“Whenever we find problems in the Church, we usually find
them under one of two umbrellas or canopies, either transgression or lack of
faith in Christ. If members have faith in Christ, then they are active in the
Church and they are absolutely committed.”
“I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I would rather lay
down my life this instant than deny that Nephi, King Benjamin, Alma, Ammon,
Moroni, Mormon, and the Brother of Jared were prophets of God. I know they
were. As I stated to the missionaries, the enemies of the Church could line up
four abreast from San Francisco to Salt Lake City and come to me to try to
convince me that the Church was not true, and when the last one had passed by I
would still know that this church is the only true church on the face of the
earth.”
“Long before I was a General Authority I would sit out in
the congregation and look at the faces of the General Authorities. Do you know
what I always saw? Besides integrity, devotion, love, and commitment—and I love
them more now than I did in those days—I saw almost a translucence, that is, a
whiteness, a countenance change. I don’t know if any of you saw LeGrand
Richards in his later life, but it is true his skin was smooth and almost
translucent. I believe you could have almost looked into the soul of LeGrand
Richards through this crystal clear, translucent flesh of his and seen “the
foulest deed his heart doth hold.” I believe in President Kimball’s case his
face is almost translucent. In the upper room of the temple quite often in our
first Thursday meetings—and we’ll have one again this Thursday—I have seen on
occasion some of the Brethren stand there with an aura of light around them as
they spoke. One of the men around whom I saw an aura when he spoke was the
president of this great institution [BYU], Jeff Holland. It was about four
inches wide. He reported to the Brethren, and I could see it. I knew that Jeff
Holland was speaking in an inspired way to the Brethren at that time.”
[An explanation of D&C 132:46: “and whosesoever sins you
remit on earth shall be remitted eternally in the heavens; and whosesoever sins
you retain on earth shall be retained in heaven”]
“Let me digress here just to say this: Do you know that the
President of the Church is the only man on the face of the earth who can
actually forgive on behalf of the Lord? The rest of us who are common judges
forgive on behalf of the Church, as the Lord’s agents. President Kimball has
said that he never uses this authority unless he really knows.”
“President Kimball, our beloved prophet, not too long ago,
did something that is very tender to me. We were at an area conference. He
heard about a man that had been burned in an explosion. . . . He left the area
conference and flew down to this particular place, spent a few moments
administering to this good brother and then flew back to the area conference.
We arrived back at the hotel at about 10 o’clock and President Kimball was just
coming in. We are just a little over half as old as President Kimball. We had
been out to dinner and had a lovely evening together and he had been doing the
Lord’s work. When he came he looked tired. We found out that the man that he
had administered to, about two weeks later or so, when he finally gained his
consciousness, he said he could only remember two things: one, that he had
talked with the Savior and his time was up. And the other, that President
Kimball came. He couldn’t remember anything else that happened during that
period of time. As he started to heal, his wife said, Of course you’re going to
make it; you’re going to live. He said, no I am not, I already know.” [He died
within two weeks.]
https://byui-media.ldscdn.org/byui_ft/devo_audio/1981_10_27_ADV_Featherstone.mp3
