leduc, questioning the influence of the Hamilton Plan on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. However, the discussion shifts to Wilford Woodruff's journal entries detailing Joseph Smith's healing miracles.
   • Woodruff recounts moments when Joseph Smith healed the sick through prayer and the laying on of hands. For instance, on July 22, 1839, Woodruff describes a day he refers to as "a day of God's power," where Smith commanded the sick to arise and be made whole, including specific individuals like Elder Elijah Fordham and Joseph Nobles.

2. Brigham Young’s Accounts ([23:54]):

   • The hosts delve into Brigham Young’s manuscripts, which, while not directly recorded in his personal journals, describe similar miraculous healings. These accounts emphasize Smith's role in healing multiple individuals, reinforcing the narrative of his divine gift.

3. Levi Curtis and William Huntington’s Narrative ([52:46]):

   • An excerpt from the June 15, 1892, issue of Juvenile Instructor features Elder Levi Curtis recounting William D. Huntington's experience of being miraculously healed by Joseph Smith. Huntington describes being on the verge of death when Smith and two brethren administered a blessing with a red silk handkerchief, resulting in his recovery.

4. Modern Miracles and Personal Experiences ([37:01]):

   • Dr. Dirkmaat shares a personal missionary experience where he and a companion provided a blessing to a severely injured woman in a Wisconsin hospital. Despite grim medical prognoses, the woman significantly recovered, leading to a transformative experience for her parents and reaffirming the hosts' belief in ongoing miracles within the church.

Analysis of Sources and Reliability

Dr. Dirkmaat critically examines the reliability of these accounts, distinguishing between primary sources (e.g., journals of Joseph Smith, Wilford Woodruff) and secondary or tertiary sources (e.g., Juvenile Instructor articles recounting others' testimonies). He acknowledges the challenges in verifying miraculous events, especially those recounted years later or through indirect narratives. Nonetheless, the consistency across multiple accounts from different individuals lends credence to the authenticity of these miracles.

Theological Implications and Faith Perspectives

The discussion extends to the theological significance of miracles within the LDS faith:

• God’s Will and Human Agency:

  • Dr. Dirkmaat emphasizes that while Joseph Smith possessed divine gifts, the efficacy of miracles depended on God's will. Not every prayer for healing was answered, reflecting the LDS belief in a balance between divine intervention and personal agency.

• Modern-Day Miracles:

  • Addressing skepticism, the hosts argue that miracles continue to occur, albeit often unnoticed or unheralded. They highlight that contemporary miracles may manifest as personal transformations, spiritual awakenings, or subtle acts of divine kindness, rather than overt, widely-publicized events.

Concluding Insights

The episode concludes with a reaffirmation of faith in divine miracles, drawing connections between historical accounts and contemporary experiences within the LDS community. Dr. Dirkmaat and Dr. Leduc underscore the enduring belief in Joseph Smith's prophetic gifts and the continued presence of miracles through the Holy Spirit's work in believers' lives.

Notable Quotes

• Dr. Richard Leduc ([20:07]):

  "I have listened to the first three seasons in about a month and a half and I figured when I caught up then I would only consider the premium content."

• Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat ([20:08]):

  "He mentions in passing that if he had more time that he could tell the story of the prophet Joseph Smith raising someone from the dead..."

• Elder Levi Curtis via Juvenile Instructor ([52:46]):

  "Brother Huntington ate the bowl of bread and milk with as good a relish as he ever ate... I testify that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God."

• Dr. Dirkmaat ([38:10]):

  "We have dozens and dozens and dozens of miracles. And if I opened up the floodgates to the people listening, I would receive hundreds, if not thousands of emails from other people that have experienced, seen, and witnessed miracles."

Closing Remarks

Dr. Dirkmaat and Dr. Leduc wrap up the episode by encouraging listeners to share the podcast with others who might benefit from its insights. They reiterate their commitment to exploring and elucidating the rich history of the LDS Church, fostering both understanding and faith among their audience.

Timestamp Highlights

• [00:01 - 01:07]: Introduction and season announcement.
• [02:25 - 05:07]: Discussion on Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown and listener emails.
• [20:07 - 38:34]: Deep dive into Joseph Smith’s miracles, historical accounts, and personal testimonies.
• [52:46 - 70:50]: Analysis of sources, theological implications, and modern miracles.

Final Thoughts

"Joseph Smith Raising the Dead" offers a comprehensive exploration of one of the most profound aspects of Joseph Smith's ministry. Through meticulous examination of historical records and personal testimonies, Dr. Dirkmaat and Dr. Leduc present a nuanced perspective that honors faith while engaging with historical complexities. This episode serves as a valuable resource for Latter-Day Saints seeking to deepen their understanding of their church's miraculous foundations.

Transcript

[Narrator]

Welcome to the Standard of Truth podcast. In this podcast, Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat and Dr. Richard Leduc explore the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the life and teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. They examine the original historical sources and provide context for events of the past. They approach the history of the church with faith, expertise and humor.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Foreign. Hi. Welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast. Another. Another season, actually, of the Standard of Truth podcast is that season five.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Happy New Year, Garrett.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Wow. I'm your host, Dr. Garrett Dirkmont, and I'm joined by Dr. Richard Leduc. I just realized that this is a new season, so when you said there's no way that we'll make it a second season, now we're in. We're in season five.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Season five. We've made it.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, I feel like we're a staple now. You know, we're essentially, you know, we're like carrots and jello at this point.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, yeah. Well, certainly in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission, we certainly appear to be.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

But it is funny. We receive, we receive hundreds of emails a month and dozens, sometimes as many as 100 emails a week from listeners. We receive, I think 99% of them from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania missionaries. They just now a whole bunch of people are taking to just lying about being in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Mission because they think that that will get us to read their email on the air. And so they're like, actually, I. Not really I'm in this mission. But they'll reference the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Mission because they know that's how they can get some airtime.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, so in the California Riverside Mission, at least in the year 1999 through parts of 2000, when President Hayes was there, he was one of. I had two mission presidents. He was one of them. He's great, great guy. And he would always say, the only true mission, California Riverside. I am now of the belief that the only true mission is the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission. It's the only true mission.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

It seems like it. Or at least the one with only the true missionaries.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I mean, well, certainly. Well, Garrett, we do have an Afibi Draper Palmer Brown mailbag. And by the way, we do hear from people. Anytime I drop off any part of that name, listeners who are part of that line email in to let me know that it's important that we get the whole name in.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

So we had someone email us just this last week who was a descendant who had just barely.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Brown.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, no, Ryan had emailed and he's like, I hear you guys, you know, Referencing the Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown mailbag. I'm curious how that came about. You know, so. And he says that he's a descendant, but we do talk about it several times about how we started off just doing random postmasters, and then we decided that instead of, you know, people that were terrible people or the first postmasters in Quebec, which may or may not be the same person, I don't know, that we would do a Latter Day Saint hero from, from church history.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Phoebe.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Who was incredible.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, she's a. If you were to make like a. If you were to make a female forest Gump version of Latter Day Saint history.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

By that you mean that she's just there? That's the only.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

No, no, no, no. She's. She's obviously brilliant, but I mean, I mean that. You know, the whole premise of Forrest Gump is he's gonna, he's gonna be there for literally every major event of his, of his timeline. Right. He's, he's there with the Alabama football game. He's. He's there with the ping pong diplomats, with. With Nixon. He's there, you know, with, with Lyndon Johnson and the wounded soldiers in the White House. I mean, he, he's there forever. He's there for the protest on, on, on, you know, the Washington Mall. He's there for everything. And, and, and so you're kind of, you're doing history through the, you know, through him being this kind of person going through the past. And of course he has his own story and whatnot. But Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown, she really did do almost everything, including March. The entire Mormon battalion march. Now, there's not a lot of people that can say that half the men who started out went back home, let alone her. And then she became the first postmaster in Draper, Utah, which maybe there was some nepotism there, I don't know. Because Draper, Phoebe Draper, I don't know. Maybe. But. So that's why we dedicate to her because she's an amazing person from church history.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

She is. And we're going to dive straight in. This first email comes to us from Collins. As predicted in fallacies forgeries in football, there likely were Descendants of the 1897 by a football team. Listening. My great grandfather, John A. Johanson is pictured with the 1897 team. He. He goes on to ask for sources of the report. And then he goes on to say that the. The game against the Crescents will be a hit at his next family reunion.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

And the greatest family reunion story ever.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Quite. I wonder how many of them Would even knew perhaps.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, I mean, he did say that he, you know, changed. He. He changed his ways. He left BYU and became a better person. I don't know if that's. You went to BYU for a while and then left and became a better person.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

It's true. Go forth and stop drinking.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

That's right. We don't win. We can't.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

He wasn't drinking. We don't know.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

We know that the crowd was drunk and we know the crowd was in a fist fight with the referee. We know that. We also know that it was on the campus. It was at. It was. It was on the campus. So it was a home game and everyone was drunk and the referee was being assaulted by the crowd who then stormed the field.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

So yeah, I mean, I feel like the fight in Crescents started it. It's a classic Crescent smooth.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, they know that they didn't get that fumble. They know that they didn't. Yeah. Next thing you know anyway, so.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, so. So John Johansson ends up in his short lived football career. He moves up to southern Alberta, raises eight wonderful children and became a farmer for the rest of his life. So there you go.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

He became more domesticated. He settled down from the rough and tumble violence of football in the 1890s.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, so now Christmas was. Was a week ago. But we did get some suggestions of possible Christmas songs that align to the podcast. This comes to us from. From Sam. Now, the first one, Sam's coming in hot. I saw mommy kissing John C. Bennett. Which is not appropriate.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Wow.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

It's not appropriate. It's not funny. I'm not laughing at it.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, I feel like when you first read it, you did laugh.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I laughed very hard, actually. I thought one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life. But it's not appropriate and we do not condone that.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Here.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

There's another one, Still Water. I think that's good.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

That's an homage to you and your recent homage. Go post your recent dissertation completion.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Good Dr. Hurlbut, which is. That's funny.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, I can't even. That's one. That's not funny. Yeah.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

And then Star of Wonder, Retzlov's Light 2221. The call was right. I think that also Sam's going hard.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

In the paint for all of our U of U listeners.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yes, it's very. It's very good. Well, so Garrett, this next one comes to us from a missionary who was very nice to spell her name out the way that it should be pronounced.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Now, are you going to pronounce it incorrectly anyway.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I might because I am a poor reader, but I'm not going to do it on purpose.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Okay, well, I just wondered.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

You know, you know all the best parts about like having a stuttering problem and then you're in second grade and you have to read in front of the class. I get the opportunity to do that every week and I don't have a stuttering problem. I'm just a poor reader. And it's a great, it's a great blessing that I'm grateful.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Have you ever seen the King's Speech? I keep hoping that you're just gonna, you're gonna turn the corner and the next thing you know you'll be speaking to the Allies.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

No, no, no, I have not, I've not, I've not seen that. But I'm still, I'm not, I've not seen it. I'm familiar with the premise.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Dad.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yes. So it is funny. Actually, it does remind me of something. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna say which, which child it is that did this, but so, you know, we try to watch appropriate shows in our, in our house. And my son comes home from, from his mission and asks for Vid angel, you know, so he can watch shows because he's, you know, on the higher spiritual plane than the rest of his family and so hold him down. Yeah, right. So one of my kids referenced a movie that he watched that is not an appropriate movie to watch. And he said that he watched it on Vidangel. And I'm like, no, you didn't. It's not on Vidangel. And I, I, well, that's one of.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Your all time fails if you claim. Oh, yeah, no, no, I saw, I saw it edited.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I saw it edited on Vidangel. It's not on Vidangel, so. No, you didn't.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, I mean, I saw it on tv. It's never been on tv.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

And first of all, I should have been more upset than I was. I, I called him on it. But then now all we do as our family is anytime we reference a movie, we'll just say, oh, yeah, that's inappropriate. It's like, oh, we'll just, we'll just watch it on Vidajal, even though it's.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Not a Vid angel subscription in years.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

So I'm going to look, I'm going to look for the King Speech on Vidangel and see if I can find it there and I'll watch. Hey, my name is Laura Le. I believe that's Pronounced correctly. And I've been called to the Columbus, Ohio, mission. Spanish speaking. Well, now, that's. First of all, I believe I've said this on the podcast. I believe this at my. There are a few things I believe more at my core than foreign language. United States missions are the best. It's all the culture, half the diarrhea.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Although she. She will be going to Ohio in the winter, it sounds like.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, that's. That's tough. My son serving in Peru, it's great experience, great mission. Wonderful. He has been very sick several times.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

And he's been robbed dozens of times. He gets robbed more often than he does baptisms. And because he's in Peru, he has lots of baptisms. Yeah.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I shouldn't enjoy the robberies as much as I do, but the way he tells, the way he spins a yarn. Garrett, it's pretty funny, actually.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, we need to have him on the podcast when he gets back.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, he's. He's a.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

He's one of your favorite robbery stories from your mission. All right.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, it's not technically Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I believe it's close enough that it counts, and that's true. My mom and I love to listen to the podcast, and we try to do so together, which makes it all the more fun. I am situationally blind, like you, Richard, so hearing you struggle verbally makes me feel better about my reading aloud and how I'll do on my mission.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, that's the kindest way I've ever heard someone say you. You're not very good at situationally blind.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Hey, sometimes, on occasion, I can be an idiot like you are all the time. And it's.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Makes me feel better about myself.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

The key. The key, by the way, sister, is just to memorize it. That's what you got to do. And then you don't have to read anything. My main reason for emailing is to ask to be put on the Google Drive for missionaries and have access to the premium content. Please. I would absolutely love to listen to it while on my mission and be able to learn about the gospel in a different way, but still be able to have fun with it. Thanks so much, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas. We did. It was lovely. Christmas. Also lovely and wonderful.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yes. Yep. It was, you know, it was Christmasy. It was. It was. It was. Christmas is, you know, when you have a lot of different family things going on and. And you've got your own family stuff going on, it's an exhausting time. And so I find myself loving parts of it. Hating other parts of it, but not inventing songs about John C. Bennett. I mean, so at least I didn't go that far.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I will say so. This was our first Christmas since our son came home from his mission. And that was very sweet and very tender and very wonderful. So sending him out can be tough, but man, that, that Christmas when they come back is about the greatest thing ever.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, we got to talk to Riker on his mission and it was. Was very good. We got to talk to him several times and hopefully he had as good a missionary as you can. I mean, the problem is you can't really send a missionary anything on their mission, you know, like that they want. The only thing you can send them is things that are useful to them but have like, like, look, I know Riker pretty well and I'm pretty sure he's not going to be asking for a sweater when he comes home. You know what I mean? That's that. But he never asked for a sweater before. He will never ask for one again. That we are in the sweater area of. And plus he's in Tucson, so I mean, that sweater has a shelf life of like a month and a half before, you know, he'll be asking us, is there any way to have an anti sweater? Is there any way to send me a portable air conditioner?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

This next email. I am Elder leduc, currently serving in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Mission. You might not believe me, but to prove it, my current companion is Elder Nichols. You can ask him if you want. My question today is when can we get into how Hamilton Plan influenced the creation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo? Also, why don't you take a stop on your tour in Pittsburgh and come by our Zone conference? I wish I could say I love your podcast, but recently, sorry, it's from my son. It's just a fun. It's a funny line. I wish I could say I love it. I wish I could, but recently I've just not been bored enough to love it. So now it's just. All right. With love, friend of the show, Elder Leduc, the son of Dr. Leduc, who's of course lying.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

He's not in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania mission, he's in the Peru Mission. But there's so many lies in this.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Email, I'm not even confident he's my son anymore.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, it makes sense. Well, speaking of, you know, the. One of the things we do as the show, I mean, we have the premium content that was created so that people who want to try to support the show, to keep the show on the air have a means of donating some money as and then getting something back so that we do American history stuff on there and we do, we do other church history topics as well, but we give those free to anyone who's going on a mission or is on a mission. And so that's what, what her email was about. So if you're wondering what do they mean I want the free premium content? I feel like I'm listening to this free right now. Yes. But if you want the premium content and you have to be wondering how much better is it than what I'm listening to right now?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I mean, much, much worse.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, I mean you'd have to. That's how we get you to sign up is you're like, wait a minute, so you mean they have a premium. What is the premium of this? And then you sign up and then that's you. So that's really what we do. But for missionaries, we send it to them free because we do cover a lot of early Christian history and different theologies of different Christian churches and missionaries have found that helpful. As well as covering the early life of Joseph Smith in a chronological way, we're working our way through his life and we cover American history as well, which is what Rigdon was making a reference to.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

He was and friend of the show, Elder Abel, that's serving in the, the Utah Layton Mission. He's used the information in that to rise to the level of a zone leader. He used it to, to gain more power as people thought he was smarter than he is.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

So, so he just, he just goes to zone conferences and says, let me tell you something about Alexander Hamilton. And they're like, you know what, zone.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Leader, I'm teasing a little bit, but also I love, I love him. He's. He's freaking great. But yes, he, he is. I did make fun of that when he, when he was transferred away from our area to be a zone leader. I, I said that he just stole everything that you said because I've never said anything on this that anyone could ever turn into anything. Also, this last email is actually the, the, the discussion point of our, of our episode today. Longtime Littner first time caller. I'm writing from Newton, Utah up in Cache Valley and have to say go Aggies. I recently discovered your podcast and hooked mostly because of the great sports betting tips and Angry Garrett.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

I had the two things we're most embarrassed by.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I have listened to the first three seasons in about a month and a half and I figured when I caught up then Then I would only consider the premium content.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Wait a minute. So we only have three seasons or do we have four? You said we're in our fifth season.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Well, yeah, I'm, I'm just. Yeah, we're in our ninth season. I don't know.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

You're making seasons.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Season one was half of a year. But then, but, but like, like any television show, you get, you get a short run. It's like a six episode thing and we're going to see if this turns into something.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

When did we start this?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

We started it on June 3rd, four years ago, I think. I think it was 2021. It was 2021.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

2021.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

So we only have 2021, 2022, 2023. So it is our fifth season.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, it's fifth season. Yeah.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, now it is. Yeah.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah. And like Seinfeld, this is so. You know, in, in that first season you did something on DNC93 and that's like the Seinfeld episode when they go to the Chinese restaurant and it like got picked up for five more seasons.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

That's what we, that's what we're looking for.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

That's exactly.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

We're cover that again this year.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I actually was attending Utah State around the same time both of you were. I too had philosophy classes from Dr. Robson, who is the best, the greatest professor. Yeah, he really was great and I love them. I also serve my mission. The general time that you guys did also from 97. From December of 97. December of 99. And while I didn't serve in Wisconsin, I feel as if Garrett and I are kindred spirits because I served in the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. A lot of similarity, I'm sure.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, there's going to be very similar.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Go, Go Jackrabbits or whatever the South Dakota State mascot is. I think it's Jackrabbits. You know, I'm going to get the correct.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

North Dakota is the Bison.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, that's right.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

We're not going to offer you any sports bets on that.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

No, we're not. So I always feel like I understand what Garrett's talking about. I could go on and on, but I did have a question about something that Dr. Truman Madsen spoke about during one of his Joseph Smith lectures. He. Yes, I'm hooked on those two. And by the way, if you want anything really good, we highly recommend either follow him or anything Truman Madsen did. Those are great, right?

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

They're much better than us.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Much, much better. I guess I'm hooked on those two. He mentioned in Passing that if he had more time that he could tell the story of the prophet Joseph Smith raising someone from the dead, he then moved on and left us hanging. I thought I could try to pour through the Joseph Smith papers, or I could take a page out of Richard's book and let Dr. Dirkmaat find the answer. That's very funny. Find the answer for me. I appreciate all both of you do. Look forward to catching up with all of the episodes and hopefully listen to the premium content and even someday go on a tour. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Thank you, Kevin. And you know, go Aggies. Yeah, I mean, come on. He's a. He's a kindred spirit in that regard.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Stateside Mission Cache Valley, Utah State. I mean, you know, what are you going to do now? So this is a great, a great question. I also enjoyed hearing that even someone as great as Truman Madsen would start down a discussion point and then move on. I think that without actually covering it, that's, that's what we aspire to do. We aspire to have topics. We start talking about that we then talk about other things and then we just move right on. We actually have had several emails about Joseph Smith and miraculous healing in the past few months. This one in particular, this reference to him raising someone from the dead. I thought maybe we would kind of dive into. There are numerous accounts of Joseph Smith exercising priesthood power to heal people. The whole story of the conversion of the Johnsons, as we talked about a few episodes ago, comes from Joseph Smith healing Luke and Lyman Johnson's mother's arm. And so Joseph has. This certainly has multiple things we could point to as his times where he has provided healing to people through powerful priesthood blessings that he's given. Now, of course, at the same time, not everyone who is blessed with a priesthood blessing of health lives, which is part of the reason why the Lord commanded us to give blessings. And those who live will live under the Lord and those who die, die unto the Lord. So you know that sometimes you tell stories about people being healed, and the first place you go is you think back in your own mind to a loved one that yourself, that you know yourself that was not healed. And you say, well, you know, if, if, if he can be healed, why couldn't, why couldn't this person be healed? That kind of thing. But I, I think the place where you get many of these stories, they, they come from Nauvoo, so you have them all throughout Joseph's life, but you get a lot of them stemming from Nauvoo in part because Nauvoo is a malaria filled swamp. I don't mean to say it's a malaria filled swamp now, although it also.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Is a malaria filled swamp now.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Have you ever seen the number of bugs that are in the night sky? I mean, if you go to, like the British pageant, the. The actors are being bombarded by thousands of moths. Thousands. While they're on stage.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

It is as though the city of Nauvoo has a pharaoh and that pharaoh has Israelite slaves.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah. And he has refused to let them go.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

That is what it's like all the freaking time.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah. Fewer frogs, though. Just more mosquitoes. There's not as many frogs. I mean, there are frogs, but clearly not enough because there's just so many bugs. Well, remember that they don't have any idea what causes disease. I mean, their thoughts. They. They do recognize this, that when people live in swampy areas, they have a greater tendency to get sick. So they. They have certainly found a correlation, but they have no understanding of causation. And so, yes, they could figure it out. Okay. If you live in a swampy area, you're more likely to get sick. They figured this out with diseases that were rampant in cities as well. Right. That if you are living in a city, you're more likely to catch certain types of diseases. Again, they don't know why. You know, they would call the. The swamp air, you know, getting into your lungs would make you sick. Right. It would. They would call it Miasma. You'd get the miasma of the swamp air. And that sounds like a name of a great, like Alfred Hitchcock movie. We should have talked to him about that.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Alfred.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, we should have. We should have let him know that he could have named something called the Miasma of the Swamp and it would have. Oh, man, it would have been right there with all of the other great ones.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

He's. He's, I assume, still with us.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Sure. Yeah. I mean, I'm pretty sure. Not for a considerable amount of time.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Oh, Garrett.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

I'm just.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

The crack research staff got back. He died in 1980. I apologize to him and his.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

I am a contemporary of him then.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah. Two years.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah. I was alive. I could have as a toddler. I should have sent him a letter saying, have you thought about the miasma of the swamp? So when they moved to Nauvoo, Nauvoo is. It is cheap swamp land. I mean, it is. It's right there on the. Right on the floodplain of the Mississippi river. And it's Good fertile land because it's right on the floodplain of the Mississippi River. But that means that there is all kinds of standing water. And back then, because this was before the deployment of ddt, malaria was quite prevalent even in the upper northern regions of the United States. I mean, Illinois isn't exactly on the latitude of Louisiana. Right. But malaria was, was, was pretty prominent as well as other mosquito borne diseases. And so when they move first move to Commerce and then, you know, rename it Nauvoo that first year, I mean, people are always relatively sickly in Nauvoo, but it's really bad that first summer. And of course it's worse in the summer because in the summer is when mosquitoes are active. I mean, not a lot of mosquitoes that are active in January, even in, even in Nauvoo. I mean, there are a lot of bugs in Nauvoo today. There are no mosquitoes living in January in Nauvoo, I'll tell you that. Because there's barely people living in January in Nauvoo. I mean, you are, you better walk outside with a full coat on. But people get very, very, very sick and several die. And it becomes a very, it's a very difficult thing that's going on. And in Joseph's own journal, this is what he writes. He says, well, his scribe writes it Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, selecting hymns with the 12 about this time. So the time that he has listed here is between the 8th and 20th July of 1839. So he's got several weeks there in this space. About this time, sickness began to manifest itself much amongst the brethren as well as among the inhabitants of the place. So that this week and next was generally spent in visiting the sick and ministering unto them. Some had faith enough and were healed. The next entry, the July 21, 1839 entry, is a Sunday, Sunday the 21st, no meeting on account of much rain and much sickness. Now, when's the last time that you had your church meeting canceled, Richard, because too many of your parishioners were sick?

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Covid.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Well, I think that was more preemptive rather than.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

No, it's true. The closest I came on a non Covid thing to adjusting was we had the heater go out in my church building on the. In Deer Flat. On the Deer Flat building outside of Nampa, Idaho. And so we only went to a first hour for a month. It was the greatest month of my childhood.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Wait, so because the heater didn't work.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, and it's pretty cold it was.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

In the wintertime, I'm assuming, because Idaho was cold even.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

If it was August and you weren't going to church because the heater was out, I think your bishop's. He's. He's stretching.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, Yeah, I, I haven't attended church for the last 18 years because that heater. No, it was a month stretch where we just attended the first hour of church. And I was, I was a teenager, like 15, 16, something like that.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

I mean, I've had my church shortened and we, we have had it even canceled before when it was, you know, just horrific snowstorm. I mean, in southeast Idaho, there are times that the snow is. Is pretty terrible. You went over balmy side, even though you feel like you needed a heater. In the Caribbean of Idaho.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah. It'd be in the 20s, 30s. I mean, what would Shelley, Idaho give to have temperatures in the 30s in January? Anything.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

It's hilarious. I mean, when I was a kid, we regularly had school canceled because it got below 15, below zero. Get out of here.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

That's. That's terrible.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

I mean, any of our listeners who are living in Rexburg right now will let you know, you know what, it can get below zero there. And of course, they're factoring in the wind chill. And luckily in Idaho, it's always windy. If you live on the Snake River Plain. It is, It's. It's windy all the time. Like, people from Idaho must have moved to Spanish Fork and said, you know what? This is our place.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah, Centerville and Spanish Fork. Way less windy than the Snake River Valley. That's right.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

Yeah, for sure. So that's how bad it is. It's so bad that they actually cancel the church meetings on 21 July, 1839. Then the Journal goes on. However, many of the sick were on this day raised up by the power of God through the instrumentality of the elders of Israel, ministering to them in the name of Jesus Christ. And it continues with this theme for several entries. The next entry, Monday and Tuesday also, the sick were ministered unto with great success, but many still remain sick, and there are new cases occurring daily. So there is a lot going on here. And it's during this time period where Joseph is. He's literally spending almost every day going out to try to administer to the sick. If we go to. If we go to Wilford Woodruff's journal during the same time period, he talks about just how horrible this is. July 19, 1839. I've been called upon to visit the sick many times. In the last few days and administer unto them by the laying on of hands. For there are many saints that are sick. He lists one of them. We visited Joseph's father, Joseph Smith Sr. And found him still very sick. We prayed with him and laid hands upon him, and he received a blessing. He goes, goes on. On July 22nd. So a couple other entries down, he says, Joseph was in Montrose, and it was a day of God's power. So this is where you get that phraseology, the day of God's power. July 22, 1839. Joseph was a Montrose. It was the day of God's power. There was many sick among the saints on both sides of the river. And Joseph went through the midst of them, taking them by the hand and in a loud voice, commanding them in the name of Jesus Christ to arise from their beds and be made whole. And they leaped from their beds made whole by the power of God. Elder Elijah Fordham was among the number. And he, with the rest of the sick, arose from his bed and followed Joseph from house to house. It was truly a time of rejoicing. So that's. That's pretty powerful, isn't it? Now, the. The negative note on that is Wilford's going around with all this. Witnesses the great power and miracles of Joseph's healing of all these people. But on July 29, this is what Wilford's entry is. Oh, sorry. July 25. So that was July 22. Three days later, Wilford enters. On this day, for the first time in my life, I have an attack of the chills and fever, and I find it a distressing disease. A number of the quorum of the 12 are taken ill. The enemy is striving to bind us down so that we shall not go into the vineyard. And then on July 29, he says, My chills and fever still continue. I took a course of Thomsonian medicine to cleanse my system. Now, remember, because they have no idea what causes disease. There were two schools of medical thought, much to the dismay of our friend Steve, who doesn't like me referring to them as medical or as thought. But there was the traditional rushedian, named after Dr. Benjamin Rush from the Revolutionary War. The traditional Rushdie in medicine argued that the reason why you were sick is that there was your. You had too much blood, essentially from hypertension. Your humors were out of alignment. And so that's why the. There was leaching and bleeding. Because if you have too much blood, what better way to get rid of them than to have a leech, you know, suck some of the blood out of you makes perfect sense. Of course, on the other side, there was kind of a. It was not, it was not university trained physicians primarily. It was more homegrown, you know, folksy doctors that followed this guy named Thompson who argued that there were herbal remedies to everything. And the primary reason why you needed the herbs is that all disease was caused by your body, primarily by your body becoming too hot or too cold. So in this sense you have a fever, not because you're sick. Your body's too hot and that's what's making you sick. So I need to find a way to cool your body down. This also involved taking things that caused you to vomit. Emetics. So this is what Wilfred wrote on 29 July. He said, I took a course of Thomsonian medicine to cleanse my system. I took three emetics and steamed 15 minutes. So again, the problem is you have the chills because your body temperature is not hot enough. So what are you going to do? I'm going to raise my body temperature by steaming myself.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

I, by the way, shout out to Craig and anyone in New Hampshire is Samuel Thompson from the great state of New Hampshire. So there you go.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

You can tell how Wilford feels about it. He says, I took three emetics and Steve, 15 minutes. I thought this would do for one day. Tell me that it didn't work and you're miserable without telling me that it didn't work.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Yeah. So he takes something that makes him barf three times and gets in a good schvitz and then away we go.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

He finishes my writing, I was very sick. And most likely he has malaria. You know, that is characterized by the, the fever and the chills and feeling as sick as he does. Probably from the. I mean it's impossible to diagnose someone after the fact. But most likely he has that, which they will often refer to as the ague, you know, but most likely these are mosquito borne diseases. And for someone who writes in his journal, always days go by before he writes in his journal again. That's how, that's how sick he was. He doesn't pick it up again until August 3rd. And that is very un. Wilford Woodruffy.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

Like when he gets crushed and breaks his ribs with a tree, how long does he go with?

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

He's a couple weeks out from that. When, when the tree lands on him. That's gonna. Look, malaria is going to set you back. A tree is also going to set you back. It's going to, it's going to make things a little bit difficult, I got to tell you.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

So you've shared that story before on the podcast about him getting crushed by the tree. My favorite part of the story, though, is Brigham Young getting mad at everybody for not helping him out. That's, like, my favorite part.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

What are you guys doing? Just let them sit there. Yeah. Yeah. And it kind of demonstrates that Brigham was a man of action. Right? Instead of sitting there talking about how bad you feel for Wilford Woodruff, why don't you help him off the horse? Anyway, so we know that this. This happened. This. This time period of sickness. We even have all I could. You could do 30 podcasts on the personal accounts that people have and the reminiscences that they have. So I share that by way of context. It's actually in the context of this time period that we get the story from Wilford Woodruff as well, about Joseph Smith healing someone by way of his handkerchief. We have in his autobiography that he's writing, so he lists not a lot in his journal because he's pretty sick. But this is what we have. This is the. The manuscript copy of his autobiography. So this is from 1857. And he's looking back on this time period. He says, I spent my time attending the meetings, council, and conferences. I wrote in my journal, not after you got sick, but the teaching, sayings, and prophesyings of Joseph from time to time, as I had the opportunity. July 22, I was with President Joseph Smith and his council and the 12. It was a day of God's power. That's the phrase from his journal with the Prophet. He healed many on both sides of the river who were sick and nigh unto death. Among them was Elijah, Fordham, and Joseph nobles. As the prophet had healed many, even the wicked rabble followed to see the sick healed. And as Joseph was about to cross the river, a man came to him and asked him if he would not go about three more miles and healed two of his small children, which were twins, about three months old, and were sick nigh unto death. He was a man of the world. He had never heard a sermon preached by a latter day Saint. Joseph said he could not go, but he would send a man. After a moment's hesitation, he turned to me and he said, you go with this man and heal his children at the same time, giving me a red silk handkerchief and said, after you lay hands upon them, wipe their faces with it, and they will be healed. And as long as you will keep that handkerchief, it shall ever remain as a League between you and me, I went and done as I was commanded, and the children were healed. On the 25th, I was attacked with the chills and the fever. So that that handkerchief is at least believed to be the one that is in the church History Museum. This. The handkerchief that. That Joseph gave to Wilford Woodruff in order to heal those children. But again, they were nigh unto death. But they weren't. They. They were. They were still alive. We also have from the history of Brigham Young. So unfortunately, because people are very inaccurate in their description of sources, you will sometimes find this story. And almost everywhere you find it, you will have people say in Brigham Young's journal, he wrote about this. Actually, that period of Brigham Young's actual journal is silence. He. He doesn't have an entry. I mean, maybe he's sick too, during those months. And. And he picks back up again in September. And so I'll tell you, almost everywhere I've seen it from, you know, magazines that quote it, whatever they all say. Oh, Brigham Young in his journal said. Well, Brigham Young in his journal didn't say. He doesn't talk about it at all. But they prepare the manuscript history of Brigham Young in the 1850s, and they're doing a day by day thing, much like they're doing with. With Joseph Smith. And in that, you get this account from it, part of what it says is, first of all, Joseph had opened his house up to the. To the sick. President Joseph Smith had taken the sick into his house and. And into his courtyard, into his dooryard, until his house was like a hospital and he had attended upon them until he was taken sick himself and combined confined to his bed several days. Joseph arose from his bed of sickness and the power of God rested upon him. He commenced in his own house and dooryard, commanding the sick in the name of Jesus Christ to arise and be made whole. And they were healed according to his word. So here you have again this. This description of this day of God's power through Joseph Smith. He goes on to say that he continued to travel from house to house and from tent to tent upon the bank of the river, healing the sick as he went, until he arrived at the upper stone house, where he crossed the river in a boat accompanied by several of the quorum of the 12, and headed landed in Montrose. He walked into the cabin where I was laying sick. So Brigham himself is very sick. He walked into the cabin where I was laying sick and commanded me in the name of Jesus Christ to arise and be made whole. I arose and was healed and followed him and the Brethren of the 12 into the house of Elijah Fordham, who was supposed to be dying by his family and his friends. Joseph stepped to his bedside, took him by the hand and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to arise from his bed and be made whole. His voice was as the voice of God. Brother Fordham instantly leapt from his bed. He called for his clothing and followed us into the street. He then went into the house of Joseph Nobles, who was also very sick. And he was healed in the same manner. And when by the power of God granted unto him Joseph had healed all the sick, he recrossed the river and returned to his home. This was a day never to be forgotten. Now that phrase is ubiquitous to Latter Day Saints about the way Oliver Cowdery talks about the glorious days of the translation of the Book of Mormon. Here in Brigham Young's History, he's making that reference to how incredible this day of miracles was. And for Brigham Young, he is well aware of it because he experienced it. It's not just, it's something that actually happened to him. There is another account. And, and you know, back to the question that, that Kevin, I still haven't. I found lots of people who were almost dead, but no one who actually was. And unfortunately, maybe the reason why Truman Madsen didn't share this one was because it is not the best of sources. It is certainly a source, but it is a third hand later source. And it comes from the Juvenile Instructor. The Juvenile Instructor is, is, you know, it was basically the, the magazine for teenage Latter Day Saints in the 1890s. And the point of this, the point of this publication was to help build faith and answer questions among the youth and whatnot. Well, in it there's an article titled Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith. This is the June 15, 1892 issue of the Juvenile Instructor. Page 385 is where it starts. Elder Levi Curtis of Springville. So my, my neck of the wood relates the following incident which, as he states, was told him by one of the principal parties referred to. So what you have is a publication, the Juvenile Instructor, publishing what Levi Curtis told them happened. And what he's telling them is a conversation that he had with William D. Huntington. Now, William Huntington is, you know, would have grown up as no stranger to death given the fact that his father is actually the sexton of the Nauvoo cemetery. So whenever you see like death reports in the times and seasons, it's always William Huntington, senior, his father. That's, that's the one Putting those out. Anyway, so here's the quote about the month of August, 1856. William D. Huntington and I went to Hobble Creek Canyon to get a tree or a log suitable for making drums. I'm not. I'm not sure what's going on there. I don't know. I. I'm. I'm guessing that. That it could be a large barrel, that they're making the reference to a drum. Or maybe. Maybe they're about to start a band. Maybe, maybe it's a garage band. Before there were garages, and Levi Curtis was like, you know what? I can really thrash. And we need to go get a log. So they go get a tree or log suitable for making drums. After we'd finished our labor and we started for home, both of us riding on the log. So they cut down the tree or they get the log, they hitch it up to the back of the horse, and then they ride on the log with the horse pulling it on the way. Our conversation naturally turned upon the doctrines of the church and experiences of the past. When the life and labors of the prophet Joseph were touched upon, this subject aroused into more than usual earnestness the mind and conversation of my associate. He said that in Nauvoo he'd lived in the family of and worked for Joseph Smith at the time. That the prophet had such a wonderful time with the sick when nearly everybody was stricken down. And he himself was among the afflicted and is one of those. Was one of those among the afflicted who, who were healed by Joseph. He said he'd been sick some weeks and kept getting weaker until he became so helpless that he could not move. Finally, he got so low that he could not speak, but had perfect consciousness of all that was passing in the room. He saw friends come to the bedside and look at him a moment and commence weeping and turn away. He further stated that he presently felt easy and observing his situation foundation that he was in the upper part of the room near the ceiling and could see the body he had occupied lying on the bed with weeping friends standing around, as he had witnessed in many cases where people had died under his own observation. So at least what Levi Curtis is relating is that William Huntington told him that he was incredibly sick in all kinds of pain. And then all of a sudden the pain went away and he's looking down on his body on the bed. He's still in the room. He's still conscious. About this time, he saw Joseph Smith and two other brethren come into the room. Joseph turned to his Wife Emma, and asked her to get him a dish of clean water. This she did, and the prophet, with the two brethren accompanying him, washed their hands and carefully wiped them. Then they stepped to the bed and laid their hands upon the head of his body, which at this time looked loathsome to him. And as the three stretched out their hands to place them upon the head, he by some means became aware that he must go back into that body. And he started to do so. The process of getting in he could not remember. But when Joseph said amen, he heard and could see and feel with his body. The feeling for a moment was most excruciating, as though his body was pierced in every part with some sharp instrument. As soon as the brethren had taken their hands from his head, he raised up in bed, sitting erect, and in another moment turned his legs off of the bed. At this juncture, Joseph asked him if he had not better be careful, for he was very weak. And he replied, I have never felt better in my life. Almost immediately adding, I want my pants. I mean, that's a little anticlimactic, I guess that.

[Dr. Richard Leduc]

But no, no, I think it's getting right to the point. That's usually how I. I put an exclamation point at the end of something.

[Dr. Garrett Dirkmot]

His pants were found and given him, which he drew on Joseph assisting him, although he thought he needed no help. Then he signified his intention to sit in a chair near the fireplace. Joseph took hold of his arm and helped him along safely. But William declared his ability to walk alone, notwithstanding which the help continued. Astonishment had taken the place of weeping throughout the room. Every looker on was ready to weep for joy, but none were able or felt inclined to talk. Presently, William said he wanted something to eat, and Joseph asked him what he would like, and he replied he wanted a dish of bread and milk. Emma immediately brought what he'd called for. As one may easily comprehend. Every hand was anxious to supply the wants of a man who, for a few moments before, was dead, really and truly dead. Brother Huntington ate the bowl of bread and milk with as good a relish as he ever ate. In a short time, all felt more familiar, and conversation upon the scene transpired. William related his experiences and the friends theirs. Joseph listened to the conversation and in his turn remarked that they had just witnessed as great a miracle as Jesus did, while on earth they had seen the dead brought to life. At the close of his narrative, William Huntington remarked, now I have told you the truth, and here I am, a live man sitting by the side of you. On this log and I testify that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. So that is what I believe that Brother Madsen was referring to, that he never had. He didn't have quite time to relate to you about the story of Joseph Smith raising someone from the dead. I believe it's this. It is a much later reminiscent account. It is told very much in earnest. We don't have something from William Huntington's own records, we don't have a ton of records from him, but Levi Curtis is quite in earnest saying that William Huntington told him that. And many of the things in the story certainly match up to the things that were going on at the time, including them living in Joseph's household because it was being used as a hospital for the people that were sick. So that is the story of this great miracle. Now, of course, a naysayer will be like, well, he probably just made that up after the fact. I mean, yeah, that's exactly the same thing that the people said about the Romans finding an empty tomb as well. I mean, the reality is, regardless of the miracle, whether you have a video evidence of it or whether you have a thousand eyewitnesses or whether you have just one person saying, hey, this happened. There will always be those who say, well, that's a lie, it didn't happen. I witnessed this myself once, not quite as dramatically, but it was. One of the more powerful experiences I ever had in my life was when we as missionaries in Wisconsin, it's hard to believe that we had any great experiences there, but we were in Wisconsin and we got called to go to the hospital to give a blessing to someone who wasn't a member of our faith. This is, I mean, look, this is the day before cell phones were readily available. I mean, yes, many people had cell phones. I certainly didn't. And then as a missionary, of course I didn't. And so we got a telephone call at our apartment phone to, to go over to the hospital to give a blessing to, to this, to this woman. She was an 18, 19 year old woman and the story was her and her, her boyfriend, who was not appreciated by the parents of her, had decided that they were just going to run off like so many young teenagers have done so many times in the past that they would just run off and they would get married. And so he was in the military and he had to get to where his station was. And so they were driving through the night. So they were from Chicago, they gotten married somewhere along the way and driven up the, you know, up the highways and they were in central Wisconsin when he fell asleep driving. And they were in a catastrophic car accident. She was much more badly injured than, than he was. And I remember going. And the entirety of the situation felt pretty grim, I gotta tell you. We got to the hospital, we said, look, we're clergy for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints because, you know, we, we're 19 year olds, we look, we look nothing like a minister, you know, and we've been asked to give a blessing to this, to this woman. And the doctor said to us, are you her family? And we said, well, no, we're ministers from, from the church. Now she actually wasn't a member of our church. How were we even there? The mother who was so desperate about this when they found out about this horrible car wreck, they were now driving north from Chicago as well. But they were hours and hours and hours away. The mother told her friend who happened to be a Latter Day Saint, and her Latter Day Saint friend said, we should send elders from our church over to give her a blessing in the hospital. And she said, yes, yes, you know, go do that. And so that's why we were there. We were there because she had a, the mother had a friend that was a Latter Day Saint. And I remember the doctor saying, are you her family? We said, no. And he said, well, where is her family? And we were like, well, they live in Chicago. I mean, we were in north central Wisconsin, so we were hours away. And I said, yeah, they'll be here, but it'll be a long time before they can get here. And he said, well, you need to tell them to get here now because if they want to see their daughter, they need to get here now. And so it told us just how grave the situation was, just how horribly damaged she'd been. And we went into the room and boy, I won't ever forget just how broken and hurt she was from this horrific accident. Tubes coming out of her mouth, her head, face, everything. And I remember thinking in that moment, I literally have no ability to help this woman that I don't know at all. I don't have any ability to help her. The doctors apparently don't have any ability to help her. The doctor clearly already thinks she's going to pass away. And my companion and I very solemnly, look, she was the same age we were. It was a pretty heavy feeling in that room. Frankly, looking back on it, I don't think they'd ever would have let us in today. But hey, you know, it's central Wisconsin, you know, maybe I had a packer's T shirt on or something. And they were like, okay, no, I mean, we were dressed in our pro sliding clothes, and we went in and it was this helpless feeling. And I know many people listening have had that feeling where someone is sick or injured and there's nothing you can do about it. And we placed our hands as best we could on the side of her head, the side that wasn't damaged in the accident, and we gave a blessing. And I remember feeling an overwhelming voice speak to me to command her to be healed. And in my mind, the first thought I had was, if the doctor doesn't think she's going to make it, there is certainly no way that. That I could give that. But it was overwhelming. And without really thinking about it after that, I thought that as I started to put my hands on her head once, I felt that, like I said, was almost a voice that spoke to me to command her to be healed in the name of Jesus Christ. It was an overwhelming feeling that. That overcame both of us, me and my companion. And the blessing not only commanded that she would be healed, but that she would be able to live a normal life. So we went. We left the hospital and went directly to our stake. A member of our Stake Presidency's house, he was a doctor at the hospital, and he wasn't in one of the doctors, but he was the reason why, I think we had gotten the call. His wife had been the one that had left the message for us. And so we went to their house and she came out to meet us, like, oh, Elders, were you able to go over and give her a blessing? And we said, yeah, we just came from there. And I said, I think she's going to be okay. I remember I said, I think she's gonna be okay. And this woman's face when I said that, she. She looked almost hurt. And she said, oh, Elder. Elder, we just sent you there to give her a blessing of peace and comfort as she. As she dies. My husband, you know, works in the brain trauma. He says, she's. She's going to die. And. And I said, well, I really feel like she's. I feel like she's going to be okay. And she said, oh, Elder, she's not that. That. We just wanted you. Her mom wanted someone to be able to. To. To talk with her before she passed away. And so the parents arrive and we go meet them at the hospital. And the doctor is stunned that this woman made it through the night. And then he says to us and to the family, something to the effect of somehow she has survived this. But you need to be aware, if she does continue to survive, most likely there's so much brain trauma that she's not going to be able to walk again. She, she may not be able to speak again. This is you, you cannot have your hopes up on this. This is the worst case I've seen. You know, that kind of stuff. And two days later, they, she was awake enough that they removed her breathing tube and she started talking. And a week later, a week later, she was walking slowly, difficultly with all of her injuries, but she was taking steps. And I remember talking with her dad, and again, they're not members of the faith. And he said, I can't believe it. He said, I've stopped believing in God a long time ago. I think it's just stuff that people say. He said, but this, he said, there must be something to this. I, I talked to the doctor. There must be something to this. The bittersweet part of that incredible experience that I, that of the Lord healing this woman was that as the, the mother and father were so completely taken aback, they immediately wanted to start meeting with the missionaries. You know, they, they, they, they wanted to, to, to learn more about the church. But how quickly the world started to crowd into the way because they were still really, really, really mad that her and her boyfriend had run off to get married in the first place. And even more so now because they felt like the very fact you did that is what nearly killed our daughter and has severely damaged her. And so as, as he became more healthy, they just started to fight more and more. And it was, it was sad to see, to watch this guy go from this, like, spiritual high of being convinced about the power of God to being almost irritated with the idea now that he had his precious daughter back. And I honestly don't know whatever happened in the long term or in the end, but I know that I have witnessed the power of God heal people who otherwise should not be healed. I've experienced it. I've witnessed it. I felt that the Lord still heals people. Now if you're someone listening and you say, well, that's all fine and good, but he hasn't healed me, or he didn't heal my son, or he hasn't healed my daughter. Remember, Joseph Smith Sr. Passes away, and Joseph doesn't raise him from the dead. And Don Carlos Smith, Joseph's younger brother that he loves so much, passes away. Though he's had many priesthood blessings, we don't know why God at times allows for the prayer of faith and a priesthood blessing to heal those that are on death's door. And why other times he allows them to pass through this mortal veil to the spirit world into paradise. But we know that at times with Joseph Smith and with many of the prophets, boy, you could call the role of Wilford Woodruff's life and find many places, not just with a handkerchief from Joseph Smith, that they performed healing miracles. Sometimes people ask how come there aren't any miracles in the church anymore? Today you hear people say that all the time. And I think mainly it's because they think it would be something that would be broadcast on cable news and it'd be on every TikTok reel. But those who work with others, those who spend time with others, witness small miracles where people regain their faith, where they finally feel the love of Jesus and they accept the atonement and they repent. That's a miracle. People who are absolutely opposed to the church, who want nothing to do with it, who feel the Holy Spirit touch their heart and change and ask to be baptized, people who are seeking for some comfort and some friend comes into their way to lift them up when they are in their most destitute. We believe in a God of miracles. Whether the story is 100% accurate or not that Levi Curtis tells about William Huntington. We have dozens and dozens and dozens of miracles. And if I opened up the floodgates to the people listening, I would receive hundreds, if not thousands of emails from other people that have experienced, seen and witnessed miracles. Because this is really God's church. The Lord Jesus Christ is at the helm of this church. And maybe his power is not always exercised with the fanfare that someone expects expects to see when they are looking for a sign. But in quiet rooms of hospitals and houses all over the world, miracles take place. I believe in miracles. I believe they can happen. I believe they do happen. I believe they did happen. And I believe Joseph Smith was a great purveyor of miracles. So thank you so much for joining us and we will talk to you again next week.

[Narrator]

Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Garrett Dirkmot and Dr. Richard Leduc. If you know of anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. Until next time.