Elder Marion D. Hanks (d. 2011)<\/a>, then an emeritus member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and lecturing as his \u201cjunior companion\u201d in two multi-stake Book of Mormon firesides on successive nights.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had been called as a General Authority in 1953, and had been a major presence in the Church since my earliest memories, so getting to know him pretty well over the course of three days or so of constant interaction was a lot of fun for me.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I really enjoyed one story he told me, concerning his own favorite experience of calling a stake president.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had traveled to an area \u2014 I don\u2019t know the location \u2014 where a stake of the Church was holding a conference and needed to be reorganized.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Saturday, he interviewed a large number of men whose names had been recommended to him, but, in his judgment, the new stake president was not among them. \u00a0He simply hadn\u2019t found the man he was looking for, and he was beginning to become worried, because a new presidency had to be announced the following morning.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So Elder Hanks asked for a list of all of the high priests in the stake.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When it was brought to him and he began to go through it, there was one name \u2014 that of a complete stranger to him \u2014 that stood out above all the rest.\u00a0 It seemed, he said, almost to glow.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIs this man active?\u201d he asked one of the current stake leaders.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u00a0 Very.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he here tonight?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t seen him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes he usually come to the Saturday night sessions of stake conference?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he does.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where he is tonight, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes he live very far from here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not far.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So Elder Hanks asked if someone from the stake could drive him to the man\u2019s house.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When they arrived, Elder Hanks rang the doorbell, and the man\u2019s wife answered the door.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIs your husband at home?\u201d Elder Hanks asked.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u00a0 He\u2019s downstairs.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t feeling well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMay I speak with him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
She headed downstairs and soon returned with her husband, who seemed a bit ill at ease and was looking intently at the floor.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know why I\u2019m here, don\u2019t you?\u201d Elder Hanks said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d the man replied, dejectedly.\u00a0 \u201cAround Tuesday of this past week, I knew that I would be called as the new stake president.\u00a0 I thought, though, that if I just didn\u2019t go to conference maybe you would call somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elder Hanks explained that it just doesn\u2019t work that way, and called the man to serve as the new president of the stake.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, Elder Hanks told me, the fellow turned out to be an exceptionally good and effective stake president.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I loved the story.\u00a0 It seemed, in its way, a modern analogue to the Old Testament story of Jonah. \u00a0Which, of course, is strongly associated with Joppa\/Jaffa\/Yafo.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Cairo, Egypt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019ve been in and about the very ancient town of Joppa or Jaffa (or Yafo) a couple of times in recent weeks, and, barring unexpected interference, will be there once again within the next few days. \u00a0Which puts me in mind of a very favorite story: \u00a0 Quite a few years ago, 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-61037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>