— Stake Priesthood Meeting — June 2009 —
In our general stake priesthood meeting in June of 2009, we were edified by some wonderful talks. Brother Pate from the 21st Ward related experiences from his recently-completed mission to the Ukraine. He served with his wife, and had remarkable experiences. He mentioned that the Kiev Temple is now under construction, but it had been 9 years from the first announcement of the temple until the first work on the temple was begun. He said that Satan placed every conceivable road block to hedge the way of the construction, but work is now progressing. One of our general authorities told the local members that the completion of that temple would be a “turning point” for the growth of the church in Eastern Europe.
President Francom related that Elder David Bednar and his wife made a surprise visit to the quarterly Stake bishopric meeting recently. He showed up completely unannounced and spoke for over an hour to the bishoprics of our stake. He related the story that his first assignment as an apostle was to go and reorganize a stake in California. When he was picked up at the airport by the outgoing stake president, Elder Bednar said to him, “Why am I here, President?” The obvious answer was to reorganize the stake, but Elder Bednar said, “No, why am I really here? You will probably know before I do.” After a few minutes of contemplation, the stake president said that he now knew at least one reason why Elder Bednar was there. The president related that he had a totally inactive brother (his actual biologic brother) who could not kick the smoking habit, and it was putting his marriage and spiritual future in jeopardy. Elder Bednar requested that the president bring his brother to one of the upcoming meetings. When they met, Elder Bednar put his hands on the inactive brother’s shoulders and was directed to say, “I am an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has personally sent me to tell you that you can beat your smoking habit and any other problem which is keeping you from full activity in the church.” The brother resolved then to make the changes. Elder Bednar went on to tell the bishoprics that this church is about people, not organization or programs.
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