Masterpiece Theatre Two and Joseph Smith

My job in my ward (congregation) at church is to teach Relief Society (the women of the congregation).

Once a month I teach a lesson from the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. I was very excited to learn that our course of study for the next two years will be these early teachings of the church.

I taught the lesson yesterday - only it really wasn't a lesson - it was the history and ministry of Joseph Smith from the introduction of the book. It was kind of hard to put it in lesson form so it was more of a lecture. It was hard to skip over parts but it was necessary. I have a very strong testimony of the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith. I love him and all that he did for the church. I can very rarely speak about him without being moved to tears.

I shared an incident that happened in 1993 when I saw the movie Legacy for the first time in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City. In the movie the men were busy in the stone quarry preparing stone for the Nauvoo Temple that was under construction when a man on horseback came riding up and says "They've killed the prophet, Joseph Smith is dead!" Now, I know my Mormon history, I know Joseph Smith was killed in Carthidge Jail before the temple was ever finished - but when I heard those words come out of that man's mouth in the movie - I felt as if I had been shot in the chest. My heart hurt for the loss of the prophet.

One thing that I was not able to share in my lesson but that I found very interesting has to do with the hymn Praise to the Man. Originally the first two lines of the second stanza read: 'Long may his blood, which was shed by assassins, / Stain Illinois while the earth lauds his fame.' That is pretty harsh. It was changed in 1927 to read 'Plead unto heaven while the earth lauds his fame.'

Last night I watched the PBS Masterpiece Theatre production of Northanger Abbey. It was really good. I loved Persuasion maybe a little bit more but I have always loved the story from Northanger Abbey. The heroine, Catherine Moreland, is an avid reader with an active imagination so she imagines all kinds of horrible things happening to herself and others. But as in most Jane Austen books, after a misunderstanding she ends up with her true love, in this case - Henry Tilney, and they live happily ever after.

I am a sucker for happily ever after.

Henry Tilney was played by JJ Field - he was good - he has a little bit of a Jude Law smirk and cuteness to him. I was a tiny bit smitten - but not like Captain Wentworth of last week. Next week is Mansfield Park - can Edmund Bertram beat out Captain Wentworth?

I am so lame with my Jane Austen crushes. But not too embarrassed to put this out there for the world to see!