10 August 2007 -- President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, passed away. For me, personally, this was one of the most challenging deaths to deal with in recent years. It was interesting that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve under President Hinckley remained unchanged longer than at just about any other time. From the time that the First Presidency was organized under President Hinckley (12 March 1995) until the deaths of Elder Maxwell and Elder Haight in July of 2004, both quorums remained unchanged. President Faust's death in August was the first time under President Hinckley that the First Presidency needed to be reorganized.
For me, Presdient Faust could always be counted on to bring a smile and comfort in times of need. I remember seeing him during the last few general conferences, and I remember seeing how he was in obviously poor health, but he was always in high spirits. I can never really say how much his attitude and optimism meant for me. I thought that the last conference talk he wrote really summarized his ministry well. He was always helping people see that they had "The Power to Change" through faith on, and power from, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a powerful and loving servant of the Savior.
6 October 2007 -- President Henry B. Eyring was called to be the second counselor in the First Presidency, replacing President Faust, and Elder Quentin L. Cook was called to fill the resulting vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve. Remembering this General Conference was rather interesting to me, because I remember before the conference my wife and I were talking with each other, understandably guessing and speculating about who would be called to fill the vacancy in the First Presidency. (I have since learned not to do this, if nothing else because I never get it right.) I must confess that I never really suspected Elder Eyring. I always had thought him still very new as an Apostle, and never really pictured him in that position. I was clearly very wrong. I have since seen him as one of the most powerful leaders in a long time. He has a way of helping each individual member to connect with the power of the Holy Spirit and understand how the Lord really does reach to every person in every capacity. It really is true when the Lord says "For my athoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)
15 December 2007 -- Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve gives the commencement address at BYU-Hawaii and invites Latter-day Saints to "join the conversation about the church" especially using the "new media" of the internet. The next event is, honestly, the impetus behind why I and thousands of other Latter-day Saints are blogging about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly after his address, may people paraphrased the request of his talk as "Thou shalt blog." Today is six months since that talk, so I can tell that I need to be a good deal more diligent and punctual in responding to spiritual promptings and the words of the living prophets. (Better late than never, I suppose.) To "join the conversation", I guess I mostly want to testify that I also know that this church is the work of the Lord. I feel it and have felt it frequently and strongly. Despite my inabilities in conveying that message, I just want to state that I know it is true, and I hope that I can be an effective participant in this regard.
January 2008 -- The Joseph Smith volume in the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church series comes out for use in Priesthood and Relief Society meetings for 2008-2009. Honestly, this was the book I thought would never be written. I even remember talking with my wife a year or so ago about the different manuals that had come out recently. The question came up as to whether there was a specific pattern that the church was following in these manuals. As near as I could tell, there wasn't. I did speculate, however, that there were a few manuals that we would not see. First of all, I doubted that they would ever come out with a manual covering the teachings of the current prophet, simply because they aren't done yet. It just didn't seem like that was something that they would do. Secondly, I doubted that we would ever see a manual on the Prophet Joseph Smith. I said this because we study his teachings every four years in the Doctrine and Covenants anyway, and because there is just so much! I figured that it would be nearly impossible to effectively contain his ministry in a volume that would be even approachable in such a format. Well, I was wrong. They did it. I am awed and inspired by the work that has been done in putting together this manual. I guess our challenge now is to teach and learn effectively from it and to apply what we learn.
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