Solving the Issue of Absent General Authorities

Let’s face it, not all General Authorities could attend their required meetings in the early Church. There were times when some of these individuals were absent on missions or visiting other settlements of the saints to encourage and strengthen them. So how was the problem of absent General authorities addressed?

a.      Their wives were required to attend the meeting for them

b.      Substitute members were called

c.       It really wasn’t a concern

d.      The oldest living male relative in the family was required to attend the meeting

Yesterday’s answer:

C.   Wearing a bag of herbs around ones neck

Sarah Elizabeth Allen Cameron: It is interesting to make note of the methods that were used for doctoring the sick in this early period of history. Midwives were the ones attending births. Sarah became learned in the gathering and use of herbs for healing. These were gathered during the summer months for use throughout the year. She learned much of this art from her mother, who was always attending the sick. Sarah followed this activity very closely in her own life. These herbs were used as preventive as well as curative aids. One incident, as told by Rachel Adeline, Sarah’s eighth child, was of the preventive measure used to fortify the children against colds with the onset of winter. Asafetida, a fetid drug prepared from the juice of certain plants of the parsley family, was fashioned into a little bag that was hung around the neck and worn for a period of time that seemed like forever to the children because of the pungent and disagreeable ordor.

Chronicles of Courage, comp. by Lesson Committee (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1992), 3: 71.
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