I have a special place in my heart for President Hinckley - besides the fact that he was the coolest old person you could ever know - I had a special experience in getting to meet him in late August 1995. I was serving as a missionary in the England Birmingham mission and he had come to England to set up a new stake in Canterbury. I don't know if he visited all the missions over there or not, but our mission (about 200 missionaries worth) met in a small chapel and had a private meeting with President and Sister Hinckley and the area authority, President Doxie. I bawled like a baby the entire time, but I think the Elder next to me was worse!
I was on the third pew from the front. President Hinckley was literally about 15 feet in front of me. Sister Hinckley actually smiled directly at me. As he entered the chapel, our little group rose and sang "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet". Not to be cliche, but when he walked into the chapel, it was like electricity shot through my entire body. The incredible power and love and humility that radiated from him is indescribable. I have absolutely no doubt that man communed with God.I remember Sister Hinckley spoke and was a total crack-up. She was a fiesty lady with a great sense of humor. You could tell she was a prophet's wife. Then, the moment we had been waiting for came, and President Hinckley stood to speak. He didn't have a set talk he came with, everything was off-the-cuff and it was such a wonderful meeting. I remember he thanked us for our work as missionaries and our purpose of bringing people to Christ.
I tried to write down exact quotes, but it was so hard when you are sitting right there trying to soak everything in. I do remember very clearly one thing he said, though, and this is probably about as close to a direct quote as I got. He told us that:
"I hope the great goal of your life, brothers and sisters, is to come to a sure knowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of mankind, by who's name we can approach the Father."He said that our mighty purpose is to impart our testimony concerning the divinity of Jesus Christ.
He spent a great deal of the time just telling us how much he loved us and sharing his personal experiences as a missionary in England. I also remember that he was so funny and human. He would say things like, "Anyway, I don't know why I started talking about that...now I've forgotten what I was going to say!" or once he was going to look up a scripture and he goes, "If I can find it - I got some new books here and I can't find anything in them!" He referred to us as his "beloved associates."
They had told us that we wouldn't be able to shake his hand or anything because he had to leave to be at another appointment, but President Hinckley stayed and shook each of our hands. It was quick, we weren't even able to take a picture with him, but I remember looking into his piercing blue eyes as he read my nametag and then looked at me and said my name. I felt like he was looking right into the center of my soul. All I can say is that that day, I felt a piece of what it will feel like when we meet the Savior.
Please read below.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Gordon B. Hinckley, the longest-serving president of the Mormon church who presided over one of the greatest periods of expansion in its history, died Sunday, a church spokesman said. He was 97.
Hinckley, the 15th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died because of complications from age and was surrounded by his family.
“His life was a true testament of service, and he had an abiding love for others,” said U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican and fellow Mormon. “His wit, wisdom, and exemplary leadership will be missed by not only members of our faith, but by people of all faiths throughout the world.”
Hinckley had been diagnosed with diabetes and was hospitalized in January 2006 for the removal of a cancerous growth in his large intestine. In April 2006, he told a church conference he was in the “sunset of my life” and “totally in the hands of the Lord.”
By unfailing tradition, at a church president’s death, the church’s most senior apostle is ordained within days on a unanimous vote of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. The most long-serving apostle now is Thomas S. Monson.
The church presidency is a lifetime position. Before Hinckley, the oldest church president was David O. McKay who was 96 when he died in 1970.
Hinckley, a grandson of Mormon pioneers, was president for nearly 13 years. He took over as president and prophet on March 12, 1995 and oversaw one of the greatest periods of expansion in church history. The number of temples worldwide more than doubled, from 49 to more than 120 and church membership grew from about 9 million to more than 12 million.
Like his contemporary, Pope John Paul II, he became by far his church’s most traveled leader in history. And the number of Mormons outside the United States surpassed that of American Mormons for the first time since the church, the most successful faith born in the United States, was founded in 1830.
Hinckley began his leadership role in 1995 by holding a rare news conference, citing growth and spreading the Mormon message as the church’s main challenge heading into the 21st century.
“We are dedicated … to teaching the gospel of peace, to the promotion of civility and mutual respect among people everywhere, to bearing witness to the living reality of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the practice of his teachings in our daily lives,” Hinckley said.
“We are not a weird people,” Hinckley told Mike Wallace on “60 Minutes” in 1996.
“The more people come to know us, the better they will understand us,” Hinckley said in an interview with The Associated Press in late 2005. “We’re a little different. We don’t smoke. We don’t drink. We do things in a little different way. That’s not dishonorable. I believe that’s to our credit.”
Hinckley’s grandfather knew church founder Joseph Smith and followed Brigham Young west to the Great Salt Lake Basin. He often spoke of the Mormon heritage of pioneer sacrifice and its importance as a model for the modern church.
“I think as long as history lasts there will be an interest in the roots of this work, a very deep interest,” Hinckley said in a 1994 interview with the AP.
“Because insofar as the people of the church are concerned, without a knowledge of those roots and faith in the validity of those roots, we don’t have anything,” he said.
In 1997, Hinckley seemed to drive that point home in his orchestration of the lavish sesquicentennial celebration of the Mormons’ arrival in the Salt Lake Valley. The yearlong festivities featured a TV-friendly reenactment of the dramatic Mormon exodus from the Midwest by handcart and covered wagon.
Born June 23, 1910, in Salt Lake City, Hinckley graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in arts and planned to attend graduate school in journalism. Instead, a church mission took him to the British Isles.
Upon his return, he became executive director of the newly formed Church Radio, Publicity, and Mission Literature Committee at $60 a month. Hinckley always worked for the church, except for a brief stint during World War II as a railroad agent.
Hinckley was preceded in death by his wife, Marjorie Pay Hinckley, whom he married in 1937. She died April 6, 2004.
