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Video Transcript:
Latter-day Saint prophets and apostles have done some pretty epic things throughout Church history that not many people know about. Now, there’s a time and a place to talk about President Monson ministering to the widows and stuff like that — those things are certainly epic, but that’s not the kind of epic we’re looking at today. We’re going for the bold, holy crap I can’t believe that happened, stuff. So, buckle up.
Number 10: Before allied forces captured the Russian city of Sebastopol during the Crimean War, the Russians decided to destroy key parts of the city so the invaders would essentially capture a pile of rubble. A couple of years later, on the other side of the world, the U.S. army was at the Church’s doorstep in Salt Lake City, during the Utah War. President Brigham Young decided to pull the trigger on the Sebastopol Plan. He would rather see Salt Lake burned to the ground than occupied by an enemy force. When the army came marching into the city, they found it completely evacuated, except for men standing at the ready with torches, ready to burn the city down if the army attempted to occupy their homes. It was a bold move. Thankfully, the army decided to pass through the city and ended up establishing Camp Floyd about 40 miles away.
Number 9: These guys tried to blackmail the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1911, Gisbert Bossard, a disgruntled Latter-day Saint, snuck into the Salt Lake City Temple and took more than 60 photos. His business partner, Max Florence, sent 7 temple photos to President Joseph F. Smith, and wrote that “It would be only fair before exploiting them for public sale to give you an opportunity to purchase them, and keep them away from the public.” He wanted more than $100,000 for them – well over 3 million dollars today. President Smith responded that he “will make no bargain with thieves or traffickers in stolen goods.” Instead, he had Bossard’s 7 photos published in the Deseret Evening News. Future apostle James E. Talmage then chimed in and said, Hey, why don’t we just take our own photos of the temple — better photos — and publish them ourselves in a book about the temple? Church leaders were all for it. Some of the subsequent photos were quickly published by a couple of popular magazines, and all of them appeared the following year in the landmark book, The House of the Lord, by James E. Talmage.
Florence and Bossard tried to do a scandalous public viewing of their photos in New York, but only 8 people showed up. They were totally and epically outmaneuvered.
Number 8: In the autobiography of Apostle Parley P. Pratt, we read about quite a daring escape he made as a younger missionary. He had been arrested on a, quote, “frivolous charge,” and the following morning, he said to the officer, “Well, Mr. Peabody, you compelled me to go a mile, I have gone with you two miles. You have given me an opportunity to preach, sing, and have also entertained me with lodging and breakfast. I must now go on my journey; if you are good at a race you can accompany me. I thank you for all your kindness—good day, sir.”
And then, he took off. When the officer finally realized what was happening, he sent his dog after Elder Pratt, shouting and pointing in his direction. The dog was quickly gaining ground on Elder Pratt. But just before overtaking him, Parley stopped and started shouting and pointing ahead as well. The dog passed Parley and just kept on running, and Parley escaped. Legally questionable, perhaps. Still a pretty awesome story? Yeah.
Number 7: When LDS missionaries in Hawaii were called back to Utah during the Utah War, they left somewhat of a vacuum of leadership that the renowned adventurer Walter Gibson decided to fill. He set himself up as the Chief President of the Church in Hawaii, and he started selling priesthood offices; it was bad. When President Young caught wind of what was going on, he basically assembled the Avengers to correct the situation in 1864. Lorenzo Snow drowned on the way and had to be revived, not a big deal, but eventually they made it to Gibson’s LDS island colony.
There was a large rock on Gibson’s island that he claimed was sacred and would be the cornerstone for a great temple. He convinced the islanders that anyone who entered the area around the stone would instantly drop dead. Gibson’s daughter, Talula, “advised the brethren for their own safety not to approach this sacred rock lest sudden destruction come upon them.” Joseph F. Smith and Alma Smith ignored her request, climbed all over the rock, and came back unharmed. Gibson was exposed, excommunicated, and the Church was set back in order.
Number 6: In 1992, then-Apostle Dallin H. Oaks recounted a chilling experience from his time living in Chicago. While dropping off a church member in a dangerous neighborhood, he was confronted by an armed young man demanding his money and car keys. The keys were locked inside the car with President Oaks’ wife, June. Concerned for June, he refused to turn over the keys, despite multiple death threats. I’ll let President Oaks explain what happened next: [Play 17:09 – 18:09]. To reiterate, the reason he didn’t fight back was that he knew he would win and would have that man’s blood on his hands. That is epic restraint.
Number 5: In 1893, there was a secret war happening behind the scenes in the Church that not many people knew about. One scholar wrote that “The [1893] depression paralyzed the Church. By late June, cash donations had almost ceased. On July 1, the Church failed to meet its payroll … Clerks struggled to pay even the low-priced fares of returning missionaries and sometimes failed. ‘Every day urgent demands for cash are made of us, which we cannot meet,’ wrote the First Presidency, ‘for the simple reason that we have no money. . . . We never saw such a time of financial stringency as there is now.’”
Desperate, the Church sent an apostle to New York to look for loans. Quite miraculously, that apostle was successful and brought the Church back from the brink of financial ruin. One researcher wrote that “There is no possible way of estimating the eventual catastrophe had the floodgates not held.” Guys had this apostle not been successful, Church history would have looked very different. The man’s name was the future president of the Church, Heber J. Grant.
Number 4: On March 25, 1832, 26-year-old Joseph Smith was ripped from his home and stripped of his clothing. A mob choked him out, tarred, feathered, and beat him. They tried to force nitric acid down his throat, chipping a tooth and spilling the chemical on his skin in the process. Removing the tar was a tedious and painful process, and the underlying skin would sometimes come off with it. But despite being literally tortured in the night, in an absolute power move, Joseph managed to get up the next day, a Sunday, and preach a sermon. Some members of the mob were even in attendance. It was a horrific event, but it epically displayed Joseph’s resolve and resilience.
Number 3: As an apostle, President Spencer W. Kimball suffered from debilitating heart issues for decades. He survived multiple heart attacks in 1948 and would often feel intense chest pain. His condition culminated in 1972 with an aortic calcification and a diagnosis of coronary artery disease. If he wanted to live longer than a couple more months, he would need to undergo a risky open-heart surgery. His surgeon expressed that the procedure would “entail risk so high that the operation cannot be recommended as a safe one.” President Kimball went through with the surgery anyway, which required splitting his sternum and spreading out his ribs in order to replace a heart valve and fix an artery. Thankfully, everything went according to plan. The surgeon even said that he had felt the Lord guiding his hand. President Kimball became the president of the Church the next year, a role he held for more than a decade. Without President Kimball’s leadership, Church history would look a lot different from what it does today. Major props to President Kimball’s epic heart surgeon, Russell M. Nelson.
Number 2: Floating in the river next to the Submarine Force Museum in Connecticut, you will find the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus. This ship crushed submerged speed and distance records. In 1958, it completed Operation Sunshine, being the first ship to cross the North Pole. What does this have to do with Latter-day Saint prophets? Well, the nuclear reactor powering the Nautilus was designed with the help of nuclear engineer and future apostle, Richard G. Scott.
Number 1: 19-year-old Ella Jensen died in 1891 due to scarlet fever. While a nurse washed Ella’s body, Ella’s father, Jacob, went looking for Ella’s uncle, President Lorenzo Snow, to break the news. Once at Ella’s bedside, instead of comforting the family, he asked for consecrated oil. In the subsequent anointing and blessing, he said, “Dear Ella, I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come back and live; your mission is not yet ended.”
Lorenzo then reassured the family, saying, “Now do not mourn or grieve any more. It will be all right … you just be patient and wait….” About an hour later, long after Lorenzo had left, Ella opened her eyes. She lived a long life and came back from death with quite the well-documented story to tell, which we talk more about in this episode. Go check it out if you haven’t yet. I’ll see you there.
Notes:
— For more on the Sebastopol Plan, see “Brigham Young: American Moses,” by Leonard Arrington, pp. 264.
— For more on President Kimball’s heart condition and surgery, see “Spencer W. Kimball,” by Edward & Andrew Kimball, chapters 14 & 20.