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My Thoughts on Leadership

The three faithful and thoughtful authors of this letter—Jamie Hepworth, Mickelle Shea, and Nancy Jones—have given permission to others to post their words to the prophet. It is well written, credibly cited, faithfully presented, and from the heart.

In such a large organization as the church has become, the leadership has become increasingly isolated from typical members. This is not just due to size, but to geography, demographic, age, etc. There are so many gatekeepers on every level and topic. It is impossible for the vast majority of members to have any concerns heard. That is understandable, but causes difficulty.

In light of that:

  • I do not believe—and never have believed—that our leaders are infallible.
  • I do not believe—and never have believed—that our leaders are magical.
  • I do not believe—and never have believed—hat our leaders will know all they need to know (or that would be helpful in church administration) by God bestowing them with all the world's information, because of their callings.
  • I do not believe—and never have believed—that our leaders are omniscient nor that everything in the church is exactly as God wills at every particular moment.

These things seem easily verifiable.

In addition:

  • I do believe our leaders are inspired but fallible humans, with human insufficiencies and both strengths and weaknesses.
  • I do believe that our leaders learn things like other human beings.
  • I do believe our leaders study, ponder, and pray.
  • I do believe our leaders struggle to understand things outside their particular areas of expertise
  • I do believe our leaders get answers by asking direct questions and working through solutions.
  • I do believe that when our leaders don't know the questions that need to be asked, they cannot ask them.

The three women who wrote this letter include a lot of information for the prophet. It is information he has never acknowledged and doesn't seem to know. Sharing factual information is not “steadying the ark.” It's giving leaders the tools they need to make sound decisions impacting the entire church.

Without further ado, here is a video introduction of Jamie Hepworth reading the letter, downloadable PDF of the letter, and the contents of the letter.

I pray it can get through the layers of bureaucracy to someone with an open heart and mind, who believes faithful members are worthy of consideration.



September 29, 2021

Dear President Russell M. Nelson,

We love you. We sustain you. We feel your love for us as women of the church. We have 10 living daughters (and 4 living sons) between us, and we strive to teach them how to be children of Christ. Your talk, “Spiritual Treasures” is as a Balm of Gilead to our souls. Your ministry has emboldened us to access greater power from God to pursue the missions He is revealing to us.

Your words in, “A Plea to My Sisters” have created in us a desire to speak with you in person about the contribution to the Kingdom of God that we earnestly seek to make.

The kingdom of God is not and cannot be complete without women who make sacred covenants and then keep them, women who can speak with the power and authority of God!

Russell M. Nelson

These words in particular give us hope that you will likewise desire to hear our hearts. Will you please grant that we may counsel together with you about the weighty matters contained in this letter?

The stewardship to maintain our families' health rests with us as mothers. We marvel to know that our bodies are created in the image of God, and particularly as daughters, in the image of our beloved Heavenly Mother.

We rejoice in the miraculous contributions that you have made in the field of medicine. We respect your knowledge and training as a physician and as an inspired surgeon. We are grateful for the many talented, competent, and kind medical professionals who have blessed our families. Jami is married to one such physician herself.

We know that many vaccines—including the Covid-19 vaccines—were developed and/or tested using aborted fetal cell lines. How can anything created from the extortion of innocent unborn children of God be pleasing in His sight? Mickelle and Jami have each experienced the grief of losing babies through miscarriage. These experiences taught us the absolute sanctity of each and every individual human life. It is our tender love for these absent children which exacerbates the horror we feel that any innocent babes would not be cherished in the arms of their mothers but instead be utilized as coldly and lightly as lab mice.

Our hearts have been broken by the official stance of the Church in purchasing, promoting, and encouraging the use of these pharmaceutical products. To have our faith associated with such vaccines offends our tender feelings as mothers.

We have researched widely and found a myriad of competent medical professionals who have discovered treatments and preventative measures for Sars-CoV-2 around the globe (For example, see the vitamin regimens. *Please note that the Monoclonal Antibody treatments and Ivermectin were also tested and developed using the cell lines from aborted babies as well.) From our understanding of the scriptures, no divine solution to this pandemic—for which we collectively fasted and prayed—need violate the sanctity of life. There are available ethical treatments that are spiritually sound.

We believe the solutions to this pandemic begin in our hearts. We trust that as His children turn their hearts to God, unless appointed unto death, they will be able to receive healing through their faith in Jesus Christ. In contrast, the vaccine is being implemented through compulsion and force worldwide. Those who do not receive this vaccine have been threatened to not be able to provide for their families, travel, or enjoy the sociality that have always made up the essence of our human relationships. These vaccines started with the extortion of God's tiniest children, a seed which is bearing fruit: the extortion and bondage of all humanity.

Included is a document we created which outlines the ethical, spiritual, and legally questionable nature of the Covid-19 vaccines. It is based on scripture, the teachings of living prophets, and reliable and credible sources we have sought with the guidance of the Holy Ghost.

We have fasted and prayed that our words could reach your ears and touch your heart. We are devoted to following Jesus Christ and letting God prevail in our lives. We love you. We pray for you. We humbly await your response.

In love and faith,

Jami Hepworth

Mickelle Shea

Nancy Jones


The Ethical, Spiritual, and Legally Questionable Nature of the Covid-19 Vaccines

The Church Handbook states:

Members should not use or promote medical or health practices that are ethically, spiritually, or legally questionable. Those who have health problems should consult with competent medical professionals who are licensed in the areas where they practice.

Medical and Health Care, 38.7.8

The COVID-19 Vaccines are Ethically Questionable:

  • These vaccines are under Emergency Use Authorization (not FDA approved) and are fast-tracked drugs still in their investigational stages. Anyone who receives one of these vaccines could rightly consider themselves a test subject. The recently approved Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine is not even available for use in the U.S., so every vaccine being illegally mandated is an experimental one.
  • In the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee-9/17/2021 meeting of the FDA, many health concerns associated with these vaccines were discussed. At the 4 hr. and 17 min. mark is a presentation of research which demonstrates that healthy young people are more at risk from vaccine injury than from getting Covid and being hospitalized. The science is not robust enough to claim these investigational drugs are safe.
  • (As of September 17, 2021) 726,965 people have reported injuries after being injected with these experimental vaccines already in the US, and some of these reported injuries include paralysis, neurological damage, myocarditis,  blood clots including pulmonary embolism, kidney failure, anaphylaxis, auto-immune disease, and many more—including death and miscarriage.
  • Pfizer (one of these vaccine manufacturers) has been convicted of fraudulent marketing by disregarding known safety concerns of one of their drugs. Pfizer paid the largest settlement in US Department of Justice history: $2.3 billion.
  • Scientists have raised concerns that the Pfizer vaccine could affect fertility. We do know that other vaccines are not studied for effects on fertility (every single package insert confirms this in section 13.1). The mRNA technology is intended to have the body create a reaction to a specific spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. This protein closely resembles Synectin-1 which is the protein needed for mothers to produce healthy placentas. Though we can't make the claim that this vaccine definitively causes sterility, and some suggest this is not possible in theory, we believe this concern deserves further investigation. Especially considering the lack of long-term safety data. Further bioaccumulation data shows that the spike protein concentrates in the ovaries and other organs (pg.17 ).
  • Those entrusted to oversee the safety of these vaccines are not independent or unbiased scientists. The Data and Safety Management Board is comprised of so-called experts, however, their identities are secretive. Two members of the Board have been identified through investigative journalism. Neither of them are without serious conflicts of interest. One was employed by Pfizer immediately until she joined this secret safety board. We find the lack of transparency and accountability in determining the safety of these vaccines ethically questionable.
  • The research done on these vaccines was not designed to be able to detect whether the vaccines could prevent severe symptoms of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, death, or transmission (BMJ Article, Will Covid-19 Vaccines Save Lives? Current Trials aren't Designed to Tell Us.)
  • The UK has decided to stall giving the Covid-19 vaccines to their teens until further research proves their safety. Yet, they are recommending that the mentally handicapped and medically fragile continue to receive the vaccine. It is unethical and unsound to simultaneously declare that more research is needed to determine safety, while continuing to administer the product in question, particularly to the most vulnerable.

The COVID-19 Vaccines are Spiritually Questionable:

  • We believe that our bodies are inherently holy and are the temple of God. Vaccine science would have us believe that we are inherently flawed. We are concerned that new technology in the Covid-19 vaccines is designed to change the way our bodies work. We feel that this is unnecessary and contradicts Christ's teaching about who actually needs a physician. Luke 5:31 states, “And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.”
  • The Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca vaccines all utilized the HEK293 aborted fetal cell line (derived from the kidneys of a healthy aborted human embryo in the 1970s) in testing and/or development. The number 293 in the HEK293 cell line, signifies the number of aborted fetal experiments prior to establishing the cell line.
  • KSL news suggested that they investigated and found that there were no fetal cell lines used in the development of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. This may be what the companies claim to the public, but it is clear from source documents that they did not disclose the truth of the matter. See these documents for further evidence.
  • This document contains multiple pieces of evidence that Moderna did indeed use aborted fetal cell lines in their research and development.
  • Pfizer researchers tested on HEK293 cells as evidenced in this paper.
  • The Johnson and Johnson vaccine utilized the PER.C6 aborted fetal cell line, derived from a healthy 18-week old fetus.
  • A COVID-19 vaccine that does NOT use aborted fetal cell lines in testing or production is not expected for the foreseeable future.
  • According to our understanding, to utilize the bodies of deliberately aborted babies for a perceived health benefit is not in harmony with the gospel.
    • Doctrine and Covenants 59:6 states, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Thou shalt not steal; neither commit adultery, nor kill, nor do anything like unto it.” How can we love our neighbors as ourselves if we gratefully accept the death and dismemberment of some babies in order to get a health benefit for ourselves, our children, and others?
    • The Abrahamic covenant includes the promise of numberless seed and posterity and glorifies the sacred nature of human life now and eternally.
    • We mourn the use of products that depend upon the extortion of unborn babies. We feel it is a violation of Christ's injunction not to offend His little ones (Mark 9:42).
    • Jesus Christ was a willing sacrifice whose suffering and death is an infinite gift to all the world. Only His life has redeeming, atoning, and sanctifying power. Child sacrifice is an abomination. Children cannot consent to become an offering for the perceived intimation of a health benefit for others.
    • The principle of sacrifice does not include sacrificing others to save ourselves. Rather, the Savior instructed that in losing our own lives, we find them. Life is more than the body. Our health cannot be more important to us than our eternal salvation. JST, Luke 9:24 states, “For whosoever will save his life, must be willing to lose it for my sake; and whosoever will be willing to lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”
    • The Family: A Proclamation to the World affirms the sanctity of life and its importance in God's plan as well as the responsibilities we have to protect and nurture children.
    • The ordinance of the sacrament includes the eating and drinking of blessed bread and water in remembrance of Christ's flesh and blood willingly offered to provide a path for our salvation. To take into our bodies the product of child sacrifice, obtained by extortion, in the hopes of being saved from a physical ailment, could be seen as a mockery of the sacred ordinance of the sacrament.
  • The utilization of aborted babies for medical research and biotech drug development is ongoing. Biotechnology is one of the fastest growing industries in the future of medicine. Is this an economy in which we can righteously participate? We have a responsibility to not be complicit with evil by turning a blind eye to this issue. Products that contain or were tested on aborted fetal cell lines are not morally justifiable. We invite others to take an active stance to refuse the use of drugs utilizing child-sacrifice, express disapproval to manufacturers of these products, inform the public, and seek to make other ethical options more widely available.
  • Some have justified the use of aborted babies in vaccine production because they say it was “a long time ago” and “so much good has come of this.” The Savior taught, “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:18). It is impossible, according to these principles, to expect GOOD in its truest sense to come from an evil practice. We could debate numbers of people saved vs. extorted in relation to any fetal cell line vaccine, but to engage in such an argument would be to accept the premise that some human lives are more valuable than other human lives and that we as humans are able to determine who gets to live or die by our fallen metrics. This is not in harmony with eternal truths which teach the infinite and equal worth of Every. Single. One. of God's children.

The COVID-19 Vaccines are Legally Questionable:

  • Testing on HEK293 of Moderna and Pfizer's products was mandated by the US federal government to qualify them for Emergency Use Authorization. These COVID-19 vaccines are being mandated across the globe. Refusal to be injected will limit one's ability to travel, buy and sell, and to participate in society. These are all in contradiction to the civil liberties and natural rights protected by the Constitution of the United States. We learn from the Doctrine and Covenants the Constitution is God's inspired document to protect the natural law human rights of His children in righteousness. (Doctrine and Covenants 98)
  • These experimental vaccines are liability-free. U.S. HHS Secretary Azar has issued a declaration pursuant to section 319 F-3 of the Public Health Service Act to provide liability immunity for activities related to medical countermeasures related to COVID-19 (85 FR 15198). It provides that those that “prescribe, administer, deliver, distribute or dispense,” and the “manufacturers [and] distributors” of “any vaccine, used to treat, . . . prevent or mitigate COVID-19” shall enjoy “[l]iability immunity,” including “from suit and liability under Federal and State law with respect to all claims for loss caused by, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from the administration to or the use by an individual of a [COVID-19 vaccine]” (42 U.S.C. – 247d-6d.). How is it legally justifiable for manufacturers and governments to escape all the responsibility for harmful consequences and to reap only the benefits of profits while those who are killed or severely injured must face those consequences alone?

We were ignorant of the awful truth about aborted fetal cell lines in vaccine production until we studied it out for ourselves upon receiving spiritual promptings and experiences which inspired us to do so. We recognize that we live in a world where the extortion of the earth and its human inhabitants is commonplace and takes many forms, to which we are all complicit to some extent, usually without even realizing it. But when we know better, we can then choose better. We believe any program which demands compliance through threats of force and compulsion is inspired of the adversary who seeks our suffering, captivity, and death. We believe vaccines containing cell lines or utilizing cell lines from aborted babies are a wicked tradition of our fathers which we can leave behind in our pursuit to establish and bring forth the cause of Zion.

Alison Moore Smith is a 60-year-old entrepreneur, who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 39 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons.