7 A final word

During my senior year in high school I was editor of the school newspaper. I think everyone who knew me pretty much knew I was a member of the Church. One of my favorite teachers from that year, who was not a member, wrote somewhat prophetically in my yearbook something to the effect that “you have a gift; use it to bless your church and glorify your God.”

For the past four decades I have been trying to do exactly that.

Who could have guessed that for nearly 40 years I would have been blessed to associate intimately, almost on a daily basis, with the General Authorities of our Church, including those we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators? And to work with scores of other faithful and dedicated men and women? And to use the gifts and talents the Lord had given me to further the work of His church and kingdom? I could not have scripted the course of my life any better had I tried. It has been a blessed run.

George F. Gibbs (1846–1924), a Church employee of an earlier century, wrote: “From my youth it has fallen to my lot to associate more or less with the [leadership] of our Church—a privilege I have ever highly appreciated. And the more intimate my relations have been with our leading men, one and one only thought has come uppermost to mind, namely, that of heartfelt thanks and gratitude to God the Eternal Father for gathering me from an obscure corner of the earth, . . . and for guiding my footsteps in the way of virtue and rectitude, thus fitting me to be His and their servant. And I will have realized my most sanguine hope if, hereafter, I shall be found worthy to continue my relations with them, as their fellow servant, in the great work of human redemption and salvation” (in Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, 358).

I feel the same way. My association through the years with the General Authorities of our Church is a privilege I have ever highly appreciated. And they even paid me for it! Similarly, I express heartfelt thanks and gratitude to my Heavenly Father for lifting me from obscure beginnings, endowing me with gifts and talents, and fitting me to be His and their servant. And it would be my greatest hope if, hereafter, I were found worthy to continue my relations with them, as their fellow servant, in the great work of human redemption and salvation.

As I mentioned last month, I am retiring at the end of July. That will give Claudia and me five months to prepare for our next assignment, our two-year call as full-time missionaries in the Nebraska Omaha Mission and my appointment as the director of the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters.

And so the journey continues.