Tale to Tell

Hebrews 13:2
2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

I have a tale to relate. After getting out of the Army in 1974 at Ft. Bragg, my family and I moved to Provo, Utah, to attend BYU. This was an event which was much anticipated and anticipated with hope and joy at the prospect of being united with like-minded people who shared our devotion to the Lord and obtaining and doing his will. I had no idea of the subsequent trial which would shortly befall me. I had been recently ordained a Seventy just after completing a rather tumultuous term as an Elder’s Quorum President of the Raleigh Stake (3rd Quorum). It turns out I was the last correctly ordained Seventy by the Church in this dispensation. I had been wounded by the actions of the Utah Mormons in my Quorum of which I was the President, and the issues raised during this period could not be answered by appealing to President Carter, the Branch President of the Student Branch in which we found ourselves. One Sunday in June of 1974, in Seventies Group meeting the Second Counselor to the Stake President announced that he wanted to collect all of our “licenses” issued to us by the Church headquarters in which the Church “invited all to hear our message”. He said they would be returned, and I accepted this without hesitation or question, and surrendered the small plastic covered document which I had in my billfold. This seemed innocent enough at the time, but as I look back on it, I now know what this event portended. Evidently the Lord did too, for during a time of great family difficulty, I had to travel to Boise Idaho to pick up my motorcycle which I had left parked at the airport there after a sojourn at Ft. Lewis ROTC summer camp. I had just left Provo, on I-15 traveling North to Salt Lake, pulling my motorcycle trailer behind our Saab. As I passed by the cloverleaf exit to Main St. I noticed a young man standing on the side of the road, and our eyes met for one second and the greatest communication like a fiery bolt of lightning emanated from those eyes and a world of communication to my soul occurred in that one brief moment and I obeyed the command and pulled over as he was soliciting a ride. As he got in the car, he introduced himself as Mark, had longish hair, and was carrying a Bible in his right hand, which I immediately noticed. I said, “You are interested in religion are you?” He said, yes, that three days ago he had embarked from California with the sole intent on going on the road “to find the truth”. Well being a Seventy I invited him to our student apartment in Provo, and told him that I would teach him the gospel. He eagerly agreed as we first went on to Boise to retrieve my motorcycle, and then returned to Provo. The first thing I did was to contact the Stake about this, telling them that I had this fellow with me, Mark, who was very interested in the Church, etc, and they referred me to the Seventies Group leader in our branch who would assign companions for to help me teach him. There was at that time no Salt Lake Mission with Elders such as exist today, and it seemed that missionary work in Utah was entirely unknown, for the Seventies were astonished that it was to be embarked upon at that time. You see, the climate then was that everyone in Utah was a Mormon, or at least it seemed so, for the secularization which has taken place since in Utah had not at that time started to any great degree. So there were no missionary workers or work going on at BYU and I was the first in memory to teach anyone at BYU! I taught Mark how to pray, and you should have seen and heard him pray, it was like the heavens were opened up whenever he prayed, and he lived the word of wisdom and embraced the gospel readily, but he could hardly read, and this seemed odd since he seemed so intelligent. The Seventies of the branch would rotate in partnering with me in teaching him. Well it came down for his baptismal interview by the Stake authorities which seemed in the case of Mark to be a mere formality since he manifested such an eager desire to conform to the Lord’s will, and obey the commandments, and they rejected him for baptism because of the long hair which he possessed, and his “indigent circumstances”! I was shocked and astonished as this seemed to be a purely superficial judgment on their part, without looking into and discerning the heart and soul of Mark at all, but only judging by appearance. I had read in the Bible where Jesus would not judge by appearances at all, what clothes a man wore, or the house he lived in or lack of one, but the heart, and I had supposed the Mormons would be the same, not proud caring about clothing, appearance, as I read the Pharisees of old did. Never could my supposition have been further from the truth. Well I told Mark, that we were taught that we had the right to go to the Lord for confirmation as to decisions made by our Priesthood leaders, and I was determined to submit to the will of the Lord in the matter, and if it was his will, so be it. Well no sooner had we knelt down to pray, and before I could open my mouth to begin, I received commandment like lightning from the Lord to take him and baptize him myself. I was astonished, as I had never contemplated rebellion in the slightest degree, and yet the command I received was undeniable in its strength and power as I knelt. I said, “Well I might as well start my own Church, then” to Mark, but we did as directed by the Lord and I took him out to Utah Lake, and performed the ordinance. I was then commanded to take other wives, and testify to the leaders of the word of the Lord to them. I even went to Salt Lake to meet with Sterling W. Sill, who explained to me that sometimes his Cadillac would get “out of wack” and a part would have to be replaced and that human beings were like this, and recommend I see a psychiatrist. He first inquired as why I come to him, and I said that I knew the Church was true, and that they (General Authorities) were prophets and they would understand my dilemma. Boy was I naive. Sill became red-faced and quite insulting and as I left, I saw half his face peering at me from the doorway with the most malevolent and baleful red half of his face with that one bulging malevolent eye staring at me, looking perfectly devilish, and I shall never forget that look as long as I live. Well they held a High Council Court after my hometeacher turned me in for my transgression of baptizing Mark, (Mark then left for California) and before the court a high councilman walked up to me in the hallway and smiled knowingly and said, “You know you cannot tell the Holy Ghost from the devil, for the devil is able to perfectly mimic the Holy Ghost” a doctrine which I later learned was false. I was disfellowshipped for baptizing Mark and our family was cast out of BYU for being disfellowshipped, and Cathy was pregnant and we moved to Salt Lake. We immediately began attending the Canyon Rim Ward up on 33rd East and Bishop Richardson insisted that I stand up in Fast and Testimony meeting to confess to the ward what had happened, and I said that I thought one was not supposed to speak in meetings while disfellowshipped, but he said, “I give you permission”. He was the most righteous man and full of the spirit of God. That first testimony meeting I determined to do as the Bishop directed and stood up at the same time as a young elder who had just returned from his mission, but I noticed this indescribable power manifested as I stood up, but I deferred to this elder and sat back down. As soon as he finished, though I stood back up and there was that indescribable almighty power and as I opened my mouth the spirit filled the hall as a mighty rushing wind, and the eyes of my hearers became exceedingly wide as they heard the power of the Almighty. I sat back down after I had finished declaring to them what I was directed to do, and everyone loved our children anyway, they were so cute at about three or four years, and the business of the ward went on for a year, even though there was this “elephant in the room” because I never failed to bear my testimony each month after that and the same manifestation of the Almighty power and spirit of God would fill up myself, the room and my hearers whenever I spoke. Well after a year passed, it came time to reconvene the court which had taken away my fellowship, and our fellowship was restored and we were invited by Bishop Caldwell to give a family presentation at Sacrament and the Holy Ghost filled me up with a desire to talk about Isaiah 52:7 which I talked briefly about, and this was the same verse as that which the audible voice spoke to myself, Tony Koss, and the E6 in the sticking room at Ft. Bragg six years earlier, which the Lord has subsequently revealed to me is a prophecy of the One Mighty and Strong. We then moved to the University of Utah, where I studied mechanical engineering and attended meeting in the University 8th Stake. The first testimony meeting as was my custom, I bore my testimony, and David Checkitts, who later became President of the Utah Jazz, who as the Elder’s President was so impressed with my spirit, that he (though I was a Seventy) called me to be the instructor for the Quorum, which I accepted. I asked him what I should teach, and he insisted that I have free reign, so I knelt down later and asked the Lord what I should teach them. Well, the Lord told me to tell them to repent, and that just because they were off their missions, it did not mean it was right to stop living the same gospel and having the same testimony as they had on their missions. This went over like a lead balloon, and Checkitts appointed one of his counselors to hear my lesson before it was given to the Priesthood (for the High Priests were in attendance also). I told them to get another boy if that was the case, and lost favor with the clique in the ward that played musical chairs with ward positions. John Singer was at that time carrying on in Marion, Utah, and I actually tried to go see him once on my motorcycle, but was unable to. Kimball then gave the negro the Priesthood at that time, and John Singer was shot in the back in his front yard in front of his daughter who saw him shot for taking them out of school for being taught that mixing with the black race of Cain was a good thing. The day John Singer was killed, the Lord came to me and said, “Are you ready to do what you were foreordained to do?” I said, “Here am I” and the Lord gave me my first two written revelations. I had a temple recommend in my pocket, had never once missed paying tithing or hometeaching or attending my meetings, and had never written revelations before or desired to but the Lord showed me how, and I wrote two down. I was then commanded to take them to my hometeacher and show him. He (Randy Olsen) attacked me, broke my nose, and would have killed me if he had a knife in his hand, all the time screaming over and over again, “You have the spirit of the devil!” “You have the spirit of the devil!” He had me pinned on the floor pummeling me when his wife ran into the room crying, “Randy! Randy! what are you doing?” He then let me up and leaned on his kitchen table and said, “You have won a great victory!” I replied, “What do you mean?” He then said, “You can tell everyone what I did.” I then went back with blood streaming down the front of my white shirt (It was a Sunday) and received one of the most remarkable revelations I have ever received stating that “All of my servants have been treated in just this way by Israel in all ages of the world when I have sent my servants the prophets in to them with my message.” Whereupon I lept and shouted for joy, literally. The Stake wanted me to apologize to him which I would not do, then I was served by a summons to appear before a Stake High Council Court and while speaking in the court room was almost attacked by two High Councilmen who looked askance from the Stake President for permission to run upon me again, even though my eyes were blackened and my nose broken from the previous encounter. But I had a 9mm Smith and Wesson automatic in my briefcase and if attacked again I was going to kill them, just as Joseph Smith defended himself against the mob in the jail at Carthage, Ill. So we were excommunicated, and I went back to our apartment, and then bought a typewriter and have been receiving revelations ever since, only to be attacked again by Zoellner and others who manifest the same mob spirit that have killed the prophets and crucified the Lord of Glory. I then knelt down as asked what authority I possessed, whereupon I was picked up by the spirit and carried over to my bookshelf where I had the Discourses of Brigham Young compiled by John Widtsoe, and magically it opened right to the page and right to the exact paragraph which I now reproduce for you: