John Bytheway:               00:00                   And now for part two with Karen Hepworth, Doctrine and Covenants Sections 89 to 92.

Karen Hepworth:             00:07                   We’ve talked about physical nourishment. That’s a part. The word of wisdom is about the spiritual nourishment. That’s a means to the end. We not only receive physical nourishment, we also receive spiritual nourishment. In this revelation verse 19, and shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures. We finished, my writing team in curriculum, we finished the Old Testament manual recently. I remember a lesson we did in Daniel. Daniel told the prince of the eunuchs that were set over him that they could prove him. I love that word that’s so rarely found in scripture. Prove him. I beseech thee and give us pulse. Pulse are foods that are made out of grains and nuts. Then he said, give us water to drink. Then look at our countenance. After 10 days of not eating the king’s meat or the wine after 10 days, they looked at their countenance and they were fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children that ate the portion of the king’s meat.

                                           01:21                   Then because they did that, they told Daniel and his friends, you don’t need to eat the meat and the wine. You can have pulse. The very next verse, as for these children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. Daniel had understanding in visions and dreams. Now, at the end of the days, the king had said that he should bring them in. Then the princes of the eunuch brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar the king communed with them. Among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. You know them as Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. Therefore stood they before the king and in matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his realm. 10 times. Remarkable. I love that story.

John Bytheway:               02:29                   And that’s more than a health thing. That’s a spiritual thing.

Karen Hepworth:             02:33                   That’s the connection I was trying to make earlier with what Hank said. When Hank read Anthony Sweat’s quote, I love that we’re trying to get to holiness. We’re achieving holiness and knowledge of God, greater wisdom and understanding. We get there by treating our bodies with respect and kindness, by eating healthy, right? Choosing healthy foods so that we can have that blessing. Verse 20 and shall run and not be weary and shall walk and not faint. You might recognize that phrase. Speaking of the Old Testament, that’s Isaiah 40:31. Isaiah was prophetically talking about when Judah would be conquered by Babylon. They weren’t in exile yet, so Isaiah’s prophesying of a future time when they would feel abandoned or forgotten by God. Here’s the most beautiful verse I think in Isaiah, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint. Isn’t that beautiful? Yes, it has both spiritual and physical implications there. Many blessings for adhering to the word of wisdom.

John Bytheway:               03:56                   Who wouldn’t want, just the older I get the more I think, I want energy. I watch Hank, if they were hookup jumper cables to Hank’s ears he could light up Mapleton by himself. Where do you get that kind of energy to be able to run and not be weary, walk and not faint? What’s a better promise than that? That’s awesome.

Karen Hepworth:             04:18                   With all they’re discovering all the time with health and leading a healthy lifestyle, it’s obvious that resilience, vitality, energy, it’s part of that’s a natural outcome of striving to live a healthy lifestyle. Getting enough sleep, which I think is part of the word of wisdom. The Lord telling Joseph to arise early and go to bed early. Verse 21 and I, the Lord, give unto them a promise that the destroying angel shall pass by them as the children of Israel and not slay them. Amen. Why did the destroying angel pass by them? I thought of Exodus chapter 12 where the Lord told the Israelites to kill a lamb for Passover for their family. Then they were to take hissop and dip that blood as you recall and strike. That’s an interesting choice of words to strike the lintel and the doorposts with the blood of the lamb.

                                           05:18                   Strike to me means intentional. They intentionally would do that. For those that did that on the lintel and the side posts, the Lord would pass over the door and would not suffer the destroyer to come into your house to smite. You think about that, the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the symbol of the lamb’s blood would protect and save those households. Now you see why I wanted to begin with 1 Corinthians 6:20 quoting President Russell M. Nelson quoting this verse, for ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are Gods. What is that price? It’s the blood of Jesus Christ. Acts 20 verse 28, take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood and he says that again in Hebrews eight, Paul tells the Hebrew saints verse 12, neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us.

                                           06:42                   John, you’ve asked me why do I do this? I don’t know when it first started, but the why is I came to realize that God gave his life so that I can have this experience. I make covenants through my body. I take the sacrament with my body. All of this to quote Elder David A. Bednar who said ordinances are amplified through our physical bodies. It’s all because of the Savior Jesus Christ. He gave his life, his blood so that we could have our bodies. Elder D. Todd Christofferson, I believe it pleases our creator when we do our best to care for this wonderful gift of a physical body, it would be a mark of rebellion to deface or defile or abuse it or fail to do what one can to pursue a healthy lifestyle. We do what we can. Some of you may feel again like, I’m not doing all of this.

                                           07:47                   That’s okay. You do what you can. You strive to do it. Temple recommend question number 11. Do you understand and obey the word of wisdom? I have an invitation and a question for our listeners. The question in the temple recommend interview is, do you understand? It’s understand and obey the word of wisdom. I have an invitation for our listeners to ponder and ask heavenly Father what he wants you to understand about this revelation. I have a question for you and this question’s for myself as well. How do your daily choices in how you treat your body reflect your love and gratitude for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were known for our health? My brother-in-law, he lives in Texas. He’s around people not of our faith all day every day. You’re the ones that can’t. It’s always the can’t. That’s the first thing they say.

                                           08:54                   You can’t drink coffee. Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we were known for our health, our lively health? As much as we can strive to do that if we were known for what we do, oh, you’re the one that eats fruits and vegetables instead of the first thing they know is you’re the ones that can’t. They always go to our three prohibitive. I’m actually thrilled they know that about us to tell you the truth, but wouldn’t it be nice if they knew you’re the ones that eat healthy because frankly, I’m jealous of our Christian friends, the Seventh Day Adventists, they are known all over for their good health. They’re one of the blue groups that National Geographic studied. I want to be a religion that we’re known that we have a healthy lifestyle to the end that we glorify God in our bodies. Isn’t that beautiful that Paul asked the Corinthians Saints to glorify God in your body and every day I’m striving to do that.

Hank Smith:                      09:54                   Karen, before we move on to the next few sections, I’m writing down everything I’ve learned here. We need to be known for our health, right? The Lord says, I want you to be a peculiar people. Well, that makes you peculiar. In this day and age, eating healthy, not drinking alcohol or coffee. Someone’s going to go, wait, what? It’s about stewardship. I’ve been given this body. The Lord’s going to want to know how’d you treat it? I wanted to ask you about fasting. What does fasting have to do with this? I notice it’s not in the word of wisdom, but it is in plenty of other places.

Karen Hepworth:             10:29                   I love that. I love that you brought up fasting. I think fasting is a way to put the physical body in subjection to the spirit. That’s so beautiful. When I’ve had students come to me with serious, they’re not supposed to, but it just spills out, right? They need to tell their bishop, but you’re talking to them and it just spills out a problem or a sadness they have. I’ve told my students for decades, fast it out of you. I’ve had students come back decades later and say, Sister Hepworth, I remember you said, fast it out of me. It really works. It really works for sins, sadnesses, weaknesses. You name it, you can fast and heavenly father will help you if you put forth that effort. The world puts forth fasting as a health principle, which it is. You are healthy when you fast. That is not even secondary. That’s far down on the list. We fast to deal our bread to the hungry to make sure that others have. We fast to let heavy burdens go free, it lets go of chains and all those things that bind us. Any addictions, anything that we have, we can fast. We can pray. If we’re able to fast. Not everyone can fast for health reasons, but those of us that can fast. We can fast to receive that strength and that extra help.

Hank Smith:                      11:59                   I love that. There was one day I was with a friend, we had a meal or something and I got him a dessert and he said, no thanks. I’ve already had a dessert. I said, well have another. He said, oh, I want to but I’m not going to. I said, well, you know, I was kind of pushing on it like, well, what’s your problem? It was just a fascinating thing I had never thought of. He said, I’m a young men’s leader and I frequently tell my young men to control their appetites when it comes to pornography. He said, yet, how can I tell them to control that appetite when I am not controlling this one? And I was extremely touched by that. I thought, here we are teaching our youth avoid that strong appetite, control it. Yet sometimes we don’t practice that same self-control. We’re asking them to practice. I’ve remembered it forever.

Karen Hepworth:             12:59                   That’s so good, Hank. I love that.

John Bytheway:               13:02                   That’s parallel to a story Stephen Covey tells about Gandhi that someone came to him and said, will you please tell my son to give up sugar? And he said to have him come and see me in a month. A month later, he came to see him. The mother said, well, why did you wait for so long? He said, because a month ago I was eating sugar. And he didn’t want to tell him to do that unless he was doing it. That’s a good story.

Karen Hepworth:             13:31                   I love that. I can’t imagine how we can speak to each other, see each other, hear each other, all of the senses. It’s the most beautiful, miraculous gift. Heavenly father has given us such a treasure, so I try every day to treasure my body. Every day I’m asking heavenly Father how to improve upon it. I’ve never arrived in my eating and my exercise regimen every day a part of at least one of my prayers is Heavenly Father, please help me to improve on my physical health and obviously my spiritual health. Sometimes we focus on that just our spiritual health, but we don’t see the connection, the spirit and the body. It’s the soul of man. That’s why I choose to be healthy. I don’t see a separation. I’m healthy because it’s a religious responsibility for me to strive to be healthy and abide by the word of wisdom. I’m so grateful for it.

Hank Smith:                      14:28                   I’m inspired. I hope everyone listening at home takes Karen up on this challenge and that doesn’t mean you’ve gotta change everything about your entire life today. It means take on this challenge. Let’s get started. Even if it just means, Hey, I’m going to pick up some raspberries and some blueberries.

Karen Hepworth:             14:49                   Any little thing you can to strive to increase health.

Hank Smith:                      14:54                   What does the Lord say, John? He says that never any time did I give you a temporal commandment. Everything I’m telling you is spiritual.

John Bytheway:               15:01                   It’s kind of the Stephen Covey sharpen the saw idea. This is the instrument that I have to do everything else. The story is this guy’s trying to saw down a tree. It’s getting harder and harder. He is not making any progress and they’re like, well, why don’t you sharpen that saw? And he says, I can’t. I have to cut down this tree. The whole idea is, well, that’s the instrument you have to do that. We take care of our bodies so that we can live, care, invite, unite, do the work of the gospel because that’s our instrument to do it with. I think you’re right. We don’t want anybody to feel, oh man. I mean I feel that too, but I also feel motivated.

Karen Hepworth:             15:37                   I hope so. What’s one thing that you can do to be kind to your body? What’s something you can do?

Hank Smith:                      15:44                   Karen, I know that that was the meat of what we wanted to do with you.

Karen Hepworth:             15:51                    Nice play on words.

John Bytheway:               15:52                   Yeah, that was the meat and grains and veggies of what we wanted to do today.

Hank Smith:                      15:57                   But there are some other sections here that were given pretty close to around the time Section 89 comes.

Karen Hepworth:             16:04                   A month later. Section 90 was given March 8th, 1833, but I think it still continues with our theme. God is kind and compassionate. He can help us with whatever we need help with because he created all those wonderful fruits and grains to please our eye and gladden our heart. We don’t know the background of Section 90 either. Church historian Steve Harper says that Joseph may have been anxious. We don’t know because Joseph didn’t say you just have to try to delineate by reading the revelation itself to see what the questions were. Steve Harper points out that he may have been anxious about financial obligations like buying land in Missouri, establishing a storehouse printing revelations and gathering to Zion. When I read this even before I knew what Steve Harper had said about possible historical background because Joseph didn’t leave any, God must be wanting to comfort Joseph Smith.

                                           17:07                   He is so compassionate, not even knowing a single circumstance in Joseph’s life. I saw evidence upon evidence of God’s compassion right out of the gate. The very first verse, thus saith the Lord verily, verily I say unto you, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee. If that doesn’t bring you comfort from a compassionate God, what does? According to thy petition for thy prayers and the prayers of thy brethren have come up unto me, I have forgiven your sins and I’ve heard your prayers. Again, we don’t know what those prayers are. We can guess. He’s going to talk a few things about money here. God is so kind. The first time that I know of that Joseph was told, that is in my favorite account. It’s in the 1832 account of the first vision. That’s the earliest account and it’s the only one largely written in his own hand.

                                           18:03                   Joseph tells us in his 1832 account, he cried unto the Lord for mercy because he was convicted of his sins and the Lord heard my cry while I was in the attitude of calling upon him. A pillar of fire above the brightness of the sun at noonday came down from above, rested upon me and I was filled with the spirit of God. The heavens opened upon me and I saw the Lord and he spake unto me saying, Joseph, thy sins are forgiven thee. That is so beautiful. He tells him that here. What a comfort. Several verses later did you notice he says the same thing to Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams? Look down in verse six. I say unto thy brethren, Sidney and Frederick, their sins are forgiven them also. This is the next step in establishing the first presidency. Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams are called and then it’ll continue line upon line, precept upon precept all the way through section 107 and continuing.

                                           19:09                   There’ll be more revelation in the establishment of that. Joseph is told in here, again, we don’t know what precipitated this revelation, but you can guess because it’s one of the prayers I frequently have. I don’t know if Joseph asked this, but I have to say I have asked heavenly father and I still do and my life’s half over. What exactly is my life mission? What am I supposed to be doing here? I think it’s incredible that the Lord tells him his duties, yes, in the first presidency to be sure, but this will be your mission in all your life. Verse 16, to preside in council and to set in order the affairs of the church. This is what you’re going to be doing from here on out. This is your life’s mission. Go back with me to verse 11. How comforting to know that it’ll come to pass when there’s still just a few handfuls of saints.

                                           20:08                   There’s not a lot still on the earth in 33. Look at this. It shall come to pass in the day that every man shall hear the fullness of the gospel in his own tongue and in his own language. What must that have done for Joseph and his counselors to hear that? That it’s coming, that everyone, everybody on the earth, they’re going to hear the gospel. It’ll come through those who are ordained unto this power. That’s Joseph and his counselors, the first presidency by the administration of the comforter. The Lord could have said Holy Ghost, he said the comforter shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ. Look in verse 14, and from time to time as shall be manifested by the comforter again, the Lord could have said, holy Ghost, it works perfectly in that context. He said, manifested by the comforter, you shall receive revelations to unfold the mysteries of the kingdom.

                                           21:10                   God’s going to answer his questions. Again, I don’t know if that was one of his questions, exactly what he was asking. What precipitated this. Revelations will come to unfold the mysteries. Joseph set in order the churches, study and learn, become acquainted with all good books, languages, tongues, and people. This will be your mission. As I mentioned, this is your mission in your life. The most comforting verse in my opinion. Go down with me please to verse 24, search diligently, pray always and be believing and all things shall work together for your good. All things. If you walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another. The Lord’s probably referring to 82, 11 through 12 where they made that covenant when they joined the United Order, the United Firm. Look at that again. Verse 24. All things shall work together for your good. Is that the most hopeful phrase? That’s true. You don’t need to tell yourself it. You could, but it’s true. If you search diligently, pray always and you’re believing, everything’s going to work out, everything’s going to work out. I bear testimony that that’s true. Everything’s going to be fine. For whatever reason, Joseph Smith needed to hear that at that time

Hank Smith:                      22:33                   You sounded like President Hinckley there, Karen, it isn’t as bad as you think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry, I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. Do you remember when he used to say accentuate the positive?

Karen Hepworth:             22:58                   Love that all things will work out for your good. I think it’s a prophet of God who’s telling himself that. He’s pretty close to God. Everything’s going to work out. So comforting. Before we began this broadcast, we’re just doing small talk with the producer Dave Perry and he has 10 siblings. He’s a good friend and even slightly related to me, I have 10 siblings. That’s probably unusual. Those of you that read 25 and you went, let your family be small, what? Let your family… Sinners, Karen and David Perry.

Hank Smith:                      23:31                   Yeah.

Karen Hepworth:             23:31                   It’s not a commentary on family size. The term family was used by Sidney Rigdon’s Cambellite congregation. It means a cooperative group. Several conventional families this practice had developed where the saints were extending hospitality to numerous people or newcomers that would come in. They’d give them food, clothing, shelter, whatever they would need. Look what the Lord says about that Verse 26, that those things that are provided for you to bring to pass my work be not taken from you and given to those that are not worthy. Verse 27, thereby you be hindered in accomplishing those things which I’ve commanded you saying, don’t dissipate your goods, all your goods on people that aren’t worthy of them.

Hank Smith:                      24:24                   You gotta have some boundaries, some limits.

Karen Hepworth:             24:27                   Absolutely. We have to point out Vienna Jaques, my French friends, Stephanie Scoresby or Vienna Jaques as Americans would say, but Jaques is her French pronunciation. Look at this remarkable woman. We need to point her out because who’s mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants? Emma and Eve and all her faithful daughters, glorious Mother Eve, remember in section 138. When Joseph F. Smith, the president of the church sees his vision of the spirit world, he sees Adam and he sees glorious Mother Eve. I love that, glorious Mother Eve and her faithful daughters. Aside from that we don’t have a lot of women mentioned. Let’s make a to-do about this remarkable woman Vienna. Verse 28, and again verily I say to you, it is my will that my handmaid Vienna Jaques or Jaques should receive money to bear her expenses to go up to Zion. Why? You might ask because she consecrated a large, a substantial sum of money to the church after joining the church.

                                           25:39                   If you want to look at Joseph Smith papers on your own, there is a lovely picture there. Well, if you’re picturing who is this woman? She’s from Boston, Massachusetts. She’s a nurse. Maybe that’s why she had a bit of money to consecrate, but she consecrated a substantial sum. The revelation says that she should receive money to bear her expenses now. She was a nurse and a laundress. She gave a lot of money to the church. The Lord says in this revelation verse 29, and the residue of the money may be consecrated unto me and she be rewarded in my own due time. Verily I say unto you that it is meet in my eyes that she should go up to the land of Zion, which she did, and receive an inheritance from the hand of the bishop that she may settle down in peace inasmuch as she is faithful and not be idle in her days from henceforth. She moves to Kirtland, Ohio. After joining the church, she consecrates money. Then she moves to Jackson County and continues on with the saints to Illinois and then she’ll come to Utah. I think it was in 1847. There’s a nice little article, those of you that want to read about Vienna, Church historian Brent Rogers wrote an article about Vienna that you might like to read. It’s 2016 Ensign June.

John Bytheway:               27:07                   Vienna Jaques, as I’ve heard it pronounced like Vienna Jaques and her cousin Vera Jaques who was right there at the dormez-vous. I think that she was also part of preserving the pages of the book of Commandments that were thrown out of WW Phelps printing place. I think Vienna Jaques was involved there, wasn’t she?

Karen Hepworth:             27:27                   Yeah. Joseph Smith Papers talks about that. Yes.

John Bytheway:               27:31                   Often we hear about these people really consecrating everything.

Karen Hepworth:             27:36                   She did that and could you just give up your

John Bytheway:               27:40                   It all.

Karen Hepworth:             27:41                   beautiful home, your cars. Could you, if the Lord says I need you to consecrate all to help build Zion. We need to buy properties. We need money to fund all sorts of things. We have land we need to acquire, we have publication needs. Could you do that? Could you go sell your home and your car and then wait on the Bishop to receive your allotted portion? Here’s your two bedroom home and here’s your horse. Here’s your plot for your garden. It really is remarkable to think of the faithfulness of these women and men that were willing to consecrate all they had for the building of Zion. It’s beautiful though we may not be asked to give all physically the way they did. We still are asked. Consecration is still alive and well. We are asked to consecrate time and so much more to build Zion.

Hank Smith:                      28:34                   She’s going to end up crossing the plains.

Karen Hepworth:             28:37                   She went with the saints, got here I believe in 1847. Remarkable woman.

Hank Smith:                      28:44                   She dies at age 96. Wow.

Karen Hepworth:             28:47                   Woo. She must have been living the word of wisdom. That’s incredible. That’s incredible. And she’s a nurse. She kind of got it.

John Bytheway:               28:57                   She gets it.

Karen Hepworth:             28:58                   Her mission was to continue here for quite a while. Some people not, they’re called home early, but she had her work to do. What I can say about this revelation, again, we don’t know all that precipitated this, what caused this revelation, why Joseph Smith received it, but what I can see so clearly is God showing his compassionate hand over and over again. Your sins are forgiven. I’m going to give you revelation, all things are going to work out for your good. It’s so calming. If he was anxious at all.

John Bytheway:               29:34                   I never would have made that connection, thank you, for… could have said Holy Ghost, but he called it the Comforter. I did the etymology once on comfort and it’s pretty obvious, but it means together strong.

Karen Hepworth:             29:46                   Oh, that’s beautiful.

John Bytheway:               29:47                   Comfort means together strong. We go partake of the sacrament so that we can always have his Spirit to be with us. We can be together. Together strong.

Karen Hepworth:             29:57                   Oh, that’s beautiful John. I love that. That’s perfect for this. Okay, should we do 91?

Hank Smith:                      30:03                   Yeah. We have two small sections left.

Karen Hepworth:             30:07                   In Section 91, Joseph Smith was working on his new translation of the Bible. He had a lot of questions. I just think it’s so interesting that it’s so good for all of our listeners, we should be asking questions. Because if you don’t ask questions, we wouldn’t have the Doctrine and Covenants. So much of it was in response to questions that he had. He’s working on the revelation and he comes to a part of his King James Bible. Most Protestants don’t have this in their Bible anymore. He comes across the apocrypha known as the Deutero canon. The hidden books as many titles. Which our wonderful Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox still have in their canon. They consider it scripture. Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you concerning the apocrypha, there are many things contained therein that are true and it’s mostly translated correctly. There are many things contained that are not true, which are interpolations by the hands of men, meaning inserted into the text that was not originally put there by the author.

                                           31:17                   Verily I say unto you, it is not needful that the apocrypha should be translated, therefore, whoso readeth it let him understand. For the spirit manifesteth truth. We need to talk about that and I hope I don’t take this too far out of context. I think that little par is an important aside. Look at it says, for the Spirit manifests truth. The next verse, verse five, and whoso is enlightened by the Spirit. Look at verse six and whoso receiveth not by the Spirit. This is what I thought of. My mind immediately went to President Nelson. It won’t be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. I think we’re there with AI on the verge, taking over. I think we’re there. What a beautiful blessing and help it is to have the Spirit manifest truth for us, not just reading. If we read the apocrypha, I’ve read it a handful of times. Any scripture, we read things with the Spirit so he can manifest to us the truth of all things, right? Moroni. The Spirit manifests truth.

John Bytheway:               32:34                   I just wrote in my margin, one of my favorite verses. Coming up we’re going to do the definition of truth in 93 and knowledge of things as they are and as they were, as they are to come. But when Nephi’s little brother Jacob says it, he adds one word, which I love. The Spirit speaketh the truth, wherefore it speaketh of things as they really are and the things as they really will be. Google, Siri, Alexa will tell you something, but do you want to know the way they really are? Because I like that you just said AI. AI is crazy and kind of frightening. Ask it anything, it’ll tell you something. But ooh, how do we know the way things really are?

Karen Hepworth:             33:12                   I don’t remember the whole apocrypha, I’ve probably only read it three or four times, this story about Susanna being framed by two wicked men. They accused her of something she didn’t do. Daniel, our Daniel, the one that we know in the Old Testament, he questions her accusers separately. This is incredible. I read this and I went, how did he know to do that? Oh yeah, he lives the word of wisdom. That’s why he’s so smart. Hidden treasures. He takes them separately and says, oh yeah, what tree was this happening under? The accuser says a tree. Then Daniel takes the other accuser and he says, what tree was this happening in? A totally different tree and instead of putting her to death, they were put to death for falsely accusing her of a very serious sin. I don’t know if that’s some beautiful truth.

John Bytheway:               34:02                   What book is that in?

Karen Hepworth:             34:04                   That’s the book of Susanna. Here’s the most common ones. Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiastes. Some cannons call it Sirach. Baruch, letter of Jeremiah. Prayer of Azariah. Susanna, Bel. That’s where Daniel, they claim that their dragon is a God. It’s actually a live animal. What could be, we don’t know, some kind of a reptile? Daniel says, it’s not a God. He feeds it pitch and tar and hair and the animal dies. He says, see, not a God. That’s a delightful one. That’s Bel and the Dragon. There’s lots of really great things you can learn from the apocrypha because he did that. He is going to get thrown into the den of lions a second time. If you want to read it, you can. But I’m with Elder D. Todd Christofferson. Didn’t he say years ago that we’re kind of scriptural? We have a little bit of illiteracy when it comes to reading the Bible. I say, well read the Bible a few times and then if you’re bored, read the apocrypha and see what good you can get out of that. But all that to say, Joseph Smith was told it was not needful for him to translate that so he could just move on.

John Bytheway:               35:18                   I love it whenever I see the word light and there in verse five, whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain benefit therefrom. It’s not always a burning in the bosom. Some people came equipped to earth without the heater. But it might be that thing inside that makes you go, ah-ha, some clarity inside. You’re enlightened by the Spirit, gives you clarity. I appreciate those because I feel like that’s more me than the burner thing.

Hank Smith:                      35:46                   Yeah. Enlightened by the Spirit. Do you remember Doctrine & Covenants 11:13? I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind and fill your soul with joy. When I think of that, I think of an experience I had once. I was home teaching, if either of you remember that program where I went over to teach a family, to come in and get the five to 10 minute message. As I sat down, the husband, his name is Mike, he said, Hey, before you start, can we talk about something? I said, sure. He said, this week I got laid off from my job. And I said, oh, uh, wow. I didn’t know that. He said, spiritually, this is the best I’ve ever done, going to church, reading scripture. I just don’t see why when I’m being spiritually at my best, why this would happen.

                                           36:41                   I think he was looking at me for an answer. I was thinking, that is not in the Ensign this month. I don’t know what you want me to say, but I had a distinct enlightenment or an impression to talk to him about fishing. And I remember that he loved fishing. In my mind came a picture of him hooking up his boat trailer to his truck. I talked about that for a minute. Talked to him about what he does to hook up his boat trailer to his truck. And I said, when you get it all done and it’s set, what do you do? Looking at it there, it’s all set up. It’s ready to go. And he said, uh, you know, usually put your foot on it and give it a little push to make sure everything’s set. You pull on the chain. I said, I think that’s what the Lord is doing. You’ve hooked up. You’re covenanted, you’re in. I’m going to give you a little push to make sure you’re really in. He said, you know what? That makes perfect sense. I was not prepared. I’d never given that example ever before in my life. Never used it since, but it was one of those, the Spirit will manifest truth. Whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain a benefit. And that was definitely a benefit in that moment.

John Bytheway:               37:59                   Wow. Will you be my home teacher, Hank?

Hank Smith:                      38:01                   Yes. Yes. Well, let’s move on to section 92, Karen. This is the last one. In this week’s lesson, Frederick G. Williams, first presidency.

Karen Hepworth:             38:14                   Frederick G. Williams is called into the United Order. It’s going to become United Firm. That’s what replaces the term United Order. You would’ve heard this in earlier podcasts, but it’s the administrative, major administrative body from about 1832 to 1834 in the church. Frederick G. Williams is called to join this firm. The Lord says, verily, thus saith the Lord. I give unto the United Order, organized agreeable to the commandment previously given, a revelation commandment concerning my servant Frederick G. Williams. That ye shall receive him into the order. Frederick G. Williams, you shall be a lively member. I love that lively member in this order. Don’t sit there like a toad. Participate. Boy will he ever. He’s going to consecrate his entire farm. We’re talking about Vienna and all the many saints that consecrated pretty much all they had to move this work forward. And Frederick G. Williams is one in the line of many who did much to further the work of the Lord. You two are lively members on this podcast. You are lively members all the time. How are we lively members? If God said, be a lively member of your ward or branch, what does that look like? How do you participate in your second hour meetings? How are you a lively member in your ministering assignments? How are you a lively member when you prepare for and attend the temple as often as you’re able? Interesting that the Lord tells him to be a lively member, a fully participating member.

John Bytheway:               40:10                   Not a spectator.

Hank Smith:                      40:11                   Yeah.

John Bytheway:               40:12                   Right? Yeah.

Hank Smith:                      40:13                   Get involved. Sit on the front row. Yeah.

Karen Hepworth:             40:16                   Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, we cannot expect to experience the blessings of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa, watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, spectator discipleship is a preferred, if not a primary way of worshiping.

Hank Smith:                      40:37                   Yeah. Think about Ward Council. Are you a lively member of Ward Council? I remember Elder Uchtdorf talking about those who covet a crown, those who want to be in charge, and I thought, ha ha, I’m not one of those. And then he said, and there are those who covet a cave where we’ll slip right into the background and not take part in anything. And I thought, augh, because I am a cave coveter at times.

Karen Hepworth:             41:04                   Are you a cave dweller?

Hank Smith:                      41:05                   Yeah.

John Bytheway:               41:06                   Cave with a cup holder.

Hank Smith:                      41:07                   Yes. Put me in the back. Back here. Where, no, participate. I like that Karen. Participate. Raise your hand. Offer a comment. Bear your testimony. Yeah.

Karen Hepworth:             41:19                   Fully participating member.

John Bytheway:               41:22                   Well, I like that Elder Bednar gave a tribute to his wife once who comes into the chapel with her radar on who can I go talk to and lift and say something nice to, it’s not, let’s see, where’s my pew? I’m going to sit down. It’s look around and how are you? And I haven’t seen you and that sounds like a lively member.

Hank Smith:                      41:44                   A lively member.

Karen Hepworth:             41:46                   We have a lively member in our ward, John, that does that. He’s in his nineties. In his nineties. I wrote in my journal a few nights ago, he had a little accident, so my husband and I went to visit him in the care center, but I wrote a journal entry about this man, how I want to be like him. He’s in his nineties. If anyone had a reason to come in late to church or not come at all, he is a lively member. He has come and said hi to me, shaken my hand for years, welcomes me. I should be welcoming him. He welcomes me and many others, but he makes a beeline for me. Such a special man. He is a lively member of our ward. Maybe it’s not going around and greeting people, maybe like Sister Bednar you just look on your radar. Who needs it? When I see that, then I go sit in my chair, my pew, and I pray for that individual. I’m kind of a quiet, lively member. I start prayers for individuals. When I see people that show up to church that haven’t been for several years in my ward, I immediately start praying for them that they’ll feel the love of Heavenly Father and have an experience in sacrament meeting that will help bring them back home to him. You can be a lively member, but be participatory even in quiet, sacred ways as well.

Hank Smith:                      43:12                   I love that. A couple of years ago we had a family move into our ward, Jake and Tyra Hawkins. Man, it felt like we got a burst of energy, love, and kindness. It’s really fun to see a lively member at work. I’m here to give, I’m here to help. What do you need from me? I’m just glad I’m not a dead member yet. Frederick G. Williams must have had significant impact on Joseph Smith and Emma, their sixth child. If you’re counting all of the tragedies before this, Frederick Granger Williams Smith, something significant happened as Brother Williams is a member of the first presidency.

Karen Hepworth:             43:57                   That was really cool though. I forgot that Frederick was named after this, Frederick, until you brought it up Hank. What an honor.

Hank Smith:                      44:06                   Yeah. If I named my child John Glenn Bytheway Smith, I mean that’s. I’m going to get your whole name in there.

Karen Hepworth:             44:13                   They really loved that man. It’s beautiful.

Hank Smith:                      44:18                   Karen, this has been fantastic. I feel very motivated to see what’s something I can do today to live the word of wisdom. I’m going to walk down to get my mail today.

Karen Hepworth:             44:32                   Nibble on a kale chip as you walk to your mailbox.

Hank Smith:                      44:37                   Look at me. I’m living the word of wisdom. Karen, let me ask you a question. You have studied the gospel, taught it full-time. You now work on church materials, making sure that they are fit within the church’s boundaries. You’ve spent time in the gospel, in the scriptures, in the manuals, in with church employees. I think our listeners would be interested in how all of that has shaped your feelings about the Restoration. When I became a church employee, I had many people say, well, just remember the church is true. Like, okay, but I found that in my church employment, the ins and outs and the things you see, the things you learn have contributed to my feelings about the Restoration. What have you found?

Karen Hepworth:             45:27                   That’s a beautiful question. That’s super broad. How do I feel about the Restoration? I am stunned, awestruck, speechless to see the Lord hastening his work in his time in the ongoing restoration. I love church history. Alex Baugh and others just caught me on fire decades ago. I shouldn’t even mention names. There are so many. Steve Harper. Others inspired me so much. I started studying church history full-time. I just love the Doctrine and Covenants. I love church history. It’s so motivating to see inspiring examples. We’ve named a few, but so many people gave everything to move this work forward and I say, what am I doing in the restoration to participate? Am I a bystander? Am I a lively member? I mentioned a few minutes ago, what was Joseph Smith asking? When the Lord said, this is your mission in life. You’re to reside in council and you and your counselors would build up the churches.

                                           46:30                   As I ask Heavenly Father, I attend the temple a lot. I’m a savior on Mount Zion. What else would thou have me do to participate in this ongoing restoration? I’m so thankful for the prophet Joseph Smith, all that the Savior did through him to restore this church and I stand in awe of what the prophet does. What little I know is I get the official church news email every Sunday as you probably do, and I see where he’s been and what the 12 have been doing, and I follow them on social media. It astounds me what these men do, these holy men and women of Jesus Christ do with this ongoing restoration. What am I doing in this little lot that the Lord has given me? What’s been allotted to me? What can I do to help? Scripture has been preserved. Words of holy prophets, ongoing holy words in general conferences and other talks that help me and inspire me to want to stay on the covenant path.

Hank Smith:                      47:36                   Yeah, search diligently, pray, always be believing. All things shall work together for your good. I think you embody that, Karen.

Karen Hepworth:             47:46                   Thanks Hank.

Hank Smith:                      47:47                    Thanks for being here.

Karen Hepworth:             47:48                   You’re so kind.

John Bytheway:               47:50                   I love when I can learn something and make some course corrections. I’m looking through the Come, Follow Me manual and some of you can’t see this, but look what I saw. Raspberries in the lesson on the word of wisdom.

Karen Hepworth:             48:04                   I love berries.

John Bytheway:               48:05                   These manuals are inspired. I’m telling you.

Hank Smith:                      48:08                   That went through correlation.

Karen Hepworth:             48:11                   Hey now.

John Bytheway:               48:12                   That went through Karen’s desk. She was, we need more raspberries on page 85,

Karen Hepworth:             48:16                   We need more pictures of fruits and vegetables in our church materials. Oh, I love that. That’s great. That’s so awesome. That is so good.

John Bytheway:               48:25                   We’ve talked about Vienna Jaques who gave everything. Oh man, we have such abundance. That’s what has touched me today. I’ve just gotta be thankful we have the abundant life.

Karen Hepworth:             48:37                   John, you brought up my favorite part of that, that we talked about is the thanksgiving. We are so blessed. We have such a variety of food. I’m humbled and privileged by it that I get to open up a pantry and a fridge every day and pick what I eat because he does give me choice. I choose those things that he gives us in the word of wisdom. Thank you, John. That’s beautiful. You two are just saying all things shall work together for your good. I hope anyone that’s listening that’s sad or has a trial or struggle, everything’s going to work out one way or the other. I have two brothers currently hospitalized as we speak at the U of U Hospital and very serious issues with all of that. All things will work out for our good in ways that we may not see, or even ways that we may not like. We don’t always see the end from the beginning. We just have a limited perspective sometimes. Heavenly Father, he’s a God of good things to come.

Hank Smith:                      49:46                   Yeah. Beautiful. John, I’m going to tell my entire ward that all youth activities will have word of wisdom approved refreshments. Can you imagine?

John Bytheway:               49:59                   All in favor.

Hank Smith:                      50:01                   Well, Karen, we have loved you being with us today. It’s been fun.

Karen Hepworth:             50:06                   Wow. Such an honor and privilege. Thank you so, so much for the invitation. It came out of nowhere. I’m so grateful to share testimony of how much I love the Lord. I’m so grateful for him and that these revelations have been preserved for us. What a gift and blessing. He must really love us. Thank you so much.

Hank Smith:                      50:25                   Wonderful. We want to thank Sister Karen Hepworth for being with us today. Wherever you are, wherever you’re listening from, come on to YouTube and we’ll make sure she gets those messages. It’s fun for our guests to find out where they taught from Zimbabwe to Finland. We want to thank our executive producer Shannon Sorensen, our sponsors David and Verla Sorensen. Every episode we remember our founder Steve Sorensen. We hope you’ll join us next week. We have another very important section, section 93 of the Doctrine and Covenants coming up on followHIM. Thank you for joining us on today’s episode. Do you or someone you know speak Spanish, Portuguese, or French? You can now watch and listen to our podcast in those languages. Links are in the description below. Today’s show notes and transcript are on our website. Follow him.co. That’s follow him dot co. Of course, none of this could happen without our incredible production crew. David Perry, Lisa Spice, Will Stoughton, Krystal Roberts, Ariel Cuadra, Heather Barlow, Amelia Kabwika, Iride Gonzalez, and Annabelle Sorensen.