President Hinckley

I have been going to post about President Hinckley now since we got home from the Disney Cruise. I thought that I would finally do it.

Sunday night, while we were cruising (we were in the middle of the ocean) Steve's phone started ringing at about midnight. I asked him "what is that sound" (I really didn't expect the phone to be able to ring out there)? He said "my phone... get it it is your Mom"... I answered it "WHAT... is every one ok... what is wrong?" I knew she wouldn't call because it was so expensive. She said "we knew you would want to hear... President Hinckley just passed away".

WOW! We were shocked, I mean OK he was 97 years old but I kind of just wanted him to live forever. He has been the Prophet since March of 1995... Steve and I started dating at the end of February 1995. He was our Prophet the whole time that Steve and I have dated and been married. Weird!

Our kids were super sad too. Being outside of Utah during the whole thing... news, TV, funeral etc. we felt out of it. We felt like we missed a whole lot. It was hard to be away through it all. We wanted to just sit in front of the TV and watch specials on him.

Here are some of our favorite memories of him...

* Getting his autograph for my Dad's Christmas present last year.
* Being at a fireside in Hawaii and hearing Him and Sister Hinckley speak.
* His super funny personality.
* His wisdom.
* His smile... smirk.
* Listening to him speak... we learned so much from him.
* He was our kids only Prophet in their life.
* Seeing and hearing him speak in person last October for the Stake Conference. I loved how everyone stood up when he walked in. Then hearing the whole conference center congregation sing "We thank thee oh God for a Prophet". It was touching.
* Working with and getting to know his Daughter, Sister Kathy Walker (She was Barnes at the time)
* Being at his son in law, Brother Alan Barnes funeral and having him get up to speak.

There is so many things things that I could write. I really love him and learned so much from him.

President and Sister Hinckley were our favorite examples of how to be great people, a great spouse, great parents and really just try to laugh things off.

I love them both. What a great "early" Valentine's present he gave to Sister Hinckley to go "home" to be with her. He always had such a great love for her.