President Hinckley – 1910 to 2008
President Gordon B. Hinckley became prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the April conference of 1995. I know this because that was the last general church conference I was serving as a missionary for the LDS church. At that time, I prayed about whether or not this man was meant to be the leader of my church. The feelings I got at the time were positive feelings.
This was one (of many) instances where I learned, from firsthand experience, that God does answer prayers.
As a young man I watched as President Benson dedicated to Dallas Texas Temple. I am told by people that were there (not necessarily my parents) that President Hinckley stopped, came back to me, and spoke to me. At the time I was probably no more than 12 years old.
Over the years, from a distance, I have watched and been very impressed with President Hinckley, the way he’s presented himself and information, and wanted to emulate this man. I think he is one of the few people in my life (the list is extremely short) that I have admired and actually wanted to meet. Some time ago I came to realization that I would (probably) not have that as an opportunity during his lifetime.
So, to hear, last night, that he passed away at home with his family around him came as a bit of a shock. Unexpectedly, my mother called and told me that I should be watching TV. Immediately (because I was in a different room) I told Erin to put the TV on Channel 5 (in truth, the church owns the NBC affiliate in this area, which also happens to be Channel 5) and we watched as the various anchors and reporters spoke about his death, about his life, and about their experiences with him.
After a while, after the reporters on scene kept saying, “No, there is no one gathering here,” did we get tired of waiting for a scene (which is NOT news) and went back to doing what we were doing.
Regardless, it was very sad to learn that President Hinckley passed away. And I am glad that at 97 he was finally able to return home and be with his wife again.
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