Ohmygoodness, Elder, I wrote this & forgot to send it!   Got distracted going to OR for my husband’s uncle’s 100^th birthday party.   He still gardens and his 96yo wife is still alive too.

A YSA meeting inspired me to look up the ten prophets who served in my lifetime so far.  I came to earth when the seventh prophet of our dispensation was serving.  Although I don’t remember Heber J Grant and George Albert Smith, I have loved their teachings.  I was only six months old when President Grant died but he developed the welfare system which I have held up as an alternative model to socialism.  I was 5 ½ years old when President Smith died but his emphasis on humanitarianism and the scouting program has deeply benefitted me and mine, more as givers than receivers though.  We have 3 Eagle Scouts & I have appreciated the good deals at DI! 

David O McKay was the prophet of my youth and the first I knew to be a true and living prophet by the power of the Holy Ghost.  I remember it still, he stood at the podium, tall and majestic with beautiful white hair and wearing a white suit.  His voice was mild, yet piercing and that is when I knew.  He emphasized both family and education during his ministry, which were the very things I needed at the time.  I also remember being struck by his definition of spirituality:  Spirituality, our true aim, is the consciousness of victory over self and of communion with the Infinite. Spirituality impels one to conquer difficulties and acquire more and more strength. To feel one's faculties unfolding and truth expanding the soul is one of life's sublimest experiences. Would that all might so live as to experience that ecstasy! (Conference Report, October 1956, First Day—p.6)

Joseph Fielding Smith was president when I was 26-28 years old.  I had 3 children and my husband was in Vietnam.  The Vietnamese Colonel he was advising brought him a beautiful woman who was half Vietnamese and half French, since that was what had pleased all the other American officers.  My husband politely declined the Colonel’s offer explaining that he had a wife at home.  President Smith said, “The supreme act of worship is to keep the commandments,” and I was so gratified to learn that my dear husband could be trusted to worship God at all times and in all places.  President Smith also said something that confirmed what I have begun to understand recently about the Lord’s prayer:  “…Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven…”   President Smith said, “The Lord was praying for the end of the world, and so am I.”  That was almost 30 years ago!

President Harold B Lee was only in office 18 months.  We were stationed in FL at the time of his death and I was working the graveyard shift at the local hospital.  I was in the CCU and a woman died suddenly of an embolism to the lung.  I will never forget the look of terror on her face just before she lost consciousness.  Although I did all I could do to save her, I felt a heavy burden of responsibility.  A few days later I read a newspaper report on President Lee’s death.  Apparently, he went to the ER with a bleeding ulcer and even though the ER doctor had saved many lives, he was not successful in saving President Lee.  The physician concluded that we are not in charge of life and death, which has brought me comfort many times since.  One quote of President Lee’s profoundly affected me the rest of my life:  “The most important of the Lord's work you will ever do will be the work you do within the walls of your own home.”   Other good ones were:

“You cannot lift another soul until you are standing on higher ground than he is.”

“Life is fragile, handle with prayer.” 

“Be loyal to the royal that is in you, for you are the child of a King.”

“Just as a flood-lighted temple is more beautiful in a severe storm or in a heavy fog, so the gospel of Jesus Christ is more glorious in times of inward storm and of personal sorrow and tormenting conflict.” 

President Spencer W. Kimball said he expected President Lee to serve a good long time and never envisioned himself ever having to take on the mantel of the church.  He loved the American Indians.  He signed a Book of Mormon for Kerry when he was a visiting apostle to Kerry’s Southwest Indian Mission.  A couple years later Kerry served his table in the BYU Skyroom and President Kimball greeted him by name!  In spite of health problems, he was a powerful servant of the Lord.  We loved how he learned to talk after losing his voicebox to cancer.   He also visited Kentucky while Kerry was bishop and expressed appreciation for the southern hospitality.  He told us how back home he once worked from early morning to late at night and was never offered a bite to eat.  He paused and then said, “You will see the day when all you have to eat is what you can grow in your own back yard.”  When he announced that all worthy males could receive the Priesthood (including blacks), a couple in our ward got up and walked out.  He died after we moved to RI where my husband attended the Navy War College.  We missed him.  His wife Camilla liked to “travel” by watching PBS during her elderly years.  Some of my favorite quotes by President Kimball are:

“Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly.” 

“Just do it.”

“Lengthen your stride”

We can’t say enough about President Ezra Taft Benson.  His apostolic counsel while serving as Secretary of Agriculture in the cabinet of President Dwight D. Eisenhower endeared him to us.  He was a true patriot and tried to warn the Church about the looming corruption in the government.  So much of what he prophesied is now coming true.  The Book of Mormon truly is a type of our day which may be why President Benson called us all to repentance regarding it.  We have read it every year since.   One of my favorite quotes of President Benson’s is:  “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums.  The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”   It was interesting to watch how the church functioned during the last few years of President Benson’s life, since his failing health rendered him unable to even attend conference.  I have only recently realized how the Lord was preparing his two counselors, Elder Hinkley and Elder Monson for their future duties. 

I remember the thrill of seeing President Howard W Hunter going through the same endowment session we were attending in the Salt Lake Temple.  I was impressed that he was taking time out of his hectic schedule to serve.  He taught by example.  We would have liked to have known him better but he only served nine months before his death.   I particularly appreciated this quote from him, “One of the greatest things a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” 

President Hinkley served 13 years and left a memorable legacy as a prophet of the latter days.  During his administration, he directed the most intense temple building program in the history of the Church and established the Perpetual Education Fund to help young Mormons in developing countries gain an education and become self-sufficient.  He also increased media attention and improved the public image of the Church.  He had the vision to build the unprecedented conference center with all the latest technology and architecture.  Even the pulpit was made from a black walnut tree President Hinkley had planted many years earlier.   We all enjoyed the sense of humor of both he and his wife Marjorie.  My mother never missed their talks.   Here are some of his quotes:  “If life gets too hard to stand, kneel.” 

“You can be smart and happy or stupid and miserable. . . it's your choice.”  

“Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” 

“You can't plow a field simply by turning it over in your mind.” 

President Monson is our current prophet.  He is a tall, friendly man, also with a sense of humor.   He will be known for hastening the work.  Here are some of his teaching: that have uplifted me: 

“Faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time, for one will dispel the other.”

“Work will win when wishy washy wishing won’t.”

“I forbid you, agnostic, doubting thoughts, to destroy the house of my faith.”
“I hope that you will learn to take responsibility for your decisions. Don't take counsel of your fears.”