Question: before 1829 who held the keys to the melchizedek priesthood
Answer: As evidence for such a pre-organization angellic conferral , writers referred to a revelation in which Smith said he heard `` The voice of Peter , James , and John in the wilderness between Harmony , Susquehanna county , and Colesville , Broome county , on the Susquehanna river , declaring themselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom , and of the dispensation of the fulness of times ! '' Thus , most Mormons suppose that Smith and Cowdery were visited by the three angels in 1829 and that they conferred the Melchizedek priesthood in the same way John the Baptist had conferred the Aaronic priesthood .