Thirty-one years ago, in January 1995, President Howard W. Hunter dedicated the Bountiful Utah Temple. It was one of two temples he dedicated in his short time as President of the Church.
My parents were both raised in Bountiful, and my siblings and I grew up there as well.
That year was my first year of seminary. Brother Thompson was my teacher. Keen to help students understand the situation we were in of watching a temple built up the hill from our school and homes, Brother Thompson taught us a lot about the temple as the house of the Lord and its importance to our eternal lives.
Two months after the temple’s dedication, President Hunter died. We were sad that the Prophet who dedicated our temple was gone so quickly after our happy experiences of the temple’s open house and dedication.
Brother Thompson again jumped at the opportunity to teach us something that came back to my memory this past week following the recent funeral of the late President Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Nine days after the death of President Hunter, President Gordon B. Hinckley was named President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And in the April 1995 general conference, members of the Church sustained him in a solemn assembly and also sustained then-Elder Henry B. Eyring to be the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Brother Thompson invited us to do more than raise our hands to sustain President Hinckley, his new counselors in the First Presidency and Elder Eyring as a new Apostle. He taught us some of what it means to sustain a Church leader. And he encouraged us to follow the pattern we had learned throughout that year in seminary by praying to know that these leaders were called by God to fulfill these callings.
During that general conference, Elder David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke about the sustaining of a new Prophet and said something that allowed me to feel the Holy Ghost answer my prayer.
“In the prescribed manner, we have accepted and sustained [President Hinckley]. Through him, as has been done through prophets of old, revelation will be made available to us to meet the challenges of a modern society and advance the mission of the Church throughout the world,” he said.
President Hinckley was the Prophet of his day. I received that confirmation. I’m grateful that Brother Thompson shared that lesson with us because another change did not come for nearly another decade, when Elder Neal A. Maxwell and the aforementioned Elder Haight both died in July 2004.
And now I am grateful to share this same lesson with my own children.
Soon, they may have the opportunity to participate in a similar solemn assembly and sustain a new First Presidency and two new members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Knowing that President Dallin H. Oaks is who the Lord has chosen to lead His Church today is a gift available to those who ask God in humility and with a desire to follow His direction.
Latter-day Saints around the globe sustained President Russell M. Nelson as the newest leader of the Church in April 2018 in a solemn assembly. In that same general conference, Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke about the blessing of continuing revelation to both the Church and to its individual members.
“I offer to you my absolute witness that the will of the Lord, for which we fervently prayed, was powerfully manifest,” Elder Stevenson said.
I learned that such an “absolute witness” is available to each of us when I prayed to know that President Hinckley was God’s Prophet. I have prayed for and received a similar testimony with each of his successors.
And over the next few months, I look forward to teaching my own children and praying with them to know that President Oaks is God’s Prophet on the earth today and that He has chosen two new Apostles to also help guide us in our mortal journey and preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
— Jon Ryan Jensen is editor of the Church News.
