hinkley thoughts

okay - this is the ultimate example of endless email forwarding. my mother sent me an email that she got from my sister who got it from her old neighbor who got it from her son who is in the mtc right now. it's about his experience sunday night when president hinkley died. i think the kid shares some really poignant thoughts, plus i found it a cool insight on mtc life.

>> After the devotionals on Sundays we always have movie night. This Sunday
>> almost all 2,000 of us missionaries here stayed and watched "Joseph
>> Smith, Prophet of the Restoration", the one that plays downtown. It is
>> powerful. As I watched what went on, I really really felt my gratitude
>> grow for the early church members grow. I realized how much I loved
>> Joseph Smith. By the end of the movie I was crying. Joseph did so much
>> to bring this church to us, and I wanted to get out there and do
>> everything I could to tell everyone about this message. I can honestly
>> say, with no hesitation or doubt, that I know, independant of any outside
>> source, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is here on the earth, and it is
>> the only way we can find real temporal peace, and obtain eternal
>> salvation.
>>
>> The movie ends with Joseph being martyred in slow motion, and then we see
>> him looking to heaven and the words "Oh Lord, My God" are whispered, and
>> then it goes black. I cannot tell you how much I was feeling, being
>> tangibly touched, by the Holy Ghost as he told me that what I just
>> witnessed was true and how it was now MY responsibility to pick up where
>> Joseph Smith left off. That's why I came to the MTC.
>>
>> Tears were going down my face as I thought about this, and then a man
>> stood up at the podium real slow. He said that it was alltogether
>> fitting that we should just watch the majesty of Joseph Smiths passing
>> becuase he had an announcement to make. He informed us that President
>> Hinckley had passed away a few minutes earlier. We're sheltered here at
>> the MTC and not one of us had any idea. No one recieved text messages,
>> we all recieved the news at the same time. Simultaneously every
>> missionary in the MTC, just over 2000, started to weep. Many young men
>> started sobbing audibly. Any outsider would have had to wonder at the
>> kind of man this was to solicit such a response from a bunch of teenaged
>> boys. We all cried. We cried because he was the only prophet we knew,
>> we cried becuase we love his smile and his cheerfulness, we cried because
>> we would miss his testimony of Jesus Christ. But I think mostly we cried
>> because we loved him. This man lived a life so worthy of emulation that
>> his presence will hard to replace. A life so full of serving others that
>> his impact on the world was felt by millions of God's children.
>>
>> In the Joseph Smith movie a woman comes to him and says, "Mr. Smith, I
>> don't believe your religion, but iIthank you for your kindness." Joseph
>> replied, "Ma'am, that is our religion."
>>
>> President Hinckley was that kind of man. This gospel is here for one
>> reason, and that is to make us outward focused individuals. The world
>> focuses on itself, but the difference between Christ and the world is
>> that Christ cared more for the salvation of others souls than his own.