I am so excited to be in this house, Kira, and to show it to you. This is where Joseph and Emma lived when they moved from New York.

They had to leave New York because people kept trying to steal the plates, and they just didn't have enough peace to be able to translate them there. And so they came to Harmony, which might have been a little touchy because Joseph and Emma eloped

and her parents were not happy about it. This is their property. This is where she grew up.

So they first stayed with her parents down the road,

and then her brother built this house, and they were able to move into this house. And it must have been so great, just the two of them. Yeah. To have the space. Yeah. I’m Kira Nielsen, I’m from Los Angeles, California, and I do corporate PR for a living, and my family has been in the Church since the early days in the Church with Joseph Smith.

This is where they were when Martin Harris took the first pages of the Book of Mormon to show to people, and those pages were lost, and the gift of translation was taken from Joseph Smith.

How long was that taken away?

It was about a year, and there was plenty to do.

They had no money, so Joseph was trying to farm and have a livelihood for them. But then the gift was restored.

Martin Harris acted as scribe for a little bit, a few other people did, too.

I always like to mention that Emma Smith functioned as a scribe for a fair amount, which I think is wonderful. We don't often talk about that.

And then one night, Oliver Cowdery showed up.

Oliver was a teacher in New York, and his family told him about the gospel. So he came with Joseph's brother through the mud and rain and showed up ready to work. And once Joseph's brother started helping with the farming, and Oliver and Joseph could really focus on the translating, they made a lot of progress fast. And they got all the way to 3 Nephi,

and they read about baptism and the authority to baptize. And the authority mattered for a baptism to be valid. And that's when they started to think, we need to know more about this. So they decided to go to the grove nearby and pray and ask God about baptism and about the authority to baptize.

That's incredible.

It feels momentous to think that when they were taking this walk, they didn't yet have a concept of priesthood, the way you and I understand it.

Yeah. That's incredible.

So pretty. It is.

So this grove is where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery went to pray and find out more about this baptism and the authority to baptize that they had read about in 3 Nephi.

Of course, we're familiar with the concept of baptism,

but they knew there was something special about the one they'd been reading about. Wow. Yeah.

It's so peaceful. Yeah.

It's beautiful. Shall we walk a little bit? Yeah.

So this prayer is answered with John the Baptist appearing and giving them what we now call the Aaronic Priesthood. But they didn’t start using those terms for a long time.

Back then, did they just refer to it as the priesthood? The priesthood, and then somewhere from a few weeks to a couple of months later, and for that we don’t really know exactly where Peter, James, and John gave again, Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith what they called the higher priesthood that we now call Melchizedek Priesthood.

So it would have been Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery walking along here. Yes.

And they were baptized and received the priesthood in the same day? Is that what we believe? Yeah.

Do you remember your baptism?

Yes, I do very well. That was one of the most special days, I think, in the first, you know,

a few years of your life when you can actually remember things. It was extremely special. My dad was able to baptize me.

I'll never forget that feeling of being baptized,

coming out of the water and feeling kind of like a new person, even just as a little eight-year-old. Yeah. Did you? You felt like a new person?

Yeah. Yeah, it felt . . . yeah, it just felt very peaceful, and when I came out of the water, I was like, wow. Like, this is incredible. I feel like my sins have actually been washed away and it’s like a new, kind of a new chapter. Yeah. Just incredible. Do you remember your baptism?

Yeah, not as clearly as you do. I think I’m about twice as old as you are.

I just remember the first time I mentioned priesthood to you, you thought of baptism? Yeah.

Baptism, I think that definitely is a really special moment for me when I think of the priesthood and how it's impacted me and just the power of the priesthood and every time I’ve been able to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead,

that’s always been really impactful for me, and just that feeling of peace and comfort and just surety.

But I think for me, priesthood, it's always, I think, meant a lot to me, especially as a Black member of this Church. I think any Black member of the LDS Church has kind of a different relationship when it comes to the priesthood, because I don't think we can discuss the priesthood without acknowledging the priesthood ban and the policy that was in place for so many years in the Church. And there are so many members who were Black or of African descent that weren't able to actually receive the priesthood. And I think for many of us, that is a very difficult thing to reconcile with, especially when we first find out about the policy. I remember no one had ever told me about it until I was probably a teenager, and that was that was kind of hurtful to not know

and feel like this was such a big part of Church history that somehow felt like no one wanted to discuss or mention, maybe out of fear of I don’t know, how I would react, or just kind of shame because it isn’t,

it isn’t a pretty, like, happy part of Church history.

So true. Yeah. And I think for me . . . Maybe not wanting to hurt your feelings? Yeah, exactly. So but I think it's so important that we actually do discuss it. And for me, it just has been really powerful to actually study and understand kind of the history, what was going on at the time, and I feel especially inspired by the members who did join the Church that were Black and stayed, even all those years.

I know we've discussed Jane Manning James, and she was one of the earliest members that I think we have record of who was never even able to go to the temple, but chose to stay. Because that’s such an important part of the ban. It wasn’t just, men couldn’t have the priesthood,

it was that men and women of color, well, of African descent couldn’t go to the temple either and have their endowment. Yeah. Which is something I think that so many people don't realize that's so powerful and also would be really difficult to be a part of that and stay and still be faithful. And I think something that I always remember are the African saints that were converting in large numbers in West Africa in the 60s, and they all knew that they couldn’t receive the priesthood or attend the temple, but they knew that the Church was true and they felt it for themselves, and so they chose to stay and they chose to remain faithful and for me, I think that’s just so inspiring,

just their resiliency and their commitment,

even when there are so many reasons to not be.

Just to emphasize your point,

we in the history department have looked and looked and looked and so have other historians, and there isn’t a record of when the ban started. It wasn’t a revelation. It wasn’t

a moment. It was something that happened off camera, off record.

And then people just took for granted. And then stories grew up around it.

Headed towards the Susquehanna River now, which I have never seen. Yes, I haven't either. So they just had to walk from the grove. Just the river was this close? Yeah. Wow. Look at this.

Oh my gosh, that is bigger than I expected. This is huge. And also so calm. The current is, it’s so flat. It’s like the River Jordan in that way, that there’s a current but not too rough and

I like to think of, that’s where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. And then here we are. John the Baptist just gave Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the authority to baptize each other, and then asked them to baptize each other in the river. Yeah. And this is where that happened.

It's pretty miraculous to think that in a place like this, it's so simple.

Just a river in the middle of woods, something so sacred and special happened.

You can feel the Spirit in these places that incredible things happened. You can always kind of look back on your testimony.

Remember how you felt when you were in those spaces.

What do you think you’ll remember about priesthood in this space?

What will you take with you?

I think I'll always remember just the feeling of peace and comfort and knowing that

something so incredible happened here that was directly from God.

Just knowing that, I think is super powerful, and it's just another testimony builder of the trueness of the gospel.

We affirm that under the direction of the Father and the Son,

heavenly messengers came to instruct Joseph and reestablish the Church of Jesus Christ.

The resurrected John the Baptist restored the authority to baptize by immersion for the remission of sins.

Three of the original twelve apostles, Peter, James, and John,

restored the apostleship and keys of priesthood authority.