Amasa Potter's inspired preaching in Picton
Published October 5, 2026 at 1:58 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
In 1856, in Picton, Australia, Elder Amasa Potter, who had little prior education, struggled to preach. He recalled a prophecy by Heber C. Kimball that the Lord would loose his tongue. While standing in the pulpit, letters appeared printed on the walls which he read aloud, enabling him to speak for an hour with great success.
In Their Own Words
“I stood there without speaking for about two minutes when the words of President Kimball came to me. He said that the time would come when I should be at a loss to know what to say to the people, and at that time he said, if you will commence to declare the divine mission of Joseph Smith in this our day, and the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, the Lord will loose your tongue, and shall give you the things that are needful to be said to the people. Then came to my mind the things that I should say to the congregation. I had spoken but a few minutes when I thought I saw several lines of large letters printed on the walls of the house and I commenced to read them, and spoke about one hour. When the letters faded from my sight I then ceased speaking.”
— Amasa Potter, as recorded in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 33, No. 34
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), 22 August 1871 (Vol. 33, No. 34). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1871-08-22_33_34 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, 22 August 1871 (Vol. 33, No. 34), p. 539 https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1871-08-22_33_34
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