Chapter 15
The Joy of an Eternal Covenant
Delayed by Church work in Salt Lake City, President Harold B. Lee arrived late to the area general conference in Mexico City. His plane touched down in the early afternoon of August 26, 1972, and by evening he was being shuttled from venue to venue to speak at individual conference sessions for the Relief Society, Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood holders, and young women. The next morning, the Saints at the conference sustained him as the new president of the Church—the first congregation in the world to do so.
The prophet returned to Utah a few days later, only to learn that a member of an apostate group had allegedly made death threats against him.
To ensure President Lee’s safety, police began accompanying him wherever he went. He was grateful for their protection, but the presence of the officers bothered him. Recent Church presidents had generally gone without bodyguards. Now every time President Lee went out, his police escort created no small disturbance.
Soon he and his wife, Joan, decided to join Elder Gordon B. Hinckley and his wife, Marjorie, on a trip to visit Saints in Europe and Israel.
The trip would have its own risks, however. They would be traveling without a security detail in a tense region of the world. A Palestinian group had just kidnapped and killed eleven members of the Israeli national Olympic team at the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, West Germany. The attack sent the world reeling, and President Lee worried that an armed conflict might break out in Israel. Still, he and Sister Lee accompanied the Hinckleys as planned.
The group arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, on the evening of September 19. David Galbraith, a Church member from Canada who was studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, picked them up and drove them forty miles southeast to Jerusalem. It was dark when they arrived, and they couldn’t see much, but there was something wonderful about traveling through the ancient, sacred city.
Over the next three days, the Lees and Hinckleys met with Israeli dignitaries and visited holy sites. Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem, told President Lee that he had heard the story of apostle Orson Hyde offering a prayer on the Mount of Olives in 1841. President Lee told him that the Church wanted someday to build a monument or a visitors’ center in the city to commemorate the prayer.
“We are trying to acquire property on the Mount of Olives to create a park for meditation,” Mayor Kollek said. “It might be possible to have a monument with this inscription in the park.”
On the evening of September 20, David and a small group of Saints living in Israel met with the Lees and Hinckleys at a garden tomb some believed might have been the place Jesus was laid after the Crucifixion. A sense of holiness rested over the group. They could imagine seeing the Savior’s lifeless body being carried to the tomb, or Mary Magdalene returning to the garden on the third day and beholding the resurrected Lord.
At the tomb, President Lee organized the Saints into a branch, with David as their president. Although there were no more than thirty permanent Church members living in the country, groups of BYU students had recently started coming to study in the Holy Land for a few months at a time, more than doubling the number of Saints at the meetings. President Lee believed the branch would lay the foundation of a great work in the region.
“When people ask you who you are,” he counseled, “don’t say members of the Mormon Church or of the LDS Church, but say The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
After the meeting, President Lee returned to his hotel room exhausted. He had been feeling some severe pain in his lower back for several days, and he had developed a painful cough and shortness of breath. Now, with the onset of the fatigue, he worried that something was wrong.
Later that night, at Sister Lee’s insistence, Elder Hinckley came to their hotel room and gave President Lee a blessing. The next morning, President Lee coughed up some blood and felt instant relief from his shortness of breath. Soon he was doing well enough to join David and the Hinckleys for a sightseeing tour of Bethany, Jericho, Capernaum, Nazareth, and other sacred sites.
The next day, at breakfast, he told Elder Hinckley he had experienced a miracle. He felt as if he had been on the brink of death, but through Elder Hinckley’s blessing, the Lord had restored his health.
“We had to come to the land of miracles to witness a miracle within ourselves,” he said gratefully.
They would be leaving Jerusalem that evening, so they spent the time they had left walking where Jesus had walked. They visited Gethsemane, the tomb of Lazarus, Bethlehem, and the remnants of the wall surrounding the temple. David then drove them to the airport, and they caught a plane to Rome, their faith renewed from all they had seen and experienced in the Holy Land.
On November 7, 1972, Ardeth Kapp heard the telephone ring as she entered her apartment in Bountiful, Utah. Francis Gibbons, the secretary to the First Presidency, was on the other end of the line. “Could you and your husband meet with President Harold B. Lee tomorrow morning in his office at 11:35?” he asked.
Taking a deep breath, Ardeth said, “We’ll be there.” Right away, she wondered why President Lee wanted to talk with them.
She and her husband, Heber, were teachers by profession. Although they were still relatively young—she was forty-one years old—they had served actively in the Church for many years. She was a member of the education faculty at Brigham Young University and served on the Church’s Youth Correlation Committee. He was a former bishop and now a counselor in the stake presidency.
When Heber came home, Ardeth told him about the telephone call. She thought President Lee might ask him to serve as a mission president. Heber did not think so, but he worried that they might have to move. They were in the middle of building a house and would have to abandon the project if called on a mission. Heber was doing most of the construction work himself, and they could not afford to pay anyone to finish it.
Ardeth passed the night sleeplessly, reflecting on her life. The Lord had always helped her with her trials. As a girl living near Cardston, Alberta, Canada, she had failed two grades in school. Few people had expected her to excel at her studies, but with God’s help, she had recently earned a master’s degree in curriculum development.
But that had not been her greatest struggle. Although she had always wanted a large family, she and Heber had never been able to have children, despite frequent prayers for a miracle. For a while, they had thought about adopting, but every time they sought the Lord’s guidance on the matter, they received a “stupor of thought.” They felt judged by neighbors, friends, and family who called them selfish for not having children. Only an eternal perspective of God’s plan had brought them the peace and acceptance they needed to cope with their pain.
On the morning of their appointment with President Lee, Ardeth and Heber were nervous as they arrived at the Church Administration Building, but they were willing to accept any assignment from the Lord. President Lee greeted them warmly and invited them into his office. “Try to be relaxed,” he said. “I’m sure you know this is not just a casual visit.”
He then spoke about the need for frequent organizational changes in the Church to keep pace with its rapid growth. The Church’s youth program particularly concerned him. He believed the Church needed to do more to strengthen young people and prepare them to serve in the kingdom of God. For this reason, the Mutual Improvement Associations were being restructured to place them under the direct supervision of general Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood leaders.
As she listened to President Lee, Ardeth wondered what he was going to ask Heber to do. “Whatever he wants him for,” she thought, “I’m sure he can do a good job, and I’ll be willing to support him.”
President Lee then called Ardeth to serve, catching her by surprise. She was the reason he had called them into his office?
President Lee explained that Ruth Funk had recently agreed to serve as general president of the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association. Having worked with Ardeth on the Correlation Committee, Ruth had recommended her to serve as second counselor. The new presidency would have their offices on the nineteenth floor of the Church Office Building, a recently completed skyscraper in downtown Salt Lake City.
Overwhelmed, Ardeth accepted the call, grateful for the trust it represented. A short time later, the Church officially announced the reorganization of its youth programs. Before this time, the YWMIA had operated under the supervision of the First Presidency. Now, as part of the correlation of Church organizations, the YWMIA and YMMIA would coordinate their efforts under the direction of the Presiding Bishopric and ward and stake priesthood leaders. The new structure also drew distinctions between Melchizedek Priesthood MIA, or single adults older than age eighteen, and the Aaronic Priesthood MIA, or young men and young women between the ages of twelve and eighteen.
While the Aaronic Priesthood MIA would be supervised by priesthood leaders, the program would continue to offer gender- and age-based classes and activities for boys and girls. Paralleling the priesthood offices of deacon, teacher, and priest, the young women classes were called Beehive (ages 12–13), Mia Maid (ages 14–15), and Laurel (ages 16–18)—names the YWMIA had long been using. A few years earlier, Church leaders had asked every ward to start a bishop’s youth council, which gave youth new opportunities to lead. Now the First Presidency wanted the new MIA organizations to give the youth even more leadership opportunities.
President Funk supported this vision for the program. As a high school teacher, she had given her students many chances over the years to develop as leaders, and they had done great things. “You don’t become anything by hearing about it,” she declared. “You become by doing it.”
The principle was something Ardeth could take to heart too. Not long after her call, she accepted an assignment to attend several regional conferences in the United Kingdom. She was nervous about the trip because she was new to her calling. But then she remembered the words of Nephi in the Book of Mormon: “The Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”
“I’ve known that all my life,” she told herself, “but I need to know it now.”
After their baptisms, Helvécio and Rudá Martins found that other Brazilian Saints often wanted to discuss the Church’s priesthood and temple restriction with them. Some people wondered how the family could stay faithful in the Church when neither Helvécio nor their son, Marcus, could be ordained to the priesthood. A few, upset by the Martinses’ devotion, criticized or mocked them.
“If I were in your situation,” one man told Helvécio, “I don’t believe I would stay in the Church.”
Still, many fellow Saints admired the Martinses for their strong testimonies and commitment to their callings. Four months after they joined the Church, Elder Bruce R. McConkie—the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—had come to Rio de Janeiro to organize the fifth stake in Brazil. At the time, Helvécio did not fully understand the difference between a district and stake, but he agreed to serve as a counselor in the stake Sunday School presidency. Rudá, meanwhile, accepted a call to serve in the stake Primary presidency.
The new stake covered an immense area, stretching thousands of square miles. Helvécio’s and Rudá’s new callings gave them the opportunity to visit the stake’s many far-flung wards and branches. Often Helvécio would pick Rudá up at the bus stop late at night as she returned from fulfilling an assignment. Though the new demands on them were difficult, the Martinses were happy to serve.
Their baptism had also changed their relationship with family. Rudá’s family members did not like that she joined the Church, and they tried to persuade her and Helvécio to abandon their new faith, predicting that tragedy would befall them otherwise. Some in her family even warned that God might take their son Marcus’s life.
But the Martinses felt comfortable among the Saints. The branch members embraced them so warmly that Helvécio had first wondered if his family was receiving special treatment because of his prominent professional status. After he was assigned a menial task at a branch activity, however, he realized that his family was not being treated any differently.
One day, a friend at Church told Helvécio, “Faithful members like you have demonstrated your claim on the priesthood to the Lord. I have no doubt that one day you will receive the priesthood.”
Helvécio and Rudá appreciated the support of their friends and fellow Church members. But they preferred not to dwell on the question of when or how Black Saints would receive the blessings of the priesthood. They had faith that God would someday fulfill all His promises. Still, the Martinses kept their expectations low to protect themselves against disappointment and heartache. They believed that the full blessings of the priesthood and temple would come to them in the Millennium. Until then, they simply prayed for more faith and the strength to serve in the Church.
After the Rio de Janeiro Stake was organized, Helvécio and Rudá made appointments to receive their patriarchal blessings. When Walmir Silva, the stake patriarch, blessed Helvécio and Rudá, he promised them that they would live together “on the earth in the joy of an eternal covenant.” The promise was beautiful, but the family arrived home feeling confused. Because of the priesthood restriction, Helvécio and Rudá could not enter the temple and did not expect to make temple covenants during their mortal lives. What could the patriarch have meant?
Seven weeks later, fourteen-year-old Marcus visited the patriarch’s home to receive his own blessing. As the patriarch blessed him, he promised Marcus that he would have opportunities to preach the gospel and bear his testimony of truth. Helvécio and Rudá interpreted this promise to mean that Marcus would serve a mission. But that too seemed impossible. Marcus could not serve a mission unless he held the priesthood.
The Martins family did not want the patriarch’s words to upset the steady, peaceful rhythm of their lives. They decided to continue living just as they had before and not think too much about the experience.
And yet, Helvécio and Rudá did not want to ignore the promises they had been given. Just in case, they quietly opened a new savings account—a missionary fund for Marcus.
Christmas Day 1973 passed quietly for Spencer W. Kimball. He and Camilla exchanged gifts with each other and with Camilla’s sister Mary, who had been born deaf and now lived with them. Camilla put a turkey in the oven, and he helped her set up an extra table for the guests they expected for dinner.
Elder Kimball spent the rest of the morning at his typewriter as he tried to catch up on a stack of unanswered letters. Christmas music played on the phonograph, and he took an occasional break from typing to flip the record over.
As the morning turned to afternoon, some of the Kimballs’ children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren arrived for Christmas dinner. Among the guests were Mangal Dan Dipty, a man whom Elder Kimball had baptized twelve years earlier in Delhi, India, and a young Zuni girl named Arlene, who lived with the Kimballs’ daughter, Olive Beth, as part of the Indian Student Placement Program. The group ate and sang, and Elder Kimball went to bed feeling the day had passed pleasantly.
The next evening, sometime after eight o’clock, Elder Kimball answered the telephone at his home. “This is Arthur,” the caller said. At once, Elder Kimball knew it was Arthur Haycock, President Lee’s secretary.
“Well, Arthur,” Elder Kimball said pleasantly, “how are you tonight?”
“Not very good,” Arthur said. “I am at the hospital with President Lee, and he is very sick. I think you should come at once.”
Elder Kimball hung up the phone and drove straight to the hospital, where he met Arthur in the hallway. Arthur explained that President Lee had come to the hospital for rest and a checkup. He had been sitting on the bed when he suddenly went into cardiac arrest. Arthur called for help, and in a moment the room filled with doctors, nurses, and equipment. The place still bustled with frantic activity.
Joan, President Lee’s wife, arrived with his daughter Helen and son-in-law Brent. Arthur told them they should keep clear of President Lee’s room, so the small group found an empty room just down the hall where they could wait. They prayed together and asked the Lord to preserve the prophet’s life. As they waited, Marion G. Romney, President Lee’s second counselor in the First Presidency, arrived.
Unsure what else they could do, President Romney led the group in another prayer. A doctor then entered the room.
“We are doing all we can,” he said, “but it doesn’t look good.”
Elder Kimball was shocked. President Lee, who had supported him constantly through his own illnesses, was seventy-four years old—younger than he himself was. And he had seemed much healthier. Many in the Church had assumed that he would be around long after Elder Kimball was gone. And no one had prayed harder than the Kimballs that President Lee’s good health would continue.
Ten minutes passed. Elder Kimball left the room and walked down the hallway toward President Lee’s room. As he approached, a doctor stepped out.