Legends and curses in the England Bristol Mission area

                      The Wells Road Chapel in Bristol, in 1973.



By Lynn Arave

I SERVED as a full-time missionary in what was called the England Southwest Mission and then re-named the England-Bristol Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) from 1973-1975.
Most of that mission (except South Wales and perhaps some small areas) was part of the London South Mission for many years thereafter. In 2022, the original mission area returned, with Bristol as its capital again.
Legends of possible past curses on various areas of S.W. England used to abound during my mission. About four decades later, here's a look at what I recall, plus some historical facts about some of the earliest of missionaries to the area ...

 (NOTE that this article isn't trying to belittle the LDS Church, or its members in the United Kingdom. It is hoped that this will simply 'stir the pot' a little and lead to a discovery of more facts about the legends and history of missionary work in the area. I didn't make up any of the legends, just heard about them. Sadly, too many members and former missionaries want to avoid/shun and even censor these tales, though they are all about history.)

-I do recall that my second mission president, Arnold R. Knapp, finally responded to habitual comments from some missionaries about a possible widespread curse by former Elders in that area of the country.
As best of recollection as I have, President Knapp scoffed at the idea and said there were no such curses, or if there had been some, they were now retracted.
Of course, in retrospect, I don't know if President Knapp had researched any of the so-called curses, or what he may have really known about any of them.

-Dan Johns, a missionary in England Bristol in the late 1970s, did some extensive research on some of the legends of his former mission.
These were conducted as part of a 1985 BYU project.
The result was a 28-page document, "Folklore of the England, Bristol Mission."
However, even though BYU's Harold B. Lee Library lists this work on its public document list, access is NOT allowed until the year 2055, since certain public permission papers were not filed.
(I e-mailed Dan Johns on his folklore project, but never received a reply.)

       The first house in Bristol where I successfully left a copy of the Book of Mormon in July 1973.

-Years after my mission, I started to become a student of history and read and studied the entire Journal of Discourses, all 26 volumes
(The Journal of Discourses are nothing more than a reprinting of church sermons previously published in the Deseret News ... so their accuracy is pretty good, as "reporters" of that era were merely secretaries who tried to record everything said word-for-word.)
I even compared many J.D. sermons with those of the original Deseret News editions (that I accessed on microfilm) and found no discrepancies between the two.

Here are samples of some mentions of Southwest Britain in 19th Century missionary work, from Church History sources: 

-In an August 8, 1852 sermon in Salt Lake by Brigham Young, he said:
"I recollect, in England, sending an Elder to Bristol, to open a door there, and she if anyone would believe. He had a little more than 30 miles to walk; he starts off one morning and arrives at Bristol; he preached the Gospel to them and sealed them all up to damnation, and was back next morning. He was just as good a man, too, as we had. It was want of knowledge caused him to do so." (Journal of Discourses 3:91).

After that segment on England, President Young stressed patience in preaching the Gospel and that he would keep preaching as long as people would listen and not drive him away.

-In a similar sermon by President Brigham Young, almost six years later, on April 6, 1857, he stated:
"Thousands of Elders go upon missions, and conduct themselves like a man by the name of Glover. He was preaching in Herefordshire, and we sent him to Bristol, about 30 miles distant, telling him to go there and start the work. He would get up and preach a splendid discourse. He went to Bristol and cried. 'Mormonism,' or the Gospel, and no person would listen to him. On the next morning he was back at Ledbury, and said, 'I came out of Bristol, washed my feet against them, and sealed them all up to damnation.' This is the way in which some of our Elders operate."
(Journal of Discourses 4:305).

President Young was obviously talking about the same incident in both discourses. This was likely the FIRST curse of any sort given by an Elder in S.W. England, by this Elder "Glover."

In the second sermon, President Young then talked about how he had never been refused food or lodging by strangers when he asked for such.

                                A 1974 photograph of the so-called cursed Plymouth church.


-There is the rumor that Brigham Young himself cursed a particular Church of England, Charles Church, in the center of Plymouth for threatening him. The then Elder Young prophesied that the day would come when that church building would stand, but no one would attend it. 

During the "Battle of Britain" phase of World War II, the church was bombed and left a shell during World War II and today it is a war memorial  in the center of a roundabout on the highway in the center of Plymouth.
This bombing took place on the nights of March 20-21 1941 and fires ravaged the inside of the church.
The church was encircled by a roundabout in the early 1950s.

                     A roundabout in Plymouth circles the church memorial.



I have found no evidence that any such curse in Plymouth ever happened, or that Brigham Young ever got that far south in England. (It is about 120 miles from Bristol to Plymouth.)

(Still, it is a great story, if ever proven true .... )

-From an Ensign Magazine article of June 1987, about Brigham Young on his mission in England (and the spelling left uncorrected):

"Wherever Brigham Young went he found friends. “I find Fathers & mothers sister & Brothers whare ever I goe,” he wrote in December. Only the ministers actively opposed the LDS missionaries, and that to no avail, for they only “drive the people to us,” he wrote .....
"Brigham Young spent November and December 1840 and early January 1841 traveling throughout the mission, visiting elders, preaching, holding conferences."

-Brigham Young arrived in England on April 6, 1840 and returned to America on Brigham in the spring of 1841, spending no more than about a year there.
Documents say he went as far south as "Hardin Wales" in October of 1840 with Elder Heber C. Kimball. (I could not locate any town named Hardin,or even Harden in the United Kingdom, though there is one in Australia.)

-Elder Ezra T. Benson, an early apostle, also talked about the Saints in Bristol and Bath England during a January 24, 1858 discourse in Salt Lake City. (Journal of Discourses 6:179).
Elder Benson chided the members there for keeping out of sight of their enemies and holding their church meetings in secret and of having "no faith to brook the insults cast upon them, and hence they hide up and keep out of sight of their enemies."

-I also recall Elders while on my mission talking about one of the isles in the mission, I think it was the Isle of Wight and that it contained a war prison that had a lot of murders there. Access by missionaries there may have been either discouraged or forbidden, I can't recall, but many Elders seemed fascinated by such tales.

-It is also apparently true that missionaries in England-Bristol were chastised in the early 1990s for their low baptism/convert numbers.

-AND, yes it is true that the "Mormon Bomber" -- Mark Hofmann -- served his full-time mission in England-Bristol during the mid 1970s -- right when I was serving there too....

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.

Historical Changes in the Church Sacrament Service

                      A typical Sacrament cup and pitcher.
                      Photo from the "West Layton/Layton 2nd Wards" history book, 1895-1995; 


THE Sacrament Service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hasn't always been as it is today.

-For a time in the 19th Century, all members of the congregation also kneeled down as the two Sacrament prayers were given.

-Also, for some years, music was often played during the passing of the Sacrament.

-There weren't always Sacrament trays for the water. A pitcher and mug were used for many decades, stretching into the early 1950s in some areas.
It certainly didn't seem very sanitary to share the same cup, but other churches did this too. Members tried to drink at a different spot around the rim of the cup than others, but most used the area opposite the handle.

SOURCES: "West Layton/Layton 2nd Wards" history, 1895-1995; Deseret News Archives.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.

When the bishop paid young mens' tithing by a loan ...

THE Bishop of the Layton Utah Second Ward, Wayne H. Flint, thought it so important for all Aaronic Priesthood holders to be a full-tithe payer in the Church, that he paid their tithing for them, if they were unable to do so.
From about 1959-1966 this took place.
However, the young men were charged with responsibility of paying the Bishop back. And, according to the book, "West Layton/Layton 2nd Wards, 1895-1995," "All loans were repaid."

North America for Book of Mormon, not South America?

THERE'S an on-going debate about where the Book of Mormon took place geographically.
The common belief is that it took place in Central or South America.
However, I've been leaning more toward North America in recent years and with good reason.
First, the Golden Plates that the Prophet Joseph found and translated the Book of Mormon from, with divine assistance, were located in North America -- specifically the Hill Cumorah, Palmyra, New York.
I just don't buy into the fact that the Nephites and Lamanites traveled so many thousands of miles between Central, North and/or South America.
For example, the distance between Costa Rica and New York is more than 2,200 miles.

              Snow in the Book of Mormon? A hint of North America in this painting?

North America is the promised land and I'm starting to believe this is where most of the Book of Mormon stories took place.
(There was a great physical upheaval and change in the landscape of North America after the Jesus Christ was killed on the other side of the world too.)
-Anyway, debate away on this subject and here are some LESS COMMON factors to argue in the favor of North America.

  The Wasatch Mountains of the greater Salt Lake area (in the background) as they appear looking west from the Bald Mountain area.

1. Brigham Young taught that the Gadianton Robbers used to flee to and inhabit the Wasatch Mountains on Northern Utah. (See Journal of Discourses 8:344).
How could that be, unless the Book of Mormon did indeed take place in today's area of Utah?

           The Pine Valley Mountains, north of St. George.                               Photo by Liz A. Hafen

2. According to a more contemporary source, the Color County Spectrum newspaper in St. George, Utah, a story on August 13, 1977, there was a 19th Century sawmill in the Pine Valley Mountains north of St. George, that used to experience weird events. For example, saw blades were found broken overnight, tools disappeared and there were other problems -- all with no evidence of thieves or pranksters having visited there overnight.
The story goes that Brigham Young was asked about this problem during one of his visits to St. George.
He told the people that some Gadianton robbers were buried on that property and if the saw mill was just moved, the problems would go away.
(It is about 300 miles between the Wasatch Mountains of Salt Lake and the Pine Valley Mountains -- that I can accept as the Gadianton Robbers traveling between ....)

So, the debate goes on about Book of Mormon location .....

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.

Miracle of the Washington, D.C. Temple Guard Dog: Zacharias

              The original sketch concept of the Washington, D.C. Temple, by Keith W. Wilcox.

By Lynn Arave

SOMETIMES it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.
I'd heard the tale of the miraculous Washington, D.C. LDS Temple "guard dog" for years, but wondered if it was really true, or was it one of those "faith-promoting rumors" -- an urban legend of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
-Finally, on Oct. 27, 2014, I got a chance to visit with and interview Sister Viva May Wilcox, widow of one of the D.C. Temple's four architects, the late Keith W. Wilcox of Ogden, Utah. (Wilcox's sketch was used for the Temple's outside design.)
She said the story was true. (She didn't recall what the dog was called, though.)
Later, I found out the dog was a German Shepherd, who was eventually named Zacharias.

      This is NOT an actual picture of Zacharias the Temple Guard Dog, but rather a generic German Shepherd photograph.                                                                           Photo from Wikipedia Commons.

The large dog did indeed strangely show up at the temple grounds right when it was needed, to help curb the theft of construction materials and vandalism at the isolated temple site overnight.

(Otherwise, temple officials were considering hiring more security employees.)

A temple office worker, Judy Emily Cox, gave the dog his Biblical name. Zac the Temple Guard Dog was how some referred to the animal.
On one occasion, the canine even lessened the damage from a fire that had started in the Temple's Annex building one night, when it refused to leave that area.

The dog would sleep under the desk of the construction site superintendent during the day and patrolled the temple grounds at night.

Sister Wilcox said no one knows where it came from. The animal simply acted like it was supposed to guard the grounds after the workers left for the night.
A temple worker eventually adopted the dog after the Temple was completed.

When the dog died, probably in the early 1980s, it was buried on the temple grounds and there was even an official headstone.

 The dog’s grave was apparently located on the west side of the Temple grounds. Another church member said he took a special tour of the temple grounds in 1998. He said the grave was still there then and that the Temple President had referred to it as the only known grave of any type on the grounds of any Latter-Day Saint temple.

Peggy Ennis Schmidt said she and her husband served in the DC Temple from 2005-2007. During their introduction to the temple, they were shown a video of the construction phase, with the volunteer guard dog included. They also visited the burial site/memorial of the dog, just a short walk from the Visitors Center. Later, according to Sister Schmidt, a succeeding temple president didn't care for the apparently popular practice of people coming to the temple grounds to see the grave of a dog. He had the memorial removed, possibly around the early 2010s.

One church member in the Washington, D.C. area contacted the author years later and said he recalled that his ward building library at one time had a VHS videotape of the dog, but that someone had discarded it when the meetinghouse was remodeled.

So, there's the canine miracle of the LDS Church.
And, ALL dogs do go to heaven ... especially Zacharias.

  A stained glass-like rendition of the Washington, D.C. LDS Temple, that the Wilcox home has hanging in the front window.

SOURCES:

-Interview with Viva May Gammell Wilcox, at her home in Ogden, Utah on October 27, 2014. Sister Wilcox is the wife of the late Keith Wilcox, Washington, D.C. Temple architect.

-KSL-TV documentary, “Washington DC Temple — A Sacred Monument in a City of Monuments,” by Carole Mikita, October 2, 2022.

NOTE: If you like dogs, search for my related blog entry on "All Dogs go to Heaven -- and to the Spirit World too! The 'Henrie" Miracle."

NOTE 2: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Back when you could 'Review' Sacrament Meetings ...

I found this intriguing "Sacrament meeting checklist" (copied below) in the September 1961 Improvement Era magazine, page 679 (forerunner to today's Ensign Magazine).

The list wanted members to rate their Sacrament meeting quality, with 340 total points possible. I especially liked question No.15: "Did the speaker(s) ramble?" (worth 0-10 points). 

Nothing like that would fly 53 years later .....

Of course, that was back in the pre-three-hour block time era when Sacrament meetings were 1 1/2 hours or more too.

-What is bothersome about some talks in sacrament meetings?

Speakers who clearly have not timed their talks and have no idea how long it is and/or who can't end on time.

-Another change is that in recent years: most Sacrament meeting talks are plain routine. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went from letting speakers talk about pretty much what they wanted to in most of the 20th Century to giving rigid, assigned subjects -- even to returned missionaries -- today.
Many talks today are just recapping what was said at the last General Conference.
Also, "guest" speakers -- those from outside your ward or stake -- pretty much vanished in the 21st Century.
It is somewhat of a balancing act -- teaching basic and correct doctrine while keeping the audience listening. If no one is really listening to a speaker, why are they speaking?
Yes, the Church is a lay Church, without professionals, but having more interesting subjects and speakers would always be a plus.
Hopefully a change in 2015 to have Ward Councils also have input on Sacrament meeting speakers/topics -- with bishopbrics -- could be another future positive.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.

Is hunting animals OK in a Gospel Sense?

                    Buffalo in Yellowstone National Park, where hunting is outlawed.

Is hunting animals in the modern age OK?

You can decide for yourself after reading material from leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints below:

Is it a sin to kill animals wantonly?
That was a question President Joseph Fielding Smith answered in the August 1961 Improvement Era Magazine (forerunner to today's Ensign Magazine).

This was advice on hunting or killing animals 17 years before President Spencer W. Kimball did so in October 1978 General Conference.

President Smith told the story of the Prophet Joseph Smith advocating the brethren on a trip with him not to kill some rattlesnakes.

"I exhorted the brethren not to kill a serpent, bird, or an animal of any kind during my journey unless it became necessary in order to preserve ourselves from hunger," Joseph Smith said.

On another occasion the Prophet shot a squirrel some of the brethren were watching in a tree and then walked way, leaving the dead animal on the ground.

Brother Orson Hyde picked up the dead animal and said, 'We will cook it that nothing may be lost.'

"I perceived that the brethren understood what I did it for, and in their practice gave more heed to be precept than to my example which was right," the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote.

President Joseph Fielding Smith said there are times when killing animals is necessary when it is the survival of the fittest, or when animals may become a plague to mankind.

                  A water snake on a rock by the South Fork of the Ogden River.

(For example, during the construction of the Manti Temple, some 300 rattlesnakes had to be killed, since they infested the ground underneath the temple building site.)

President Joseph F. Smith stated: "I never could see why a man should be imbued with a blood-thirsty desire to kill and destroy animal life ... I do not believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he needs them for food."

President Joseph F. Smith then said it is wrong to hunt deer, antelope, elk, just for the fun of it, or just because a person likes to shoot and destroy life.

President Spencer W. Kimball's 1978 sermon was:

"Our Father in Heaven was gracious enough to give to us for our pleasure and convenience all life on earth. Let me read to you from his personal statement:

'And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

'And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

'And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

'And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.' (Gen. 1:20, 29–31.)

"I read at the priesthood meeting at the last conference the words to the verse of the song years ago, “Don’t Kill the Little Birds,” with which I was familiar when I was a child growing up in Arizona. I found many young boys around my age who, with their flippers and their slings, destroyed many birds.

"In Primary and Sunday School we sang the song:

Don’t kill the little birds

That sing on bush and tree,

All thro’ the summer days,

Their sweetest melody.

"As I was talking to the young men at that time all over the world, I felt that I should say something more along this line.

"I suppose in every country in the world there are beautiful little birds with their beautiful plumage and their attractive songs.

"I remember that my predecessor, President Joseph Fielding Smith, was a protector of these feathered and other wild life creatures.

"While President Smith at one time was in the Wasatch Mountain Area, he befriended the creatures from the hill and forest. He composed four little verses as follows, and opposite each he drew a little picture. Of the mountain squirrel first, he wrote:

This is little Chopper Squirrel

Up in the mountains high.

He begs us for some grains of corn,

With thanks he says goodbye.

And then the bat was next:

This is little Tommy Bat

Who flies around at night.

He eats the bugs and ‘skeeters’ too,

Which is a thing quite right.

Then he came to the deer:

This is little Bambi Deer

Who comes to the cabin homes.

She licks the salt we feed to her,

And on the mountain roams.

And then the birds:

This, our little feathered friend

Who sings for us all day.

When comes the winter and the cold,

He wisely flies away.

"Now, I also would like to add some of my feelings concerning the unnecessary shedding of blood and destruction of life. I think that every soul should be impressed by the sentiments that have been expressed here by the prophets.

"And not less with reference to the killing of innocent birds is the wildlife of our country that live upon the vermin that are indeed enemies to the farmer and to mankind. It is not only wicked to destroy them, it is a shame, in my opinion. I think that this principle should extend not only to the bird life but to the life of all animals. For that purpose I read the scripture where the Lord gave us all the animals. Seemingly, he thought it was important that all these animals be on the earth for our use and encouragement."

"President Joseph F. Smith said, 'When I visited, a few years ago, the Yellowstone National Park, and saw in the streams and the beautiful lakes, birds swimming quite fearless of man, allowing passers-by to approach them as closely almost as tame birds, and apprehending no fear of them, and when I saw droves of beautiful deer [feeding] along the side of the road, as fearless of the presence of men as any domestic animal, it filled my heart with a degree of peace and joy that seemed to be almost a foretaste of that period hoped for when there shall be none to hurt and none to molest in all the land, especially among all the inhabitants of Zion. These same birds, if they were to visit other regions, inhabited by man, would, on account of their tameness, doubtless become more easily a prey to the gunner. The same may be said of those beautiful creatures—the deer and the antelope. If they should wander out of the park, beyond the protection that is established there for these animals, they would become, of course, an easy prey to those who were seeking their lives. I never could see why a man should be imbued with a blood-thirsty desire to kill and destroy animal life. I have known men—and they still exist among us—who enjoy what is, to them, the ‘sport’ of hunting birds and slaying them by the hundreds, and who will come in after a day’s sport, boasting of how many harmless birds they have had the skill to slaughter, and day after day, during the season when it is lawful for men to hunt and kill (the birds having had a season of protection and not apprehending danger) go out by scores or hundreds, and you may hear their guns early in the morning on the day of the opening, as if great armies had met in battle; and the terrible work of slaughtering the innocent birds goes on.

'I do not believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he needs them for food, and then he should not kill innocent little birds that are not intended for food for man. I think it is wicked for men to thirst in their souls to kill almost everything which possesses animal life. It is wrong, and I have been surprised at prominent men whom I have seen whose very souls seemed to be athirst for the shedding of animal blood.'" (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1939, pp. 265–66.)

-"Is it not an excellent time for man to set the example as the Prophet has said?" President Joseph Fielding Smith asked in 1961.

-Every Fall I watch as thousands of men and women along the Wasatch Front of Northern Utah -- including many active church members -- go to the hills to hunt deer; or pheasants.

I'd say the "why" they do it is the key question.

"And surely, blood shall not be shed, only for meat, to save your lives; and the blood of every beast will I require at your hands," Genesis 9:11, in the Joseph Smith Biblical translation states.

-First and foremost, the meat hunters secure must be 

used.

Secondly, I'd advise hunters to examine their hearts for 

their true motivations. 

Personally I regret killing a few birds and a rockchuck 

as a teenager -- and if I had to kill for my own meat, I 

likely couldn't even bring myself to kill cattle -- unless 

I was starving and so I might be a vegetarian under 

ideal circumstances.

My father used to love pheasant hunting and many of 

my uncles were avid deer hunters, but none of that 

ever appealed to me  ...

-There' s no evidence that meat was eaten before Noah's time -- that is after the Great Flood, so I'm certain there will be no meat eating in the Millennium, when the world returns to Garden of Eden conditions.

Only the Lord will judge us in this regard -- and that's wise as only he knows the intent of a hunter's heart -- and that seems to be the key factor here.

NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.