L. Brent Goates (1922-2016) was a son-in-law to Harold B. Lee. On the importance of his 1985 biography of the Church President. Newell K. Bringhurst noted that:
Goates’s biography was sanctioned by the Lee
family and is rightly an authorized biography. . . . Goates’s Lee quotes
extensively from Lee’s personal diaries and other unpublished writings—all of
which provide essential, sometimes unparalleled insights into the personality
of Lee’s “inner man” reacting to the crucial events unfolding around him. (Newel
G. Bringhurst, Harold B. Lee: Life and Thought [Salt Lake City:
Signature Books, 2021], xi)
I mention this from the get-go in case anyone wishes to dismiss
the biography as merely “faith-promoting” or simply historiography due to it
being published by Bookcraft and/or written by Lee’s son-in-law (Bringhurst is
very critical of the Church!)
Here are some of the miraculous blessings and prophetic promises from
Harold B. Lee we read in Goates’ biography:
The gift of prophecy was in evidence early in
Elder Lee’s apostleship. On a trip to the Young Stake conference in Mancos,
Colorado, in May 1941, Elder Lee described an unusual outpouring of the Spirit,
as follows:
At this conference I received a rather remarkable
demonstration of the power of prophecy in the ordination and setting apart of
Elmer Alphonso Taylor, former second counsellor in the stake presidency, as the
new bishop of the Farmington Ward. He received a blessing that his crippled
foot and leg would not hinder his work as bishop and that because of his humility
in accepting this new appointment he would be given such influence with his
family that not one would go astray, and all would marry in the temple and all
would be a credit to any community in which they lived. He had a family of six
girls. A remarkable spirit was in the meetings, many people being in tears as
they sang the closing song and bid us good-bye.
Seventeen years later this prophecy was literally
fulfilled, although it required another miracle to do so when one divorced
daughter finally was married in the temple. (L. Brent Goates, Harold B. Lee:
Prophet and Seer [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985], 173)
In addition to the growing administrative
responsibilities that were accruing, Elder Lee’s spiritual ministry among the
Saints seemed to increase day by day. For example, the Deseret News published
a story in 1946 of an eight-month-old baby named Levine, whose eyesight was
miraculously restored through a cornea transplant, a new procedure in those
days, by Dr. Castravejo of New York City. Elder Lee read the account more
knowingly than anyone else, because he had assisted in giving the baby a
blessing when he attended a conference in the area in September 1945. (Ibid.,
196)
[image: Young boy smiling and standing against a
wall]
Young boy in Brazil who had never walked. Elder
Lee wrote: “We administered to him and after my return home [I received] this
picture of him—now able to stand and to walk.” (Ibid., 281)
Through the years much more inspiration had come
to Elder Lee in dreams. On February 24, 1956, he recorded in his journal a
dream which predicted President David O. McKay’s physical condition during his
last years as President of the Church. The entry stated, “I had an ugly dream
last night about President McKay, whom I saw very thin and emaciated, so much
so that I carried him in my arms.” (Ibid., 317)
