“President Hinckley Visits Wyoming Members,” Ensign, Oct. 1995, 75
President Hinckley Visits Wyoming Members
Members from three Latter-day Saint wards gathered in the shadow of the Grand Tetons in the western United States to hear President Gordon B. Hinckley during a combined sacrament meeting for the Jackson First, Second, and Third Wards on July 16.
More than 1,175 Church members met in Jackson, Wyoming, and listened to President Hinckley talk about the beauty of the area and the influence of early Latter-day Saints there. President Hinckley was accompanied by his wife, Marjorie.
“Mormon pioneers settled in Wilson and in Jackson,” President Hinckley observed. “Our people had a very prominent part in this magnificent area. What a pleasure to come here and feel of this great spirit.”
During the meeting, President Hinckley summarized Church growth in the area, noting that a ward was organized in Jackson in 1914. Although the ward became a branch in 1921, it was organized again into a ward in 1934. There are now three wards in the town.
President Hinckley observed that fifty years ago, 55 percent of Church membership lived in Utah and that today only 17 percent of Church members live in the “Beehive State.” Approximately 45 percent of Church members live outside the United States and Canada, he observed, compared to only 6 percent in 1955.
Referring to an earlier visit through the area, President Hinckley talked of seeing water cascading from mountain peaks and wondering, “‘How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints’” (D&C 121:33).
“How true that is,” he continued. “No force on earth can stop the Almighty from pouring down knowledge … if we will live in righteousness, obey the principles of the gospel, do what we ought to do as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and walk in obedience to the commandments of God. We will then receive enlightenment and knowledge and understanding and faith, and our lives will be enriched and be made more happy and more fruitful. There is no question in my mind concerning this, no question at all.”
President Gordon B. Hinckley greets members in Jackson, Wyoming, after speaking at a combined sacrament meeting for three wards in the area. (Photo by Lowell Hardy.)