I once again had the privilege of having President Eyring speak in Elders Quorum. I missed a good chunk of what he said because I was helping to set Alyssa apart as the Beehive class secretary. I missed whatever question someone had asked him but I was impacted by the stories he told and his candor with us.
I shared with Laura after church and she said that I should write down what he said because at some point these stories will be very valuable to some in our family. I’ll write down everything I remember without filtering or commentary starting with what he was saying as I walked in late to quorum. While I will type it as a blockquote this will all be to the best of my memory and not necessarily verbatim. In fact, some of the stories he told and topics he covered were very intermingled and I remember them more topically so I may resort to following a topical thread as I remember it even if it comes out in a different order than he addressed it. When I’m done I’ll add any commentary I thought in class or afterward.
… I’m not sure what it means to be a prophet, seer, and revelator but I know what it is to be in my position.
The church will face tough times in the future. We’re already facing tough times. I don’t really need to tell you about that because you already know about it.
The question was asked in Sunday School today and I didn’t answer it there but I will answer it for you. The question was asked, “why do they hate us?” Nobody wanted to answer it there but the reason is that there is a Satan and he is a hater. He hates the church. He hates the gospel. He hates the priesthood, and he hates families.
Look, if you want to have eternal life you can’t have it alone, and you can’t have it with another man. You have to get there with a daughter of God at your side.
I talked to a man two days ago who is close friends with the archbishop of New York. The archbishop is very sick and someone was asking him what it’s like to stand for the values that the (Catholic) church teaches. His answer was, “I’ll die in this bed. My successor will die in prison. His successor will die a martyr.”
Note don’t go writing in your blog that Brother Eyring said that things are going to be that bad, but it’s not going to be easy.
I’m not going to talk politics today and I won’t talk about countries. I’ll talk about the world.
The country of Mexico is about to legalize gay marriage and we’re fighting that. Let me tell you something, the first time we came up against that was in Hawaii. The state was going to legalize gay marriage. I was, at that time, the junior apostle – a position I held longer than anyone else in the history of the church. The seating arrangement when the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve meet is that the First Presidency sits together and then the Twelve sit in order of seniority circling from one side of the first presidency to the other. The junior apostle sits right there (indicating to the left of the First Presidency). Because I was right there I heard things from the First Presidency that the other apostles often couldn’t here because they were sitting further away. They were discussing the legal effort in Hawaii and saying “we can win this, we can call this person and that person of influence and we can win this fight.” President Hinckley said “maybe we can win it but it will take jars work, and the members of the church will be disappointed when all that hard work is for nothing. We should focus on preaching the gospel and changing hearts.” When enough people in society desire evil they will choose evil. (I’m not sure if that was President or president Eyring speaking that last sentence.)
It’s not a coincidence that I was the longest serving junior member if the Quorum of the Twelve.
Many of you probably remember the fight in California, Proposition 8 Some of you were probably even there. I remember my daughter (I don’t recall the name of the daughter he was referring to), she was working on her doctorate at the University of California in San Diego and she was out there holding up signs in support of traditional marriage. It’s not traditional marriage it’s the real marriage. And people were shouting things that her and persecuting her because she was standing up for what she knew at that University which was a hotbed of activity in favor of Proposition 8. It made things harder for her PhD studies. She could have lost everything, but she did end up getting her PhD.
We won’t always be asked to stand up and fight. Of course, if the prophet asks you to hold a sign you should probably hold the sign.
When I came to Bountiful I got my house here because the bishop of a ward here was the person moving me out of Rexburg. I told him, I don’t know where I’m going to live. He said to me, “you’re going to live in my ward.” And he found me a house which is now in this ward. This is a special place, a protected place. I’ve been living here since 1977 and every time we have a few people move out or a few people died and I think, “well, that’s it” but every time new people move in who keep this special Spirit here.
I was a regional representative for Cache Valley. Cache Valley is a special place, a protected place. And this stake is a protected place. The Lord gathers people together to make special protected places.
When I was called to be president of Ricks College, I was a tenured professor in the graduate school of Economics at Stanford University. I was living on my wife’s parents 22 acre estate rent free with horses and Tennis Courts and our own redwood forest. It was the pinnacle of my career at that time. I got a call from Neal Maxwell who was the commissioner of church education. He said, “Hal, I want to meet with you.” I said, “if ever I’m in Salt Lake City I’ll visit with you.” He said, “I’d like to meet with you tomorrow.” I told him I had a class to teach and he said, “can’t someone else cover your class?”
I flew to Salt Lake that night and he met me in a ski jacket. Your supposed to get dressed up for these things and there he was in a ski jacket. He said, “Hal, I want you to be president of Rick’s College.” I said, “what’s that?” He told me and I said, “I’ll have to pray about it.” He told me to pray all I wanted and said that we were meeting with the First Presidency the next morning.
When I got in there there were two men with an empty chair between them in a room where I now go almost every day. The two men were N. Eldon Tanner and (I don’t remember who he said the other counselor was, my brain registers Harold B. Lee). They were arguing, one saying “he’s a good boy because of his father,” and the other saying “he’s a good boy because of his mother.” The both knew my parents and I don’t remember which one to which side. Then an old, white-haired man shuffled in – it was Joseph Fielding Smith. I think he was wearing bedroom slippers. He sat down between them and {the counselor who’s name I forgot} seemed to be doing most of the talking. He explained to President Smith that they were talking to me about an important position. They didn’t call it a calling. I don’t know if he even understood what he was being told. {The counselor} asked me, “do you believe this could be the property of the Lord?” I got a burning in my heart and I said, “I know it is.” They then thanked me and let me go. In the hall I met Neal Maxwell again and he said, “Hal, the job is yours if you want it.”
I went home
and prayed about it and in one of those few times of my life when I heard an actual voice – one of those times was when I prayed about marrying my wife – the Spirit whispered to me, “it’s my school.” I called up Brother Maxwell and said, “we’re coming.” I didn’t have to ask Kathleen because she got the answer too. It took her a little while to come down off that hill where we lived, but she came with three little boys, including your bishop. R lived in a double-wide trailer and the wind would blow right through it. They didn’t have a house for the president back then. Kathleen never complained because she knew it was where the Lord wanted us.
Perhaps the Lord knew that one day I would be the first counselor to a prophet who would be in a situation similar to President Smith. You may hear or read stories about President Monson repeating himself in a talk getting confused and people will say that he’s not in control but there is not a day that goes by when I meet with President Monson that I don’t get that feeling in my heart again and I know he is God’s prophet. People come to meet with him all the time and they want things, they have an agenda. He knows things he shouldn’t be able to know. He knows what they want and he knows what’s right and he sees men’s hearts.
So you move around and you go where the Lord takes you. And I don’t know if you’ll do amazing things but you take whatever you’re given and you do the best you can because you never know if it’s part of a larger plan somewhere.
As I heard his conclusion I knew it was what laura needed to hear about our current situation. We need to do the best we can with what we have because whether she knows it or not, I know it is okay of a larger plan and we will do any amazing things the Lord may have in store for us so long as we keep doing our best.
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