I talked to two sister missionaries yesterday. They had never heard of Helen Marr Kimball marrying Joseph Smith when she was only fourteen years old. They had been told polygamy was only to protect widows. They also didn't know about the throat slashing and disembowelling rituals that used to go on in the temple.

One didn't know that men could still be sealed to more than one wife if their first wives had died.

I talked about the Book of Abraham facsimile, about the rock in the hat, and other things I have read about on Recovery From Mormonism.

It felt really good to use my knowledge gained from this Board to help other people.

Kudos to you. Maybe you planted a seed.

>>They had been told polygamy was only to protect widows.

I can't believe that old story is still in circulation!

Yeah, 'protect the widows' that's a good one. From what I just read in the book 'Wife No. 19' by one of Brigham's ex's.. he would take in widows just to use them as servants and not provide anything for them. Many of those polygamous widows would be left out on the streets to fend for themselves worse off than before. And Brigham would make the widows and their children from the previous marriage, PAY him room and board if they wanted to stay in one of his shabby houses!

Oh, it is. I've been told it also. And this was the real kicker: anti's talk like js married a bunch of 14 year-olds. He only married one.

Wow. How many does it take?

Agreed--and they make it out like this kind of thing was "normal" at the time, wasn't against the law, etc.

They have very few answers for the fact a) polygamy was against the law, b) he hid it from Emma, and c) it violated EVERY aspect of D&C 132.

The only apologist thing I've read was, "Well, God's instructions take precedence over man's laws." So I guess the whole honor and sustaining the law ain't that big of a deal...

Did you arrange a follow up?

Gatorman

Good job!

I didn't arrange a follow up because I don't want to be pestered. I wish someone had told me all this stuff when I was their sge so I could have got out earlier.

I told them about how you're only supposed to read the latest church materials and not delve into earlier stuff. One of them said that's not true and that she has electronic access to everything. I said that's great, please use it to look up the subjects we talked about, which also included black men being barred from the priesthood and D & C 132 celestial marriage meaning polygamy.

One of them said women are free to wear pants to church, and that they've never been told that you can't be with your family in Heaven if you aren't a worthy Mormon.

I only wanted to help them, and thanks to all of you I think I did. They seemed lovely but they're being used to spread misery. Luckily, where I live, every one flees from missionaries anyway, but those of us in the know should help them know the truth.

>they've never been told that you can't be with your family in Heaven if you aren't a worthy Mormon<. What on Earth would be the point if the whole Mormon scheme then? Geesh!

My own grandfather married a 14 year old.

Wonder if the sisters would believe that?

Next week: "Sorry, the mission president told us not to talk to you, bye"

Keep the missionaries ill informed and teach just faith promoting stories. That is how it's always worked.

My idea is to have some required reading for all missionaries, especially young girls.

#1 book would be: "In Sacred Loneliness the Plural Wives of Joseph Smith ." by Todd Compton (LDS writer) (This book recounts the women's stories from their own journals/writings.)

I found it to be a very difficult book to read. It was shattering, sickening, sad, frustrating, and life altering. I could only read one story at a time.

"Beginning in the 1830s, at least thirty-three women married Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. These were passionate relationships which also had some longevity, except in cases such as that of two young sisters, one of whom was discovered by Joseph’s first wife, Emma, in a locked bedroom with the prophet. Emma remained a steadfast opponent of polygamy throughout her life.

The majority of Smith’s wives were younger than he, and one-third were between fourteen and twenty years of age. Another third were already married, and some of the husbands served as witnesses at their own wife’s polyandrous wedding. In addition, some of the wives hinted that they bore Smith children—most notably Sylvia Sessions’s daughter Josephine—although the children carried their stepfather’s surname.

For all of Smith’s wives, the experience of being secretly married was socially isolating, emotionally draining, and sexually frustrating. Despite the spiritual and temporal benefits, which they acknowledged, they found their faith tested to the limit of its endurance. After Smith’s death in 1844, their lives became even more “lonely and desolate.” One even joined a convent.

The majority were appropriated by Smith’s successors, based on the Old Testament law of the Levirate, and had children by them, though they considered these guardianships unsatisfying. Others stayed in the Midwest and remarried, while one moved to California. But all considered their lives unhappy, except for the joy they found in their children and grandchildren. "