Elder Don Clarke speaking at the YSA Summit fireside
August 7, 2011, in the Salt Lake Tabernacle
Choose to Be Great
It is an honor for me to be here tonight on this wonderful occasion. As I was looking at you before it was time for me to speak, I reflected upon the future of the Church and what a great role you will play in the preparation for the coming of the Son of God. I am honored to be here tonight with my wife Mary Anne. As we were talking about the theme of the conference she said, “I hope you choose to be great tonight.”
So I hope her prayers are answered in your behalf. Thank you for the wonderful choir and the beautiful musical number. I express appreciation for all those who have done so much for this event that you have had this weekend, and I would pray that my remarks tonight would add to what you have received.
I hope that I can speak in English. As they announced, I have been in Guatemala for the last five years, so I hope we don’t get too much Spanglish. I would hope and pray that the gift of Holy Ghost would be yours so that those things that I say would touch your heart.
A number of years ago, Mary Anne and I had the opportunity to be in the presence of President Eyring and he told us what we should do to take advantage of a meeting. I hope that tonight, this will be your mission. President Eyring said, first of all, we should come to a meeting humble, and ready to learn like children. He said the second thing is that we should come with problems. Now if you don’t have problems I have some to loan you. You can talk with me after the meeting.
The third thing President Eyring said, is that we should come with a desire to help other people. Tonight as we meet, I hope and pray that the Lord will touch your hearts and the spirit of the Holy Ghost will be with you, that He will reveal to you what the Father and the Son would have you do as you go on your sojurn through life.
I was interested to look up in the dictionary what a summit is. I think there are some wonderful definitions. It said this: “It is the highest point of attainment.” Our summit is to return to the presence of God. The dictionary also said, “The summit of our ambitions,” and it used synonyms like this, “apex, capstone, peak, and pinnacle.” I think it’s a wonderful title to have for a Young Single Adult conference.
Tonight I would like to start by talking for a few minutes about “choosing to be great” and then talk about some things that we can do in our individual lives that will make us “become great.” I think that becoming great has much to do with small things, not with big things. In Alma 13:10 it says this, “Now as I said concerning the holy order or this high priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; and it was on account of their exceeding faith, and repentance, and their righteousness before God, they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish.”
I love the words “exceeding faith” and I think they not only apply to the priesthood, but they apply to the women that are with us here tonight. One of the great things that I would like to talk about tonight is exceeding faith. I hope and pray that we will be people of exceeding faith.
In the book of James it says “faith without works is dead.” The Prophet Joseph Smith said this, “Faith is the moving cause of all action. Without faith it is impossible to please God.” And then George F. Richards says, “The first principle of a real religion and the foundation of all righteousness and the moving cause of all action is faith.“ Tonight I hope that we become people of faith, people of action, and that we become different for having attended this meeting, having had an experience with the Holy Ghost.
My great-grandfather in about the year 1851, lived in Norway. When he was in Norway, one day two young missionaries knocked on his door. He opened the door and he welcomed them into his home. I’m sure tonight there are many returned missionaries here. They proceeded to give him the missionary lessons. He received a copy of the Book of Mormon. He started to read the Book of Mormon and then he prayed and asked God if it was true. Like all of us, he received an answer to his prayers. My great-grandfather made the decision to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One Saturday, maybe like it is today, he was baptized a member of the church. At that time, being about your age, he went to his work on Monday. He had very good employment at that time, and as he entered into his workplace the boss of the business approached him and said, “I heard that you became a Mormon.”
My great-grandfather said, “Yes, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” And then the boss said, “You have two options. One, stay a Mormon and leave your employment this afternoon. The second, deny your religion and you can keep your employment.” My great-grandfather looked into the eyes of his employer and he said, “I have come to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I will stay a Mormon.” That afternoon he was fired from his employment.
A few months later my great-grandfather was called as a missionary. He served on a mission for eight years, without purse or script. During his missionary service he was put in jail. He slept in the streets. Many nights he went hungry. But always, always, he was faithful.
Sister Clarke and I had a chance to return to Norway a number of years ago and we traveled up the fjords of Norway and arrived one Sunday at the place where my great-grandfather was a missionary. We went to the little chapel in Norway, and as we walked in one of the great saints took us to the library, and took out a history book of the church in Norway. There was the sacred name of my great-grandfather. One time during his time of service as a missionary they called him to a Member Conference, or maybe a conference like tonight. They walked 250 miles to get to the conference, and returned, walking 250 miles.
In his 7th year of missionary service he taught the gospel to a young lady. That young lady was baptized and became my great-grandmother. We don’t do that now days! After 8 years of missionary service he received a boat ticket to come to the states. He arrived and walked to Utah, and in Utah he built a dugout. In that dugout was born my grandfather. After several children and a number of years, my great-grandfather was called as a missionary again and he returned to Norway to serve for three more years. He served full time missions for a total of 11 years.
A couple of years ago Sister Clarke and I went to the cemetery where my great-grandfather and great-grandmother are buried. I knew I was on hallowed ground. I looked heaven ward and I thanked my Heavenly Father for a great-grandmother and a great-grandfather like them. Also very nearby were my grandfather and my grandmother, and my mother and my father.
Tonight, in this congregation, even though some of you may not believe it, are great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers. What you do with your life will determine what happens with thousands. Because of my great-grandfather who remained active in the church in spite of all the problems that there were, there are thousands, literally thousands who are also active in the church today.
So your life just isn’t about you, it’s about much, much more than you.
Tonight, what I would like to do, is talk about how I view my life. I have five aspects to my life, and I have found that when those aspects all work well, then my life is going well. When one doesn’t work as well, then things aren’t as good as I would like them to be. Tonight I want to share with you some truths that I have learned over my few years of existence, and you know I am not really that much older than you. Well, maybe a little.
The first aspect of my life is what I call my spiritual relationship with the Father and the Son. In 1937 in General Conference, President J. Reuben Clark made this observation, “When the Savior came upon the earth, He had two great missions. One was to work out the Messiah-ship, the atonement for the fall and all other aspects of that work. The other was to work, which he did, among the brethren and sisters in the flesh by way of relieving suffering.” I’ve found that when I study and reflect upon the Atonement, and I spend my time in serving His children, then my relationship with Him is better.
When I was 15 years old, I lived in Rexburg, Idaho. Back then, in the olden days we had priesthood at 8 o’clock in the morning, we had Sunday School at 9:30, and then we had Sacrament Meeting in the afternoon at 5 o’clock. We had the opportunity to take the Sacrament twice each Sunday. In Sunday School class where there were 15 or so of my friends, one day we received a new Sunday School teacher. The first thing he did when he came into our class, was take out a piece of paper and that he handed to us and he asked us to write down what we had thought about during the Sacrament that day. I remember what I wrote. I wrote about a date with a young lady, not as good looking as Sister Clarke, and I wrote about a basketball game that we had won the night before. But on my paper was not the name of the Savior. From that Sunday on, every Sunday, we would receive our piece of paper. And as a young 15 or 16 year old boy, my relationship with the Savior changed because of the Sacrament.
President Hinckley said that the most important meeting in the life of a Latter-day Saint is Sacrament Meeting. I would propose that there are four things that should happen in every Sacrament Meeting for each of us. The first thing that I would hope we would do while we partake of the Sacrament is that we would offer a prayer of gratitude for what He has done for us. In Alma it says, “There are many things that will come to pass,” but it says, “There is one that is more important than they all,” and then it talks about the birth and the life of the Savior. Without His atonement there is nothing. There are no eternal families. There is no resurrection. There is no celestial kingdom. One of the most important things for us to do to develop our relationship with him is to partake of the Sacrament worthily.
The second thing that should happen during the sacrament is that we should renew our baptismal covenants. I would hope and pray that if I asked each of you to stand up and recite the Sacramental prayer that you could do it from memory. As important as it is, shouldn’t we know it in our heads and in our hearts?
The third thing that should happen during the Sacrament is that we can be forgiven of our sins. If we come to Sacrament Meeting having repented, we can be made clean and pure. I would hope and pray that we come repenting to Sacrament Meeting.
The fourth thing that should happen is that we can receive revelation and solutions to our problems.
The first thing that helps me form a relationship with Him is Sacrament Meeting, especially the Sacrament. The second part of developing a spiritual relationship with Him, is serving people. In the book of James, it says this, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their afflictions, and keep themselves unspotted from the world.” I hope and pray that we are spending our time on people. Now if I were a bishop at BYU I think that in my ward I would find 50 widows to adopt, and rather than assigning people to hand out hymnbooks or to make prayer assignments, they would visit the widows. I pray that we will take time to help those in need.
In Guatemala we had a shoe shine boy whose name was Marcos. One day one of our secretaries found Marcos in the street. Marcos was a 16 year old young man. He lived in the hills of Guatemala and Marcos and his father and sister had moved, to Guatemala City, so that they could make enough money sustain the family. Marcos was required to drop out of school. He could not study. There was no money. When Marcos came to shine my shoes, he was an excellent shoe shine boy, but he wouldn’t look me in the eye, and said very little. Over the ensuing weeks, Marcos changed, transformed. I was privileged to watch the transformation of a child of God.
Last Easter, Marcos came to me and said, “I would like to give you a gift for Easter.” He said, “Would you like a turkey or a rooster?” I said, “I’m not sure that you need to give me either one,” and he said, “I need to give you one.” I figured the rooster was cheaper, so I said, “I’ll take the rooster.”
Well, the Friday after Easter Marcos came to the office with a live rooster. It was a beautiful rooster with shiny maroon and chestnut brown feathers. Marcos and I went through our area office showing off the rooster. We gave it a name. We called it Rooster Clarke. But the best thing that happened was the Saturday before we left Guatemala; I had the opportunity of baptizing Marcos a member of the church. I talked to Marcos this week. I am different. I am better because God let me know Marcos.
There are hundreds of Marcoses out there. There are hundreds of widows. I would hope and pray that you will find them. I promise you your relationship with Him will improve as you do.
The second part of my life has to do with family. It is interesting that in the new handbooks, in Handbook Two, the first chapter is family. In Doctrine and Covenants 132:20 it says this, “Then shall they be gods, because they have no end. Therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject to them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject to them.”
The greatest university to become gods is called marriage and family. I hope and pray that you as young single adults are participating in what I call family traditions. I hope you have family prayer, even though it may be you alone. I hope that you have family scripture study, even though it may be you alone. I hope and pray that you have family home evening, even though it may be a small group.
I would like to give you some advice. If I was a young single adult again, before I would get married, I would look for the best marriages and the best children, and I would go interview those people. I would go to brother so and so who has a great family and I would say, “You know, I’ve been watching how you treat your wife,” or “I’ve been watching how your kids are, could you give me some advice, so that when I get married, I would know how to have a marriage and children like yours.” If you’ll do that, you’ll come up with some nuggets.
Oh, I know you come from great families. Someday your spouse will come from a great family. But you see, what a bank of wisdom you will have. You will have a made a list of things that you need to do so you won’t make mistakes in your marriage or your life.
As it relates to families, let me give you another couple of bits of advice. For those of you who have fathers who are members of the church, active or less active, you should have a recorded father’s blessing. There are only two blessings that can be recorded in the church. One is a patriarchal blessing, and the other is a recorded father’s blessing. The Book of Mormon is full of them, for instance, Lehi and Alma. They are sacred. I hope and pray that becomes part of your family tradition. President Kimball said this, “Marriage is perhaps the most vital of all decisions, and has the most far reaching effects, for it has to do not only with immediate happiness, but also with eternal happiness. It affects not only two people, but also their families, particularly their children and their children’s children, down through the generations.” I would hope and pray that one of your goals is to seek out an eternal companion. I used to tell the Young Single Adults in Guatemala that we will never get things done unless we have goals. So, a good goal might be two dates a week. And for those young ladies who would like to ask somebody out, I give you permission to do that.
I hope and pray that our plan is to do the things in our life that will make our families strong. We don’t need to wait until we get married to start the plan for that day.
The third aspect of my life has to do with self, improving one’s self. Latter-day Saints study. Latter-day Saints get good grades. Latter-day saints graduate. Latter-day Saints go to the university.
In the Doctrine and Covenants, in section 130:19 it says this, “Now if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much advantage in the world to come.” It is interesting that the word that He uses in the scriptures is “diligence.” Your grades have little to do with intelligence. They have a lot to do with diligence. I hope tonight that as we go through these other aspects that you will remember two words, one is exceptional faith, or exceeding faith. The second is diligence. Exceeding faith and diligence will help us become great.
I‘ve learned that life is full of problems. To learn what I have learned, love problems, love life. Hate problems, and you will hate life. I hope you will learn to love problems. Do you know how much money you can make with excuses? And with complaints? Zero. Do you know how much money you can make by solving problems? Lots. I would hope that you will learn that life is that way, and that you will learn to not let problems determine you. We must learn to solve problems. It is interesting to me that we all believe that we can be gods someday, but when we get problems we don’t believe that we can solve them.
I hope and pray that this becomes part of your way of looking at life. Many returned missionaries are here tonight, at least you look like returned missionaries —some of you not so much. When you came home from your mission many people said to you, “you’re weird.” In fact I met two sisters who had recently returned and we were walking over here together. So somebody thinks that you’re weird. Here’ the answer. When they say, “When are you going to become normal?” You say, “It took me two years to become weird, and I’m going to stay weird”.
I would pay thousands and thousands of dollars to be a missionary. The mission helped determine my life. Don’t go and return to become something less. Elder Ballard says this, “I am so firmly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back only to see that we reached only a small part of our potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.
It is interesting that when you are a missionary you have a little planner every day. In those planners you have goals that you looked at, that you meditated on and that you thought about. As I’ve talked to groups of returned missionaries and I’ve asked them where their planner is and they pull it out and say, “It’s right here on my phone.” Then I ask them “What about your goals? Where are those?” and they tell me, “Oh those are back at the house.”
I would hope and pray that we would have something that we could carry with us that tells us what we want to be. I hope we will pray about them, just like we did when we were missionaries. For those of you who weren’t missionaries, the same principles apply. Be young single adults who work on goals, and work on plans. I have another book here that I carry with me. It’s not a very pretty book. But it’s called my book of inspiration. I’ve learned that God talks to me, and I’ve learned when he talks to me and I write it down and do it, he keeps talking to me. When I don’t write it down and don’t do it, he stops talking to me. I hope and pray that our goals are written down and that we have a book of inspiration that we use to keep us on track in all aspects of our life.
The fourth part of my life is called work. Doctrine and Covenants section 42, verse 42 says this, “Thou shall not be idle, for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer.” We have six children and I know I don’t look it, but we have 16 grandchildren. We have a daughter named Debbie. Debbie was an all-American high school track runner. I helped to coach her. When I was helping Debbie, I taught Debbie this, I said, “First Debbie, you run with your heart.” I said, “Second, you run with your mind, and third, you run with your feet.”
Oh, I am sure there were many that were faster than Debbie, but they didn’t win. I would propose to you young people that it is the same for us. If we work with our heart, and then our mind, and then our feet, we will be blessed.
Some time ago I was exercising and watching TV and they reported on a survey that was done. They said that 85% of the people surveyed were waiting for 5 o’clock to come every day so they could go home. They said 10% more or less enjoyed their work, and only 5% loved their work. I think that’s a sad state of affairs. There are many of us who will spend more waking hours working than anything else we do. Wouldn’t it be appropriate to learn to love work? I’ve always said that if they had me empty the garbage can, I would figure out how to empty it in half the time that the guy before me figured out how to empty it. Whether or not you love work depends on what you put into it.
My mother, a long time ago taught me how to work. As I mentioned, we lived in Rexburg, Idaho, and on the corner where we lived there was the Poole’s house, two widows, who were sisters. In those days, it snowed a lot in Rexburg, Idaho. You know how in the old days your dad had to walk to school both ways uphill? Well, that’s how it was in Rexburg. The snow was so deep. My mother would have my brother and me get out early and send us out with a shovel to the Poole’s sidewalk and driveway before they got up. She didn’t want them to know who shoveled their driveway and sidewalk. One morning we didn’t get there early enough. They came out and found us, and from then on we had a paying job. From there we were adopted by the Poole house. We even got to go to the baseball game in Idaho Falls with them, which was a big deal for us in those days.
Of all the gifts my father taught me, and there were many, perhaps one of the greatest is that he taught me to work. My father was a brick layer. Since I was “this” high, I was mixing mud, carrying bricks, and blocks. It helped me make a decision to study really hard when I was in school. I hope and pray that you will be people that love to work.
Along with that come great financial principles. I hope that you will learn what to do with our money.
I hope you learn to pay your tithing. In the world today there are really big financial problems. I am going to give you four goals to help you with your finances.
Number one, pay your tithing and your fast offerings. Third Nephi, 24:8-10 tells us of the great blessings that will come by paying tithing.
The second principle is spend less than you make. Credit cards make us prisoners. Interest does not sleep. Interest does not sleep.
The third thing is don’t let wants or desires become needs.
Two stories. I was chief financial officer for a company in St. Louis, Missouri. One day I came home from work and my sons Todd and Ben came to me and said,” Dad, are we poor?” At that time I was the chief financial officer and we were living pretty good and I said, “Why do you ask if we are poor?” Todd said, “Well, the neighbor kids said that we’re poor.” And I said, “Well, I think I know why.” See, back then we drove what I call a Guatemalan car. Now on my Guatemalan car do you know how much I owed? Zero. My neighbors and I don’t know if they made even as much as I did, but they had new cars. But do you know how much they owed? Lots.
We have a home in Park City, Utah, and for years we’ve had this old television that weighs 300 pounds. You know it takes 3 elephants to move it. Old TVs are free. You don’t even have to pay for them. In fact, I think I could get you one for free. Maybe I will sell mine. My kids always used to ask me, “Dad, when are you going to buy a new one?” And I said “When the old one doesn’t work.”
Here are financial principles that will help you. Pay your tithing, spend less than you make, don’t let desires become needs, and fourth, learn to start saving. A dollar a day for 30 days is 30 dollars. For 12 months it’s $360. For two years its $720. And so on. Those principles will help you manage your money better.
The fifth aspect of my life has to do with friends. It says in John, “Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.” So I ask you, what is a friend? I have a couple of definitions that I would like to give you. Number one, a friend is somebody who makes you better. An enemy is somebody that leaves you the same or worse. I hope that you’ll hang out with good friends. Friends will take you places. Friends will take you where you didn’t think you will be able to go. The Savior said, when asked what were the two great commandments, he said, “Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might, and with all thy strength. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it. Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself.“ There is no greater commandment than these.
I reflect back on my years long ago as a teenager and a young single adult and I was blessed with great friends. They made me better. Now I hope and pray that we would become great friends. It is interesting to see many friendship destroyed over silly things, over offense. Doctrine and Covenants 64:10 says something about forgiving. And I would hope and pray that in our friendships we will be forgiving. I have seen friendships destroyed when somebody was offended. I learned long ago to not let people offend me. If someone has something bad to say to you, listen. If it is true, change. If it is not true, what does it matter? Don’t let other people determine your happiness. Don’t let those kinds of things destroy your friendships.
Now for most of us, we don’t have lots of great friends. But all of us can become great friends. I hope and pray that once in while we will look around in a ward or a class, and we’ll see somebody that needs a friend, and that we will make a decision to become their friend.
Let me tell you about a great thing. We lived in Connecticut for about 15 years. On Christmas Eve we would have about 24 missionaries in our home, and a number of other people that needed to be there. One Christmas, we had three children away at college, and Mary Anne said “Well this Christmas Eve should we just have our family together? We haven’t been together for a long time. “ As our children came home from BYU, our daughter Christie said, “Well what are we going to do on Christmas Eve?” Mary Anne said, “Well, we are just going to have the family together.” Then Christine asked this question. “What will Rune do? What will Bill do? What will Karimnijads do?” We had them all for Christmas Eve.
I used to challenge my missionaries as they would leave the field to go home and tell their parents that for the holidays they had to invite somebody who needed help. Sister Johnson went home, just before Thanksgiving. She went to her dad and said “Dad, we’ve got to invite somebody who needs help for Thanksgiving.” Dad said, “Listen, it’s the first time we have all been together since your mission, we’re just going to have the family.” Sister Johnson, bless her heart, said “Well, Dad, if we don’t invite somebody who needs help, then I can’t come.” Being a wise father who wanted to have his daughter home for Thanksgiving, he invited somebody.
Become finders of people who need friends. Our influence can be significant. But it will only be significant as we love them, accept them, and overlook their weaknesses.
Now let’s go back to where we started. And let’s review just a little bit.
The Savior’s mission was for the atonement and to help God’s children. Everything we have talked about tonight will help us take advantage of the atonement. Everything. In many cases it will help us help others that need our help. As we do that we will build His Kingdom and do the things that he would have done if he were here. Isn’t that great?
The first important aspect of our life is our spiritual relationship with God and His son, and service to His children.
The second aspect is family. We should work towards getting one. Some of you should work a little harder than you are working. I was going to read President Monson’s conference talk, but I didn’t want to make you feel bad. We should start practicing family principles. For those of you who are home, you should participate with your family.
Let me give you another suggestion that just came to mind. For those of you who hold the Melchizedek priesthood, you young men, I hope and pray that you will give your father and mother a blessing of appreciation. If you don’t live at home, then you can do it some other day. If you do live at home, then maybe tonight. You could go home and say, “Mom and Dad, I’ve been thinking about you today. Would it be possible for me as your son to give you a blessing of appreciation? Then you lay your hands upon your mother’s head, and your father, and by way of a priesthood blessing you give gratitude for all that they have done so that you can be here. I know that some of your parents aren’t active. Maybe some of them aren’t even members, but it doesn’t really matter.
When I was a stake president, Olivia was the daughter of a convert to the church. Her mother was baptized along with Olivia and her brother. Olivia’s mother had trouble living the commandments. So Olivia sometimes would be embarrassed. I remember interviewing Olivia about going to BYU, and I told Olivia this, “Olivia, if it wasn’t for your great parents and your mother, you would not be going to BYU. No matter what the weaknesses of our parents are, they have done so much good.” I would hope and pray that we would continue to participate in the family unit. Sometimes young single adults want to escape. I hope and pray that we have family prayer, family home evening and family scripture study. Those are not exempt for you young single adults. They are habits that will help you stay close to the Lord throughout your life and the lives of your children and keep your family safe.
Aspect number three is education. Remember Latter-day Saints study. Latter-day Saints do graduate. The Holy Ghost knows everything. The Holy Ghost knows mathematics. The Holy Ghost knows English, even. I am questioning whether He knows how to sing, because you haven’t heard me sing.
One time I was working with a class and we were talking about the Holy Ghost with a group of young people. The teacher raised her hand and she said, “My daughter is going to the university and she is a very diligent student.” Notice that the word again, diligent. The woman said that her daughter had studied very hard. As her daughter was going to take her final exam, she dropped her text book, and it fell open. She looked down and picked it up. It was two pages that for some reason she hadn’t studied. Quickly she read those two pages, went into her class, and the first question had the answer from those pages. If you are diligent student, the Holy Ghost will help you.
Love problems, love life. Remember who you are, and remember goals and maybe a book of inspiration.
The next is work. I love work. The Doctrine and Covenants section 4 says this, ”Therefore, ye that embark in the service of God, see that you serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength.”
It’s interesting that those are the same principles that I taught my daughter Debbie to run with her heart, mind and my words were “feet.” Learn to work with all your heart, might, mind and strength. What is your reputation as a worker? What does your boss say about you? There is never a reason not to have a job. If you don’t have a job, you go work for free.
One time I sent my district president to work for free. He went to the factory and said, “I need a job,” and they said, “There are no jobs here.” He said, “I need a job.” They said, “There are no jobs here.” He said, “I’ll work for free, “and then there was a job. So he went to work. In three days the boss fired three people and the district president stayed. I have seven people who have jobs today because they worked for free. But it doesn’t work if you’re not good. It doesn’t work if you get there late and leave early. You need to get there early and leave late.
And last of all, friends. Find one. Be one. Make a difference.
“Touch of the Master’s Hand,” by Myra Welsh
T’was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”
“A dollar, a dollar,” then, two! Only two?
“Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?
“Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going for three . . . “But no,
From the room, far back, a grey haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow;
Then, wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening the loose strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet
As a caroling angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?
Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice;
And going and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We do not quite understand
What changed its worth?” Swift came the reply:
“The touch of a master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of potage,” a glass of wine;
A game, and he travels on.
He is “going” once, and “going” twice,
He’s “going” and almost “gone.”
But the Master comes and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.
Here tonight, outside, there are many who are old and battered and torn by life. The Master knows. He will touch us. He will make us all that he wants us to be. Choose to be great. Choose to make others great and as you so do, life will blossom. Life will be great. I want to commend you for what you do, and I am sure that President Monson would want me to express his love to you tonight. As you well know, after this [last general] conference, you are on his mind. You are on the Father’s mind, on the Savior’s mind. They know what you were like in a previous life. They know how good you are, and they know the great things that you have to do. I express appreciation for a kind Heavenly Father that has seen fit to allow me to be in your presence tonight. I will be different. I will be better.
I want to bear you my witness that I know that Jesus is the Christ. I express appreciation for a kind Heavenly Father who sent His Son to die for us. I would like to bear my testimony that I know that there is a prophet upon the earth today. I‘ve watched, and have been instructed and more importantly felt, that President Monson is for our day. I know the Book of Mormon is true because I’ve read it. And I continue to read it. Mary Anne and I read it every night. Tonight will be Ether chapter 1. We just finished the destruction of the Nephites. We cannot let that happen to us.
I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. May God bless us, all of us, to become who He wants us to become, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.