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Show families, Friday evening entertainment and amusements, Saturday night has been set apart as tub night preparatory to the Sabbath."42 Over the years the meeting schedule of the stake was often changed to correlate with new programs and activities of the Church. Ward priesthood meeting, ward teaching, and family home evening were three such programs that necessitated a modification in the meeting schedule. Under direction of the First Presidency, Elders David O. McKay and Rulon S. Wells attended the Morgan stake conference in December 1908. A special meeting was called for all of the priesthood holders of the stake following the Saturday morning session of conference. At this meeting, which was well attended, Elder McKay explained that it was the desire of the First Presidency that all the priesthood holders in each ward were to meet on a weekly basis and take up courses of study suited to their individual quorums. The resolution was unanimously adopted by all who were present. Two weeks later the bishops of the stake reported that they were making arrangements for Monday evening priesthood meetings. Ayear later it was reported that all wards were holding this meeting and that it was well attended.43 It was decided on 26 October 1913 to ask the bishops to hold the weekly priesthood meeting Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m, and then commence Sunday School at 10:30 am. It was explained that this change was recommended by the brethren in Salt Lake City. North and South Morgan wards were asked to hold these meetings this way for a month to see how it would work. The Sunday meeting schedule must not have worked out because four years later the minutes record that the weekly priesthood meeting was still being held on Monday evening.44 The home missionaries reported in stake conference 26 February 1916 that the ward priesthood meetings were not running as they should. They also reported that sacrament meetings throughout the stake were largely attended by the women. Several months later the high council reported that at least three of the wards, North Morgan, Slide, and Mountain Green, were not holding any priesthood meetings. It was then recommended that the high council as a body visit these three wards and help them correct the problem. The Croydon, Milton, South Morgan, Porterville, and Richville wards were still holding their priesthood meetings every Monday night.45 If minutes of stake presidency and high council meetings are used as evidence, the area which received the most discussion, prayer, and dedication during the Heiner administration was that of ward teaching. As reports were filed at high council meetings it was evident that ward teaching was nonexistent in many wards. President Heiner expressed great concern about this and assigned high council members to specific wards to be responsible for ward teaching. President Heiner was convinced that as the ward teaching improved, the conditions and spirituality of the members of the stake would also improve. Slowly the trend changed and by September of 1916 reports showed the ward teaching had increased to fifty percent. In 102 |