The Second Anointing, Part 2 of Chapter 8 of Holy Priesthood Volume 3

The Second Anointing, Part 3 of Chapter 8 of Holy Priesthood Volume 2

Pages 114 to 124

http://ogdenkraut.com/?page_id=124

September 28, 1843 (exactly four months after their marriage had been sealed), Joseph and Emma Smith received their second anointing in an upper room of the Nauvoo Mansion House. They were the first couple in this dispensation to be “anointed and ordained to the highest and holiest order of the priesthood,” also referred to as “the fullness of the Priesthood.” (See “Joseph Smith’s Introduction of Temple Ordinances. . .”, Andrew Ehat, pp. 94-96.)

This higher ordinance was sometimes called a “second endowment,” which is really not accurate because there is only one endowment for a person. Other terms are “highest ordinance” and “higher blessings,” but the more proper term was given by Wilford Woodruff’s First Presidency when people were writing to him to sign their temple recommend. They wrote: “This decision applies to all ordinances attended to in the House of the Lord, except Second Anointings, which last named will still require the approval of the President of the Church before they can be administered.” (Mess. of the First Pres., Clark, 3:228)

It has been assumed by some that Priesthood was actually conferred upon women either in the first endowment or the second anointing. However, the wording in both of these ordinances makes no mention of conferring Priesthood through those administrations.

http://ogdenkraut.com/?page_id=30