"It is not always easy to be obedient to the voice of the Lord," said Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, then of the Council of the Twelve and now first counselor in the First Presidency, in his October 1971 general conference address.
"We may feel inadequate. I frequently draw comfort from the conversation Moses had with Jehovah, who called him to lead Israel out of Egypt. Moses was a fugitive and a herder of sheep. How totally inadequate he must have felt!"Elder Hinckley said that in 1837, when Elder Heber C. Kimball was called to open the work in England, he as Moses (see Ex. 4:10-12), exclaimed in self-humiliation: " `O, Lord, I am a man of stammering tongue, and altogether unfit for such a work; how can I go to preach in that land, which is so famed throughout Christendom for learning, knowledge and piety. . . . ' "
Nevertheless, Elder Kimball accepted the call, believing the Lord would support him and endow him with every qualification he needed.
Elder Hinckley said, "The assignments given us may be distasteful." However, he affirmed, one will be successful if obedient. He said he also was called on a mission to England, where he was asked by his mission president to visit a book publisher and protest the reprinting of an old book that was "snide and ugly in tone" that purported to be a history of the Mormons.
"I do not hesitate to say that I was frightened," Elder Hinckley recalled. "I went to my room and felt something as I think Moses must have felt when the Lord asked him to go and see Pharaoh. I offered a prayer."
The publisher recalled the books and placed a statement in each that it was not considered as history and no offense was intended against the respected Mormon people.
"We may feel inadequate," Elder Hinckley said. "That which we are asked to do may not be to our liking or fit in with our ideas. But if we will try with faith and prayer and resolution, we can accomplish it."
