President Hinckley

President Gordon B Hinckley passed away Sunday night at the age of 97.

He was the prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints since 1995. So for as long as I can remember he has been the prophet.

He was a sweet man and I really enjoyed listening to him talk at conference. I always liked it when he gave a talk because he was always smiling and he usually was making a joke about something.

My seminary teacher taught us a lesson once about being able to recognize different voices. When a song comes on the radio and you are familiar with the artist you can recall their name. She wanted us to be able to recognize the voice of the prophet just by hearing his voice, so that we would always be able to know and be familiar with his voice in a world where many other influences are coming at us everyday. That if we could pick one voice out of them all to listen too it should be his.

Sitting here now I can recall how is voice sounded raspy but still clear and with a certain conviction to his words. I had the privilege of sitting behind him in the choir when he came to visit D.C. I was about 10 feet away from him and I really wanted to meet him but he had a lot of security.

This was a man who carried a heavy load of being the head of a rapidly growing religion. He had hinted in the past few conferences that he may not be around for much longer. When I saw the news that he had died it felt like a physical blow, I never thought he could die. But I take comfort in knowing he is again united with his wife and family in the Celestial Kingdom.

We will meet again Gordy.