President Leroy S. Johnson

I, too, am grateful for this day in which we live. I can't help but think back upon the conditions under which our fathers were tutored and trained in order to bring us to this goodly land and in order to bring us forth under the new and everlasting covenant.

My father's people were Gentiles and very much opposed to the idea that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. However, my father's father was a polygamist. He had two wives and raised two families in the same home at the same time; but not under the direction of the Holy Priesthood, because he knew nothing about the Priesthood. His son, Warren, was a studious boy and went to college and graduated when he was twenty-five years old from one of the eastern colleges. Just a few months before he graduated, he took sick. The doctors told him that he only had a few months to live, because he had a disease that in those days was hard to cope with. They told him that his life might be spared a little longer if he would migrate to the West Coast. So, he prepared to migrate to the West Coast. He got as far west as Dubois, Idaho, after suffering many set-backs and trials along the way, which to us, some of them are wonderful experiences and others are laughable.

When they left the east, they had a nice buggy and a nice team of horses. They hadn't gone far until one of the horses died. They tried to get another horse, but they had to settle for a mule. They traveled some time with a horse and a mule. Something went wrong, and the horse died. They tried to get another horse or a mule, but they had to settle for an ox. So they traveled for some time with an ox on one side and a mule on the other. Finally, they lost the ox. So they traded the vehicle for a saddle. And they loaded the mule down with what bedding they could get along with and a change of clothes, and they started on.

One of them would ride the mule down the road for two or three miles and tie it up, and he would get off and walk. The other man would come up and get on the mule and ride down to his companion, then he would ride on past a ways, get off and tie the mule up and walk. They called it "ride and tie." That is the way they came across. When he got to Dubois, Father was so sick he couldn't travel on any further; so his companion took the mule and the saddle and went on to California and left Father to die. But he started to get better; and while he was getting better, he would go down and sit in the lobby of the hotel and listen to the stories told by the people who patronized the hotel. They got to telling stories about the Mormons down in Salt Lake City--about their horns. They told such fantastic stories about the horns of the Mormons, that Father got excited in his inner soul and wanted to go by way of Salt Lake City and see that peculiar people. He finally bought a horse and saddle and took off for Salt Lake City.

He got up here to Farmington, but he got so sick he couldn't go any farther. So he tied his horse up to a hitching post and laid down on a man's lawn. I suppose that he thought he was going to give up the ghost, the way he felt. However, the man happened to be a doctor. His name was Smith. Doctor Smith brought him back and nourished him and got him over his trouble. That is as far towards the West Coast as Father got. So, this is how the Lord works to give us our heritage.

After Father had accepted the Gospel and entered into the law of plural marriage and had his family well on the way, he thought he would go back and convince his father and mother and brothers and sisters that the Gospel was true. So he wrote and told them he was coming to see them. His father wrote him a letter. He told him he was welcome to come as a stranger but not as his son, because he had desecrated all the laws of decency by joining that terrible cult, the Joe Smithites. So, Father went back east; and when his father saw him coming up the path to the house, he came to the door and held his hand up. Father stopped. His father said, "I want you to understand that you can come in as a stranger, but not as my son." Father said, "I will be glad to come in as a stranger and be treated as such if only I can stay with you a few days." But none of Father's people ever joined the Church. He had two or three brothers. Those brothers had large families, but none of them had any boys. Their families were girls. So, had it not been for Father's family, his father's house would have ended with my grandfather's home. But the peculiar thing of the story is that my great grandfather was also a polygamist. He had two families and raised them in the same home. His son followed in his footsteps. So, the Lord had a way of bringing us down through the dark ages and preserving our bloodline.

Our people came from England. We are of a bloodline that has been preserved and brought down to this day in which we live. I am grateful for this protection that the Lord has placed around the background of His servants. No doubt these other men have something similar in their lives.

You know the Lord said that there would be one of a city and two of a family that would accept the Gospel. My father was the only man, the only son of his father that accepted the Gospel. They educated him in the universities of the East. When he was twenty-five years old he got his diploma, and he was a sick man. The doctors told him that he only had a few months to live. However, they told him that if he would make his way to the West coast, to California, he might prolong his life for another three or four months; so this, he undertook to do. He got another student, who was his friend in the college, interested in going to the West coast. So they started out, although he was a sick man. He needed the fresh air, He left Marston, Mass., in a nice buggy and with a span of fine horses. After they had been gone a little while, one of the horses died, and they tried to get another one. They had to settle for a mule, so they had one horse and a mule. They traveled for several days, maybe a week, and the other horse got sick and died. So they were left with a buggy and a mule. They tried to get another animal to match the mule, and they had to settle for an ox. So they hooked the ox and the mule together, and they traveled that way for sometime. Finally, the ox got sick and it died.

They were eager to get through to the West coast and needed to hurry up. So they sold the buggy and bought a saddle and put it on the mule and tied their bedding and a little food stuff on the mule. Then they rode and tied, if you know what ride and tie means. It means that one of the men got on the mule and rode up the road two or three miles and tied the horse to a hitching post of some kind, either a tree or sage brush, or something, and he went on walking down the road. The other boy would come up and pick up the horse and ride it down the road past the other man. This was riding and tying.

They made it through to Dubois, Idaho, when my father got so sick they thought he couldn't possibly live another day with the disease that he had. So his partner took his mule and saddle and went on to California. Father was in the hotel recuperating, down in the lobby one day. Some salesmen came in, and they got to talking about the Mormons and what a peculiar people they were. They said that when a young man commenced to get into his teens, he began to sprout horns, and as he grew older his horns grew longer, and the old men had great long horns. So they made him believe that there was this kind of people living in Salt Lake City. He was getting a little better, for he made up his mind he was going to buy him another horse and saddle and go by way of Salt Lake City to California. So he rode to Salt Lake City from Dubois. He got as far as Farmington, Utah, and he got so sick that he couldn't stay on his horse, so he saw a nice lawn in front of a home. There was a nice hitching post in front of the house. He rode up to that hitching post and tied his horse and went in there and laid down on the lawn.

In a little while, a little girl came out and looked at him, she ran back in the house, and she said, "Mother, that man out there on the lawn is dead." So her mother went out and they looked him over and they decided he had passed away. The father of the girl was working down in the field. The mother said, "Now you go down in the field and tell your father to hurry up to the house, as there is a dead man on the lawn." So, she went and got her father. He came up, looked him over and felt of his pulse. They carried him in the house and laid him on the bed. He worked with him a while, and finally, he came to. He asked Father what was wrong with him, and he told him what the doctors had said, and showed him the doctor's report.

The father said, "If you will stay here at my home for a while, I will bring you out of this." He said, "You are not going to die, you are going to live." So they kept him there and doctored him for a few days. Finally, he told the man the story of the Mormon people that lived in Salt Lake City, that they were a peculiar people and had horns. "No, " he said, "you have been misinformed. These people don't have horns. Just get that idea out of your head, because no people have horns. Human beings don't have horns." So that confused Father a little, and he went to sleep.

This man took a Book of Mormon and laid it on the little table sitting by his bed, and Father woke up and saw that book laying there. He picked it up and looked at it, and he saw "The Book of Mormon." It infuriated his inward feelings and he threw the book across the house. He lay there and looked at the book, and thought, "That is no way to use a man's book, " so he made his way out of the bed and picked up the book and put it back on the table, and got back into bed. He laid there and looked at the book every little while, and finally, he reached out and got the book and opened it, and he read the fly leaf of the Book of Mormon. It infuriated him again, and he threw the book again. This was the story that he told to me. He said, "I looked at the book again and I felt so ashamed of myself for using a man's book that way that I got up and went and got the book again and laid it back on the table. I closed it and I said, "Now stay shut, I don't want you open again." He said he then dozed off. After a bit he woke up, looked at the book, and said, "I am going to read the first chapter in that book or die." So he opened it and read the first book (and he was a good reader) and he never closed the book again until he read the whole book.

He asked the doctor that was doctoring him for a light so he could finish reading the book, and he read until midnight. I guess he slept a little between times, but he said he never put the light out until morning, and he finished the book before the next night. He said to the doctor, "Would it be possible for you to make an appointment with Brigham Young for me?" The doctor said, "I think so." So he made an appointment for him to go to Salt Lake and see Brigham Young. And that was the first time that he was absolutely convinced that Mormons did not have horns, so he said.

He asked for baptism. That is as far toward California as he ever got. I don't think he ever saw the West coast. But this doctor got him over his illness. They called it in those days, "ulcers of the stomach" and they didn't know how to treat it. When people got ulcers of the stomach they died in a little while. But this man brought Father out of it, and Father joined the Church. Brigham Young called him, he being an educated man and a school teacher, he called him to go down into Nevada on the Muddy river and teach school for a colony of the Mormons down there. So he went down and taught school.

I was going through his diary. He kept a diary like I used to keep a diary. He would write in it for a few days and then forget about it, and maybe run on a month or two and then he would write in the diary again for two or three days, and then he would skip a month or two again. That is the way I used to keep a diary--I guess I inherited it from my father. But I was going through his diary, and I found this on one page of his book, he says, "I made a trip from St. Thomas to Salt Lake City. I went out to Father Smith's and committed matrimony with his daughter, Permelia." So that was the first time I ever heard that phrase, which afterwards became a by-word among Father's boys. This young girl that he committed matrimony with was the girl that pronounced him dead in her father's front yard, and her father's name was Jonathan Smith. He might have some posterity scattered around amongst us, I don't know. But, anyhow, this is how the Lord has brought His people together.

Out of Father's family, he had a family of twenty children, he had about four that accepted the fullness of the Gospel and entered into it. The rest of them went their way, like Brother Guy said. I was glad to hear Brother Guy give that dissertation on the covenants we made before we came here. I heard my father tell the same story. He says, "I know I made covenants with my father before I left the eternal worlds, that I would come through his lineage, because his lineage was kept clean." However, he rejected Father when he found out that he had joined the Mormon people--told him he could come back as a stranger but he couldn't come into his home as his son. He said he had committed the unpardonable sin as far as he was concerned, and he would therefore cut him off from his family line, because he joined the Mormon people. However, Grandfather Johnson (Jeremiah Johnson was his name) had a large family of twenty children. He had four other sons besides my father. My father was the only one that had any sons. These four sons had large families, but they were all lady folks. So, if it hadn't been for Father's family, Grandfather's lineage would have run out, but today they number into the thousands, I guess by now. However, they will have to be gathered up if they ever see the Celestial Kingdom, most of them.

My father explained the Gospel to me when I was young, I was only a boy. I was only fourteen years old when he died, but I was old enough to understand a little, and I was quite interested in what he had to say. However, it left me. What he said to me left me until I met John Y. Barlow.

He [Warren Johnson] was called on a mission later to go to Lee's Ferry and take John D. Lee's place as a missionary to the Navajo Indians and perform a mission for the Church of taking care of the ferryboat across the Colorado River. While he was there, he was continually visited by Latter-day Saints going to and fro from Utah to Arizona, and they tried to get him to leave his mission and move into one of the Stakes and raise his family; but he said, "I will not leave my mission until I am released by the same authority that called me here." He did not receive a release until he had filled twenty-two years on a mission to Lee's Ferry.

We can hardly get our boys to go out and stay one week away from home on their jobs without coming home to see what home looks like these days. But this man took his family, two wives, and went to Lee's Ferry and lived there for twenty-two years. Finally, he was released by President Wilford Woodruff--President Young called him. I think I have somewhere in my possession a certificate calling him on his mission. He did much good among the Navajo Indians, as also among the Ute Indians. He had them working for him.

I find that through his faithfulness and his determination to keep the commandments of God that his name went far out among the people of Arizona and Utah and other parts of the United States. Through the great work that he did while he lived there, this man was able to unite his wives and raise a family of children. He buried four of his children while he lived there. The rest of them, grew to maturity and all married. But very few of them followed in his footsteps and lived the Celestial law.

Not only did I have the fullness of the Gospel taught to me by example, but I was taught while a boy by my father to live so that the Lord could bless me. He taught the rest of his family the same principles--that they could get nowhere in the Celestial Kingdom of our Father unless they lived as he had lived, and had their families united.

I remember very well, when I was a young man, of my father's being an invalid--having his back broken and having to live in a condition of paralysis from his hips down. It became my job, along with the other children, to see to it that Father's needs were taken care of. During that period of time, being with him so much, I heard the apostles when they came in and visited with him. I heard them talk on the principle of plural marriage. So I had it drilled into me. I can't help but thank the Lord for the experiences that I had with my father.

In instructing his family, my father was very specific in trying to teach his children that the most important thing in their lives would be to do a thing properly. Many times, I heard him say, "It doesn't make any difference what you are called on to do, put your whole soul into it and do the best you can. You will find that life will be easier to live."

As far as my education was concerned, I left Kanab over here with a certificate of promotion from the 5th to the 6th grade. I left there when I was eleven years old. I didn't get another opportunity to go to school until I was twenty-two. I made up my mind that I was going to get an 8th grade certificate or know the reason why. So I went to the school teacher and told him my condition. I was a big boy among little kids.

After I had gone to school two or three days, the teacher said, as we were leaving the school room, "Roy, I would like to talk to you. I would like to come to your home and sit down and talk to you in the presence of your mother." I said, "Okay, come up tonight." So he came up that night. One of the first questions that he asked me was: "Do you like school?" I said, "I certainly do." "Do you love it?" I said, "Yes, sir." This man's name was Frank Sylvester. He said, "How do you like your studies that we have lined up for you now?" "Well, I like Arithmetic and spelling." "What about these other subjects, grammar, geography, physics and any other subject that you might have to take to round out that 8th grade education?" "Well, " I said, "I don't like this one very well. And I don't like that one very well." "That's just what I wanted to talk about tonight." He said, "You know, you can get what you are after if you learn to love your studies." He said, "I don't want you to cease striving until you can love grammar, until you can love geography, history, just as you love arithmetic and spelling."

I had to concentrate upon those subjects that I had not learned to love before. The result was that out of fourteen adult persons who undertook to accomplish the same feat, there were two of us that finished--myself and a young lady. She happened to be twenty-three years old, and I was twenty-two; but we finished the school and got our 8th grade diploma along with the other graduates of the class. The others fell out and went their way. After school was out, I went my way, and the rest of them went theirs. I don't know what became of the young lady anymore than that she went on to learn to be a school teacher, and I understood that she was teaching school somewhere. I am here, I don't know where they are. One of the boys that was going to school at that time fell out of the school and went into the oil business. He is an oilman somewhere. And I am here.***If you love this work, you will put your heart into it. If you half love it and half love the outside, you will be outside pretty soon wondering how you can get back in.

I was well acquainted with John Y. Barlow, worked with him for years; I knew Joseph Musser and Charles F. Zitting; and I shook hands once with John W. Woolley. Lorin Woolley, I don't remember ever meeting. I don't remember ever meeting Leslie Broadbent. But I did visit John W. Woolley in his home about a month before he passed away in 1928. I was introduced to him by my brother, Price, who was acquainted with John W. We shook hands with him and then he told us to sit down. Then he looked at me for a few moments, it seemed like for some time, without saying anything. Finally, he says, "Young man, get up and come over here. I want to feel your hand again." So, I went back and shook hands with him. I took him by the hand, looked him in the face, and if you ever saw John W. Woolley you saw a man that could, with those little eyes he had--could look a hole through you in a little while, I didn't know whether to shake or to stand firm. He finally spoke. And he said, "You'll do, my boy, you'll do."

I never met President Barlow until 1933. But after I heard the testimony of Joseph Musser, Louis Kelsch, Charles F. Zitting and others bearing testimony that John Y. held the keys of the Priesthood, the Spirit of God bore testimony that it was true. I was, at the time, in the Superintendency of the Sunday School in Short Creek, Arizona, which was a branch of the Rockville Ward at the time. From that time until the death of John Y. Barlow, I was really close to him. At the time I met him, I was out of debt. I had no fine home to live in. I had to live like other poor people, but the Lord blessed me. He blessed my car, and He blessed my efforts to see to it that John Y. Barlow got from place to place. I wasn't the only one that hauled him around, but I was ready at any time. When he asked to be transported from one place to another, I was ready to go. And this has been my attitude all my life--when I was a boy growing up.

I was only fourteen years old when my father died. He taught me to respect the priesthood that I held. I received the Aaronic Priesthood when I was twelve years old. We moved out into Wyoming. We were among the colony that the Church called to the Big Horn County, Wyoming, to build up that country. We were among the first to go there. The movement was under the direction of Apostle Owen Woodruff, son of Wilford Woodruff. Owen Woodruff, being a new apostle at the time, visited us very often and I became acquainted with him. He was one of the finest men I ever met. My father instructed me during those days of poverty and moving from one place to another. And in his instructions, I was instructed to honor the priesthood that I held and to always be ready to go when the Priesthood called for me. I had many experiences in that ten years of time I spent in Wyoming. It was full of experiences of both faith-promoting and almost freezing to death.

I was forty-eight years old before I met Brother Barlow. I had already seen some of my brothers enter into the law of plural marriage. I thought it was my privilege as well as anybody else's to enter into it. So, I tried to convert young women to the proposition that I ought to have another wife. I could convert them, but I couldn't convert them to the proposition of going through with the marriage. So, I had many disappointments.

When I met up with President Barlow and told him what I had done, I said, "I have never been able to enter into the law. Now, why is it?" He said, "Well, my boy, you got off on the wrong foot." Well, I had read the scriptures, and I thought that all who believed that law had the right to enter into plural marriage. He said, "What is plural marriage?" I said, "Well, the book tells me that it is a law of the Holy Priesthood." "That's right, " he said, "then if it is a law of the Holy Priesthood, it should be under the direction of the Priesthood, shouldn't it?" I said, "Yes." "All right, who told you to go and get another wife?" He said, "If you were going to be advanced in the Priesthood, being advanced from an elder to a high priest or a seventy, would you go to the President of the Stake and tell him you were prepared now to be advanced, and you would like to have him ordain you to a higher office?" I said, "No. I have never been taught that way. I was taught that if I was an elder, I should remain an elder until I was called to be advanced." "All right, " he said, "it is no different than the law of Celestial Marriage."

So, here is where I began to be taught the true order of the Priesthood. A little later, I met Brother Joseph Musser. I was talking to him one day when he said, "Roy, how many times have you tried to get into plural marriage? How many women have you asked?" I said, "That many, Brother Musser. They all turned me down." He said, "Well, I will promise you this, Brother Johnson, you won't have to go out and solicit them from now on. They will come to you." After I turned fifty years old, then I began to be added upon.

The Lord has blessed me. He has laid His hand upon me and placed a responsibility upon me that I feel very humble, my brothers and sisters, in laboring under the weight of the calling that I have. What I say regarding my life, I say in humility; for I know by the things that I have been taught that it is not my place to make light or be light-minded over the blessings that the Lord gives to me, or to any of His children. If we boast in our strength, then He turns us over to Satan to be handled. I have seen so many people turned over to the buffetings of Satan and how he handled them, that I don't want to be handled by him. I don't say that I haven't been. I think the Lord has tried me a few times to see what I would do under certain conditions.

Later on, the persecution of 1944 came along. After the trials were over, we had men in prison in Tucson. Then word came that another wave of persecution was coming. Brother Barlow sent about five of us to Mexico so the law couldn't get us. We went down there to try to make a go of it. Not having finance to work with, we went into debt. In two years, we were heavily in debt--60,000 pesos. I made a trip to the United States to see if I could raise money to pay it off. Everything went against us. We planted, but didn't reap. I came out and had a talk with President Barlow. He said, "Go down and send Edson Jessop and Elmer Johnson out, and you pay off that debt." I didn't let it sink in, but my first thought was, "It's impossible." But I said, "All right, John, I'll do it." I went to Mexico gathered up $300 and sent those men and their families out.

We had a place leased in the mountains near some old latter-day Saint villages, about seven miles from Garcia. There was an old lake bottom there that had about three feet of water and covered a hundred acres of land. I was riding through there one day when the thought came to me, "If you drain this old lake, it will pay your debt." I told a man my plans, and he said that it was impossible. But he brought me a tractor with a bulldozer on the front. I put my little lady on the tractor, and I went to work draining the place. By the time I got the drains made, it was planting time, July. I planted the land with oats, and then the rains started. By harvest time, you never saw such a crop of oats in your life. It was a rich piece of ground. The oats grew as high as a door with no exaggeration at all. No one could believe it. I wouldn't myself if I had not seen it. I just got it cut and partly raked and was about ready to haul when the rains started again. I walked out into the middle of the grainfield and told the Lord my condition. "Lord, I am trying to do what the brethren have told me to do. If you want to try me further, it is all right with me, but if I have found favor in thy sight, hold off the rain until I pay this debt." I got up off my knees. The rain stopped and every day it rained all around, but not a drop on that hundred acres.

Enos Wood came to my rescue. He brought in two or three outfits and helped me haul the crops and bale them. I agreed with the people I owed the debt to, to give them hay for payment-five pesos a bale. They came in and hauled it away as fast as I could bale it. When it was all finished, I went into the store and settled up what I owed, and also debts to others. The next morning, it started to storm, and soon there were thirteen inches of snow on the ground. I had $350 American money left over to come home with.

These are some of the miracles that are being performed among our people today. The Lord has come to our rescue and saved our crops. He has put us in a position where we should be. The Lord can bless us, and He will bless us. He is pouring out His blessings upon this people because they are trying to get nearer to Him.

On the passing of John Y. Barlow, Leroy Johnson succeeded to that office of the keyholder and the keys of the sealing powers. John Y. Barlow told Leroy Johnson before he passed on, that this work was going to roll over onto his shoulders. When he was told that, Brother Johnson said, "How can this be?" There were four men "senior" to him -- Joseph Musser, Charles Zitting, LeGrand Woolley, and Louis Kelsch, who were ordained by Lorin C. Woolley. But in one way or another, those four men were in opposition to John Y. Barlow during his incumbency. God brings forth the one He wants to act in that position. And using the words "worthy senior", who but God can decide who is worthy? So, Brother Johnson, upon the passing of John Y. Barlow, went quietly about his labors. He didn't assert anything particularly. And for those who didn't know and understand and had not a testimony regarding it, when they asked about it, he would refer to those men as his senior. But that is all he could say. But finally, after the passing of those men, Uncle Roy was able to tell exactly how it was. It illustrates this principle which Parley P. Pratt describes:

Parley P. Pratt Millennial Star 6:93

Brethren, no one's claims need any support. Those who hold the Keys of the kingdom of God will be supported by the spirit of God, and by his angels, and also by the aid and prayers of the Saints. And they will say nothing about their `claims,' nor will they need the talents of men to advocate them.

If men hold the keys of the kingdom of God, they are not dependent upon men to support their claims; but the church and all the world is dependent on them and on the keys committed to them for the ministration of salvation. They can shut and no more open, or open and no more shut. And to these authorities all must bow, so far as to be ministered to, and governed in the things of salvation, or else remain without the blessing of the kingdom.

All five of the six men ordained by Lorin Woolley turned against John Y. Barlow. Number one was Leslie Broadbent. He was actually ordained the same day as John Y. Barlow. John was ordained second by Lorin Woolley.

Leslie Broadbent was taken out six months after he assumed to take the leadership. Lorin died in September of 1934. Leslie Broadbent was "senior" for six months. He died in March 1935. Leslie Broadbent had collaborated with Joseph Musser in the publishing of the 1880 Revelation to Wilford Woodruff, publishing it in "Celestial Marriage?". That is where it was first published. That was in Leslie Broadbent's own writing in June 1928. That was before John W. Woolley's death in December of 1928.

Joseph Musser published the 1880 Revelation in his pamphlet "Supplement to the New and Everlasting Covenant". That came out in 1934. President Johnson told me later that John Y. Barlow, after Joseph published the 1880 Revelation in that booklet, warned Joseph to not publish it anymore. He did anyway in the "Four Hidden Revelations" pamphlet. John left it alone. John told Leroy Johnson about it, and he came out with it on March 18, 1978, describing how that 1880 Revelation was a delusion.

That takes care of Leslie Broadbent of the five. We know what happened to Joseph Musser. Joseph Musser was responsible for all the apostasies from that time on, down to March 18, 1978. Charles Zitting made the statement in his journal while in prison: "It was the first time in my life that I had ever stood on the opposite side to John Y. Barlow and Joseph W. Musser." The incident under the culvert is further confirmation of his position. [See page 277.]

President Johnson told me, that in 1941, when John had determined to ordain him, John Y. Barlow visited LeGrand Woolley and Louis Kelsch, in which he advised them that he was going to ordain Leroy Johnson. The reply he got from both of them was: "It is all right with me, John, but you will have to take the responsibility," indicating that they felt John was acting without a revelation from the Lord. LeGrand never did come to any of our meetings. He was supposed to have stayed in the Church to find out what was going on there behind the scenes. Louis stopped attending our meetings shortly after President Johnson was ordained.

Joseph, Charles, LeGrand, and Louis Kelsch -- the four who were senior to President Johnson. After those visits to Louis and LeGrand, Uncle John ordained Leroy Johnson at the home of Rich Jessop in New Harmony where he was on a farm. They went there after the effort to live the United Order failed in Short Creek under the United Trust.

Testimony of Elder Fred M. Jessop

Uncle Roy stood up, and he began to speak. I can't tell you what he said, but it was a very vivid thing in my mind. He sounded like Uncle John. His voice sounded like it. His usage of words was like Uncle John. And as far as I am concerned, the mantle of Uncle John fell on Uncle Roy; and I knew that he was my head.

In 1953, the state of Arizona raided this order of the Priesthood and carried away the women and children. They first put the men in jail and then raided their homes while they were yet in jail, and carried their wives and children away to Phoenix, Arizona. After a week's time, the day the buses left Short Creek, Arizona, with the women and children, the men were released from prison in Kingman, Arizona, and came home -- to empty homes.

Again the Church was tried. They answered to the tune of $50,000 to assist the state in carrying away the women and children of this people. They haled nine men into court and placed them on parole for a year. They had to report to the court every month for a year for their actions. And while this was going on we were fighting for our deliverance from the hands of the enemy of righteousness. But soon after the raid was made, at a Conference in Mesa, Arizona, President David O. McKay made this remark. He said, "I want the world to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in full harmony with the actions of the state of Arizona in the Short Creek episode."

When I read this piece in the paper, I said to my wife, who was then in a detention home where I went to see her, I said, "This is the turning point. The key is turned now and from now on we will win the battles of the saints." Which we did. The Lord had preserved us up to that time, and soon after that they started their adoption of the children -- or tried to. But the Lord told us where to find the necessary law to stop it. And He spoke through my mouth. He said, "In your law book there is a clause that reads something like this, `No child can be adopted out without the consent of the parents.'" They said if it was there they would find it, and they started to work to find it. The next morning the lawyers called me in. "I want to read to you what I found. "No child can be adopted out without the written consent of the parents.' So, we will see what happens." So, the lawyer called the Attorney General and told him to get Statute number such and such and turn to a certain page. Now read clause such and such. And our lawyer read it over the phone to him. He says, "When we meet you in court today, we are going to stand on this point of the law." There was a short hesitation and then the Attorney General said, "This case will be continued until we study the law." Our lawyer shut up his book and says, "That's it. We have won the case. You won't have to bring your children in for adoption."

However, the Governor of Arizona, at the time of the raid or before, asked J.Edgar Hoover, the head of the F.B.I., to send men to help take part in the raid. J.Edgar Hoover, before he would answer the Governor, called the Federal Judge in Phoenix and asked him for his opinion on whether or not they should take part in the raid on the Short Creek people. The Judge says, "It's my opinion that if we take part in this raid they will beat hell out of us. So let's keep out of it." So the F.B.I. kept out of it.

I had the honor of being called upon by Uncle Roy on the 5th of May of 1979, when he was very low after having been stricken with the shingles. He asked me to come and administer to him, and in the company of Elder Truman Barlow and John Johnson, we administered to him. I was here on assignment for that weekend, Priesthood Meeting and General Meeting, and in the course of that administration the Lord put the words in my mouth that he should be healed beginning at that moment. And it was revealed to me that he would come through this illness, a very critical one at his age, stronger than ever, to do a greater and mightier work in leading this people, a choice people, to redeem Zion. I voiced that thing the next day in the General Meeting here, and we are seeing that fulfilled.

In May of 1979 -- well, it was actually April -- he came down with the shingles, which he told me the Lord had a purpose in. We have seen what that purpose has been, at least one that I have seen and you have seen. It has brought out what is in the hearts of all of us regarding our Prophet. It is not finished yet. But the Lord showed me, in administering to him on May 5, 1979, that he would come through this stronger than ever, be renewed, and go on and do a greater and mightier work, in preparing a people to redeem Zion. That is his work under Joseph Smith the Prophet. I appreciated the remarks of Brother Alvin. Joseph and his legal successors after him are anxious and following and watching the work, helping to accomplish it through the living head. The living oracles of God come through President Johnson. So I just want to leave you that testimony.

As I contemplate how Uncle Roy suffered, he was called upon to suffer as he did because he loved this people, and he was performing an act of a savior in that suffering. I have made a few remarks about it during the time that he was going through it. How I love that man.

I have been out of your midst for about five and a half years -- nearing six years now. He gave us that period of time to see what we would do with our lives -- to see if we would listen to what His word has been and repent of our sins wherein we find that we are not coming up to the mark, and then prepare ourselves to come up to the mark. During that period of time, we have been dilatory, very dilatory.***

Now, I pray that God will bless us and bless all of you, and I hope He will bless Brother Hammon and Brother Timpson that they will see the truthfulness of this Holy Gospel of ours, that we might be taught according to the directions of the Lord. I ask God's blessings upon us in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

My dear brothers and sisters, I stand before you today in great humility, having been humbled by my Father in heaven to suffer some six years this coming April since I was struck down with the shingles. I don't want to say anything that will displease my Father in heaven, so I am asking Him to put into my mouth the words that He would like me to say because I only want to do that which is necessary for me to do to bring about the purposes of God in the earth.

I have been called into this position by the revelations of God by a man who held this position before me, and he was a prophet of God. So, I feel, my brothers and sisters, that I have a right to speak.

I was struck down in the early part of 1979. I had been called upon by some of my brethren to have the word of God changed in our Doctrine & Covenants, and this, I objected to. Shortly after that, I was branded as a fallen prophet. I want to say a few words to these men who sit here on the stand today. (He turned to face J. Marion Hammon and Alma A. Timpson.) The Lord gave you men five and a half years to change your thinking on this principle of having one man holding the sealing powers in the earth at a time, and you have made a miserable mess of it by coming here and preaching over this pulpit that I was about to die because of my attitude towards this principle. (Turning again to the audience).

Now then, if the Lord doesn't want me to speak, I want Him to take me out of this pulpit. If He wants me to speak, I want to speak freely, and I don't want to be high-minded or raise my voice so high that I can't talk, but I want to talk plainly to this body of people.

I know there are people here today who don't believe in me. They feel like I have forfeited all my privileges to the Melchizedek Priesthood, but as long as the Lord will allow me to speak, I will tell you that I am not afraid to speak. There is only one man at a time, and that is the way it has been throughout all the history of God's dealings with people, both in this world and the world before this one, and the world before that one. Only one man at a time holds the keys and power of the sealing power, and those who act during his administration are only acting under a delegated authority. That is what I told these men.

I am coming back now. I am going to take my place, my position at the pulpit as long as God will allow me to, and I am not afraid to speak for Him. I'll tell you why -- simply because it is only a short time until He is going to come and visit this earth with great judgments. They have already started. He said, "In My house shall it begin." I'll tell you, it began with this council -- six years ago this coming April. This Priesthood Council was broken up. Since then, we have suffered the death, first of Brother Richard Seth Jessop, and then Brother Guy H. Musser. So there are only four of us left. For about three and a half years, neither I nor Brother Rulon Jeffs were allowed to speak to the people. Why? Because I was stricken down and I couldn't speak, but I am speaking today. They would not allow Brother Jeffs to speak because he sustained me.

I want to tell you, the Lord did a great thing. His judgments started in His own house; they started with the Priesthood, and He cleaned us up. From now on, there will be nobody in the Priesthood Council only those who sustain the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith. There is only one man at a time that holds the keys of the sealing power while he lives.

It is hard for me to speak because of my heart condition, but I will talk as long as the Lord will let me. The work of God must go on! Great judgments are coming upon this great Church of ours. When Wilford Woodruff signed the Manifesto, he didn't only sign away his rights to the Celestial Law, but he also signed away his right to the Holy Priesthood. Now what kind of priesthood has the Church been operating under for ninety years? -- yea, ninety-four years? Is the "Coming Crisis and How to Meet It" being fulfilled right under our eyes and there is nobody here to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

We will see the judgments of God poured out more and more from this time forth until this part of the earth is empty of its inhabitants -- those who are not able to say, "I am clean every whit," and have the Lord call us up. So we are working under a great handicap, my dear brothers and sisters. If this people that I am speaking to today don't hasten to lay away their sins and their wrong-doings and come clean before the Lord, they are going to find the Lord is not pleased with them, and they will have to go down with the wicked.

Now, I pray that God's blessings will be upon us, because He has granted us a few days more to clean up our lives and get down on our knees and pray night and day for deliverance as He has said. This is the time we will have to begin that practice. God bless you, amen.

I pray that God will put words in my mouth to say that which is most appropriate at this time concerning my beloved Prophet and friend, Leroy Sunderland Johnson.

He once told some brethren visiting him that he considered Brother Jeffs to be his "Heber". That is how I want it to continue, serving him and being one with him and performing the great work that he was performing; and, of course, it hasn't ended.***

I love that man more than any man or woman upon the earth. We say he was the greatest man living in his time upon the earth. Brother Fred spoke of Abraham. I'd like to read:

Abraham 3

22. Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

23. And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

And I'm satisfied that Leroy Johnson was one of them in the grand Council before he came to fill his mission as a ruler of all Israel, standing among the great Prophets of God. Joseph Smith said all the Prophets were ordained by God Himself. He is among that great concourse of men -- Gods, if you please -- before they came to fulfill their part in the great work of God upon the earth. In further substantiation of this, I'd like to read some words of the Prophet Joseph:

TPJS Page 365

In relation to the kingdom of God, the devil always sets up his kingdom at the very same time in opposition to God. Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of heaven before this world was. I suppose I was ordained to this very office in that Grand Council. It is the testimony that I want that I am God's servant, and this people His people. The ancient prophets declared that in the last days the God of heaven should set up a kingdom which should never be destroyed, nor left to other people.

Leroy Sunderland Johnson was likewise ordained before he came here in that grand Council, to fulfill his part as a ruler over Israel. I just wanted to express my feelings regarding this very dear, very dear and great man. How he suffered for us, brothers and sisters!

Well, I don't want to go into things that would not be proper to say to this congregation, but I felt always to dedicate my life of service to him as his servant and God's servant. I'm sorry to be emotional, but I can't help it, brothers and sisters.***

Now, I pray that God will bless his family, who stood by him through all of his days, faithful and true; and especially in the days of his suffering. In effect, he was giving of his life for this people and for his family.

God saw fit to take him home. He said, on the last day when he was suffering the greatest, "I want to go home and go to my rest." In that great hour, I am convinced that he was healed. What greater way could a man be healed -- called upon to suffer as he did for his brethren and his friends and his people -- to pass over to continue his work on the other side among the prophets of God, among God's rulers, to finish his work. I want to testify to you that he stood with his predecessor, John Y. Barlow, and his, Lorin C. Woolley, and his, John W. Woolley, and John Taylor, and Brigham Young, and Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith was at the elbow of all of these, head of this last great and glorious dispensation.

So, he has finished his work among us. But I am sure he is going to be working for us as he goes on in his labors on the other side. God hasn't finished with him yet.

Occasionally, he made statements as I have in a sermon of his, which I wanted to read, but felt that it wouldn't be appropriate at this time. He will go on, and we will go on for and with him, which I pray may be our happy lot and our great blessing from the God of Israel, and His Son, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith, Jun., standing in the office of the Holy Ghost in the Godhead of this earth. May we draw near to Them, and be obedient and faithful and true, and abide in Their love to the end, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I, too, have been dwelling a great deal on Uncle Roy. At the time of his passing a year ago, those scenes come before me frequently these days. I have felt that President Leroy Sunderland Johnson was a great model to follow, and I tried with my might to follow him; and I have tried to be like him because of that great example that he has set before us. As I have said, I feel to carry on with him. I said over the phone to Brother Truman; when I got the message that he had passed on, I said, "He is not dead," though I knew he had passed over to the other side. But he is very much alive, and walking in perfection before the Lord, continuing his labors, aiding us in accomplishing the objects which he set before us in building up the Kingdom of God and preparing a people to redeem Zion.

Leroy S. Johnson, to me, was perfect in his generation, as Seth and Noah were described. They had this testimony that they pleased God, and they were perfect in their generation. And they were God over the people in their day and time. I am grateful for all of my associations with him. I think constantly of him and pray for his help, and for help from the Prophet Joseph to carry on the labors that have fallen upon me to perform.

I love the Prophet Leroy Sunderland Johnson with all my heart, as I love God. He is one of Them. I think that says it all.

President Johnson is a man I love with all my heart, and I want to tell you why. The love of brethren transcends any other in life but the love of the chosen of God, for the chosen of God has to come in the same way as we love God. I love God because of the perfection of His attributes and character. That is what I worship in God -- the perfection of His character and attributes; and that is what I love in Roy Johnson. He is the most Christlike as any man I know, and stands in the position that God has called him to fill before he came here. Like Joseph Smith said, he was called by the Council before he came here to fill his position; and Brother Johnson is his legal successor. I say, though there are other Apostles, they come under the direction of the head, the chief Apostle, who leads us today; and that is the place I desire to be. I desire to be an advocate for him and to build him up, and we should all be doing the same thing. Why? Because he holds the keys, the means to obtain the mind and will of God; as Brigham Young said after the death of Joseph Smith, when Sidney Rigdon and others came to try and take charge. He has the means to obtain the mind and will of God for us, and all revelation must come through him for the people.

And as I have expressed here and other places, I do not think that we are going to get anywhere unless we get behind this one man. As the people were called upon in the days of Enoch, they got behind that one man, who had direct access to the mind and will of God and walked and talked with God; and it is the same as with Moses in his day. We, altogether too many of us, brothers and sisters, have treated lightly this man and his teachings.***

I believe, verily, that we are now approaching the day of accounting. Like I said last time I spoke here, the Lord Jesus Christ said to the people, "If ye are not for Me, ye are against Me," and He spews the lukewarm, those who are neither hot nor cold, out of His mouth. He cannot use halfhearted people. It is all or nothing at all -- the Kingdom of God or nothing, brothers and sisters. I think it is time we stopped dallying around, because the day of accounting is at hand. And these are the words of our Prophet, Leroy S. Johnson.

I would just like to read you a little piece here, which sounds so much like this man, our Prophet. It is written by a writer of the world, but it is the idea behind it that I want to put over.

"The Prophet" (RTJ Book of Quotes Page 83)

He said, "I see." And they said: "He's crazy; crucify him." He still said, "I see." And they said: "He's an extremist." And they tolerated him. And he continued to say: "I see." And they said: "He's eccentric." And they rather liked him, but smiled at him. And he stubbornly said again: "I see." And they said: "There's something in what he says." And they gave him half an ear. But he said as if he's never said it before: "I see." And at last they were awake; and they gathered about him and built a temple in his name.

We are called upon to make these bodies and these spirits temples of God, and that is all he wants for us.

And yet he only said: "I see." And they wanted to do something for him. "What can we do to express to you our regret?" He only smiled. He touched them with the ends of his fingers and kissed them. What could they do for him? "Nothing more than you have done," he answered. And what was that, they wanted to know? "You see," he said, "that's reward enough; you see, you see."

And that is all He wants -- to see and understand and be obedient and become like God by getting and keeping the Spirit of God. We cannot do this work of redemption, which Brother Johnson has been called to perform through this people, without our having the Spirit of God and obtaining a fullness of it. We can never be one people without having the Spirit of God. That is what makes us one, and that is why the Lord says, "If ye are not one, ye are not Mine."***

God help us to act according to these principles of righteousness and love. President Johnson yearns over this people, and I dare say the illnesses he is suffering now is, in a large measure, due to the stress and the strains that he has been going through in our behalf. But he is going to come through and be stronger than ever and lead us. God help us to have faith in God, in Jesus Christ, in Joseph Smith, and in this agent of God, a living Priesthood; and that we may all go down the road together, as many as will obey every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God through this man; that we may be as one man in the hands of God to redeem Zion, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I have been very much interested, my dear brothers and sisters and friends, at what I have been listening to. I hope what I say will be inspired by the Spirit of God that I will advance something in the shape of the doctrine of eternal truth that will be of value to all of us.

I have sat here thinking of the condition we are in as compared with the world, the revelation of heaven to our minds and lives to the effect that there is one man on the earth at a time on whom the keys of the eternal Priesthood are conferred. I sat here thinking on the condition of the world with regard to that sacred vessel of the Lord. If I don't have access to that instrument, that man, that character, whoever he is, how do we expect to ever attain to eternal life when this man holds the keys to it? Without the ability to apply ourselves to cooperation with that character? It has been my privilege, as I have oftentimes said -- the close, intimate, personal association with the man a good portion of my life, that I have had close association with that man; I don't know how to appreciate enough. I do appreciate it but not quite enough. If that man whom we acknowledge and recognize as holding the key position, and in case somebody should conclude that that is not the case, is not the character of the man, then pray tell who, where can such a character be found?

Many of us continuously bear witness that we know under the revelation of the Spirit of God who that character is and we do have personal association with him. So I continually come back to the question -- "Many an individual may think, 'Well, that man has certain faults and failings I don't approve of, how can I sustain him?'" But if he isn't a man whom you can sustain, where will you find such a character? I have observed far and wide in my bit of experience in this life prominent men always finding fault with truth raised up because of conduct. I am convinced, it is my testimony, my conviction and my attitude is that we have access to that character; and that his wisdom, association, his grace, his conduct and his spiritual influence over us is within reach of every person within this building and all the rest that are in association with him. What more shall I ask? One thing I must ask, and that is to prevail on the Lord to extend to me the power and influence and spirit of repentance, because I can get the benefits of that blessing through that man. I don't know of any other character in my experience of whom I can look for guidance and direction to the degree I can by associating with President Johnson. In the life of Jesus, two thousand years ago, there was one man on the earth at a time who held a certain position. And that position is conveyed upon another man today, and has been through the ages and will continue to be until the winding up scene of this old mother earth on which we dwell.

I don't know how to be thankful enough for the sacred privilege I have of being so intimately acquainted with God's servants, the prophets, and have access to His Servant on the earth in this day and time and dispensation. And again and again and again I ask the continuance and interrogation as, if this is not the man whom we claim it is, where will you find such a being? As far as anybody among us can tell, there is no other character that occupies that same position. Others, growing weary, striving to have the same association with these characters, but they miss the mark until they concentrate their devotion where the Lord places His. That is my witness and my testimony.

I hope and pray, dear brothers and sisters and friends, that we can improve as a body of people, as individuals, until we are ready and willing to receive the testimony of these prophetic characters. Because there is still one man on the earth at a time during each man's administration that occupies that position. The Lord knows their integrity and weaknesses and imperfections and He knows all about us. And if we want to be godlike in our nature and disposition, here is one example it is pretty safe to follow. Where can you find his equal? He is a man devoted entirely to the service of the Lord God Almighty. That is my witness that he has principle, integrity, devotion and character the quality of Leroy Sunderland Johnson. Help us, dear Father, that we will not miss the boat by going off astray into by and forbidden paths till we miss the way to get back Home. That is my mission, intent and desire and prayer for us all. Let us hold up and sustain and maintain our devotion and integrity and our whole ambition to sustaining the Lord. In the place where He (The Lord) devotes His confidence is the place for me to put mine. That is my conviction, my dear brothers and sisters and friends, and I hope the same for each one.

The Gospel is true and we know it is true. We know the Priesthood of God is conveyed to men on the earth and repose in the hands of mortal men in this day and dispensation and will continue to be so until the winding up scene, as we call it. So here we are; here stands the challenge, so let us go to, uphold and sustain one another in everything that is right and correct. If everything that is right and correct was white and everything that is error were black, we wouldn't have much difficulty in distinguishing between right and wrong. But the mixtures, mixed right and wrong in such a field -- grey, black and white mixed together oftentimes, the people are in difficulty to determine between the right and the wrong. There is so much error in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us, it ill becomes any of us to criticize the rest of us.

Let us bring ourselves to the unity, my dear brothers and sisters, unite ourselves in the same type of advancement and integrity and devotion. My conviction is that President Leroy Sunderland Johnson is the key man bearing witness and testimonies of the Prophets before him. So let us press on continuously and everlastingly maintaining our devotion to the truth, being thankful and grateful -- how grateful we need to be. What a debt of gratitude we owe to the Lord and to His servants for the privileges and opportunities that are ours. May the Lord bless and prosper all of them to the accomplishment of their most earnest desires is my humble prayer for each one, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Dear brethren and sisters and friends, and others if there so be, I bring you a tribute of peace, and a testimony of long-standing experience with the greatest man on earth--until a few days ago. For fifty-one years minus only a very few months at a time have I walked with this noble soul. I've seen him in trial, in poverty, in peace, been with him behind bars, known of his anxieties, his trials and pleasures, and all things that happen to a good man. It's been a marvelous school. Truly, he was and is a Prince of Peace, for in those most trying circumstances that have been my fortune, blessing to behold in him and with him, I have never seen him vary from ways of propriety in every circumstance. Truly, Uncle Roy has demonstrated the way. He has personified the attributes of Christ and been His most faithful servant.

This wonderful turnout to his graduation is a token of the respect that he has won among all peoples with whom he has dealt, the honorable and the unhonorable have been moved to respect him. If anybody didn't like him, it's their own bloomin' fault.

He was a well rounded man. He had industry in his nature, thrift in his practice, benevolence in his doings. There isn't a thing that anybody can point to, in truth, that he didn't do right in. The best we can do in this service is infinitesimal in comparison to what's going on over there. Whether you know it or not, I know it, that he stands among the great ones that the Lord told Abraham about.

I leave you this testimony and these brief and, I feel, inadequate remarks and pray that the Spirit of God might convey to your hearts the truth of what I have said, that you may look and see the effects of his life and doings and pattern your life thereafter. This I pray for myself and for all men, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.