“Touch is my reality,” wrote the adult Helen Keller, who had lost her vision and hearing when less than two years old. Four years of living in total darkness and silence, communicating only with vague gestures, left her willful, angry, and terrified. At age six, she was blessed with a teacher who helped her understand what language is and taught her how to use a finger-spelling alphabet-language that brought her into human communication—giving and receiving messages from hand to hand. She never stopped finger-listening/speaking, learning and exploring, reading and writing. Like others with individual gifts of mind and heart, determination, energy, patience, and confidence, her life had purpose and fulfillment; her example still shines.
Purpose and Potential
Helen Keller did things no blind/deaf individual had ever done. She completed a college bachelor’s degree, wrote 14 books, and traveled 1924–1968 worldwide advocating for the blind.
She described her world:
My world is built of touch-sensations . . . it breathes and throbs with life. Every object is associated in my mind with [qualities of touch] which combined in countless ways, give me a sense of power, of beauty, or of incongruity . . . [feeling] the comic as well as the beautiful in the outward appearance of things.
She shared her faith: “I am a child of God, an inheritor of a fragment of the mind that created all worlds. There is a a blending of . . . the material world and the spiritual.” 1
Helen was chosen for Time Magazine’s list of 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. She didn’t have sight or hearing, but she did have genius-level individual gifts.
Helen Keller is one of my heroes.
Russell M. Nelson has helped us understand, that in His love for His children, God has given each gifts—both physical and spiritual. But He reminds us that “some of the sweetest spirits are housed in frail or imperfect bodies.” For many, spiritual strength is developed through physical difficulties as they overcome these challenges 2 —as Helen Keller did.
Not all gift-developing challenges are physical. Another of my heroes who made the most of individual gifts comes from our family tree.
Jane Johnston Black immigrated with her husband and children from Ireland around the 1840s, when persecution and violence threatened church members. Jane struggled to make ends meet, as her husband was often called away.
Jane’s individual gifts included healing, bolstered by optimism, and courage. Without formal training, she was blessed to quickly discern who needed medical attention and provide it—instinctively successfully.
Joseph Smith recognized her healing gift and set her apart to deliver babies and care for the sick and injured during various phases of preparing for and crossing the plains, as well as settling and pioneering in Utah.
Jane Black did what few uneducated poverty-stricken Irish immigrants had done before: attending violent altercations to aid victims, providing medical care for everything that could happen in a primitive freezing camp, on a wagon migration, or during early territory settlement—delivering around 3,000 babies in the process.
At age 87, Jane concluded firmly in her dictated autobiography: “and I fully did my duty.” 3
Individual Gifts to Share and Serve
John C. Pingree, Jr. quoted Doctrine and Covenants 46, “to some is given one [gift] and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.”
Besides those discussed in scripture, he mentioned individual gifts we may see more frequently: “having compassion, expressing hope, relating well with people, organizing effectively, speaking or writing persuasively, teaching clearly, and working hard.”
Elder Pingree assured us:
Every one of us has a meaningful role to play in furthering God’s work . . . He has always used ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.” If we ask God in sincerity of heart, He will help us recognize our individual gifts and enable us to use them. 4
A hero I was blessed to know well came to the United States from Tonga in 1974, having no money and knowing little English. He did have a persistent feeling that he should be a police officer and a blessing that in his work he would associate with prophets, apostles, and other church leaders.
As the first police officer in the U.S. from Tonga, serving in a large city police department and upon retirement as an officer at Brigham Young University, he spent 45 years helping others face challenges.
Colleagues on both police forces were amazed at his individual gifts for helping gang members and other troubled youth understand what they could become and face forward. Officers commented, “That’s just the way he is” and “they want to be like he is.”
His BYU police work allowed him to escort apostles, prophets, and church leaders, to devotionals, events, and athletic games.
His daughter wrote, “He knew his Savior and spent his life doing his best to follow Christ’s example,” with “his stalwart faith in God, his willingness to do hard work, and his love of life.”
My greatest hero, shared with many millions, grew up in a home without religious presence. As a young boy he took a bus to town and bought a book to learn about the religion of his ancestors, which was prevalent in his community.
As a world-renowned doctor, Russell M. Nelson did what no doctor had ever done before: traveled worldwide performing and teaching heart surgery, helped develop the first heart-lung machine, saved an incredible number of lives, and more recently has served as an apostle as well as the Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We thank God for this hero, and for so many others who inspire our lives.
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