How My Life Has Been Influenced by the Living Prophets

(this is a talk I gave around 2003, as I traveled around the stake as Stake Primary President during ward/branch conferences)
Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shares this story, as recorded by Wilford Woodruff: At a meeting of the brethren, “…the Prophet Joseph Smith turned to Brigham Young and said, ‘Brother Brigham, I want you to take the stand and tell us your views with regard to the written oracles and the written word of God.’
“In response to that invitation, Brother Brigham ‘took the Bible, and laid it down; he took the Book of Mormon and laid it down; and he took the book of Doctrine and Covenants, and laid It down before him, and he said, “There is the written word of God to us, concerning the work of God from the beginning of the world, almost, to our day. And now,” said he, “when compared with the living oracles those books are nothing to me; those books do not convey the word of God direct to us now, as do the words of a Prophet or a man bearing the Holy Priesthood in our day and generation. I would rather have the living oracles [meaning the mouthpieces of God] than all the writings in the books.” ‘ “
“At the end of these remarks, the Prophet Joseph said to the congregation: ‘Brother Brigham has told you the word of the Lord, and he has told you the truth.’ “
Long ago when I served a mission, the missionaries had the blessing of meeting with the prophet in the solemn assembly room of the Salt Lake Temple. The prophet was President Harold B. Lee. President Lee told us that at times during those meetings, some of the missionaries would ask for scriptural documentation of some response they had been given. The prophet reminded us that a prophet, when speaking as the Lord‘s mouthpiece, need give no other documentation, for as the Lord stated in section 1 of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 38, “…whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.”
What a precious gift we enjoy in these Latter Days, what a privilege, to be led by a living prophet of God! I believe that long before I understood that we need a living prophet, I accepted that we have one. One of my dearest possessions as a child was a little burgundy-colored volume given to me by my parents at my baptism, entitled, A Child’s Story of the Prophet Joseph Smith, written by Emma Marr Petersen. I devoured that book, and came to know and appreciate the great Prophet of the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. My soft child’s heart was forever impressed when I read of the heroic struggle of the young boy Joseph to undergo a painful operation on his knee, having refused to drink alcohol to deaden the pain. I suppose that story, as much or more than any other, forged my own solid commitment to keep the Word of Wisdom.

Just as with our Primary children today, my young life was laced through with stories of the modern prophets: how Heber J. Grant overcame weakness; how Lorenzo Snow saved the Church from financial ruin by recommitting the membership to the Law of Tithing; how Joseph F. Smith stood up to would-be mobsters with unflinching courage, to affirm that indeed he was a “Mormon”, “died in the wool, true blue, through and through.” The imperative to listen, listen to the Still, Small Voice was forever burned into my soul as I read the story of how Wilford Woodruff saved his family from death and injury by heeding the prompting to get up in the middle of the night and move his wagon.
My family was able to travel from our home in Idaho to Salt Lake City many times to attend General Conference. How my heart soared within me to stand as the prophet entered, and to sing, along with thousands of the Saints, “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet”. From the year I was born till I was a freshman at Brigham Young University, the prophet and President of the Church was David O. McKay. Merely to say his name makes my heart swell and my eyes become wet. I loved President McKay! I stood at the rear exit of the tabernacle with a small cluster of members as he emerged from a concluding session of conference, still tall at ninety-plus years of age, with that beautiful full head of wavy white hair. He seemed an angel in our midst! One Saturday evening after General Priesthood session, the automobile carrying President McKay even cruised alongside us as we circled Temple Square prior to fetching my father and uncle, who had been in attendance at the session. There was the prophet, straight across from me, going the very same direction! A moment to treasure.
President Joseph Fielding Smith, President Lee, President Ezra Taft Benson, President Howard W. Hunter, and President Gordon B. Hinckley, all visited our stake for conference at some time or other, as apostles, and I was able to meet each one personally. Surely President Spencer W. Kimball visited us, too, but such was my acceptance of the FACT of a living prophet that I do not specifically recall! President Kimball was the President of The Church when our first child was born. She wasn’t two years old before she knew to recognize a portrait of the prophet. “Pimbo,” she would say, pointing to his picture. I cherish the anecdote concerning President Hunter, whose visit to the Church Museum of Art and History, prompted a little child to take off after his wheelchair. When asked by his parents where he was going, the child replied, “To follow the prophet.”
How have the modern prophets influenced my life? I do not believe there is a piece of me that does not resonate with the testimony that there is a prophet of God on the earth today, even Gordon B. Hinckley, that he leads and guides The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under the direction of the Savior himself, and that by listening to and abiding by his counsel, we will be a blessed and beloved people indeed. The knowledge of a living prophet sings through all the moments of my life, lending meaning and security through the joys and through the struggles. I believe I understand, if only to a small degree, the fervor in President Brigham Young’s heart when he exclaimed, “I feel like shouting Hallelujah, all the time, when I think that I ever knew Joseph Smith [or David O. McKay, or Spencer W. Kimball, or Gordon B. Hinckley], the Prophet whom the Lord raised up and ordained, and to whom he gave keys and power to build up the Kingdom of God on earth and sustain it. These keys are committed to this people, and we have power to continue the work that Joseph commenced, until everything is prepared for the coming of the Son of Man. This is the business of the Latter-day Saints, and it is all the business we have on hand.”
I fervently pray that we will prove ourselves worthy of the blessings of living in these Latter Days, under the direction of the Lord’s living mouthpiece, by carrying out the “business of the Latter-day Saints,” and I leave this with you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.