President Mckay Brethren And Sisters In Meekness...

President McKay, brethren and sisters, in meekness and sobriety, and with a deep feeling of humility and inadequacy, I stand before you today in response to a call from a prophet of God to accept this honor and responsibility. Since he spoke to me I have slept little, but I have wept and prayed much. Because I know he is a prophet of God — our beloved President David O. McKay — of which I have borne testimony many times, I feel to accept this great call and responsibility, and I am prepared to dedicate myself and all that I have to this call. I shall continue to pray for the spirit and blessings of the Lord to attend me that I might have the wisdom and knowledge, the courage and strength, the desire and determination and ability to show my appreciation and prove worthy of the confidence of this, our prophet, these chosen men, the General Authorities, and you, my brethren and sisters, who raised your hands to sustain me in this calling. ¶

I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and as your humble servant, the weakest of all, I beseech you to exercise your faith and prayers unitedly in my behalf, that I might serve in a way that will be acceptable to our Heavenly Father. ¶

I am so grateful for my devoted wife, for her love and affection, and that she has dedicated herself to the service of our Heavenly Father, and who will sustain me in anything that I am called to do in this the Church and kingdom of God; and for my wonderful family, who too have accepted the call and say, ". . . choose you this day whom ye will serve; . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15.) I wish also to express my appreciation to these great leaders for the support, the help, and encouragement they have given me during these two years of association with them, and for the help they have given me in years past. To see the devotion, the dedication, and the wisdom of these men, and to be associated with them, is a privilege, a pleasure, and a blessing that one cannot express. ¶

We had the great privilege and pleasure of having President and Sister Moyle and Brother Hinckley with us two months ago, and to see how dedicated they are to this work. These two men, I believe, had fourteen consecutive meetings in fourteen consecutive days, in fourteen different towns in four or five countries. I do not see how they stood it, but if anybody ever forgot himself or lost himself in the service, this is an example of it. And I was so fortunate to have the opportunity and privilege of being with President McKay when he flew to Scotland to organize the Glasgow Stake. To see him at eighty-nine years of age leave his beloved, devoted wife, of whom he thinks so much, and whose health would not permit her to accompany him, and travel all day and all night in order to be there to organize that stake in that great country, the land of his progenitors, is a testimony indeed. It was a great blessing for those people to have a prophet of God in their midst. ¶

The Scottish Mission was organized just eighteen months ago — with a membership of only 1,400 or 1,500 people — and today a stake is organized in the Glasgow area where there were only 400 or 500 members when the mission was organized, and today there are 3,500 members, 2,300 of which were taken into the stake, and the other 1,200 left in the mission. Due to the rapidity with which the growth has taken place, it was necessary to choose several men who have been in the Church just a few months to take the heavy responsibility of being counselors to bishops or act as ward clerks. ¶

This is the result of the work being done by those devoted missionaries, your sons and daughters. It is a great work that they are doing. It is not easy. It is a great challenge, and I appeal to you, my brethren and sisters, and all fathers and mothers, wherever they may be, to realize that it is not an easy thing for these young men to leave, as Brother Burton said, everything that they have and go out and devote two years to this missionary work. How blessed are those boys and girls who have come from homes where the parents are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because they know it is the power of God unto salvation where they are prepared and trained to live the gospel and make it a part of their lives every day, and know that their parents have a testimony, and that they are prepared to accept the call of our prophet: Every member a missionary, realizing that this is the plan of life and salvation, the gospel of peace! ¶

I want to bear you my testimony, my brethren and sisters, that if every member of this Church would accept the call of our prophet today and live the gospel and keep the commandments of our Heavenly Father and become missionaries in very deed, we could contribute more to the cause of peace than all the power that might be gathered together by all the governments and all the men in uniform. ¶

This is our privilege and our call, my brethren and sisters, and I hope and pray that we will have courage, the desire and determination to accept it and live so that when anyone knows we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he can say, as the Governor of Texas said at one time when introducing me to a group of oil men in Dallas, Texas: "The Government is fortunate to have a man like Mr. Tanner in the Government." And when I finished speaking he said, "I want to tell you why I said that 'A Government is fortunate to have a man like Mr. Tanner in the Government.' I told you that Mr. Tanner was a bishop in the Mormon Church. And I want to say that any man who is worthy to be a bishop in that Church needs no other introduction as far as I am concerned." ¶

What a wonderful thing it would be if that could be said of every man who is a member of this Church, and it should be thus. I want to bear you my testimony that I know that God lives; that Jesus is the Christ, and that he lives, though he gave his life for you and me; and that the gospel has been restored in fulness in this, the last dispensation; and that we have a prophet at the head of our Church today to guide us, direct us, encourage us, instruct us. ¶

May we accept this. May we prove worthy of our membership in the Church and kingdom of God is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶