Latter-Day Prophets

So, Channing led the Primary in "Latter-Day Prophets" for the opening song last Sunday, ending with "Gordon B. Hinkley leads today, we hear and honor his word today" or something (I'm still tempted to end with Spencer W. Kimball). After the song, Channing asked, "And who is our prophet today?" and Ruby replied, "Gordon B. Hinkley." I didn't think anything of it at the time.

Then, Sunday night around 8:45, James logs onto the internet and says, "Oh, President Hinkley died," and I felt a big chunk of my adolescence break off and fall into the past. President Hinkley was called to be the prophet (of the LDS church) when I was almost 15, and I kinda feel like much of my testimony of "latter-day prophets" was based on seeing him and his strength as a prophet. I really have a testimony that he was called of God to lead us in these days. I remember seeing him at a Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert when James and I were living in Utah the year before we got married. We saw Sister Hinkley and some of their grandchildren sitting near the front, and the everyone started to stand as the Prophet of the Lord came in to sit with hi wife. We saw Sister Hinkley chiding her husband for "ruining their 'girls night out.'" What a cute couple. I'm glad that he's able to be with her again, but I shall miss him as our leader.

Although as a child I often looked forward to hearing President Monson's Conference talks, it was more because he told good stories than anything concerning his leadership abilities. Of course, now that I begin to reflect further back, I recall not feeling very confident in President Hinkley's leadership abilities back in the days of President Benson (President Hunter's time as prophet was too short for much reflection), but I soon learned to love and follow him. Perhaps the same shall be the case for President Monson. The Lord has invited us to ask for confirmation of things such as this, and I have plenty of time before he gets called in April to do just that.