President Hinkley

I have been thinking a lot this week about how President Hinckley has touched my life. I wanted to share my experiences. I was on my mission when he was made the prophet. It was weird being in another country when so much was going on. I remember when the Proclamation to the World on the Family was presented to the world.

Anyway, in August of 1995, President and Sister Hinckley came to England to do a bunch of stake reorganizations, etc. They came and spoke to our whole mission-England London Mission. I arrived at the mission office a little early, and he was walking around shaking hands. The minute you are in his presence, there is a spirit you cannot deny. I just wanted to be near him, although I could hardly see him in the sea of suits. My companion and I hurried to the chapel to get a seat as close as we could. I remember in the prayer, he dropped his pen, so he peeked an eye open and picked it up.

Sister Hinckely spoke first and at the time, their grandson was in the mission. She said it was church of miracles because her grandson is serving a mission and a couple months ago she wouldn't have trusted him to go get her Saturday shopping with a note pinned to his sleeve, now he is preeching the gospel. We all cracked up.

President Hinckley told us to be obedient and that there were thousands of people in London ready to hear the gospel. I remember thinking "can you mark them with a dot on their forehead or something?" He is really funny. My mission president's name is President Steele. President Hinckley at one point said he was out of time. He turned to President Steele to see if he could keep speaking. He said yes of course, so President Hinckley said "Isn't it great to be lead by a man of Steele?" He and Sister Hinckely had such an awesome sense of humor and infectious smiles. The spirit was so strong the whole time he spoke, and I remember feeling that he was very close to the Savior and I could feel the Saviors love through him. ( I hope I make it through this as I feel a flood of the feelings I felt so many years ago.)

Being so far from Utah, I admit that I can hardly believe he is gone-I don't want to believe it, but In know that it is part of the plan. I now just have to teach Jordan about what happens when a prophet goes to Heaven. I did want to testify that President Hinckly is a Prophet and he is now in the presence of our dear Savior and Father in Heaven. I love him so much for the things he left us and will miss so much hearing him speak at General Conference. I put up a picture we had taken the day he came to my mission. The picture is half of my mission. We each got to shake his hand and he asked us each where we were from. So I can tell my children I shook hands with a prophet of the Lord. I am second in from the Left in the front row.