Knight's husband, William McDowell, said not long ago she asked him to write the words for a piece of jazz music. The result was a solo she performed as a musical testimony from the Tabernacle pulpit about Jesus Christ: "Do you want to know about my friend, About this special man I know, He is the grace and love and truth and He gave His life for me, and yes for you too. He died on the cross so we would not be lost, Oh, Oh . . . So if you feel His joy and love, remember His words and go tell the world, Tell them that our Savior lives." The rendition elicited a standing ovation.

The choir — with men wearing black suits, black shirts with royal blue ties and women wearing royal blue choir robes — filled about two-thirds of the Tabernacle Choir seats and responded forcefully to Knight's animated direction with short, staccato punches mixed with long, drawn-out phrasing, the sound rising to fill the hall and spilling out of the doors onto Temple Square. A grand piano, synthesizer, electric guitar and tambourine accompanied, adding some of the "zip" Knight said she longs to share.

The meeting was conducted by Darius Gray, president of Genesis, and presided over by Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Presidency of the Seventy.

Elder Bateman concluded the program with a dramatic reminiscence of his personal connection to the 1978 revelation.

In those days, his work for the U.S. State Department and as dean of the School of Business at Brigham Young University took him on frequent business trips to Ghana and Nigeria. Aware that some congregations in those countries had been meeting unofficially using the formal name of the church, leaders assigned him to look up the members of those congregations to ascertain their interest and sincerity. The task seemed insurmountable, as there were no street addresses in those countries, and they were armed with only names.

Three weeks after the revelation was announced, he and an associate, Edwin Q. Cannon, went to Calabar, Nigeria, where they were to meet Ime Eduok. At a large hotel, they asked about him. A crowd of people gathered around and tried to help but without success. Suddenly, a man came up, having overheard them, and said he was Eduok's employer but did not know where he lived. He gave them directions to the office, and they arrived just as a lock was being put on the door. Over the next three days, led by Eduok, they found all the people and groups they needed to see. Their work prepared the way for the church to be established in West Africa after the priesthood revelation was announced the following month.

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E-MAIL: carrie@desnews.com

Contributing: R. Scott Lloyd