President Gordon B. Hinckley
There is much more yet to be done, but what has been accomplished is truly phenomenal.
My beloved brethren and sisters, we warmly welcome you to another worldwide
conference of the Church. We are now a great international family, living in
many nations and speaking many languages. To me, it is a marvelous and miraculous
thing that you are able to see us and hear us across the globe.
During my life as a General Authority, we have moved from the time when we
thought it a remarkable thing that we could speak in the Salt Lake Tabernacle
and be heard by radio throughout the state of Utah. Now we are assembled in
this great and magnificent Conference Center, and our images and words are
available to 95 percent of the membership of the Church.
New technology has become available as the Church has grown larger and stronger.
Our membership now reaches almost 12 million, with more members outside North
America than reside within. Once we were recognized as a Utah church. Now we
have become a great international body.
We have made a very long journey in reaching out to the nations of the world.
There is much more yet to be done, but what has been accomplished is truly
phenomenal.
It is a fact that we lose some—far too many. Every
organization of which I am aware does so. But I am satisfied that we retain
and keep active a higher percentage of our members than does any other major
church of which I know.
Everywhere there is great activity and great enthusiasm. We have strong and
able leaders across the world who give of their time and means to move the
work forward.
It is wonderfully refreshing to see the faith and faithfulness of our young
people. They live at a time when a great tide of evil is washing over the earth.
It seems to be everywhere. Old standards are discarded. Principles of virtue
and integrity are cast aside. But we find literally hundreds of thousands of
our young people holding to the high standards of the gospel. They find happy
and uplifting association with those of their own kind. They are improving
their minds with education and their skills with discipline, and their influence
for good is felt ever more widely.
I am pleased to report, my brothers and sisters, that the Church is in good
condition. We continue to build temples, to construct houses of worship, to
carry forward many projects of construction and improvement, all made possible
because of the faith of our people.
We are carrying on a great humanitarian effort, which is blessing the lives
of many of the less fortunate of the earth and those who are the victims of
the catastrophes of nature.
We are pleased to note that on April 1 of this year, the Illinois House
of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution of regret for the forced
expulsion of our people from Nauvoo in 1846. This magnanimous gesture may be
coupled with action taken by then Governor Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, who in 1976 revoked the cruel and unconstitutional extermination order issued
against our people by Governor Lilburn W. Boggs in 1838.
These and other developments represent a most significant change of attitude
toward the Latter-day Saints.
How deeply grateful I feel to each of you and all of you for your dedicated
and consecrated service. I thank you for your many kindnesses to me wherever
I go. I stand as your servant, ready and willing to assist you in any way that
I can.
God bless you, my dear associates. How I love you. How I pray for you. How
I thank you.
May heaven smile upon you. May there be love and
harmony, peace and goodness in your homes. May you be preserved from harm
and evil. May our Father's "great
plan of happiness" (Alma
42:8) become the standard by which you live.
I ask it humbly and gratefully in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.
It will now be our pleasure to hear from our beloved associate Elder David
B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve, who is now 97 years of age. Elder Haight,
come up here and speak to your multitudinous friends.
