Description
The Black Teapot
In 1950, Milton R. Hunter shared the following story in General Conference. He told of attending a stake conference in the Salt Lake area where the stake president related a dream of one of his stake members. He said the woman had joined the Church in Europe and then immigrated to Utah. Here, she and her husband reared a large family. The children got married and left home. In time her husband passed away and this dear sister became a temple worker. There was just one thing—she never gave up drinking tea. Quoting Elder Hunter:
“Day after day she went to the temple, and no doubt the consciousness of the tea-drinking habit she had bore rather heavily on her mind or on her conscience. One night she had a dream. She dreamed that she died and that she passed on into the other world.
There she came into the presence of the Savior, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and many other great and good people who had lived on this earth and whose lives had been such that they were now worthy to become celestial beings.
Very sweet, serene, and happy were the feelings that she experienced there. In fact, there were no words to describe how beautiful the conditions were there, until she looked down into her hand and saw her old dirty, black teapot. Then her happiness turned to sorrow and shame.
She immediately looked all around in the heavenly realm for some place to hide that teapot, but she couldn’t find any place. She had to hang on to it. Then she awoke. Cold drops of perspiration were running down her face. She got out of bed, turned the light on, dressed, and went in the other room. There on her stove sat her old dirty teapot.
She picked it up, went down to the back of the lot and threw it into the Jordan River, and she said, ‘There! I am not going to take you to heaven with me.’”
Elder Hunter concluded with this powerful point:
“My brothers and sisters, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now is the time for you and me to get rid of all of our old dirty, black teapots. In other words, we should get rid of all our sins. We should repent…and show God that we love him with all our hearts, with all our mind, and with all our strength.”
To which I say, Amen! In the next life we are assured that it is a realm of love, peace, light, and truth. We are taken home to that God who gave us life. However, we cannot feel at home with him in His world if we depart this world carrying its vices with us—no matter what they may be.
Sources:
Milton R. Hunter, in Conference Report, April 1950
https://latterdaylight.com/black-teapot/
Woodger, Mary Jane and Kenneth L. Alford and Craig K. Manscill. Dreams as Revelations. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book. 2019. P. 158
