President Hinckley

Today is a sad day for me. The beloved prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckely passed away at 97 years. About 5 minutes before I heard the news, I was thinking that as we are in an election year, I wish we could have a president of the US as honorable and with as much integrity as President Hinckley. And then I walked into the next room and saw a news interruption that he passed away.

My emotions are overflowing right now.and rather than spilling those for everyone i thought we'd share our President Hinckley encounters.

Mieka: Both of my encounters were before President Hinckley was the president of the church. My first encounter was at the rededication of the Cardston Temple. Since my dad was in the Stake Presidency at the time I was lucky to be in the Celestial room with President Hinckley at other apostles.

The second run-in was literally just that, a run-in. :) There was a regional conference in Missoula, Montana when I was about 14. My dad found out what hotel the Apostles would be staying in and got us a room at the same hotel. That night i was sitting in the lobby and President Packer came in and shook my hand and said hello. That night I stayed in my friends room and the next morning I was running down the hall to go to my parents room to get ready. As I rounded the corner, wearing my Mickey Mouse nightgown, I ran into Pres. Hinckley. And that run-in was literal. I was speechless. And he just smiled and said "It's a beautiful morning for a walk." And kept on going. I'll always remember his sweet smile and twinkle in his eye.

Paul: There were three different times where I had fairly close encounters with President Hinckley, so obviously those are what I remember most. The first one was during the dedication of the San Diego temple - we were fortunate enough to get sat in the celestial room just a couple of rows back from where he was officiating the ceremony, and it was my first time to hear him speak in person, and up close like that was pretty special as well.

The second experience happened at my freshman year at BYU, where me and three other friends decided to camp out outside the Marriott Center for his yearly devotional at BYU in order to get good seats (most of campus comes to see that one). I remember it was November and we were on concrete and it was Utah, so it was pretty darn cold. However it was definitely worth it because we got front row seats to the devotional and I was once again able to hear him up close and personal and feel the goodness and spirit he exuded on a fairly personal level.

The third experience was pretty humorous, at least my encounter with President Hinckley - the circumstances were anything but light, as it was a funeral for the grandparent of some dear friends of ours the Lillywhites. President Hinckley was a personal friend of this grandparent, so he was at the chapel to participate in the service, however we didnt know that. So when I got to the chapel I needed to use the restroom, but when I got to the door two guards were standing out front and I was asked to wait for a moment, and a couple of minutes later President Hinckley came walking out. I then got to hear him give the eulogy, and as always we was ingratiating and a joy to hear.