“An angel of the Lord appeared to us in the form of our daughter”

By: Michael and Marilyn Clark

While preparing for our summer 2019 family vacation, our married daughter Tiffany informed us she and her family were trying something new: abstinence from animal products. (You can read her story here.) Having great empathy for her multi-year health challenges, my wife Marilyn and I decided we would support our daughter by going along with this change on our shared vacation.

Up until that time, Marilyn and I thought we understood and lived the Word of Wisdom quite well. We were highly motivated to be healthy. We had seen four out of our eight grandparents die relatively young from heart attacks and cancer, and my mother died quite young at 63 from a number of chronic ailments. Marilyn had studied nutrition in college and was an excellent cook who made most everything from scratch and incorporated lots of vegetables into our diet. You could say we ate a whole food, plant-rich diet, but perhaps we were a bit deluded thinking we ate meat “sparingly” when in reality our consumption of animal products was incompatible with a face-value reading of the Word of Wisdom. Still, coupled with a relatively active lifestyle, we carried no extra weight and thought we were in pretty good shape.

Yet we were perplexed by the health challenges Tiffany had faced over the previous decade, despite her very best, remarkably-disciplined efforts to live the Word of Wisdom according to her knowledge. We wondered, how could someone so diligent—who ate better than her dietitian (according to her dietitian!)—be subject to gestational diabetes while pregnant, have two miscarriages, lose two babies to stillbirth, contract Hashimoto’s, and experience significant weight gain? Thankfully, her constant prayers and searching led her to discover the one thing that she lacked: abstinence from animal products.

While in the midst of supporting our daughter during our summer 2019 vacation, I turned to the Word of Wisdom with a greater degree of curiosity, honesty, and real intent. What followed was a journey of insight that perhaps could be best understood by comparing our experience to that of Amulek, the missionary companion to Alma the Younger, who seemingly made an instant transformation from being an inactive member of the Church to becoming an intrepid promoter and defender of the faith.

When recounting his conversion story to the people of Ammonihah, Amulek confessed, “for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things [the power of God], yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God.” Yes, he had no doubt received a series of promptings from the Spirit, yet he willfully chose to ignore them.

Of course, we know what happened next. In the midst of Amulek’s rebellion, he was visited by “an angel of the Lord” who instructed him to “return to [his] own house” so that he could receive and “feed a prophet of the Lord.” Amulek obeyed and ended his rebellion, opening the way for “the blessing of the Lord” to rest upon him and his house, and he became a blessing for many others—both his contemporaries and all of us who are able to read his words in the Book of Mormon.

Our decision to abstain from the consumption of animal flesh parallels the reactivation story of Amulek in several ways. As members of the Church over many decades, Marilyn and I had been taught countless times these words from the Word of Wisdom regarding the consumption of animal flesh.

Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;

And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine. (D&C 89:12, 13)

To her credit, Marilyn had been “called many times” by the Spirit over the years to reduce our family’s consumption of meat and was ready and willing to act, but I, like Amulek, “would not hear” when “I knew concerning these things, yet…would not know,” so only minor reductions were made.

But then in 2019, when an angel of the Lord appeared to us in the form of our daughter Tiffany, I was filled with empathy and could no longer gloss over or deny these difficult words: “it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.” We were not living in a famine and, due to modern conveniences, we were not required to endure long exposure to cold in the dead of winter. We were living in a time of relative abundance, with great varieties and quantities of foods so easily at our disposal. This honest appraisal of our living conditions helped us recognize that we did not have a legitimate need to consume animal flesh. Of course, we could continue to justify eating a little meat here and there, although even this was problematic, for how would we know when we had gone beyond the “sparingly” guideline? Hence, we wanted to try an experiment on the word and attempt to please God in this matter by abstaining.

With our fixed determination to move forward, we believed the Lord would open a way for us to accomplish this change, starting with our 2019 summer vacation, despite some very real challenges—first and foremost being all the big appetites in our party. These included three adult men, a very active and athletic adult woman, and two preteens with hollow legs. We knew that “beef satisfies” and wondered how we could keep from starving without eating meat!

This is where our collective culinary skills came in handy. Marilyn and our daughters had always enjoyed discovering and trying new recipes, as well as coming up with their own, so they were definitely up to the challenge of helping to make this transition as painless as possible. We quickly realized we would increase our chance of success if we found more ways to incorporate lentils, beans, chickpeas, potatoes, whole grain rice, and other unprocessed grains into our routines. We also upped our already-high consumption and enjoyment of fruits and non-starchy vegetables while reducing our already-modest use of highly processed foods.

The results of these changes were most dramatic for our two daughters who were facing the most difficult health challenges, but other family members also experienced wonderful results:

• Tiffany saw her stubborn post-pregnancy weight come off and still had plenty of milk for her nursing baby. Two years later, in 2021, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy and was able to minimize her weight gain and keep her gestational diabetes much more under control than in previous pregnancies.
• Jessica quickly made gains in her 13-year battle with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Despite her multi-year, ultra-strict adherence to a low-carb diet (recommended by a diabetes doctor in 2007), she struggled mightily with an irregular menstrual cycle, acne, facial hair, and weight gain. But with her complete adoption of a strict whole food, plant-based diet in 2019, her acne has significantly improved, she has regular cycles, and she is now 20 pounds below her all-time high and keeping the weight off has not been a problem.
• Jared, our oldest child, who has Down syndrome, reversed his post-teenage pattern of weight gain and dropped more than 20 pounds simply by removing meat and dairy from his diet. The weight has stayed off quite easily—a great relief when you consider he is a prime candidate to get type 2 diabetes. We have also noticed an improvement with his psoriasis.
• Prior to this change, Marilyn had seen an alarming post-menopause rise in her cholesterol level, and her wrists and hands were in constant pain from the beginnings of arthritis—not good if you’re a sewing teacher. Although she carried no extra weight, she followed a prompting to get off sugar, but improvements in health were only minor. By the summer of 2019, she was resigned to having surgery for her hands and taking statin drugs to lower her cholesterol. But immediately after transitioning to a whole food, plant-based diet, her cholesterol level dropped like a rock—more than 100 points—and her hands are much stronger and are 95 percent free from arthritic pain.
• While I was generally healthy, transitioning to a whole food, plant-based diet has brought incremental improvements. I am 10 pounds lighter and down to 10 percent body fat. I have experienced a reduction in joint pain, which keeps me playing tennis at a high level well into my 60s—competing with those in their early 20s. My blood work went from good to great and my resting heart rate dropped four points (to 52 bpm) without an increase to my light workouts (semi-regular walking and once-a-week tennis).

Speaking for Marilyn and me, we thought we were doing well with our health prior to adopting a whole food, plant-based diet. Sure, we had some nagging ailments, but we thought these were an inevitable part of aging. Perhaps this is the most compelling part of our story: we were not compelled by poor health to make changes. Rather, we were driven by empathy for our daughter and by the insights we gained from a more careful and honest reading of the Word of Wisdom. Yes, we were largely wrong. We needed to take our understanding of and adherence to the Word of Wisdom to a higher level, and we are so glad we did. (Interestingly, we came to this realization just a few months before the temple recommend question regarding the Word of Wisdom was changed, where it now asks if we “understand” the Word of Wisdom.)

In January 2021, we started to write our book, Unlocking the Hidden Treasures of the Word of Wisdom. We felt unmistakable promptings to write this book. We view it as another voice added to the growing chorus of voices in the Church that is encouraging others to challenge their assumptions and dig deeper into the what and why of the Word of Wisdom. (We are grateful for Jane Birch’s leadership in all of this.) We believe the work of the Church—gathering Israel on both sides of the veil—could be greatly enhanced with improved vitality and longevity of its members. In fact, we know this to be true because several years ago we attended a meeting for BYU-Idaho employees with Missionary Department representatives who said that health and financial challenges were keeping more and more senior couples from serving missions. Clearly, those who adopt a whole food, plant-based diet will see their physical health and vitality improve and, with a probable result of needing fewer medications and medical procedures, will see their financial health improve as well.

For us, the Word of Wisdom is the ultimate resource for our health. Yes, we have read and watched much of the work that has come from the leading plant-based doctors. We love and appreciate the work they are doing to awaken people to the science behind a WFPB lifestyle. Yet we are more grateful for the word of the Lord, intended “for the weak and the weakest,” that can be found in the Word of Wisdom. We are grateful for Emma Smith and the Prophet Joseph for their roles in bringing about this great revelation. Indeed, we thank God every day for this remarkable “principle with a promise,” and we can boldly testify that it is “the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days” that will also help us “find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures.” (D&C 89:2, 3, 19)

Michael and Marilyn Clark live in Pocatello, Idaho. We are in our sixties, have three adult children and five grandchildren. Marilyn has a master’s degree in Family and Consumer Science Education from the University of Nebraska. Michael has an MBA from Stanford University. Marilyn has taught sewing at BYU-Idaho and now enjoys teaching cooking classes to local audiences. Michael teaches business at BYU-Idaho. We love being active outdoors, whether it’s playing tag with our grandchildren, doing yard work, going on brisk walks, riding bikes, or kayaking on the rivers in Island Park, Idaho.