Follow The Prophet – The Words & Deeds of God's Living Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson

On behalf of her late husband, President Monson kisses Thelma Fetzer's forehead. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Place: Thelma Fetzer’s house
Purpose: Celebrate friend’s 100th birthday

A week ago from last Thursday, on April 8th, President Monson visited one of his “golden” friends of over 60 years, Thelma Wooley Fetzer, to celebrate her 100th birthday, as reported in the Church News.

Sister Fetzer’s husband, Percy K. Fetzer (who passed away in 1982), was a stake president in Salt Lake City’s Temple View Stake long ago, and called President Monson to be one of his counselors.

“Since I was his counselor and friend, I’ll say for Percy, ‘Happy birthday, sweetheart.’ ” President Monson then placed a kiss on Sister Fetzer’s forehead.

See more in the Church News article:
‘Golden friend’ receives visit from President and Sister Monson

The LDS blog Segullah recently posted some anecdotes about President Monson.  One may or may not be true, as it is told several times removed from the source.  The other was told by Elder Lansing of the Seventy that spoke at a stake conference last weekend.

The first story is about a woman who is not a member of the Church, but who has a coworker who is, and who she speaks with often about the Church.  While the women is traveling on one occasion she meets a nice older gentleman, and they have a conversation:

…she finds out the gentleman is also a member of the church. She tells him about her co-worker [the member]. They talk and have a friendly conversation. As their meeting is coming to a close he asks her to tell her friend hello. Puzzled, she asks, “Will she know you?” He answers, “Yes, she probably will. Tell her Tommy Monson says hello.”

The second story is Elder Lansing’s account of President Monson’s visits to Elder Marion D. Hanks, who is in the hospital with Alzheimer’s disease.  The things that President Monson did for his friend is touching.

Read the stories and the additional anecdotes in the comments at Segullah:
I’m Trying to Be Like…

Whenever a religious figure is asked to speak at a secular or civil event, it is bound to generate questions.  Weber State’s newspaper The Signpost published an article about how President Monson was chosen to be the speaker at the 135th commencement at the university in Ogden, Utah, on April 23rd.

The article also discusses why a honorary degree is bestowed upon the speaker, in this case it will be a doctorate of humanities.  What many people might not be aware of is that President Monson has served the community well, outside of religious circles:

He has served as a member of the National Executive Board of Boy Scouts of America since 1969 and was awarded international scouting’s highest award, the Bronze Wolf, in 1993. In 1981, Monson was appointed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to serve on the President’s Task Force for Private Sector Initiatives. He made a career in publishing and printing and worked as an executive in the Deseret News advertising division and also held a position as a member of the Utah State Board of Regents. Monson has served many years in the community as a board member of many large businesses. Currently he serves as a trustee for Brigham Young University and the Church Board of Education…

“No matter what religious persuasion, no matter what ideals somebody has, no matter what their goals are in life,” Walker said, “if you look across that list of honorary degree recipients you see world-class wonderful people who are just wonderful examples, that you can emulate in your own personal life.”

See the full article at The Signpost:
LDS Church president to encourage graduates

President Monson Speaking. Photo by August Miller/Deseret Morning News

The 180th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be held this weekend, April 3-4, 2010, at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Messages will be given by President Monson, God’s prophet and spokesman on the Earth today, his counselors, President Eyring and President Uchtdorf, and by each of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  Messages will also be given by other General Authorities and officers of the Church.

The schedule is as follows:

• Saturday, April 3rd, General Session, 10:00am MDT
• Saturday, April 3rd, General Session, 2:00pm MDT
• Saturday, April 3rd, Priesthood Session, 6:00pm MDT
• Sunday, April 4th, General Session, 10:00am MDT
• Sunday, April 4th, General Session, 2:00pm MDT

LDS.org notes, “The First Presidency invites all members of the Church to participate by attending, viewing, or listening via television, radio, satellite, or Internet transmission at www.lds.org.”

The Church News reports that more than 100,000 people will attend the Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Many millions more will participate by other means.  Here are the different modes of listening to or viewing Conference: (more info here)

• Internet – Video and audio streams are available on LDS.org.  Video streams are provided in five languages.  Audio streams are provided in 76 languages.
• Television – KSL Channel 5, BYU-TV, BYU-TV International, and KBYU-HD.  On DirecTV it is channel 374, and on Dish Network it is channel 9403.
• Radio – KSL News Radio, BYU Radio, BYU Radio International, and KBYU-FM.
• Other – the Conference will be made available in a number of media formats in the following days and weeks.

The Church has also prepared materials for small children to also benefit from Conference.

Take this opportunity to listen to the prophet of God, the man God has chosen on Earth today to give us the word of God.

Place: Little America Hotel, Salt Lake City, UT
Purpose: Unknown

A couple was at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake last Saturday, March 13th, for an all-day training conference.  At the end of their training they were getting ready to go home when they saw the prophet near an elevator.  They don’t know why he was at the hotel, but they described their encounter:

Then as we were getting ready to leave I heard someone say to their dad, “Dad, there’s the prophet.” So I start to look around and sure enough there he was waiting to get on the elevator. So Randy and I walked over by him (we were three steps away from him). We didn’t get to shake his hand or anything because there was a crowd, but it was so neat to see the prophet just walking around in regular life. He was with his wife who was in a wheelchair, someone was pushing her, and I’m pretty sure he had to security guard type guys with him. He was being his usual self and joking around, when we walked over to him there was a girl giving him a hug and she was crying. She was saying, “oh this is so embarrassing,” President Monson said something about not wanting to make the girls cry. Then as he was standing right next to the elevator he was standing next to a guy who was taller then him and President Monson made the comment about him squatting a little so he would be shorter then him (President Monson). Anyway, hopefully that all made sense, even though we didn’t get to say anything to him or shake his hand it was so awesome to be that close to him. I’m pretty sure that’s the closest I’ve ever been to an apostle let alone the President of the church. It was so amazing!!