Last week I had an awesome experience. For those of you who don't know, every Tuesday here at BYU at 11 AM, all of campus shuts down for a campus wide devotional held in the Marriott Center. Sometimes they are called forums when it is an academic speaker and not a religious leader, but last week we were blessed and privileged to have President Thomas S. Monson come speak at the Tuesday devotional. So I met some friends at the Marriott Center and got the best seat we could to be a part of it. To be honest, I never realized how incredibly lucky I am for having seen the prophet so many times in my life until I talked to a lot of my friends and people in my ward about it, many of whom had never even seen the prophet in real life. I realized what a blessing it is that between Pres. Hinckley and Pres. Monson, I can't even count how many times I've seen a living prophet. How amazing is that? Also, I am incredibly blessed to go to a school where the one and only prophet comes to speak to the student body and faculty. Amazing. Anyway, Pres. Monson gave an amazing talk about all of the prophets he has personally known. He was quite hilarious too. My favorite story he told went something like this:
"One day I was in President Spencer W. Kimball's office with a parent whose son had just been called to the New England mission. This father seemed not too pleased and said he thought his son should go to the Old England mission. So President Kimball named off all of the missions in the UK and said something like 'I realize we are general authorities, but if you want your son to go there than perhaps he shall', all the while reprimanding the father who didn't catch on. So the father picked the Bristol mission and said that sounded fine. After he left the office, President Kimball said 'Some parents are interesting.' ...That's not the word I would have used, but then President Kimball wasn't in the Navy like I was."
Then after everyone kind of settled down from laughing, he said "That line was not in my prepared address."
He was hilarious. His talk made all the nine prophets he spoke about seem more real, and not just men I had seen in pictures before. He made them seem relatable. He gave a guiding principle that each of them had for their lives. These are the nine:
Persistance
Compassion
Consideration
True Christianity/Love and action
Gospel Scholarship
Dedication
Love one Another
Ability to find the best in people
Do your best
I now want to strive to find my own guiding principle for my life and follow these nine as well. It was so amazing to have him here on campus, a block away from my apartment! And I realized how truly grateful I am to have a living prophet. And as one of my favorite hymns says it:
"We thank thee oh God for a prophet to guide us in these latter days!"
