What’s Up?

Match the latter-day prophets above with the statement about them below, and see how many you can get right.

1. He spoke on the first radio broadcast of general conference in 1924.

2. He was a Methodist preacher in Canada before he joined the Church.

3. He was known as “T” in his youth.

4. He played football for the University of Utah, where he was the class valedictorian, before serving a mission in Scotland.

5. He was prophet for 30 years—the longest presidency in Church history.

6. As a missionary, he gave a copy of the Book of Mormon to Queen Victoria.

7. He shares his middle name, Bitner, with Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

8. He earned his teaching certificate at age 17 and was known throughout his life as a master teacher.

9. He loved to read the scriptures and had read the Book of Mormon twice by the time he was 10.

10. In 1844, he was a candidate for President of the United States of America.

11. He asked Church members to “lengthen your stride” and become better people.

12. As a youth, he loved to sing and play his guitar.

13. At the age of 15, this prophet was called on a four-year mission to the Sandwich Islands.

14. This prophet had many accidents and injuries. He was bitten by a rabid dog, pushed into a cauldron of boiling water, and nearly crushed by a waterwheel!

15. He gave up his music career to have a settled family life when he married Clara May Jeffs in 1931.

Answers:

Latter-day Saint youth in Missouri, many of whom are Church pioneer descendants, are joining efforts with other Missourian descendants to create a new history for the Church in Gallatin. In an area where misunderstandings once led to the expulsion of the early Saints from Adam-ondi-Ahman, Gallatin, and Far West, youth today are coming together to build trust and friendships. These young men and women have become a light in their community.

Last March, LDS youth participated in an open house for the first Church-built meetinghouse in Gallatin, Daviess County. They worked with displays, moved furniture, invited their teachers and friends to attend, and tended the guest book. Besides helping those who toured the new meetinghouse, many youth also sang in the building’s dedication choir.

The Gallatin youth are active in community projects. For example, Gallatin City Hall now displays a new hand-carved city sign built and installed under the direction of Eagle Scout Sheldon Turley of the Gallatin Branch, Liberty Missouri Stake. Painting homes, cleaning out gutters, delivering holiday meals with members of other faiths, distributing handmade teddy bears to the Gallatin police and fire departments, and clearing and cutting down trees to help with beautification projects are just a few ways these youth are offering the light of the gospel to everyone in Gallatin.

February 2, 1833: Joseph Smith completed translating the New Testament (left; illustrated by Robert T. Barrett.).

February 14, 1853: President Brigham Young broke ground for the Salt Lake Temple (right; photograph courtesy of Utah State Historical Society).

February 8, 1990: Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated Romania for the preaching of the gospel.

February 3, 1992: The Russia St. Petersburg Mission (left; photograph by Craig Dimond) was organized.

Every time you sing this hymn you repeat the phrase “choose the right” 14 times (see Hymns, no. 239). The hymn was first published in 1909. The composer, Henry A. Tuckett, was a candy maker who wrote music as a hobby. The tune is named after his wife, Agnes.

Be careful when you sing it—sometimes congregations pronounce the line “Let no spirit of digression” (correct) as “Let no spirit of discretion” (incorrect). That changes the line’s meaning from “don’t get off course” to exactly the opposite.