The Parable of the Blackberry

When we first arrived in Trinidad, Grandma purchased a Blackberry. Grandpa tried using it from time to time, but each time he would need special step-by-step instructions on what buttons to push and on how to make it work. It was a bit frustrating to Grandma because she would find herself reteaching the same things she had already taught the month before.

Then it happened. Grandpa decided he needed his own Blackberry. Afterall, Grandma had upgraded her Mac computer at Christmas. Fair is fair, eh? So Grandpa got a Blackberry and has never looked back. He is always in touch with the e-mails that flood his inbasket each day.

So what is the reason why Grandpa can use the Blackberry so easily now and that he has never asked Grandma even one question about it?

The answer lies in the parable of the Blackberry. Grandpa "owns" the Blackberry in every sense of the word. He made it his quest to master all the little techniques needed to use it efficiently, except for the fact that every now and then it dials Justin during Zone Conference while floating in Grandpa's pocket. (True story....Justin heard the missionaries sing a couple of verses of a closing hymn last month.)

Last week, Dallin finished the Book of Mormon. What was his initial motivation? Part of it came from a Family Home Evening where he learned about "Heber J. Grant." President Grant as a little boy became a top baseball player, a great penman, a good singer ...all because his believe in this Emerson quote: "That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved."

Dallin set a goal - to read the Book of Mormon and achieved it. Grandpa set a goal - to master use of his Blackberry and did.

Often we look at top performers and think that they work harder, know more and are more highly motivated than others. But as Human Competence author "Thomas Gilbert" writes, "exemplary performers do things more easily that others do them." I believe that this is because they paid the price. They practiced. They prepared. And yes they "own" it just as Grandpa had to decide for himself that the Blackberry was something that he could do and it worked at it so now it is easy to do.

Activity:

Play a video game together as a family and teach the other family members "the tricks" to succeeding...but make sure they "do it themselves."

In the mission field, we have an effective way of teaching called the "training model."

Explain
Demonstrate
Practice
Evaluate
Re-Practice

Now try that plan with the video game and soon Mom might be winning!

The Parable of the Kite

Guyana Kite Flying Tradition on Easter Monday


Kite Sailing High Above The Beach


Kite Crashing Because Someone Let Go Of the String

Today is Easter Monday. In Guyana, the members all gather together for an annual outing with their branches to fly kites and have a picnic. It is a fun tradition and when people think of flying kites in March throughout the world, no one celebrates kite flying more than the Guyanese on Easter Monday.

Have you ever thought about a kite and how to be successful in flying a kite? This family home evening lesson is entitled the Parable of the Kite.

Parable of the Kite

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Sanjay Singh who lived in Guyana. Sanjay loved flying kites. He could hardly wait until March rolled around each year because then he and his dad would gather string, strips of cloth, small pieces of wood, and paper and make a kite from scratch.

Now this was not any ordinary kite. Indeed the little boy and his father would plan for days how to make this year's kite even better than the one they made the year before. They would draw up plans, then gather up material and then with painstaking effort they would create their kite, each year's kite becoming more of a masterpiece than the year before.

Little Sanjay learned several lessons from his dad about kites. He learned the importance of planning. He learned how exact the measurements had to be or else the kite would be too top-heavy and would not fly. He also learned what colors of paper to use so that he could keep his eye on the kite when it was way up high in the sky.

Oh, how little Sanjay loved Easter Monday. That day was a holiday in Guyana and everyone seemed to meet down by the seawall to fly their kites. How proud the little boy was of his creation ....the kite made by him and his father. How excited he was when they held the kite in the air and just the right amount of wind caught the kite and took it high in the sky.

When the Sanjay was 10 years old, he and his father had been doing this for every Easter Monday that he could remember. He will always remember the excitement he had for making and flying the kite that year. Only this year, he tried something different. He learned a lesson from his experiment that he will always remember the rest of his life. When his kite was high in the sky and the wind was pulling on the string, but the string was pulling just right against the kite, the little boy had the bright idea that he did not want his kite to be just the highest (as it was), but that he wanted it to fly right up to heaven. So without thinking the little boy let go of the string, and anxiously watched, expecting the kite to keep rising high above the clouds and keep going straight to heaven. But was he ever surprised? Instead of continuing the fly, the kite started a nose dive to earth. Not too many seconds later, what was once magestic kite creation was a soaked, crumpled up former kite that had crashed into the water.

Now what do we learn from the parable of the kite?

Why did the kite fly high so long as string was tugging at it to remain anchored? In our own lives we always need to be anchored in order to fly high. Our anchor is the commandments of the gospel. If we let go of the commandments, we will crash and fall.

Ether 12:6 teaches us a valuable lesson in that "ye receive no witness until after a trial of your faith."

The kite needed the string tugging on it in order for it to fly high.

2 Nephi 2:11 says "there is an opposition in all things."

Again the kite needed that constant tug of the string in order to stay airborn.

Another way to look at the parable of the kite is to look at the tree of life and the iron rod in Lehi's dream.

What do you think anchored the people in Lehi's dream that made it to the tree of life?


In 1 Nephi 8: 21 there was a group of people that pressed forward that they might obtain the path which led unto the tree." Another group in verse 24 pressed forward and caught hold of the rod and clung to the rod until they got to the tree....But even that was not the strongest group...this group in verse 30 caught hold of the end of the iron rod and pressed forward. They did not cling like on monkey bars where they could fall at any minute. They held fast with a firm grip. This is like the little boy and his kite. If he holds on tight to the string, the kite will fly high and the experience will be thrilling. If he lets go, the kite will crash to the earth.

Questions:

1. What did you learn about the little boy and the kite that made him successful?

2. What happened to the little boy's kite when he let go of the string so it could fly even higher?

3. What do the people in Guyana do on Easter Monday?

Activity:

1. Make a kite from a kit in the store and then fly it. It is still March! Don't let go of the string.
2. Make a kite from scratch.

Materials Needed

• 1 yard of 60-64" wide nylon
• string
• 2 - 1/4" wooden dowels
• thread
• fine tooth saw
• A quarter
• Optional - nylon fabric scrap for applique

Directions

Refer to Cutting Diagram (below) for measurements and cutting instructions. We used two yard sticks laid at right angles to each other to maintain the diamond shape.

The nylon fabric I purchased was 64" wide, and I was able to cut two out at one time. If yours is only 60" wide you will have to cut them out one at a time by reversing the direction for the second kite.

Press all edges under 1/2". Be careful not to use too hot an iron on the nylon. It will melt.

Measure in 1" from each corner. Use a quarter to cut a semi circle into each corner, by lining the quarter up with the one inch mark.

Holding a long tail on your string, insert string into folded under edge, starting at the bottom corner. Stitch down the Nylon, being sure not to stitch the string and leaving an exposed loop of string at each corner. I used a zig zag stitch to stitch down these edges and around the semi circled corners.

Fold Kite in half lengthwise and make a mark on the fold 7" from the top curved edge and 13" from the bottom curved edge, for the guide string to be inserted through. Refer to diagram B on the Cutting Diagram. Unfold the kites and using your sewing machine make and eyelet (round hole with stitched edges) or a very small button hole.

Leave a long tail of string when your stitching is complete for adjustments.

Cut one dowel to measure 30" and cut the other to measure 34 1/4" long. Make a perpendicular cut into the ends of each dowel, 1/4" deep.

Insert the 30" dowel into the cross area and the 34 1/4" dowel from top to bottom. If you are going to applique a design on your kite, make a small mark at where the dowels cross each other.

Cutting Diagram Diagram B Diagram C

Kids Say the Darnedst Things

When I was a little boy, a favorite TV show of mine was Art Linkletter's "Kids Say The Darnedst Things." He would show video clip interviews with children and it was so funny to see how candid yet guileless they could be.

So let's take a trip down memory lane and review some of the family's all time favorites.

Remember Grandma in Church with the 5 J's when Jamie was a little boy aged two. He stood up during Sacrament Meeting and said "Holy....xxbleep" right during the Sacrament. Grandma's seminary students were chuckling out of control and Grandma not missing a beat said, pointing to Grandpa on the stand "his father taught him that."

Or what about the time Joelle and Justin were 5 and 4 and were talking with their friend, RT in Murray, Utah. They told him about the plan of salvation and that after this life we can live with Heavenly Father. At this point RT got really scared and said I don't want to die. If I die, my mom will fly right down and fix me. He then decided he did not want to talk about that any more and ran home.

What about the time Julia was about 4 and said "Mommy I am trying to think about Jesus" during the Sacrament, but "Shrek keeps popping up in my head."

Emily is the queen of funny sayings lately. When she was going to the bathroom lately, she said to her mommy "I don't need to go potty when I am dead."

After exercise class last week, Emily came up to her mom and said "my face is glass, so my friends can't see me."

Not to be forgotten with funnies, Grace and Tessa had an argument about whether or not Lisa had a baby in her tummny. Tessa said Aunt Lisa did and Grace said Lisa did not. Lisa told both of them that she did not have a baby in her tummy, it was just a little fat.

Well, the next morning as Lisa was doing Tessa's hair, Tessa asked when the baby in her tummy was coming out. Lisa again told her that she did not have a baby in her tummy. Tessa then curiously asked "why not?" This little girl has been around too many expectant moms lately.

Rachel's Deep Thoughts: "Mom, I have so much to learn before I grow up...like how to tie a double knot in shoes because if I am a mom and my kids' shoelaces are loose and they ask me to tie a double knot, what will I do? I am not having any kids though, remember you told me once that it really hurts? I am just going to go to the orthodontist...no what is it again?....Oh, now I remember, I am going to just go to the orphanage and buy some. I will just pick out the ones that look the most like me."

Taylor just today listened to her mommy say that she needed a recipe off the internet and replied to her "do you need a recipe for disaster?"

Here is one of my favorites: Taylor has really been into watching the birds from the kitchen window. She is trying to learn the differend kinds of birds. I don't know too many except for Robins and Humming birds, and a few others. Today she saw a Robin and said "look it's a Robison"

This just in from g-mail chat tonight (3-13-08)

Joelle: i overheard grace having tessa say a prayer that the computer would work. tessa said a nice long prayer about the things she needs to do on the computer and asking for help and they both said amen.

6:27 PM me: cute

grace keeps tessa in line

6:32 PM Joelle: they are funny. grace made tessa fold her arms and pray with her before they tried cantelope the other day. She prayed that they would like it because I was forcing them to try it.


Family Home Evening Activity: write down the funniest things you all remember that a member of the family has said.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Childhood. Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf was born November 6, 1940 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia to Karl Albert Uchtdorf, a German customs official and his wife, Hilde Else Opeltt. My father, was drafted into the army and sent to the western front of the war. As the war raged with more severity and the eastern front moved toward our town, my mother, alone with her four children and in an effort to protect them, made the decision to leave our home and all our earthly possessions behind and head west, toward the home of her parents in East Germany.

It was the winter of 1944--one of the coldest, harshest winters of World War II. My mother instructed us to take only warm clothes and food, but no other possessions. At this time, we were members of the Lutheran Church, not even aware that there was a restored Church of Jesus Christ. Considering this, it is interesting that she took most of our family records and family pictures on our flight to the west.

As a four-year-old boy, I was so sad as we left behind our nice home with all my toys and a large balcony. How I loved this balcony and the view it provided, even though I once got my head stuck between two of its pillars; my ears--my pretty big ears--kept me from getting back out again. Fortunately, there was my mother to help and a big crowd to watch.

We were on one of the last refugee trains heading westward, and the journey, which would usually take one or two days, took us almost two weeks. Traveling in a freezing train, stopping over in refugee camps, and heading out toward the west again--exhaustion, hunger, and fear were the continuous ingredients of this perilous flight.

One night the train stopped again at a train station, and, as usual, my mother stepped out in search of some food for us children. Often, kind people came to those stations and brought milk and bread and other food for the refugee children. But this time when my mother returned with some precious food for us, the train was gone, with all of her four children in it. During this time of the war, many family members were separated from each other, never to be united again. There she was, in a war zone, without her husband, alone on deserted railroad tracks, realizing that she had just lost all of her children! Later she shared with us how lonely and devastated she felt. The physical stress of the effort to flee to the west, and the emotional stress culminating in the apparent loss of all her children in a few minutes of time, was overwhelming to her. She started to pray--the only source of solace
available to her at that desperate time. I know today that the Light of Christ moved her to pray with faith, as a good Lutheran, and then to get up and look around to see if she could find the train somewhere else at the station. After a short period of terror and despair, she got on her feet and moved from one track to another and eventually found our train on a parallel track quite a distance away, where it had been moved during her absence.

With the protection of God, and under the inspired leadership of our mother, we reached her hometown and were reunited with her parents in Zwickau, East Germany. Those dangerous days, as we fled in front of an oncoming army, and the following months, as the war came to an end, were among the most troublesome of our lives. Someof my memories of these days are of darkness, of night, of coldness. But with the help of

God, we were moved into a place where a light was shining forth for all who came out of that darkness and coldness and who were willing to accept the Savior's invitation: "come and see" (John 1:39). It was in this town of Zwickau that my grandmother was invited by an elderly single woman--an elderly single woman--to attend church with her. The setting was still desperate--the war was just over; food was scarce, and so were all other goods, like coal to heat our homes or cook our meals; houses were destroyed; and a family was fortunate if they were all still alive and had a roof over their heads.

My grandmother accepted the invitation of this dear single sister to attend sacrament meeting with her. Her name was Sister Ewig, and she invited my grandmother to church. This act of kindness might appear small and not too hard to do, but it changed our lives forever. Looking back from today's circumstances of comfort, it is almost unbelievable what was happening then. We attended church in a cold, cramped back room meeting place with electricity often failing, leaving us in the dark. But at the same time, this room was filled with the Spirit, and the divine light of the message of the restored gospel was in great abundance, and we were surrounded by the love, friendship, and helping hands of the dear members. When our family went there, we saw many children. All of us were very impressed by the families, the children, and the music, especially the singing. I felt at home right away

All of our family joined the Church. All were baptized except me, because I was only six at the time. Two years later I was baptized too, in a local indoor swimming pool by one of the Church leaders in our branch. Because of the circumstances during the postwar poverty, I had not learned to swim at this young age and was apprehensive to enter the water to be baptized. This was my first experience in a public indoor swimming pool. I will always remember the feeling of warmth, safety, and importance as I came out of the water after this sacred ordinance had been performed.

How grateful I am to these two women of the Church--my grandmother and my mother! They are true modern-day pioneers! They went before and ventured into new spiritual territory. They helped me to gain a testimony of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. They had faith, and they radiated love to a little boy, even in places and times of darkness, despair, and coldness. The light of the gospel, bright as the sun, lighted up their life in these challenging times.

And then in return, the warmth of their light and example helped me to feel secure and well grounded in the principles of the gospel. Teachings of the Gospel helped the family cope with the devastation that surrounded them. "One of the things I appreciated very much as a youngster was the saying, 'If the Lord is with you, who can be against you?'" Elder Uchtdorf said in a interview with the Church News. "It gave me strength to go ahead in difficult times."

We met for church in an old villa. Our chapel had a stained-glass window of Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove. Whenever the sun shone on it, I felt that the story it illustrated and what I had learned in Primary about the First Vision were true. I knew that was how Joseph Smith received his revelation and how the return to earth of Jesus Christ’s Church started. This testimony was very important to me, and I learned to appreciate Joseph Smith very much.

We had a pump organ in our chapel. I wanted to help at church, and pumping the organ was one of my jobs when I was eight and nine years old. It felt wonderful to contribute to sacrament meeting by pumping the organ so the congregation could sing.

One song, “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,” really impressed me. I felt very close to Jesus when I sang it. I knew He wanted me to be a sunbeam for Him. I have never forgotten that song—I still love it—or the testimony it gave me of the Savior.

I share these very personal experiences with you today, hoping to impress upon you that wherever you live, whatever circumstances you live in, whatever your background or challenges might be, the gospel light has the power and purpose to bring blessings into your life and into the lives of those placed in your path. The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to bring blessings to our Heavenly Father's children. You are planted in your country, your community, your family to facilitate these blessings. I urge you to bloom where you are planted!

A few years after my baptism, my family became refugees for a second time. The political regime in East Germany perceived my father as a dissident. His life was at risk, and we had to leave the country overnight, leaving behind everything we possessed.

Again we had only the clothes we wore, some food for the trip, and family records, as well as family pictures. By the time I was 11, we had been refugees twice within only seven years. But this time we had already received the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had made covenants with the Lord through baptism, and we came to a branch in Frankfurt, West Germany, with other members who had the same principles and precious values.

Until my father could find a job like he had before, he and my mother operated a laundry to make a living, and I was the laundry delivery boy. I saw some shiny red bicycles, and I wished I could have one to make my deliveries. But I needed a heavy-duty bicycle to pull the cart with the laundry on it. I rode around pulling that heavy laundry cart before school and after school. It was hard to see the other children play, especially during the winter months. But everybody in our family had to work hard, and I knew I was an important part of the family business. I felt needed and valued.

Youth. As I grew older, I learned not only the value of hard work but also about the blessings of doing things that at the time you don’t realize are important and good for you. During World War II, when I was very little, I came down with a lung disease, but no one knew it at the time. I knew I was easily out of breath when I rode the delivery bicycle. I thought it was because the cart was heavy. Later, when I joined the air force, I learned that because of that hard work, somehow my body had healed itself. I had built up endurance. I had built up immunity to disease. I had built up strength. When the doctors saw those spots on my lungs, they questioned me about them. They reported that the disease took care of itself, and they said I passed my physical. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to become a pilot. I have been a pilot for 35 years, and I was a chief pilot for Lufthansa German Airlines. As a lad growing up in post-war Germany, Dieter was faced with decisions on how to order his life. Crediting good leaders, Dieter stayed close to the Gospel and attended his assigned meetings regularly.

How He Met His Wife. Into this branch, just a few years later, came a young widow with her two daughters. The missionaries had found this beautiful family. When I saw Harriet the first time, with her dark brown eyes, I thought, "These missionaries are really doing a great job!" Even as a teenager I liked Harriet quite a lot.

My bold advances, however, showed only marginal success. I tried, for instance, to influence the seating at the sacrament table so I could pass the sacrament to her. This did not impress her very much. On my way to Church activities during the week, I usually rode my nice bicycle and often stopped at their home to ask if Harriet would want to have a ride to church on my bicycle. Harriet never accepted; she always declined. Sometimes, however, her mother was there and would say, "Harriet will walk, but I will gladly ride with you on your bike to church." This wasn't really what I was hoping for at the time, but I later realized it is an advantage to be on good terms with the mother of the girl ofyour dreams!

In another interview, speaking of how they met, President Uchtdorf said that itt was while attending MIA as a thirteen year old priesthood bearer, that he first met, Harriet, who later became his wife. "I always loved her," he recalled. "I fell for her from the very beginning, even as a Deacon. She was a very beautiful girl. She still is." If it was love at first sight for Dieter, the same cannot be said for Harriet. Though they enjoyed learning to dance together, it was not until after he had completed his military duty and came back to Germany to begin his airline pilot training that she began to appreciate that he might be the right man. They were married December 14, 1962 in the Swiss Temple and have two children.

Sister Carmen Reich, my mother-in-law, was truly an elect lady. She embraced the gospel in a most difficult and dark time of her life, and she liberated herself from grief and sorrow. As a young woman and a widow, and the mother of two young girls, she emancipated herself from a world of old traditions into a world of great spirituality. She embraced the teachings of the gospel, with its intellectual and spiritual power, on a fast track. As you heard, when the missionaries gave her the Book of Mormon and invited her to read the marked verses, she read the whole book within a few days. She knew things beyond the understanding of her peers because she knew them by the Spirit of God. She was the humblest of the humble, the wisest of the wise, because she was willing and pure enough to believe when God had spoken. She was baptized November 7, 1954, and was asked by the missionary who baptized her to write her testimony down in December, only a few weeks after her baptism. The missionary wanted to use her testimony in his teachings to help others feel the true spirit of conversion. Fortunately, Elder Jenkins kept the handwritten original for more than 40 years and then returned it to her as a very special and loving gift. What a wonderful act of love. Carmen Reich, my dear mother-in-law, passed away in 2000 at age 83.

In 1951 and 1952 I attended the Frankfurt Branch, which was not as big as the one in Zwickau. The Frankfurt meetinghouse was small, and we had classes in the basement. I recall missionaries teaching us important gospel principles. One missionary, Elder Stringham, impressed me very much with his teaching about the Pearl of Great Price, especially where Moses is being taught he is a son of God. Another thing Elder Stringham taught me was the scripture that says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31) This gave me comfort and courage, because at that time the future looked bleak in Germany. The city of Frankfurt was in ruins with bombed-out buildings. That teaching has stayed with me throughout my life. It taught me I need to be on the Lord’s side. I cannot afford not to be on the Lord’s side.

College years. Though times may have been difficult, young Dieter did persevere... as a member of the Church, as a student, and in his career He studied engineering and later continued his education in business administration in Cologne, Germany, and international management in Lausanne, Switzerland. Elder Uchtdorf joined the German air force (Luftwaffe) in 1959 and received his pilot wings in Big Spring, Texas, and fighter pilot training in Phoenix, Arizona. After leaving the Luftwaffe, he attended airline pilot school and graduated in 1965.

He also attended Business Administration School in Cologne, Germany and the International Management Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland. He pursued a career as an airline pilot, flying for Lufthansa Airlines beginning in 1970. He quickly moved into management positions, serving as head of cockpit crews, then director of inflight services, and as head of Lufthansa's airline pilot school. After a stint as the check and training captain for Boeing 747s, he became Senior Vice President for flight operations and Chief Pilot for the airline.

Career as a pilot. He worked as an airline captain from 1970 to 1996, flying multiple types of airplanes and completing his career flying the B747. He held several executive positions, including head of the airline pilot school, director of in-flight services, and head of cockpit crews. At the time of his call as a General Authority, he was the senior vice president of flight operations and chief pilot of Lufthansa German Airlines. He was also chairman of the Flight Operations Committee of the International Air Transport Association. He has served as a board member for several government and business executive committees.

Grandparents. Elder and Sister Uchtdorf love to travel. They have visited most parts of the world. They enjoy hiking, dancing, classical music, and spending time with their children and grandchildren, who all live in Europe

As a pilot, I flew all over the world. In all those 35 years, I never got tired of looking out the window at the stars, the clouds, the landscapes. I could see the beauty of the different countries with their different cultures. I know from going to those different places and seeing the people and the Church in those different places that the gospel is for everyone, no matter what nation you live in or what your traditions are. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word of God, whether it is written in the scriptures or spoken by the living prophets, whether we read it in Church magazines or hear it at general conferences, is for every culture, in every nation.

I challenge you children to follow the words of the prophets. When you do, you will find the answers to your questions, whether you are 6, 9, 11, 19, or, like me, 57 years old. (April 1999, Liahona, Friend to Friend)

At thirty-five thousand feet, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gained a perspective of the vastness, the glory, and the diversity of the earth. His career as a pilot for Lufthansa Airlines has afforded him that perspective and an appreciation for the beauty of God's handiwork. “I see how beautiful the deserts and the jungles and the seas are,” he said in an interview with the Ensign. “Even after ten long hours in a cockpit, I am amazed at the sunrise. I marvel at the world’s different cultures. Everyone is different, and yet we are the same.”

The Uchtdorfs have witnessed near miraculous events in their native Germany. Rising from the ashes of World War II, Germany became an economic powerhouse. And as Germany's economic engine grew more powerful, so also was the growth of the Church. "Years ago, President Monson came to Germany and dedicated the land again and blessed it. That was when the wall was still up. It was a terrible situation in East Germany. I thought that Germany would be reunited at some time but I thought that it would be my great-great-grandchildren who would see it. But after President Monson's blessing, things changed quickly. We had a temple built in East Germany. The political situation changed completely, and the wall fell down. You can take the blessing and check all the things President Monson said and they've all been fulfilled."

Church service. At the present time, Germany hosts two temples and the Church is strong, stable, and growing therein. Elder Uchtdorf and Harriet have played no small role in this remarkable growth. He has served as a Young Men's President, in an Elder's Quorum Presidency, as a Stake Missionary, a Stake High Councilor, a Stake Mission President, Vice-Chairman of the Frankfurt Temple Committee, and twice as a Stake President. In April of 1994, after nine years as President of the Mannheim Germany Stake, he was given a five-year call to enter the ranks of the General Authorities as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. He would serve but two of those five years before being called into the First Quorum of the Seventy on April 6, 1996. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf was named as Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 4, 2008. He was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 2. 2004. He has served as a General Authority since April 1994, and served as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy from August 2002 until his call to the Twelve.

Family Home Evening Game: To learn more about President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency, match the lettered pictures above with the clues below.

___ 1. Elder Uchtdorf was raised in this country.

___ 2. He is the first Apostle to be called in more than 50 years who was not born in the United States, but he says he was not called to represent a certain group of people. Like all Apostles, he represents this perfect man.

___ 3. As a child, he worked hard in the family business, pulling a laundry cart behind one of these.

___ 4. Growing up in a war-torn city where buildings had been bombed, he found hope in reading and learning from these. One of his favorite verses was Romans 8:31: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” He says: “This gave me comfort and courage, because at that time the future looked bleak.”

___ 5. The Church building he attended as a small child had a stained-glass window depicting this event. Whenever the light shone through the glass, he thought about his testimony and developed a stronger appreciation for Joseph Smith.

___ 6. One of his first callings as a child was to pump this instrument so the congregation could sing.

___ 7. He married Harriet Reich, and they were sealed here in December 1962. They have two children.

___ 8. For 35 years he operated one of these. He eventually became chief pilot and senior vice president of flight operations for an airline.

___ 9. As he flew, he never grew tired of seeing these out the window. He also says: “I could see the beauty of the different countries with their different cultures. I know from going to those different places and seeing the people and the Church in those different places that the gospel is for everyone, no matter what nation you live in or what your traditions are. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Adapted from “Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Seventy,” Liahona, Apr. 1999, F2–F4; see Friend, June 1998, 7–8; “Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2004, 125–26.

Answers:

1E (Germany), 2A, 3D, 4I, 5B (First Vision), 6C, 7H (Bern Switzerland Temple), 8G, 9F.

Sources for the quotes in the summary included: Grandpa Bills GA website, Speech from Woman's Conference by Elder Uchtdorf, Liahona, Anne Marie's Musings Website, and LDS.Org Website of Press Release.

President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in First Presidency

Family Home Evening Lesson Preparation: Pick your favorite story about President Erying and use it to teach a principle. You could teach about the importance of journals, listening to your wife's inspiration, working on the church farm, listening to long church talks, or reading Louis L'Amour novels....and many more.

President Henry B. Eyring

Background

President Eyring was born on May 31, 1933 in Princeton, New Jersey. He served in the U.S. Air Force and as a stake missionary. He has a BA in Physics from the University of Utah, a Masters in Business from Harvard and a PhD in Business Administration from Harvard.

President Eyring was a professor at Stanford, President of Ricks College, Commissioner of Education for the Church, in the Presiding Bishopric and was called to be an apostle on April 1, 1995. His father was a famous scientist and he met his wife at a Harvard church meeting.

His motto in life is “be the best you can.”

His family philosophy is “family relationships are very complicated. You can’t hope to read every social science book ever written on family relations and the rearing of children. Some of that information is very useful because you can get some ideas. But the only way to be effective is to have a few principles in your heart that you can hold deeply and then to act out of them.”

President Erying is always the first one up in the morning in his home. He prepares wonderful breakfast. He paints with watercolors to illustrate colorful family home evening teaching materials.

He never pursued sports that he could not do with out his family. He is known for the tradition of his “Saturday Morning Projects.” He would organize work projects for the family and they would all do them on Saturday mornings. He also had a little desk top stove in his office at Ricks. He would invite his children to come by and he would cook a lunch for them.

His “advice to a newly called person in the church: 1) you are called of God 2) the Lord will guide you by revelation and 3) the Lord will magnify you. Testify using the voice that is the same He would use and life using the hand He would use.” (October 2002 General Conference)

Childhood

Boring talks. President Henry B. Eyring once related a story to a gathering of BYU alumni that I attended about his father from when he was a youth. He said they were sitting in church listening to what he thought was the worst talk he had ever heard. It was high council Sunday and the speaker just droned on. Every time he looked over at his father he saw him fully entranced by the speaker. He kept watching his father and never once did his father loose focus.

After the meeting Eyring asked his father, “Dad, wasn’t that the worst talk you’ve ever heard? Why were you so interested in it?” His father responded, “Hal, I have followed three practices every time I listen to a talk. First, I pray to Heavenly Father that he will help the speaker deliver the message He wants him to share, second, I pray to know what it is that he wants me to learn from the speaker and third, I repeat in my mind what I think the speaker is trying to say. And you know since doing that, I have never heard a bad talk. (Personal Experience of Reid A. Robison)

Serving Others. President Faust related the following story about Elder Eyring’s father in General Conference. A story shared by our beloved associate, Elder Henry B. Eyring, illustrates this principle of commitment still further. This story is about his father, the great scientist Henry Eyring, who served on the Bonneville Stake high council. He was responsible for the welfare farm, which included a field of onions that needed to be weeded.

At that time, he was nearly 80 and suffering from painful bone cancer. He assigned himself to do weeding even though the pain was so great that he pulled himself along on his stomach with his elbows. The pain was too great for him to kneel. Yet he smiled, laughed, and talked happily with the others who were there that day weeding that field of onions. I now quote what Elder Eyring said of this incident:

"After all the work was finished and the onions were all weeded, someone [said to] him, 'Henry, good heavens! You didn't pull those weeds, did you? Those weeds were sprayed two days ago, and they were going to die anyway.'

"Dad just roared. He thought that was the funniest thing. He thought it was a great joke on himself. He had worked through the day in the wrong weeds. They had been sprayed and would have died anyway.

". . . I [asked] him, 'Dad how could you make a joke out of that?' . . .

"He said something to me that I will never forget. . . . He said, 'Hal, I wasn't there for the weeds.” Elder Henry B. Eyring, "Waiting upon the Lord," Brigham Young University 1990–91 Devotional and Fireside Speeches, 22.

Young Married Experiences

Meeting His Wife. The decision to continue his studies at Harvard proved to be significant for another reason. It meant he was still in Boston during the summer of 1961, when Kathleen Johnson, daughter of J. Cyril and LaPrele Lindsay Johnson, of Palo Alto, California, came to Boston to attend summer school. Hal, who was serving as a counselor in the Boston district presidency at the time, was assigned to preside at a sunrise service for young adults.

After that sunrise service, he saw a young woman coming out of a grove of trees. Not only was he struck by her beauty, but at that moment the words of President David O. McKay came to his mind: “If you meet a girl in whose presence you feel a desire … to do your best, … such a young woman is worthy of your love” (Gospel Ideals, Salt Lake City: Improvement Era, 1953, page 459). “That was exactly how I felt as I saw Kathleen for the first time,” says Elder Eyring.

Hal and Kathleen were introduced at church the following Sunday. “I knew Hal was someone special,” Kathy remembers. “He thought deeply about important things.”

The courtship continued throughout the rest of the summer and then by mail and phone after Kathleen returned to California. They were married in July 1962 in the Logan Temple by Elder Spencer W. Kimball. Gerald N. Lund, “Defining Influences,” Apr. 1996.

Following Promptings. “In our own time, we have been warned with counsel on where to find safety from sin and from sorrow. One of the keys to recognizing those warnings is that they are repeated. For instance, more than once in these general conferences, you have heard our prophet say that he would quote a preceding prophet and would therefore be a second witness and sometimes even a third. Each of us who has listened has heard President [Spencer W.] Kimball give counsel on the importance of a mother in the home and then heard President [Ezra Taft] Benson quote him, and we have heard President [Gordon B.] Hinckley quote them both. The Apostle Paul wrote that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1). One of the ways we may know that the warning is from the Lord is that the law of witnesses, authorized witnesses, has been invoked. When the words of prophets seem repetitive, that should rivet our attention and fill our hearts with gratitude to live in such a blessed time.

“Every time in my life when I have chosen to delay following inspired counsel or decided that I was an exception, I came to know that I had put myself in harm’s way. Every time that I have listened to the counsel of prophets, felt it confirmed in prayer, and then followed it, I have found that I moved toward safety. Along the path, I have found that the way had been prepared for me and the rough places made smooth. God led me to safety along a path which was prepared with loving care, sometimes prepared long before.

“Sometimes we will receive counsel that we cannot understand or that seems not to apply to us, even after careful prayer and thought. Don’t discard the counsel, but hold it close. If someone you trusted handed you what appeared to be nothing more than sand with the promise that it contained gold, you might wisely hold it in your hand awhile, shaking it gently. Every time I have done that with counsel from a prophet, after a time the gold flakes have begun to appear and I have been grateful.”

(Conference Report, Apr. 1997, 31-35; or Ensign, May 1997, 24-26)

Promptings Often Come Through Spouse. Kathy proved to be more than a good wife and mother. She became another of those defining influences in the life of Henry B. Eyring. The best example of that happened when Hal had been teaching at Stanford for about nine years. It was a richly satisfying time in their lives. He was given considerable freedom to design the classes he taught at Stanford. He returned for one year to Boston as the Sloan Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had also entered the business world now, serving as an officer and director for Finnigan Instrument Corporation and becoming a founder and director of System Industries Incorporated, a computer manufacturing company. In the Church, he had taught early-morning seminary, served for a time in the bishopric of his own ward, and then was called as the bishop of the Stanford First Ward, a campus ward.

But that was all to change. “One night,” Elder Eyring reports, “Kathy nudged me and asked, ‘Are you sure you are doing the right thing with your life?’” He stops for a moment and then explains, “I was surprised. Now remember my situation. I have tenure at Stanford. I am the bishop of the Stanford ward. We are living next to her parents. I love what I’m doing. It’s like the Garden of Eden, all right? And then she asks me that question.”

“Couldn’t you do studies for Neal Maxwell?” she went on. Elder Eyring stops again. “You have to understand something. Neal A. Maxwell was the commissioner of Church education at that time. Kathy didn’t even know him. I didn’t know him.”

When asked about that night, Kathy is not sure what it was that brought forth that question. “We were very happy there,” she agrees, “but somehow I just felt like there was something more important that he should be doing. I knew that his teaching at Stanford was wonderful, but I felt there was something he could teach that could truly change lives.” She knew about the Church Educational System (CES) and somehow remembered that Neal A. Maxwell was the commissioner. Thus her comment.

It was enough. Hal determined he would pray about it. At first he got no answer, or so he thought. But not long after that, the phone rang and Commissioner Maxwell, who apparently knew of Hal Eyring, was on the line asking if Hal could come to Salt Lake City. He went.

“I was at my parents’ house,” Elder Eyring recalls, “so Elder Maxwell came over there. The first words out of his mouth were, ‘Hal, I’d like to ask you to be the president of Ricks College.’”

Elder Eyring smiles at that. “You’ve got to remember, I grew up in the East, and I was living in California. I have to admit I didn’t even know where Ricks College was then. If you had asked me whether it was` a two- or four-year college, I couldn’t have told you.”

But a call of such importance was not treated lightly. Even before leaving Salt Lake City, he began to pray about the offer. For a day or two, he could get no answer, which troubled him. “And then,” he says, “as I was praying, an impression came that simply said, ‘It’s my school.’” Realizing that was all the answer he needed, he returned to California, and he and Kathleen began making plans to leave Stanford. (On 10 December 1971, Henry B. Eyring was inaugurated as president of Ricks College.)

Gerald N. Lund, “Defining Influences,” Ensign, Sept. 1995, 10.

Parenting

Patience as a parent. “I have a memory of watching my little boys kick each other as they lay before me on the floor during our family night as I taught a lesson on peace in the family. In fact, that topic would bring it on. They heard me, they understood me, and yet they had been kicking for a long time before I started preaching. Now, years later, they reach across the world to help each other. But the change takes time. So be patient and persistent.”Henry B. Eyring, “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” Church Fireside, February 6, 1994.

Journals to record gratefulness. When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. Let me tell you how that got started. I came home late from a Church assignment. It was after dark. My father-in-law, who lived near us, surprised me as I walked toward the front door of my house. He was carrying a load of pipes over his shoulder, walking very fast and dressed in his work clothes. I knew that he had been building a system to pump water from a stream below us up to our property.

He smiled, spoke softly, and then rushed past me into the darkness to go on with his work. I took a few steps toward the house, thinking of what he was doing for us, and just as I got to the door, I heard in my mind—not in my own voice—these words: “I’m not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down.”

I went inside. I didn’t go to bed. Although I was tired, I took out some paper and began to write. And as I did, I understood the message I had heard in my mind. I was supposed to record for my children to read, someday in the future, how I had seen the hand of God blessing our family. Grandpa didn’t have to do what he was doing for us. He could have had someone else do it or not have done it at all. But he was serving us, his family, in the way covenant disciples of Jesus Christ always do. I knew that was true. And so I wrote it down, so that my children could have the memory someday when they would need it.

I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened.

The years have gone by. My boys are grown men. And now and then one of them will surprise me by saying, “Dad, I was reading in my copy of the journal about when . . . ” and then he will tell me about how reading of what happened long ago helped him notice something God had done in his day.

My point is to urge you to find ways to recognize and remember God’s kindness. It will build our testimonies. You may not keep a journal. You may not share whatever record you keep with those you love and serve. But you and they will be blessed as you remember what the Lord has done. You remember that song we sometimes sing: “Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” (October, 2007 General Conference, O Remember, Remember)

Parental Example. This story emphasizes the role that parents have on their children through example. The afternoon my mother died, we went to the family home from the hospital. We sat quietly in the darkened living room for a while. Dad excused himself and went to his bedroom. He was gone for a few minutes. When he walked back into the living room, there was a smile on his face. He said that he’d been concerned for Mother.

During the time he had gathered her things from her hospital room and thanked the staff for being so kind to her, he thought of her going into the spirit world just minutes after her death. He was afraid she would be lonely if there was no one to meet her.
He had gone to his bedroom to ask his Heavenly Father to have someone greet Mildred, his wife and my mother. He said that he had been told in answer to his prayer that his mother had met his sweetheart. I smiled at that too. Grandma Eyring was not very tall. I had a clear picture of her rushing through the crowd, her short legs moving rapidly on her mission to meet my mother.

Dad surely didn’t intend at that moment to teach me about prayer, but he did. I can’t remember a sermon from my mother or my father about prayer. They prayed when times were hard and when they were good. And they reported in matter-of-fact ways how kind God was, how powerful and how close. The prayers I heard most were about what it would take for us to be together forever. And the answers which will remain written on my heart seem most often to be the assurances that we were on the path. (Ensign, Nov. 2000, p. 85)

Power of the Atonement. The effects of the Atonement in our lives can also produce in us the example those we love will need. I learned again the other night the example we need to be.
I was chatting with my wife at the end of a long day. Three of our children were in the room, listening. I turned and noticed that one of them was watching me—and watching my face intently. And then he asked me, softly, “Why are you unhappy?” I tried to give a reason for my furrowed brow, but I realized later that he could well have been asking this deeper question: “Can I see in you the hope for peace in this life that Jesus promised?”
To turn my thoughts from what darkened my look to what would brighten it, I went to another letter from Mormon to his son. Both Mormon and Moroni were facing days of difficulty that make my challenges pale. Mormon knew his son might be overcome with gloom and foreboding, so he told him the perfect antidote. He told him that he could choose, by what he put in his mind, to become an example of hope. Here is what he wrote:
“My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever” (Moro. 9:25).
(Ensign, November, 1986 74)

Have I taught them enough? In time, when the child is away from home and family, prayer can provide the shield of protection the parent will want so much for them to have. Parting can be hard, particularly when the parent and the child know that they may not see each other for a long time. I had that experience with my father. We parted on a street corner in New York City. He had come there for his work. I was there on my way to another place. We both knew that I probably would never return to live with my parents under the same roof again.

It was a sunny day, around noontime, the streets crowded with cars and pedestrians. On that particular corner there was a traffic light which stopped the cars and the people in all directions for a few minutes. The light changed to red; the cars stopped. The crowd of pedestrians hurried off the curbs, moving every way, including diagonally, across the intersection.

The time had come for parting, and I started across the street. I stopped almost in the center, with people rushing by me. I turned to look back. Instead of moving off in the crowd, my father was still standing on the corner looking at me. To me he seemed lonely and perhaps a little sad. I wanted to go back to him, but I realized the light would change and so I turned and hurried on.
Years later I talked to him about that moment. He told me that I had misread his face. He said he was not sad; he was concerned. He had seen me look back, as if I were a little boy, uncertain and looking for assurance. He told me in those later years that the thought in his mind had been: Will he be all right? Have I taught him enough? Is he prepared for whatever may lie ahead?
There were more than thoughts in his mind. I knew from having watched him that he had feelings in his heart. He yearned for me to be protected, to be safe. I had heard and felt that yearning in his prayers, and even more in the prayers of my mother, for all the years I had lived with them. I had learned from that, and I remembered.

Prayer. Prayer is a matter of the heart. I had been taught far more than the rules of prayer. I had learned from my parents and from the Savior's teachings that we must address our Heavenly Father in the reverent language of prayer. "Our Father . . . in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name" (Matt. 6:9). I knew that we never profane His sacred name--never. Can you imagine how the prayers of a child are harmed by hearing a parent profane the name of God? There will be terrible consequences for such an offense to the little ones.
I had learned that it was important to give thanks for blessings and to ask for forgiveness. "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12). I had been taught that we ask for what we need and pray for others to be blessed. "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matt. 6:11). I knew that we must surrender our will. "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).

I had been taught and found it true that we can be warned of danger and shown early what we have done which displeased God. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matt. 6:13).

I had learned that we must always pray in the name of Jesus Christ. But something I had seen and heard had taught me those words were more than a formality. There was a picture of the Savior on the bedroom wall where my mother was bedridden in the years before she died. She had put it there because of something her cousin Samuel O. Bennion had told her. He had traveled with an Apostle who described seeing the Savior in a vision. Elder Bennion gave her that print, saying that it was the best portrayal he had ever seen of the Master's strength of character. So she framed it and placed it on the wall where she could see it from her bed.

She knew the Savior, and she loved Him. I had learned from her that we do not close in the name of a stranger when we approach our Father in prayer. I knew from what I had seen of her life that her heart was drawn to the Savior from years of determined and consistent effort to serve Him and to please Him. I knew the scripture was true which warns, "For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" (Mosiah 5:13).
Years after my mother and father are gone, the words "in the name of Jesus Christ" are not casual for me, either when I say them or when I hear others say them. We must serve Him to know the Master's heart. But we also must pray that Heavenly Father will answer our prayers in our hearts as well as in our minds (see Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; 10:16; and 2 Cor. 3:3). (Ensign, November 2002, 53)

Lesson Learned As a Bishop (Repentance). I learned a long time ago that it is hard to know how you are doing in being born again and why it is not easy. Once, as a bishop of a ward, I worked with a young man not much older than many of you. He'd made great mistakes and had been moved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to make long and painful repentance. We were down to the weeks before he was to be married in the temple. I had long before forgiven him in the name of the Church and had given him his temple recommend. Yet he remembered that I had said, "The Lord will forgive you in his own time and in his own way." But now he was deeply concerned. He came to my office and he said: "You told me that the Lord would someday let me know that I was forgiven. But I am going to the temple to marry a wonderful girl. I want to be the best I can be for her. I need to know that I am forgiven. And I need to know now. Tell me how to find out." I said I would try.

He gave me a deadline. My memory is that it was within less than two weeks. Fortunately, I already had a trip scheduled. During that period of time I went to Salt Lake City, and there I found myself seeing Elder Spencer W. Kimball, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, at a social function. It was crowded, and yet he somehow found me. He walked up to me in that crowd and said, "Hal, I understand that you are now a bishop. Do you have anything you would like to ask me?"

I said that I did, but I didn't think that was the place to talk about it. He thought it was. It was an outdoor party. My memory is that we went behind a shrub and there had our interview. Without breaking confidences, as I have not with you, I outlined the concerns and the question of this young man in my ward. Then I asked Elder Kimball, "How can he get that revelation? How can he know whether his sins are remitted?"

I thought Elder Kimball would talk to me about fasting or prayer or listening for the still small voice. But he surprised me. Instead he said, "Tell me something about the young man."

I said, "What would you like to know?"

And then he began a series of the most simple questions. Some of the ones I remember were:

"Does he come to his priesthood meetings?"

I said, after a moment of thought, "Yes."

"Does he come early?"

"Yes."

"Does he sit down front?"

I thought for a moment and then realized, to my amazement, that he did.

"Does he home teach?"

"Yes."

"Does he go early in the month?"

"Yes, he does."

"Does he go more than once?"

"Yes."

I can't remember the other questions. But they were all like that--little things, simple acts of obedience, of submission. And for each question I was surprised that my answer was always yes. Yes, he wasn't just at all his meetings: he was early; he was smiling; he was there not only with his whole heart, but with the broken heart of a little child, as he was every time the Lord asked anything of him. And after I had said yes to each of his questions, Elder Kim ball looked at me, paused, and then very quietly said, "There is your revelation."

Sufficiently humble. Stripped of pride. Stripped of envy. Never making a mock of his brother.

When I went back to the young man and told him what I then knew, he accepted it. But he may have simply had to take my word for it. You see, it's hard to feel that you are sufficiently humble. If you did, you might not be. He went forward with his marriage. I've seen him since. To me he still looks as he did on the front bench before a priesthood meeting.

My guess is that he has retained a remission of his sins. I don't know if he knew then or if he knows now with the certainty he wanted, but I am sure of something. When that change of heart comes to me and to you, when we are cleansed and blameless before God, it will be because we have been made pure by the blood of Christ. And I know what I can and must do. I must be baptized by a servant of God holding the true priesthood, I must have received the gift of the Holy Ghost by that same power, and then I must have exercised faith in the Savior long enough and carefully enough that his grace will be sufficient for me. And I know at least one way to know that is happening in your life, or in mine. You will have put yourself so often in the Master's service, bringing the cleansing companionship of the Holy Ghost, that you will be on the front row, early, whenever and wherever the Master calls. It will be gradual enough that you may not notice. You will be humble enough that you may be reluctant to believe it is happening. But those with spiritual discernment who love you will know. And the Savior and our Heavenly Father will know. And that is enough. (BYU Devotional, Come Unto Christ, October 29, 1989)

Fasting is Personal. A fun story that I recall hearing Elder Eyring tell was about the time they had a dinner for the newly appointed President of Ricks. President Kimball, who was his wife’s uncle was in attendance. President Kimball was sitting at a nearby table and noticed that Elder Eyring was not eating. He called over and said “Hal, why aren’t you eating?” Elder Erying was horrified and embarrassed. He wanted to downplay the fact that he was fasting in preparation for the big event. President Kimball very loudly told him that he told he should eat something…it was a great lesson for Elder Eyring…to keep fasting a personal and private act. (Reid A. Robison journal entry)

Grandparenting

Bridging the Generations. Your deacon’s quorum president next week may ask you to invite to come with you to a Sunday meeting a boy who has never attended nor has anyone in his family. You may trudge up to his house, get him to come with you a few times, and then see him move away. You may think you haven’t done much that mattered. But the grandfather of such a boy came up to me during a stake conference, described in detail how a deacon had done just that for his grandson—more than ten years before and almost a continent away—and with tears in his eyes asked me if I could thank that deacon for him, now grown older, unaware that the Savior had reached out through a twelve-year-old servant assigned by a thirteen-year-old quorum president.

Some of you brethren know the feelings of that grandfather. The mother of his grandson was raising him alone with no contact with the Church. The grandfather had tried every way he knew to reach out to touch their lives. He loved them. He felt responsible for her and for his grandson. And he knew what you know: He knew that someday, when they saw things as they really are, they would wish with all their hearts that they had made the choices that would qualify them for eternal life, choices which won’t and can’t be made without faith in Jesus Christ sufficient to salvation (Elder Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, November 1995).

Coping with stress. All our married life, Diane has thought of Louis L’Amour as the Harlequin Romance Novel of a man’s world. I love Louis L’Amour books. One time at a fireside at BYU, Elder Eyring spoke of his passion for reading Louis L’Amour books. Often in delayed in an airport, he would read one of those books. Well, immediately, Diane’s respect for my little way of relaxation increased. Elder Eyring spoke of how in each book there is a theme of “Riding for the Brand.” He spoke of how we should remember that BYU and the Church have a brand that we represent. President Hinckley counseled us about the BYU Experience in these words “It must have an everlasting impression on you. It is scarcely perceptible most of the time. But none the less real. It should become an inseparable part of your very nature, something intangible of great worth—substance. Cultivate it in your lives—hold its very essence until you grow old and gray….until you can do what President Hinckley’s father did at the end of his life…habit of sitting on the wall pondering on what he had read the night before. He never ceased to learn. He was a great reader with a wonderful library.” He said he hoped we would take the habit of seeking knowledge and that this habit would never leave us as long as we live. A truly educated man never ceases to learn. He never ceases to grow. (Journal Entry of Reid A. Robison)