Mary Fielding Smith praying over her sick ox
I
read a lot. Lately (for the last 2 ½ years) I’ve been seriously engaged in the
scriptures like never before in a fascinating study, one that I hope will
eventually publish. As I read, I’m amazed at what I don’t know. I chuckle at
myself sometimes as I ask the questions I do in this blog, simply because there
was a time when I didn’t know the answers myself. I know this stuff only because
I read, and not because I’m an expert in the Church and pioneer heritage field
(I’ll leave that to the real historians, the people at the Church History department, and the pros at BYU). I’m also amazed at the things we used to
do in the Church, which are no longer practiced today. For instance, the temple
baptismal fonts are no longer used for eight-year old baptisms, baptisms for
healing, or rebaptisms. Members are no longer sealed to a general authority, we
don’t pay tithing in produce, talks or songs are not said or sung during the
passing of the sacrament, we no longer endow 12-year olds, and we don’t attend
fast and testimony meeting on the first Thursday of the month. The Church
evolves, only because of modern and continuous revelation which allows it to
evolve. The big steps in Church evolution in my years while on earth has been
the priesthood given to all worthy males regardless of race, the consolidation
of meeting times, and the updated scriptures. I have no doubt that before I’m
called home that I will experience additional change.
So, does it seem improbable for women in the pioneer phase of the Church
to participate in anointings and blessings? All are familiar with Mary Fielding
Smith and her praying over, or blessing (whichever story you read) her oxen.
But, did this extend to more than just animals? In my years of reading I’ve
come across a few interesting situations where women either anointed or blessed
others.
In a
letter to her husband, Apostle George A. Smith, on October 2, 1842, Bathsheba
Smith states the following:
George Albert was sick last Saturday and
Sunday. He had quite a fever. I was very uneasy about him. I was afraid he was
going to have the fever. I took him to the font and had him baptized and since
then he has not had any fever. He is about well now. Looks a little pale. I
anointed him with oil a good may times and washed his little body with whisky
and water which was burning with fever but it did not do the good I wanted it
should.
See Zora Smith Jarvis comp., Ancestry Biography and Family of George A.
Smith (Provo, Utah: Zora Smith
Jarvis, 1962).
March 17, 1847 . .
. . Mr. Sessions and I went and laid hands on the widow Holmans step daughter.
She was healed.
The Diaries of Perrigrine Sessions, comp. Earl T.
Sessions (Bountiful, Utah: Carr Printing Co., 1967).
Again, from Patty
Sessions journal of May 29th, 1847:
Packed 186 pounds of pork for the mountains. I then went to collect some
debts. Got nothing. Then went to a meeting to Eliza Beamans with many of the
sisters. Sisters Young and Whitney laid their hands upon my head and predicted
many things that I should be blessed with that I should live to stand in a
temple yet to be built and Joseph [Smith] would be there. I should see him and
there I should officiate from my labors should then be done in order and they
should be great and I should be blessed and by many and there I should bless
many and many should be brought unto me saying your hands were the first that
handled me bless me after I had blessed them their mothers would rise and bless
me for they would be brought to me by Joseph himself for he loved little
children and he would bring my little ones to me and my heart was filled with joy
and rejoicing.
The Diaries of Perrigrine Sessions, comp. Earl T.
Sessions (Bountiful, Utah: Carr Printing Co., 1967).
The
following from the journal of Julina Lambson Smith of February 14th,
1886:
Sister Coles came to be administered to. She has a large lump growing in
her Opu [stomach or womb]. It pains her considerably. Sister Young anointed the
affected part, and Jos. Albert with some of the other Elders administered to
her.
Kenneth W. Godfrey, Audrey M. Godfrey, and
Jill Mulvay Derr, Women’s Voices: An
Untold History of The Latter-day Saints 1830-1900 (Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book Company, 1982), 354.
Since I failed to ask a question yesterday,
I will provide you with another great story from the Cardston, Alberta temple:
An experience recorded by Earl W. and
Beth Hemp
What a wonderful, spiritual experience we
had that day in the 1940’s in the sealing room of the Alberta Temple with
President E. J. Wood. There was a sister from Montana who was sealed to her
deceased husband and then the children of her large family were placed around
the altar. President Wood commenced sealing the children to their parents.
After naming about three of the children’s names President Wood stopped and
said, “Sister, are all your children here?” She answered, “Yes.” President Wood
started naming the children again and stopped at the same place. “Sister, are
all the children’s names on this sheet you gave me?” questioned President Wood.
Again she answered, “Yes.” The third time President Wood commenced the sealing
and again stopped at the same place and asked, “Sister, didn’t you ever have
any other children?” She began to cry and said, “President Wood, I did have one
baby who lived only a short time and that baby’s name is not on the sheet.”
“Yes, I know. Every time I came to that place while naming the children a
spirit in this room, right beside me kept telling me that it belonged to this
family and to please not leave him or her-(we don’t remember which one it
was)-without belonging to the family,” declared President Wood.
We didn’t hear the spirit speaking to
President Wood but we will never forget that sweet, peaceful, heavenly feeling
that was in that room. President Wood certainly was in tune with the Spirit to
hear the spirit of that child pleading with him.
Another person was chosen to be the proxy
for that deceased child and it was sealed along with the living children
to the parents. There must have been much rejoicing also in the heavens that
day.
V.A.Wood,
The Alberta Temple-Center and Symbol of
Faith, (Self published, 1989) pg.
172-173.
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