THE ENSIGN OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS • OCTOBER 2002 Remembering Hiram, Ohio, p. 32 Area Authority Seventies, p. 50 Daniel’s Answer to the King, by Briton Riviere “Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God” (Daniel 6:21–23). COURTESY MANCHESTER ART GALLERY OCTOBER 2002 • VOLUME 32, NUMBER 10 2 FIRST PRESIDENCY MESSAGE Be Not Afraid President James E. Faust 7 Hymn: O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me Alice W. Johnson 8Facing the Fiery Furnace Terry W. Call 11 Jeremiah: As Potter’s Clay Education for Elder Jean A. Tefan Real Life 14 Education for Real Life 14 Elder Henry B. Eyring 22 Part of a Family: Strengthening Relationships Michele Burton Bridging the Distance Kristin Bayles Batchelor 26 Making Choices for Eternity Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf 31 Confessions of a Den Mother Bette Newton Lang 32 Remembering Hiram, Ohio Mark L. Staker 40 GOSPEL CLASSICS Part of a Family: Oneness in Marriage President Spencer W. Kimball Bridging the 22 Distance 46 Joining in the Mighty Work of God Coleen K. Menlove 50 Area Authority Seventies: “To Bear Record of My Name in All the World” Elder Earl C. Tingey 56 VISITING TEACHING MESSAGE Sustaining Priesthood Leaders 57 My Obsession with Food Aleta Goodman Blackwell 62 Teaching the Teachers: In the Classroom, In the Home Rebecca M. Taylor Reaching for a Higher Level Don L. Searle LATTER-DAY SAINT VOICES Confessions of a 68 Oneness in 31 Den Mother 72 RANDOM SAMPLER Marriage 74 NEWS OF THE CHURCH 40 THE FIRST PRESIDENCY: Gordon B. Hinckley, TEXT PROGRAMMER: Sally J. Odekirk at 1-800-537-5971. The Ensign Talking Book, for Thomas S. Monson, James E. Faust MAGAZINE GRAPHICS MANAGER: M. M. Kawasaki individuals with visual impairment or physical QUORUM OF THE TWELVE: Boyd K. Packer, ART DIRECTOR: J. Scott Knudsen disability, is available free of charge or through L. Tom Perry, David B. Haight, Neal A. SENIOR DESIGNERS: C. Kimball Bott, donations. Maxwell, Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, Fay P. Andrus, Tadd R. Peterson TO SUBMIT MANUSCRIPTS OR ART: Send submis- M. Russell Ballard, Joseph B. Wirthlin, DESIGNER: Thomas S. Child sions to the address above or via e-mail at Richard G. Scott, Robert D. Hales, Jeffrey R. PRINTING DIRECTOR: Kay W. Briggs [email protected]. For re- Holland, Henry B. Eyring DISTRIBUTION DIRECTOR: Kris T. Christensen turn delivery by mail, manuscripts and art EDITOR: Dennis B. Neuenschwander must be accompanied by a self-addressed, © 2002 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights ADVISERS: J. Kent Jolley, W. Rolfe Kerr, stamped envelope. reserved. The Ensign (ISSN 0884-1136) is pub- Stephen A. West TO CHANGE ADDRESSES: lished monthly by The Church of Jesus Christ Old address as well as MANAGING DIRECTOR: Ronald L. Knighton of Latter-day Saints, 50 East North Temple new is needed. Call the subscription helpline at EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Richard M. Romney Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84150-3224, USA. 1-800-537-5971, or send changes to the address GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: Allan R. Loyborg Periodicals Postage Paid at Salt Lake City, Utah, below. POSTMASTER: MANAGING EDITOR: Brian K. Kelly and at additional mailing offices. Send address changes to Remembering Salt Lake Distribution Center ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS: Don L. Searle, TO SUBSCRIBE: Send $10.00 U.S. check or money Church Magazines, P.O. Box 26368 Hiram, Ohio Jonathan H. Stephenson order for the Ensign (pronounced N’sign) to Salt Lake City, UT 84126-0368, USA. 32 ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Judith M. Paller, Church Magazines at address at right. Credit LaRene Porter Gaunt, Linda Stahle Cooper card orders (American Express, MasterCard, CANADA POST INFORMATION ASSISTANT EDITOR: Rebecca M. Taylor Visa, Discover Card) are accepted by phone Publication Agreement #40017431 ven at the tender age of seven, Joseph Smith would not take counsel from hisE fears. He endured an excruciating operation with only the comfort of his father holding him. LIZ LEMON SWINDLE BY IF FATHER WILL HOLD ME, IF FATHER 2 F IRST P RESIDENCY M ESSAGE Be Not AFRAID B Y P RESIDENT tender feed the sheep needed as they grazed. We J AMES E. FA UST had .22-caliber rifles, and I was accidentally shot in Second Counselor in the the leg above the knee at close range. When the bullet First Presidency passed through my leg, it felt like a hot poker was going through the flesh. Then I felt the warm blood hen we think of the running down my leg from the hole where the bullet Prophet Joseph Smith had passed through it. I called my father to show him we recognize that he what had happened. He and the other men adminis- Wwas a man who possessed many tered first aid to control the bleeding, then helped me great attributes. Courage was certainly one of these. into our family car to go to the nearest doctor, who Even at the tender age of seven, he would not take was in Coalville. counsel from his fears. He had contracted typhus, After laying me on the operating table and exam- from which he developed a fever sore that settled ining the wound carefully, the doctor decided that he into his left leg. To save his leg, doctors cut a deep must first sterilize the hole in my leg through which incision and removed several pieces of affected the bullet had passed. When I saw how he was going bone. There was, of course, no anesthetic available to sterilize it, I was afraid of two things: I was afraid at that time, and already the seeds of greatness were of the pain and I was also afraid that I would cry. I sprouting as the brave young Joseph endured this didn’t want to cry, because I wanted my father to excruciating operation with only the comfort he think I was no longer a child. In my heart, I said a could draw from his father holding him. silent prayer that Heavenly Father would help me so that no matter how badly it hurt, I wouldn’t cry. AFRAID OF THE PAIN The doctor took a rod like those used to clean gun barrels. On the end of the rod was a hole through I can relate to the Prophet Joseph’s experience be- which a small piece of gauze was threaded and cause of something that happened to me. When I was dipped into a sterilizing solution. The doctor then a boy, I used to love to walk in the fields and in the took the rod and pushed it into my leg. When it came meadows and to swim in the creeks and in the ponds. out on the other side, he changed the gauze, put My father taught me to hunt and to fish. One sum- fresh antiseptic on it, and pulled it back through the mer our family went on an outing near Wanship, hole, pushing it back and forth three times. It hurt Utah. We camped in tents among the trees that grew quite a bit, especially when he got near the bone. But along the banks of the river. A group of our parents’ my father held my hand, and I gritted my teeth and friends and their families went with us and pitched shut my eyes and tried to hold still. Heavenly Father their tents close to ours. One afternoon some of my had heard my silent prayer, because it did not seem young friends and I went out hunting varmints, to hurt as much as I thought it would, and I didn’t which were considered pests because they ate the cry. The wound healed quickly and completely. I was THE ENSIGN/OCTOBER 2002 3 never bothered again by that leg, even when I partici- walking on her uncle’s estate, she stumbles upon the pated in sports in high school and college. I have felt key to the entrance of a garden enclosed by a high something of a feeling of kinship to the Prophet Joseph wall. Once she enters the garden, a transformation ever since, knowing that he, too, had had a painful takes place. In working to restore the garden to its wound in his leg and had been healed and that he was former grandeur, she experiences a freshening of her later described as being a hale and hearty man. spirit. Colin is coaxed from his gloomy room into the garden, and the author writes this commentary: FEAR NEED NOT CONTROL US “So long as Colin shut himself up in his room and thought only of his fears and weakness and his detes- As problems and difficulties have come in my life tation of people who looked at him and reflected since, I have tried to face them as best I could, relying hourly on humps and early death, he was a hysterical more on the help of our Heavenly Father than the half-crazy little hypochondriac who knew nothing of comfort from tears. I learned the sunshine and the spring the lesson that life’s burdens and also did not know that he don’t seem to be so great if we could get well and could stand don’t allow ourselves to get upon his feet if he tried to do it.