June 9th

June 9, 1830 - The first church conference is held with twelve officers called "apostles" by common appellation in their elders certificates and elsewhere. Eleven are among the special witnesses to the Book of Mormon in 1829. At the conference Joseph Smith performs the church's first miracle by casting the devil out of Newel Knight who afterward sees a vision of the Father and Son. This month Satan also appears to Smith as "an angel of light" and is exposed by the Archangel Michael, and Smith dictates a revelation on the "vision of Moses" which describes a visionary deception by Satan anciently.

June 9, 1844 - Writing from Washington D.C., Heber C. Kimball describes the White House and says: "I want to see our Prophet here in the chare of Stat[e]s when we will come and see him. "He writes to his daughter, Helen Mar Kimball, who is a secret wife of Joseph Smith: "Be true to the covenants that you have made, keep the company of those who are wise and keep close mouths. Solomon says, 'A wise head keeps a close mouth.'"

June 9, 1884 - Abraham H. Cannon writes of a conversation with Eliza R. Snow: ". . . and in the course of our conversation she said she heard the Prophet Joseph once remark, `when the ten tribes were taken away, the earth was divided, so that they occupy a separate planet from this.' This was news to me."

June 9, 1895 - First stake outside United States (in Cardston, Alberta, Canada).

June 9, 1897 - President Wilford Woodruff writes: "I was quite restless all night. Felt chilly. Took a little Brandy sling and a cup of coffee, and slept some before daylight and until 9 am. . . ."

June 9, 1904 - First Presidency writes Anthony W. Ivins at Colonia Juarez, "to put your foot on it, giving the parties to understand that President Woodruff's Manifesto is in effect."

June 9, 1922 - For first time annual conference of LDS youth organizations in Salt Lake City has large scale dancing (at Saltair resort pavilion). Saltair is destroyed by fire three years later, but "all-church dance festival" continues annually in Salt Lake City for fifty years. Regional dance festivals also occur in large Mormon population centers like southern California where 13,000 dancers perform for audience of 100,000 in 1985.

June 9, 1974 - Spencer W. Kimball administers second anointing to his heart surgeon Russell M. Nelson and wife Dantzel in Holy of Holies of Salt Lake temple. Nelson becomes member of Twelve in 1984. There is a dramatic increase of second anointings during Kimball's presidency.

June 9, 1978 - First Presidency letter instructs that interviews of married persons "should scrupulously avoid indelicate inquiries," yet also emphasizes: "Married persons should understand that if in their marital relations they are guilty of unnatural, impure or unholy practices, they should not enter the temple unless and until they repent and discontinue any such practices." This reverses position of First Presidency prior to Spencer W. Kimball's ascendancy.

June 9, 1978 - First Presidency announces "priesthood now available to all worthy male members." First Presidency secretary Francis M Gibbons writes that this change "seemed to relieve them of a subtle sense of guilt they had felt over the years." The DESERET NEWS stops a press run to get the announcement in its first edition. By late morning the headline was on the newsstands--"LDS Church extends priesthood to all worthy male members." TIME and NEWSWEEK also stop press runs to get the story into their weekend editions. President Jimmy Carter implied acceptance of the revelation's divine origin. President Jimmy Carter sends a telegram to President Kimball: "I commend you for your compassionate prayerfulness and courage in receiving a new doctrine." The First-Presidency letter containing the four-paragraph statement becomes the most photocopied document in the history of the Church Office Building.

June 9, 1985 - Church headquarters telephones bishops in Utah, Idaho and Arizona with instructions to forbid discussion of Linda Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery's biography MORMON ENIGMA: EMMA HALE SMITH in Relief Society or other church meetings. Lasting for ten months, this ban is apparently what triples book's sales. The month before, the book had won the best book award from the Mormon History Association and the John Whitmer Historical Association. It later co-wins the prestigious $10,000 Evans Biography Award, sharing the honor with Richard L. Bushman. BYU president and future apostle Jeffrey R. Holland presents the award.

June 9, 1996 - SALT LAKE TRIBUNE reports that LDS headquarters has acknowledged it has been calling specific people (such as advertising executives) on short-term missions to assist in campaign against legalization of same-sex marriages in Hawaii.

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