Part Two (Click to enlarge any photograph)

February 2, 2008

General Authorities and members of the Hinckley family filed into the Conference Center, with some little children in the group. President Hinckley had five children, 25 grandchildren and 62 great grandchildren.

Most poignant for viewers was a camera pan across the row of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve sitting with an empty seat between President Monson and President Eyring. It is a seat we have been used to seeing filled by a face familiar to us.

The services were a tender farewell to the fifteenth president of the Church, who had led with vision and dynamism. It featured four songs from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and speakers Bishop H. David Burton, Elder Earl C. Tingey, President Boyd K. Packer, President Henry B. Eyring, President Thomas S. Monson, and President Hinckley's daughter Virginia H. Pearce, representing the family.

The opening song, “My Redeemer Lives” had been written by President Hinckley and shed his perspective on the day:

In his remarks, Bishop H. David Burton captured the feeling of so many Latter-day Saints. “Upon being informed of his passing, my unprepared emotions found me standing in a darkened room with tears of sadness rolling down my face, soon to be replaced with sweet tears of joy. I suspect many of you stepped foot on that same emotional rollercoaster.”

“We each feel that something has been taken from our hearts with the death of President Hinckley,” said President Eyring. “There was a sense of happy anticipation to look forward to his powerful witness of the Savior, to feel his love for us, and to know that he would bring us a smile and hope as he spoke of even the most difficult challenges.”

The Hinckley Family — Virginia Pearce

President Hinckley's daughter, Virginia Pearce, spoke for his family, but said, “This isn't just about our little family … because, as President Hinckley has often told us, we are all one great family — some 13 million strong — sharing an inheritance of faith and enjoying a covenant relationship with God the Father and His son Jesus Christ, with responsibilities to help one another along the way.”

President Hinckley's love of heritage was reflected in her remarks. She said that President Hinckley's great grandmother, Lois Judd Hinckley, was the first member of the Church in the Hinckley family, and then her son, Ira Nathaniel Hinckley, lost his young wife to cholera on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. “He buried them himself, then picked up his 11-month old baby and finished the journey.” Ira and then his son, Bryant, President Hinckley's father, never wavered in their devotion to the Lord and his truth.

“Speaking at a devotional at BYU in 1999, President Hinckley recalled ‘these three generations of my forebears who have been faithful in the Church. Reflecting on [their] … lives, I looked down at my daughter, at her daughter, who is my grandchild, and at her children, my great-grandchildren. I suddenly realized that I stood right in the middle of these seven generations — three before me and three after me … there passed through my mind a sense of the tremendous obligation that was mine to pass on all that I had received as an inheritance from my forebears to the generations who have now come after me.”

“Our father was adorable,” said Sister Pearce. “And he was a marvel to watch. Disciplined and courageous, with an unbelievable capacity for work, he believed in growth.”

“At no time was this growth process seen more forcefully by us as a family than during the past four years, the capstone years of his life. Following the death of Mother, his grief was almost overwhelming. Characteristically, he acknowledged it — felt it, wept and mourned deeply. He went to the Lord with his tears, thus allowing the loss to carve out an even deeper place in his heart for compassion and dig an even deeper well of faith and trust in God. Then, with that increase in compassion and faith, he put on his shoes and went back to work — in every sense of the word. “

Bishop H. David Burton
Presiding Bishop

As presiding bishop, Bishop H. David Burton's job has been to “operationalize” President Hinckley's inspired endeavors, and in that role has been tutored weekly in his labors by the prophet.

Bishop Burton said, “One of the last meetings President Hinckley conducted was of the Board of Directors for the Perpetual Education Fund. As the status of the fund was reviewed, President Hinckley exclaimed, ‘This is remarkable.' And then after a brief pause said, ‘It is a miracle.' President Hinckley was about miracles. He knew that breaking the cycle of poverty in developing countries was critically important to full participation in the gospel of Jesus Christ and its attendant blessings. For generations yet to come, millions of lives will be blessed by this legacy.

Bishop Burton noted that as construction progressed on the Conference Center, President Hinckley said he wanted the exterior material to be of Little Cottonwood granite. “Many years before, Brigham Young had described Little Cottonwood granite as the finest material the Rocky Mountains could provide. As obstacles were encountered with harvesting the granite, we approached the First Presidency to see if they would consent to an alternate material. We were politely but firmly told that a way would be provided if we were prayerful and persistent. In short, we were and we did! Long live this legacy as a memorial to his vision.”

Elder Earl C. Tingey

Elder Earl C. Tingey remembered “the footprints in the sands of time” that President Hinckley has left behind. He said, “The Hinckley era invokes the image of missionary work to all the world. In the almost 13 years of President Hinckley's presidency, over 400,000 missionaries have been called, representing over 40 percent of all missionaries ever called since the Church was organized. Almost one-third of members today were baptized since President Hinckley became our prophet.”

He noted that President Hinckley left an expansive legacy in education. “The magnificence of Brigham Young University and the expanded BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii, LDS Business College campuses, and Seminaries and Institutes of Religion are evidence of his love of education and students.”

Under President Hinckley, the Quorums of the Seventy were established as one of the presiding quorums in the Church.

Elder Tingey also gave us another glimpse of the famous Hinckley warmth and wit. He said, “I remember an occasion several years ago after he began to use a cane. I arrived at the Church Administration Building around 7:00 in the morning, and as I approached the elevator, I saw President Hinckley and a security officer coming toward the elevator. I pushed the button, the elevator door opened, and I stepped inside, holding the door open. I could hear President Hinckley, with his cane, approaching. As he came to the opened door, President Hinckley looked at me, kept walking, and said, “Earl, go ahead and ride the elevator. I'm taking the stairs.” The elevator door closed. I felt about that high. I comfortably rode up to my floor, while the prophet of the Lord climbed the stairs to his office.”

“We will miss his sense of humor.”