January 2001 Ensign
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THE ENSIGN OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS • JANUARY 2001 Focus on the Restoration, pp. 18–58 Strengthening Your Marriage, p. 64 Prophet of the Lord, by David Lindsley “He has translated the book, . and as your Lord and your God liveth it is true” (D&C 17:6), the Lord said of the work of the Prophet Joseph Smith in bringing forth the Book of Mormon. “Thou shalt be called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, . through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ” (D&C 21:1). THE ENSIGN OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS • JANUARY 2001 VOLUME 31 NUMBER 1 2 FIRST PRESIDENCY MESSAGE ON THE COVERS: Front: “Joseph, This Is My Beloved Son. A PROPHET’S COUNSEL AND PRAYER FOR YOUTH Hear Him!” by Leon Parson, oil on canvas, 25” x 47”, 1999. Courtesy of Museum of Church History and Art, Fifth Inter- President Gordon B. Hinckley national Art Competition. Inside front: Prophet of the Lord, 12 WEIGHTIER MATTERS Elder Dallin H. Oaks by David Lindsley, oil on linen, 24” x 30”, 2000. Inside back: Pastoral Scene near the Birthplace of Joseph Smith, 18 INSEPARABLE WITNESSES OF JESUS CHRIST by Frank Magleby, oil on gesso panel, 30” x 40”, 1994. Elder John M. Madsen THE FIRST PRESIDENCY: Gordon B. Hinckley, EBT OESN T AVE 24 A LATTER-DAY TESTAMENT OF BIBLICAL TRUTH D D ’ H Thomas S. Monson, James E. Faust TO BE FOREVER, P. 59 QUORUM OF THE TWELVE: Boyd K. Packer, L. Tom Perry, David B. Rex C. Reeve Jr. Haight, Neal A. Maxwell, Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, M. Russell Ballard, Joseph B. Wirthlin, Richard G. Scott, 30 A MISSION LONG FOREKNOWN W. Jeffrey Marsh Robert D. Hales, Jeffrey R. Holland, Henry B. Eyring 37 “TAKE HEED CONTINUALLY”: PROTECTING EDITOR: Dennis B. Neuenschwander THE OLD LATES ADVISERS: L. Lionel Kendrick, Yoshihiko Kikuchi, G P Andrew H. Hedges John M. Madsen 44 CRADLE OF THE RESTORATION CURRICULUM DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATORS MANAGING DIRECTOR: Ronald L. Knighton 52 FAITHFUL FROM THE FIRST Donald L. Enders EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Richard M. Romney 59 DEBT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE FOREVER Bernard Poduska GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: Allan R. Loyborg EDITORIAL STAFF 64 WHAT WE DID TO STRENGTHEN OUR MARRIAGE MANAGING EDITOR: Jay M. Todd ATTER DAY AINT OICES ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS: Don L. Searle, 68 L - S V Jonathan H. Stephenson HOW THE BOOK OF MORMON FOUND ME Kwame Opare ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Judith M. Paller, LaRene Porter Gaunt, Devan Jensen, Garrett H. Garff “PLEASE HELP IT STOP BLEEDING” Janis Johnson Farrell ASSISTANT EDITORS: Rebecca M. Taylor, Kerry G. Smith, CHARITY AND THE CYCLOPS CAKE Nikki O. Nelson Barbara Jean Jones TEXT PROGRAMMER: Sally J. Odekirk AFTER 20 YEARS, INDIFFERENT NO MORE Félix López Marchán DESIGN STAFF I FELT COMFORT—BUT WHY? Alan L. Olsen MAGAZINE GRAPHICS MANAGER: M. M. Kawasaki ART DIRECTOR: J. Scott Knudsen 74 VISITING TEACHING MESSAGE SENIOR DESIGNERS: C. Kimball Bott, Fay P. Andrus, Tadd R. Peterson PUTTING ON THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD DESIGNER: Thomas S. Child 75 RANDOM SAMPLER PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTION PRINTING DIRECTOR: Kay W. Briggs 76 NEWS OF THE CHURCH DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR (SUBSCRIPTIONS): Kris T. Christensen © 2001 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. The Ensign (ISSN 0884-1136) is published monthly by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150-3224, United States of America. Periodicals Postage Paid at Salt Lake City, Utah, and at additional mailing offices. WEIGHTIER All materials may be copied for incidental, noncommercial MATTERS, church or home use unless otherwise indicated. Other uses P. 12 require permission of the copyright owner. The Ensign (preferred pronunciation: N’sign, not N’sun) will consider unsolicited manuscripts and art, but submis- sions must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope if return delivery is desired. Unsolicited manu- scripts and comments may also be submitted via e-mail at [email protected]. We encourage inter- ested authors to see “Call for Articles,” printed from time to time in “Comment.” Unless identified in captions, some persons photographed are models representing the situations portrayed. TO SUBSCRIBE: Send $10.00 U.S. check or money order to Church Magazines (see address below). Subscription help line: 1-800-537-5971. Credit card orders (American Express, MasterCard, Visa) may be taken by phone. Audiocassettes: Individuals with visual impairment or physi- cal disability may obtain half-speed, four-track audiocassettes of the magazine. These are available monthly free of charge or through donations. Write to: Ensign Talking Book (see address below) or call 1-800-537-5971. Regular issues are to reach U.S. and Canadian subscribers by the first of the month, May and November general conference issues about two weeks later. NOTICE OF ADDRESS CHANGES: Sixty days’ notice required. Include address label from a recent issue; old address, as well as new address, is needed. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Salt Lake Distribution Center, Church Magazines, P.O. Box 26368, Salt Lake City, Utah 84126-0368, United States of America. CANADA POST INFORMATION: Publication Agreement #1604791 F IRST P RESIDENCY M ESSAGE A Prophet’s Counsel and Prayer for Youth B Y P RESIDENT G ORDON B. HINCKLEY think there never before was a went on to New York, where we caught meeting anything like this in this a steamship for the British Isles. While Church. There are so many of you riding the transfer bus in Chicago, a Ihere tonight. How good you look. woman said to the driver, “What is that Some of you have come with doubts. building ahead?” He said, “Ma’am, that Some have come with high expectations. is the Chicago Board of Trade Building. I want you to know that I have been on Every week some man who has lost his my knees asking the Lord to bless me fortune jumps out of one of those win- with the power and the capacity and dows. He has nothing else to live for.” the language to reach into your hearts. Such were the times. They were Beyond this hall are hundreds of mean and ugly. No one who did not thousands of others who are participat- live through that period will ever un- ing with us. To each of you I say welcome. I am glad derstand it fully. I hope with all my heart we never for this tremendous opportunity to speak to you, and have anything like it again. I recognize how important it is. Now, here you are on the threshold of your mature I am now old in years—90 plus. I have lived a long lives. You too worry about school. You worry about time, and I have lived with great love for the young marriage. You worry about many things. I make you a men and young women of this Church. What a truly promise that God will not forsake you if you will walk wonderful group you are. You speak various lan- in His paths with the guidance of His commandments. guages. You are all part of a great family. But you are This is the age of great opportunity. You are so for- also individuals, each with his or her problems, each tunate to be alive. Never in the history of mankind wishing for answers to the things that perplex you and has life been filled with so many opportunities and worry you. How we love you and pray constantly for challenges. When I was born, the average life ex- the genius to help you. Your lives are filled with diffi- pectancy of a man or woman in the United States and cult decisions and with dreams and hopes and longings other Western countries was 50 years. Now it is more to find that which will bring you peace and happiness. than 75 years. Can you imagine that? On average you Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I was your may expect to live at least 25 years longer than some- age. I didn’t worry about drugs or pornography be- one who lived in 1910. cause they were not available then. I worried about This is the season of an explosion of knowledge. school and where it would lead. It was the season of For instance, when I was your age there were no an- the terrible economic depression. I worried about how tibiotics. All of these wonderful medicines have been to earn a living. I served a mission after I finished the discovered and refined in more recent times. Some of university. I went to England. We traveled by train to the great scourges of the earth are gone. Smallpox once Chicago, made a bus transfer across that city, and took whole populations. That is gone entirely. It is a ELECTRONIC COMPOSITION BY CHARLES M. BAIRD AND MARK G. BUDD; RIGHT: PHOTO BY WELDEN C. ANDERSEN PHOTO BY CHARLES M. BAIRD AND MARK G. BUDD; RIGHT: ELECTRONIC COMPOSITION BY 2 THE ENSIGN/JANUARY 2001 3 Be grateful. There are two little words in the English language that perhaps mean more than all others. They are “thank you.” Comparable words are found in every other language, such as gracias, merci, danke, obrigado, domo. The habit of saying thank you is the mark of an educated man or woman. With whom is the Lord dis- pleased? He names “those who confess not his hand in all things” (D&C 59:21). That is, those who walk without grateful expression.