Excerpts from recent addresses by President Gordon B. Hinckley.
BE KIND
We had a General Authority, Joseph Anderson, who lived longer than any other General Authority in the Church. He lived to be 102 years of age. He served as private secretary to President Heber J. Grant for many years. President Grant had a stroke and became very seriously ill, and Joseph Anderson went up to see him at night, and the President said to Joseph, "Joseph, have I ever been unkind to you," and Joseph said, "No, President Grant, you have never been unkind to me." And the President, with tears rolling down his face, said, "Joseph, I am grateful if I have never been unkind to you." He died the next day. But what a marvelous thing that a man who had worked with him for so very many years could say that the man who directed his efforts had never been unkind to him. - From Port Harcourt, Nigeria, regional conference, priesthood leadership meeting, Saturday, Feb. 14, 1998
CHURCH CALLINGS
The Church will ask you to do many things. It will ask you to serve in various capacities. We do not have a professional ministry. You become the ministry of this Church and whenever you are called upon to serve, may I urge you to respond and as you do so, your faith will strengthen and increase. Faith is like the muscle of my arm. If I use it, if I nurture it, it grows strong; it will do many things. But if put it in a sling, and do nothing with it, it will grow weak and useless and so will it be with you. If you accept every opportunity, if you accept every calling, the Lord will make it possible for you to perform it. The Church will not ask you to do anything which you cannot do with the help of the Lord. God bless you to do everything that you are called upon to do. - From Praia, Santiago, Cape Verde, member meeting, Feb. 22, 1998
COUNSEL TO MISSIONARIES
You are preaching the gospel of good news. The things you have to teach are good. They are designed to make people happy and live a better life. You ought to put a smile on your face and go forth to do the work which the Lord has outlined for you and He will bless you. And the missionaries' strength which you have will become a great mark in your lives, a great period in your lives to which you will look back all of your days with appreciation and gratitude. You are only on missions for a short time, make the most of it. - From Accra, Ghana, member meeting, Feb. 16, 1998
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
We have a testimony of God, the Eternal Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ, that does not come of philosophy, that does not come of the argument of divines through the ages, but that comes of a living experience, of a living young man who spoke to the living God, and the living Christ, and he learned more of their nature in a very short time than all of the clerics and priests, and what had been arrived at during centuries of discussion one with another on the nature of God. That is our great message. - From Nairobi, Kenya, member meeting, Feb. 17, 1998
LEADERSHIP
A good leader starves the problems and feeds the opportunity. He doesn't let the problems get him down. We all have problems. We all have difficulties in our leadership, every one of us. We cannot let those become so much a part of our interests that we lose track of the bigger picture. Don't let the little problems worry you. Move ahead with the great opportunities to build the kingdom of God in the earth. . . . Let me urge you again to starve the problems. Oh, you have to deal with them, but deal with them and get them behind you, and feed the opportunities. - From Port Harcourt, Nigeria, regional conference, priesthood leadership meeting, Saturday, Feb. 14, 1998
TESTIMONY OF THE GODHEAD
Do we have a testimony of the God of heaven? You do. I do. God our Eternal Father lives, and what a marvelous thing. We know that He lives. He who rules the universe is our individual Father to whom we may speak as a son speaks to his father. Jesus is the Christ, the great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the promised Messiah of the New Testament, our King, our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, who gave His life for each of us. And the Holy Ghost bears testimony in our hearts concerning the Father and the Son. - From Accra, Ghana, member meeting, Feb. 16, 1998
THE CHURCH
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands unique before the world. It was brought into being by the appearance of God the Eternal Father and the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, to a boy whose mind was not clouded with the doctrines of other churches and with the philosophy of the world. His mind was pure. His outlook was clear. And he could accept the revelations which came to him from the Almighty. So, following that first great vision about which I hope every one of you has read, there came other manifestations of the power of God - the Book of Mormon, as another witness of the Lord Jesus Christ; the holy priesthood, which gives to every worthy man the authority to speak in the name of God. There is nothing upon all the earth to compare with this Church. - From Praia, Santiago, Cape Verde, member meeting, Feb. 22, 1998
THE LORD'S EXPECTATION
The Lord expects great things of His people. We are among His people. Nearly everyone here has entered the waters of baptism for the remission of his or her sins. You have been buried in the water and put away the old man, so to speak, and come out of the water with a newness of life, your sins remitted, and ready to do that which the Lord would have you do.
What does He expect of me and you? What has He commanded us that we do? He expects us to be good men and women - men and women of honesty, men and women of integrity, men and women of faith, men and women of goodness. That is His great teaching, that we might become perfect even as He is perfect. That is one of the expectations of those who have become members of His Church and kingdom. He expects us to love Him, to worship Him, to do His will.
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." Those are not idle words. Those words which tell what He expects of us - to love Him and to grow in the pattern of His beautiful life. - From Las Palmas, Canary Islands, member meeting, Feb. 13, 1998
