December 2
Dec 2, 1841 – Joseph Smith receives a revelation: “Verily thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph. that inasmuch as you have called upon me to know my will concerning my handmaid Nancy Marinda Hyde Behold it is my will that she should have a better place prepared for her than that in which she now lives...and let my handmaid Nancy Marinda Hyde hearken to the counsel of my servant Joseph in all things whatsoever he shall teach unto her...”. Joseph takes Nancy as a plural wife in April of 1842, eight months before her husband Orson Hyde returns from his mission to Israel.
Dec 2, 1843 - Apostles Parley P. Pratt, Orson Hyde, George A. Smith, Orson Spencer, and Wilford Woodruff receive their Endowments.
Dec 2, 1845 - Brigham Young writes in his journal: "I received a letter from Messrs. Duncan and Co. of Bloomington, stating that a heavy firm in Philadelphia wished to know the condition and situation of our property, terms, etc., as they wished to buy, and for their ability to do so, referred us to Sheriff Backenstos and others; they proposed to pay specie for the whole, if a bargain were concluded. "The council returned answer by letter that if their agent or agents would come here and examine the property, that we would sell the whole or any part of the city of Nauvoo, owned by our people, or the farms in the county, for fifty percent under the valuation of like property, similarly situated in this country."
Dec 2, 1855 - Apostle Amasa Lyman preaches: "attend strictly to the 'Mormon' creed, which you know is, 'Mind your own business.'"
Dec 2, 1877 - Joseph F. Smith writes about the newly limited compensation for apostles: "One man [probably John W. Young], for instance, who has drawn $16,000 per year from the tithing office for his support, has been cut down to 2,000 per year. Thus some of the leaks are pluged up and we hope to be able by and by to build the temple."
Dec 2, 1883 - First counselor George Q. Cannon preaches: "It is not the true condition for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be in, then to be petted by the world, to be fostered by the world, to be spoken well by the world, to be welcomed by the world, to have favor showered upon it by the world, because we ought not to be of the world."
Dec 2, 1883 - Apostle John Henry Smith while in England serving as European Mission President writes in his diary: "Last evening Elder Joseph H. Armstrong . . . came to the office at Forty two laboring under mental strain. He confessed to me that he had been guilty of feeling the Privates of Females since he was a married man, that while he had never been guilty of sexual intercourse with them still he felt that he was guilty of adultery. I comforted him as well as I could seeing his excited condition. This morning he seems to feel much better. We went to meeting and Bro. Armstrong and others bore testimony." Three days later Apostle Smith records that Armstrong "tried to cut his own throat with his pocket knife." Armstrong survives and continues his mission.
Dec 2, 1890 - Apostle Lorenzo Snow tells the Quorum of Twelve that "he expect[s] to see the day when a man's blood will be shed again for the crime of adultery."
Dec 2, 1891 - Wilford Woodruff instructs Lorenzo Snow, next-ranked apostle, to organize new First Presidency immediately after church president's death.
Dec 2, 1902 - President Joseph F. Smith issues press release that church does not sanction marriages contracted in violation of laws of the land.
Dec 2, 1981 - First Presidency letter that divorced persons now "may be granted permission to go to the temple by the stake president without clearance by the First Presidency." Number of LDS divorces is not too large to handle at church headquarters.
Dec 2, 1982 - LDS physician William C. DeVries performs first successful implant of artificial human heart in Barney B. Clark, also LDS, who survives 112 days.
Dec 2, 1983 - Second counselor Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated temple at Mexico City, Mexico.
