Dear brothers and sisters, if I can call you that.

Hi, I'm Joseph Smith.

Weird, huh?

Now I never expected to see so many wonderful people attracted to my teachings,

or at least attracted to some of my teachings,

or at least to this pretty disgusting thing that grew out of my teachings.

I hardly recognize myself in most of what's going on, supposedly in my name today.

It all started off as a game, you know. It's pretty much all just a big game, really. But I'm here today for a specific reason. I want to say I'm sorry and it's going to take some time. I won't be able to get to all of it today. But I want you all to know every single one of you and especially those in the

corporate suits sitting on those ridiculous red chairs behind me.

It's that if I were really here, if I were more than just a fictional character

created in the mind of a podcasting infant,

I could destroy you all combined in a battle of wits with both hands tied behind my back. You guys think you're so smart and big and important because of this religious mafia culture you were born into and you worked your way up into?

You discussed me. You so-called leaders, you so-called prophets and seers and revelators, you make me sick.

Now I was a storyteller. God, I loved telling stories and exploring ideas and pushing the boundaries of

conventional wisdom and understanding and stirring up excitement in the hearts

and minds of everyone around me. You guys are boring. So incredibly boring, so serious, so stodgy, unimaginative, so uninteresting, so unproductive, so unproductive, not helpful to growth. You want people to stay as they are.

That's not what I ever wanted for the people who listen to me, who loved me, who I don't know what this has been I don't know what this has become. I don't like it.

Where in the world did this whole reverence thing come from?

That wasn't for me. I can tell you that.

The thing that excited people the most about the stories that I told, the common thread

tying all of them together, it was the way that I gave them permission to

sell stories of their own, the permission for them to explore ideas, to challenge conventional understanding, to push boundaries, even to make mistakes.

...