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This is the first General Conference Address delivered by Elder Stapley after his call to the Twelve.
Brothers and sisters, I feel more keenly than ever that what President Clark has just said is true. I am grateful I had the stop over privilege on the way up to the pulpit, otherwise I am fearful I would not have made the grade. I stand before you in all humility. I am very humble about this call, and I know I require the blessings of the Lord if I fulfil such a high responsibility. I know, too, that I require your love and confidence, your faith and prayers, for it is my desire since receiving this appointment, with the help of the Lord, to give it the best that I am capable of giving.
LOVE FOR BRETHREN
I would like to tell you just a little about the call because it is a testimony, at least to me. But first I would like to say that I love these brethren, the General Authorities. I know them all, and I have had the privilege as a counselor in a stake presidency and as president of a stake to work with them. I appreciate their high spiritual leadership, their fine counsel and advice. I have been coming to general conferences for a long time, and it has been my privilege to raise my hand to sustain these brethren, and I have always tried to do just that. Most of my life I have been actively engaged in the Church. I love the Church; I love to work in the Church. I delight in working with people. I am sure this calling gives me that opportunity.
CALL TO THE COUNCIL
Thursday, having some stake business to transact just following the noon hour, but understanding the General Authorities were in session, I thought I had time to go down the street to visit a friend of mine before they returned to their offices. As I got out of the elevator in the Hotel Utah, whom should the Lord place in my path but President George Albert Smith. There is no one I would rather see, for I have known and loved him for a long time. As a boy I remember his coming into my father's home representing the General Authorities as a stake conference visitor. When I went on my mission to the Southern States, President Smith set me apart for that mission. When my wife and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple, President Smith officiated. When he was General Superintendent of the Mutual Improvement Association, I was superintendent of the Maricopa Stake Mutual Improvement Association. During the dedication of the Arizona Temple at Mesa, President Smith and his lovely wife lived with us for a period of two weeks. He has been in our home, and I have seen him many times since. To us he is a very dear person.
And so here he was, blocking my way. He said, "President Stapley, you are just the man I am looking for." There in the lobby of Hotel Utah he told me that it was the wish of the Brethren that I come on the Council. Well, I saw him to the door, and I am sure I must have looked like a ghost because people were staring at me as I walked back into the hotel, and I thought, surely everyone knows. I went up to the room and called my wife from an adjoining room. I just couldn't speak, I was so overcome with emotion. She tried for a long time to find out what was wrong. She thought surely something serious had happened to me. Well, to some people, perhaps, it had. But when I finally composed myself and told her about the interview with President Smith, the only consideration I received from her was full encouragement to accept the assignment.
APPRECIATION OF WIFE
I deeply appreciate my good wife for the position she took, and I know that in this work if it were not for good wives, the men could not succeed in such high callings. I have learned to rely completely upon these Presiding Brethren, and I know when I sustain them, as being accepted of the Lord, I too am accepted of the Lord and our Heavenly Father.
Brothers and sisters, that is true of all of us. When we receive and follow those whom the Lord has chosen, we are accepted of the Lord and our Heavenly Father.
BLESSING FULFILLED
Now just one other thing. As I was passing through Salt Lake City on my way to the Southern States Mission, I received a patriarchal blessing from Hyrum G. Smith, the father of our present Patriarch to the Church. I haven't read that blessing for some little time, but after this call came, two things in that blessing stood out in my mind that impressed me very greatly. One was that I would be called into positions of responsibility and trust. And this, in a measure, I have enjoyed along the way, but the crowning achievement is in this appointment to the apostleship. And the other was that I would travel much for the gospel's sake. Well, I didn't know when and how in the work I was doing I would be able to realize this blessing. I never expected to be called into this position, but it does open up the way whereby this blessing will be realized. And so I'm grateful to the faithful patriarchs of the Church who enjoy the spirit of their calling, and for the ability they have to lay out before us our pattern of life, and I know if we keep in the way of God's commandments, we will realize that pattern of life.
I have a testimony of this gospel. It is a great Church, and I enjoy working in it, and I hope, brothers and sisters, that I may get acquainted with you in this responsibility and gain your love and respect and confidence. I ask for your faith and prayers that I may serve you well, and I do it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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