his wife<\/a> in their living quarters.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the dinner was still being prepared, we sat in the living room and spoke with him. \u00a0When the president came out to tell us that dinner was ready, he asked\u00a0Elder Packer, \u201cAre you getting to know the elders?\u201d \u00a0\u201cI know them better than they think I do,\u201d Elder Packer responded.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the meal,\u00a0sitting at the table, my mission president, who was extremely kind and quite funny, made a crack about my precociously receding hairline. \u00a0I don\u2019t remember what it was, but it didn\u2019t hurt my feelings. \u00a0I\u2019m not very sensitive on this issue. \u00a0We all laughed, and then I realized that Elder Packer wasn\u2019t<\/em> laughing. \u00a0We all calmed down, and then he said, very quietly, \u201cWhen I<\/em> was a mission president, we didn\u2019t permit<\/em> humor at the expense of the missionaries.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was, frankly, a bit embarrassing. \u00a0I hadn\u2019t been embarrassed by the joke, but I was a bit embarrassed for my mission president.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Years later, though, I either read or heard about an interview with Elder Packer in which, asked about his childhood and what he had wanted to be when he grew up, he replied that he had wanted to be good<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I believe it, and I believe that that\u2019s a key to understanding him. \u00a0He was really serious about being good<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
For stake conference that weekend, I was assigned to translate\u00a0all of the German talks into English for Elder Packer. \u00a0(He had an earpiece, and I spoke into a microphone.) \u00a0I can\u2019t quite remember\u00a0how many sessions there were, but I think there was a Saturday session, followed by two Sunday sessions. \u00a0Anyway, it was exhausting. \u00a0I recall, toward the end, being so tired that I simply paraphrased rather than translated. \u00a0I\u2019ve had enormous respect for simultaneous translators ever since.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from San Diego, California<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The first time I met Boyd K. Packer was sometime in the first part of 1974, when he came to Z\u00fcrich for a stake conference. \u00a0He had been an apostle for about four years by that point. \u00a0 Upon arrival, he took a tour of the mission home at Pilatusstrasse 11. \u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Where](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/07\/Zurich_LDS_Church_stake_center.jpg\")
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