The Priesthood and Me

Clark responded to an email that I sent with the following observation. “I was wondering who the Sylvester Broadbent was who ordained you an elder so I looked on  Family Search and found this: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWCQ-PYH  Note from the mission farewell program that he was called to preside over the West Central States Mission in 1950, so he must have been the mission president.”

Here is the history behind that.

Sylvester Broadbent was the mission president over the mission that Lander was in.  I came home from Weber College for the summer of 1953 to work before going back to Weber College.  Since the mission president had to interview all candidates for the Melchizedek priesthood we arranged to do the interview at the old chapel in Riverton.

We drove over and President Broadbent was conducting some interviews with others, he asked me to sit outside the branch president’s office on a chair and told me to read the 84^th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. He then came out and invited me in for the worthiness interview.  I do not remember if he invited my father in or not.  Dad was the branch president at the time.  He then laid his hands on my head and proceeded with the ordination.  He never asked me if I wanted my father to ordain me.  I was disappointed to say the least, because my father had ordained me to every office in the Aaronic priesthood. I am sure that my father and my mother were disappointed as well, although he never, that I remember mentioned it to me.

With that experience in mind, I always tried to make sure that I remained worthy enough to be in a position to ordain my sons to the priesthood and tried to have the fathers in the stake ordain their sons when it was possible.

Fortunately for me dad ordained me to the office of high priest when I was called to be on the stake high council. because he was a counselor in the stake presidency at the time.

When we were living in Denver my father was a Seventy.  At that time all the Seventies had to be ordained to that office by a member of the First Council (now presidency of the Seventy) of Seventy.  There were only seven of them listed as general authorities. Dad was called to serve as a counselor to Bishop Delmont H. White in the Denver First Ward.  All bishops and counselors in the church at that time had to be ordained as high priests and set apart by a general authority.  Thus they either had to go to Salt Lake City or wait until a general authority came to a stake conference.  Joseph F. Merrill of the counsel of the twelve came to Denver for a stake conference. He was my grandmother Gee’s uncle from another wife than Cyrene Standley.  He ordained my father a high priest and set him apart as a counselor in the bishopric.  He also had dinner at our house in Denver at that time.  That is why my priesthood line of authority goes through my father and directly to an apostle of the Lord. Shortly after this my father was transferred to Lander. 

Since that time all my sons that are high priests or have their priesthood line of authority come through me, have required travel on someone’s part to be ordained to that office.  Clark came to Germany, We went to Frankfurt from Moscow and Joseph flew to Frankfurt. We traveled to Provo, Utah for John, Salt Lake City for Aaron and to Allen, Texas for Philip.

LINE OF AUTHORITY

IVIN LAURENCE GEE was ordained a High Priest 22 September 1968 by Ivin Lafayette Gee.

IVIN LAFAYETTE GEE was ordained a High Priest 17 October 1948 by Joseph F. Merrill.

JOSEPH F. MERRILL was ordained an Apostle 8 October 1931 by Heber J. Grant.

HEBER J. GRANT was ordained an Apostle 16 October 1882 by George Q. Cannon.

GEORGE Q. CANNON was ordained an Apostle 26 August 1860 by Brigham Young.

BRIGHAM YOUNG was ordained an Apostle 14 February 1835 under the hands of the Three Witnesses. Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris.

The THREE WITNESSES were called by revelation to choose the Twelve Apostles and on 14 February 1835 were "blessed by the laying on of the hands of the Presidency," Joseph Smith, Jr., Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, to ordain the Twelve Apostles. (History of the Church, Vol. 2, pp. 187-188.)

JOSEPH SMITH, JR., and OLIVER COWDERY received the Melchizedek Priesthood in 1829 under the hands of Peter, James and John.

PETER, JAMES and JOHN were ordained Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. (John 15: l6.)