The Mormon Apocrypha

Orson F. Whitney was a very prolific Latter-day Saint. Born on July 1, 1855, to Horace Whitney and Helen Mar Kimball, Orson was a man of many talents. He was a father of nine children. He was a bishop and on the city council in Salt Lake. He went on a few missions; first he went to Ohio and Pennsylvania, and later he was called to go to Europe to help oversee the Millennial star. He was an apostle for 25 years, from April 9, 1906, to his death on May 16, 1931. But probably one of his biggest contributions to the world is the fact that he is considered by many to be  the father of latter-day saint literature. His work includes multiple works of biographies, hymns, sermons and poetry, inspiring thousands of saints in his lifetime and beyond. He once said about Latter-Day Saints, " We will yet have Milton's and Shakespeare's of our own . "  I already did a post about a poem of his, but I wanted to do a conference talk as well. This one was delivered in April of 1921, and...

 It is the 24th of July, known as pioneer day in Utah, as it was the day that the first saints entered the Salt Lake valley. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I wanted to talk about a novel about the pioneers. The Great Joshua is often hailed as the great Mormon novel. Written in 1941 by Maurine Whipple over a three-year period, it is considered to be one of the great tales of Mormonism.  Here is the Blurb of the Giant Joshua: Set in the 1860s at Utah’s Dixie Mission, The Giant Joshua is the deeply moving story of a far-flung outpost in the desert where a band of Mormons, like the giant Joshua, fight to survive in an arid land. A young Mormon girl―innocent, tender, courageous―finds herself torn between fear of her older husband and love for his son; between her passionate faith in the stern tenets of Mormonism and her equally passionate desire for beauty and gaiety.  Considered a classic in historical fiction, The Giant Joshua was first published by Houghton Mifflin i...

W hile this conversation was going on we stood by his south wicket gate in a triangle. Turning to me, [Joseph] said, "I want to tell you something of the future. I will speak in a parable like unto John the Revelator. You will go to the Rocky Mountains, and you will be a great and mighty people established there, which I will call the White Horse of peace and safety." When the Prophet said, "You will see it," I said, "Where will you be at that time?" He said, "I shall never go there. Your enemies will continue to follow you with persecutions, and they will make obnoxious laws against you in Congress to destroy the White Horse, but you will have a friend or two to defend you and throw out the worst parts of the law so they will not hurt you so much. You must continue to petition Congress all the time, but they will treat you like strangers and aliens and they will not give you your rights but will govern you with strangers and commissioners. You will s...

Here is a conference talk by Elder Joseph F. Smith about love, freedom and being an example to others. I hope you enjoy these words of wisdom.   Elder Joseph F. Smith Patriarch to the Church For the time allotted to me this afternoon I pray that I may have an interest in your prayers that I may bear my testimony to our mutual benefit. There are occasions, great occasions which come to us, which we would fain share with our brethren and sisters. A Memorable Occasion It is frequently said that the Lord has raised up a particular man to perform a particular mission. Every one of us here has heard that discussed and has heard how the peculiar talents of each of the presidents of the Church have been of a special value during his respective mission. I wish that all the members of the Church could have witnessed the council meeting wherein the Presidency was reorganized. If ever there was a time when the Spirit of the Lord was indubitably manifest, it was on that occasion. Everyone prese...