Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

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I am so grateful for the wonderful memories that I have of President Hinckley. He was an incredible man that I will never forget. I guess my favorite memory of him was at the dedication of the Newport Beach Temple dedication. He gave a lovely dedicatory prayer. His love for his wife will be an example for me of a great marriage.

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Here is a wondeful article from lds.org on the church's succession when the church president dies.

Succession in the Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The highest-ranking governing body in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the First Presidency, consisting of the president and his two counselors, or advisers. This three-man body supervises the work of the entire Church in all matters of policy, organization and administration.

The second-highest presiding body in Church government is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They serve under the direction of the First Presidency and have heavy administrative responsibilities to oversee the orderly progress and development of the Church throughout the world. The First Presidency and Twelve Apostles are regarded by Latter-day Saints as prophets who receive divine revelation and inspiration to guide the Church.

The appointment of a new president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints happens in an orderly way that — remarkably in today’s world — avoids any trace of internal lobbying for position or rank. Viewed by members as a divinely revealed process, it is devoid of electioneering whether behind the scenes or in public.

Moreover, it is not only the structure of Church organization that governs this process. There is also a deeply ingrained tradition in the Church that personal aspiration for leadership at any level is inappropriate. Instead, the emphasis is on personal worthiness and a humble willingness to serve when invited.

When the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passes away, the following events take place:

1. The First Presidency is automatically dissolved.

2. The two counselors in the First Presidency revert to their places of seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Seniority is determined by the date on which a person was ordained to the Twelve, not by age.

3. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, now numbering 14 and headed by the senior apostle, assumes Church leadership.

4. The senior apostle presides at a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve to consider two alternative propositions:
i. Should the First Presidency be reorganized at this time?
ii. Should the Church continue to function with the Quorum of the Twelve presiding?

5. After discussion, a formal motion is made and accepted by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

6. If a motion to reorganize the First Presidency is passed, the Quorum of the Twelve unanimously selects the new president of the Church. The new president chooses two counselors from among the Quorum of the Twelve and the three of them become the new First Presidency. Throughout the history of the Church, the longest-serving apostle has always become the president of the Church when the First Presidency has been reorganized.

7. Following the reorganization of the First Presidency, the apostle who has served the second longest is sustained as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve. The only exception is when the second-longest-serving apostle has also been called into the First Presidency as a counselor, in which case the third-longest-serving apostle becomes acting president of the Twelve.

8. The president of the Quorum of the Twelve, along with the rest of the apostles, sets apart the new president of the Church through a formal laying on of hands.

Since the Church was formally organized on 6 April 1830, there have been 15 presidents, including President Gordon B. Hinckley

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“We must strengthen ourselves and our people to get our teachers to speak out of their hearts rather than out of their books, to communicate their love for the Lord and this precious work, and somehow it will catch fire in the hearts of those they teach” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [1997], 619–20)

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Yeah, I know i'm the only one in this post. But i do want to share this with you.


Link

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I feel this is important counsel that President Hinckley gave all of us entitled Life's Obligations.
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideN ... 82620aRCRD
I loved this advice.

I heard President David O. McKay say to the members of the Twelve on one occasion, “Brethren, we do not spend enough time meditating.”

I believe that with all my heart. Our lives become extremely busy. We run from one thing to another. We wear ourselves out in thoughtless pursuit of goals which are highly ephemeral. We are entitled to spend some time with ourselves in introspection, in development. I remember my dear father when he was about the age that I am now. He lived in a home where there was a rock wall on the grounds. It was a low wall, and when the weather was warm, he would go and sit on his wall. It seemed to me he sat there for hours, thinking, meditating, pondering things that he would say and write, for he was a very gifted speaker and writer. He read much, even into his very old age. He never ceased growing. Life was for him a great adventure in thinking.

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This morning Emma's English class studied this talk that President Hinckley gave at BYU-Provo 1990 -
Out of Your Experience Here
It's excellent.
http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=7061

We are constantly reminded that there is cause for alarm in our nation. It is shocking to read, for instance, that illiteracy is on the rise. Firms that employ large numbers of workers are alarmed over the qualifications of some of those they hire. The Conference Board recently surveyed 163 large companies in a variety of industries. And now I quote,

Nearly 20% of surveyed firms say they are having problems finding workers who read well enough for entry-level jobs. Almost 50% say that between 15% and 35% of their current employees are not capable of handling more complex tasks, and 10% say that up to half of their current workers do not have the skills needed for promotion. . . . Nearly a quarter of students currently entering high school will not graduate, and those who do will be less literate than their counterparts a decade ago.

That appraisal comes from a recent issue of the Wall Street Journal (9 October 1990, p. A2). Similar findings are reported in other business journals. One of the reasons for this condition lies in the way in which so many spend much of their time.

I deplore the terrible waste of the intellectual resources of so many people of this nation who devote countless hours watching mindless drivel. What a wonderful thing it is, on the other hand, to be found submersed, as you are, in a world of books wherein you can walk with the great minds of all time. Again, in the Wall Street Journal was a column written by the former editor of the Chicago Tribune. He wrote of certain aspects of television and then asked:

What is the mystery. . . about a society that has the manners of a rock band, the morals of a soap opera, the decision-making ability of the Simpsons and wants to pay for government with Visa and American Express? Why should we be surprised that our underlying culture is constructed from the ratings-based, give-them-what-they-want, remote-controlled, quick-zap world of commercial television? [Jim Squires, "Television's Civil War," Wall Street Journal, 8 October 1990, p. A10]

This old world needs straightening up. It needs leadership. If you doubt that, witness the fiasco we are seeing in Congress and the administration, where politics so obviously come ahead of principle

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Walking is the Light of the Lord - October 1998

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/ ... d?lang=eng

Now there is an added challenge for you sisters of this day. Never before, at least not in our generation, have the forces of evil been so blatant, so brazen, so aggressive as they are today. Things we dared not speak about in earlier times are now constantly projected into our living rooms. All sensitivity is cast aside as reporters and pundits speak with a disgusting plainness of things that can only stir curiosity and lead to evil.

Some to whom we have looked as leaders have betrayed us. We are disappointed and disillusioned. And their activity is only the tip of the iceberg. In successive layers beneath that tip is a great mass of sleaze and filth, of dissolute and dishonest behavior.

There is a reason for it. I feel it is simple to define. I believe our problems, almost every one, arise out of the homes of the people. If there is to be reformation, if there is to be a change, if there is to be a return to old and sacred values, it must begin in the home. It is here that truth is learned, that integrity is cultivated, that self-discipline is instilled, and that love is nurtured.

It is in the home that we learn the values by which we guide our lives. That home may be ever so simple. It may be in a poor neighborhood, but with a good father and a good mother, it can become a place of wondrous upbringing. My wife likes to tell of Sam Levenson. He speaks of growing up in a crowded New York tenement where the environment was anything but good. Here in this slum, his mother reared her eight precocious children. He said, “The moral standard of the home had to be higher than that of the street.” His mother would say to them when they acted the way they acted on the street, “You are not on the street; you are in our home. This is not a cellar nor a poolroom. Here we act like human beings.”

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Feed the Spirit, Nourish the Soul - October 1998 - Ensign

Amos of old prophesied: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
“And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it” (Amos 8:11–12).

There is hunger in the land, and a genuine thirst—a great hunger for the word of the Lord and an unsatisfied thirst for things of the Spirit. I am satisfied that the world is starved for spiritual food. Ours is the obligation and the opportunity to nourish the soul.

“No power or influence can or ought to be maintained … , only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

“By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile” (D&C 121:41–42).
I believe those marvelous and simple words set forth the spirit in which we should stand as parents. Do they mean that we should not exercise appropriate but sensitive discipline, that we should not wisely reprove? Note these further words:

“Reproving betimes with sharpness, [When? While angry or in a fit of temper? No.] when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; [Does the Holy Ghost attend contentious reprovings? No.] and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

“That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death” (D&C 121:43–44).

This, my brethren and sisters who stand at the head of families, is the key to government in the home directed by the Holy Spirit. I commend those words to every parent and do not hesitate to promise that if you will govern your families in the spirit of those words, which have come from the Lord, you will have cause to rejoice, as will those for whom you are responsible.

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Another great talk given at a General Relief Society mtg. October 1989 - Rise To the Stature of The Divine Within You

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1 ... within-you

To you women, I wish to issue a challenge tonight. That challenge is to rise to the stature of the divine within you. As you have been reminded, yours is a godly inheritance. “I am a child of God” is not an idle or meaningless statement. You were there “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons [and daughters] of God shouted for joy.” (Job 38:7.) You brought some of that inheritance with you when you came “trailing clouds of glory … from God who is our home.” (William Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood,” st. 5.) You were there when “there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. …

“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Rev. 12:7, 9.) You were among those who chose to follow the plan of Him who became our Redeemer rather than the plan of him who became our adversary. Great and marvelous is your place in the plan of God our Eternal Father.

For you who are young and for you who are older, may I rather quickly suggest three endeavors in which all of you can engage. In making these suggestions I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. Please don’t nag yourself with thoughts of failure. Do not set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. Simply do what you can do, in the best way you know, and the Lord will accept of your effort...
First, educate your hands and your minds.
My second suggestion: keep marriage and motherhood in their true perspective.
Third, may I suggest that you walk with prayer and faith, with charity and love.

Yes, there are adversities to be overcome, not a few of them. There are trials to be endured. There is much of evil in the world and too much of harshness, even in the home. Do what you can to rise above all of this. Stand up. Speak out against evil and brutality. Safeguard against abuse. Keep out of your homes the filthiness of the world, which can lead to such abuse. Rise up in the stature of your divine inheritance. God bless you, you wonderful girls, you strong and able young women, you older women of faith and integrity, you mothers in Zion.

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Mormon Should Mean "More Good" - October 1990

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/ ... d?lang=eng

Anyone who comes to know the man Mormon, through the reading and pondering of his words, anyone who reads this precious trove of history which was assembled and preserved in large measure by him, will come to know that Mormon is not a word of disrepute, but that it represents the greatest good—that good which is of God. It was the modern translator of this ancient record who declared that through reading it a man would come closer to God than through the reading of any other book.

All of this places upon us of this Church and this generation an incumbent and demanding responsibility to recognize that as we are spoken of as Mormons, we must so live that our example will enhance the perception that Mormon can mean in a very real way, “more good.”

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I have been looking for this speech by President Hinckley for a long time. I am always touched when I read it and realize that I miss this wonderful man.
The Loneliness of Leadership - BYU Speech November 1969.

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1563

It was ever thus. The price of leadership is loneliness. The price of adherence to conscience is loneliness. The price of adherence to principle is loneliness. I think it is inescapable. The Savior of the world was a Man who walked in loneliness. I do not know of any statement more underlined with the pathos of loneliness than His statement: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).

It is likewise with the convert. I have been thinking this morning of a friend of mine whom I knew when I was on a mission in London thirty-six years ago. I remember his coming to our apartment through the rain of the night. He knocked at the door, and I invited him in.

He said, “I’ve got to talk with someone. I’m all alone. I’m undone.”

And I said, “What’s your problem?”

And he said, “When I joined the Church a little less than a year ago, my father told me to get out of his home and never come back. And I’ve never been back.”

He continued, “A few months later the cricket club of which I was a member read me off its list, barring me from membership with the boys with whom I had grown up and with whom I had been so close and friendly.”

Then he said, “Last month my boss fired me because I was a member of this church, and I have been unable to get another job and I have had to go on the dole.

“And last night the girl with whom I have gone for a year and a half said she would never marry me because I’m a Mormon.”

I said, “If this has cost you so much, why don’t you leave the Church and go back to your father’s home and to your cricket club and to the job that meant so much to you and to the girl you think you love?”

He said nothing for what seemed to be a long time. Then, putting his head down in his hands, he sobbed and sobbed. Finally, he looked up through his tears and said, “I couldn’t do that. I know this is true, and if it were to cost me my life, I could never give it up.”

He picked up his wet cap and walked to the door and out into the rain, alone and trembling and fearful, but resolute. As I watched him, I thought of the loneliness of conscience, the loneliness of testimony, the loneliness of faith, and the strength and comfort of the Spirit of God.

The Loneliness of Testimony

I would like to conclude by saying to you here today, you young men and women who are in this great congregation, this is your lot. Oh, you are all together here now. You are all of one kind; you are all of one mind. But you are training to go out into the world where you are not going to have about you ten thousand, twenty thousand, twenty-five thousand others like you. You will feel the loneliness of your faith.

It is not easy, for instance, to be virtuous when all about you there are those who scoff at virtue.

It is not easy to be honest when all about you there are those who are interested only in making “a fast buck.”

It is not always easy to be temperate when all about you there are those who scoff at sobriety.

It is not easy to be industrious when all about you there are those who do not believe in the value of work.

It is not easy to be a man of integrity when all about you there are those who will forsake principle for expediency.

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I love this quote from President Hinckley - speech given at the National Press Club - March 8, 2000
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1550 ... tml?pg=all

People wonder what we do for our women. I will tell you what we do. We get out of their way, and look with wonder at what they are accomplishing.