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Priesthood and Auxiliary Expansion

President Joseph F. Smith's administration witnessed a major expansion and "reform" in both priesthood and auxiliary programs. During these years the Church also standardized the schedule of basic local meetings which would be followed for most of the twentieth century.

The Church of Jesus Christ with its varied programs had been established with the goal of helping to perfect the Saints (see Eph. 4:11-13). Some have supposed that the full Church organization was restored on April 6, 1830. This, however, was not the case. Of the nine priesthood offices, duties for only four-elders, priests, teachers, and deacons-were explained in Doctrine and Covenants section 20, the revelation that directed the original organization of the Church. Other offices-bishops, high priests, patriarchs, Apostles, and seven-ties-were added during the next five years. In 1835 Doctrine and Covenants section 107 outlined the structure and functions of quorums related to these priesthood offices. The first stake was established at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1834, but the first wards were not created until five years later in Nauvoo, Illinois.

The auxiliary organizations came even later. Most developed during the time when Brigham Young presided over the Church. The first Relief Society had been organized at Nauvoo in 1842 with the object of caring for the needy and strengthening community morals. Latter-day Saint Sunday Schools had also met irregularly in both Kirtland and Nauvoo. Richard Ballantyne organized the first Sunday School in the Rocky Mountains in 1849. Neither the Relief Society nor the Sunday School, however, was formally established Church-wide until the 1860s. At that time President Brigham Young directed Eliza R. Snow to promote the establishment of Relief Societies in every branch of the Church, and Elder George Q. Cannon headed the first union organization of the formerly independent local Sunday Schools. President Young personally organized the forerunner of the Young Woman's Mutual Improvement Association in 1869 and a similar association for the Young Men in 1875. These programs helped the young people to live the gospel more fully and provided them with intellectual and cultural development. Finally, Aurelia Spencer Rogers started the first Primary in 1878, the year following Brigham Young's death. This organization provided weekday religious training for Latter-day Saint boys and girls.

In 1890, when a Utah territorial law prohibited all religious instruction in public schools, Church leaders recognized the continuing necessity of more thorough practical training of the children of the Latter-day Saints in the requirements of the gospel and therefore established Religion Classes throughout the Church. Like the Primary, the new classes met in a Church building after school hours, generally one afternoon each week. The Religion Classes emphasized religious instruction, while the Primary featured religious activities. These two organizations would function side by side until finally being merged in 1929.