President Hinckley

So, I heard the funniest stories about President Hinckley last week... I wanted to share a few! I got these from a speaker on the BYU channel, his talk was about how our weaknesses can become our strengths.

• Sister Hinckley had always wanted to see the ocean. She finally had her chance later in life when she was traveling on assignment with her husband. When they got to the ocean, they got out of the car and Pres. Hinckley said, "Okay, now you've seen the ocean, let's go."
• The Hinckley family always went to visit the cemeteries on Memorial Day at 7:30 a.m. The reason? So they could beat "the crowds."
• "The crowds" to President Hinckley meant about 10 cars at a time in any given place, parking lot, etc.
• President and Sister Hinckley always went to wedding receptions 30 minutes before they started. Again, they didn't want to get caught in the crowds. The speaker inserted here that he was sure that the wedding party was still setting up the reception when the Hinckleys arrived.
• Once a summer, the Hinckleys would load the family into their car and go to the drive-in movie. But, the family never stayed to see the end of the movies! Again, President Hinckley just had to leave early so he wouldn't get "boxed in" and not be able to drive out right after the movie was over!

What? President Hinckley wasn't perfect? From the stories told, he was a little bit impatient about getting things done. But.... this is where the lesson came in. President Hinckley liked to get things done and do it in a hurry and with efficiency and precision. There were 47 temples in 1995 when he was sustained as the President of the Church. It took the church 165 years to build these temples. In the next 5 years, 55 more temples were dedicated. Amazing! All because of an amazing prophet, blessed to be able to make his weaknesses his strengths, Gordon B. Hinckley.