“Friend to Friend: A Privilege and a Blessing,” Friend, Mar. 1979, 6
Friend to Friend:
A Privilege and a Blessing
Elder Bangerter recalls from his earliest childhood the influence for good the General Authorities of the Church have brought into his life by their Christlike example.
Elder William Grant Bangerter
When I was about three years old, my father was called to be a bishop. This calling, which lasted over the next thirteen years, kept our family involved with church activity and made it possible for us to have the experience of meeting many leaders of the Church.
My first remembrance was of Elder James E. Talmage coming to our stake and being invited to our home for dinner. He paid special attention to us children, visiting with us and showing us his windup watch that had a mechanism to strike the hours just like a large wall clock.
Elder James E. Talmage
About the time I was baptized into the Church, Elder Melvin J. Ballard visited our stake conference. He told the story of his recent visit to South America where he, in company with Rulon S. Wells and Rey L. Pratt, had begun missionary work. I didn’t know then that thirteen years later I would sit in Elder Ballard’s office and that he, as an apostle of the Lord, would set me apart to be a missionary in South America. Much less did I then realize that many years of my life would be spent in that great land and that I would see the Church there grow from just a few hundred members to hundreds of thousands of members.
Elder Melvin J. Ballard
My first contact with a prophet of the Lord came when President Heber J. Grant attended our stake conference. This was a thrilling experience for a deacon. Before I went on my mission, I was able to meet him personally.
President Heber J. Grant
One morning David O. McKay came to our Sunday School. He was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and superintendent of all the Latter-day Saint Sunday Schools in the world. He spoke to us in such a way that I will never forget his visit.
President David O. McKay
Another General Authority, Rulon S. Wells, a kindly and pleasant elderly gentleman, came to our home one time after a stake conference. He stayed for supper and afterward accompanied me while I milked the cows. He leaned on the corral fence and we chatted.
Elder Rulon S. Wells
Afterward, since I had recently obtained a driver’s license, I was able to drive him back to Salt Lake City in our old Model T Ford touring car. When Elder Wells ordained me a seventy before I went on my mission, I was thrilled to learn that he had been ordained a seventy by Brigham Young.
Just a month after returning from my first mission in Brazil, I was called as a counselor in our ward bishopric and at the age of twenty-three was ordained a high priest by Elder Charles A. Callis, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve.
Elder Charles A. Callis
Several years later I was called to be a bishop, and once again I sat in the Church Administration Building. I had met Elder Kimball two or three times before, and on each occasion it had given me a warm feeling.
Three years later, President Joseph Fielding Smith of the Council of the Twelve came to our stake conference accompanied by Elder Mark E. Petersen. In interviewing me they asked many questions to determine my worthiness. Then President Smith said that the Lord had inspired them to call me to be the president of our stake.
Elder Mark E. Petersen
In the late 1950s I was called and set apart as president of the Brazilian Mission, where our family spent the next five years. During those five years, we had brief but intimate association with many of the General Authorities, including Spencer W. Kimball, Harold B. Lee, and Joseph Fielding Smith. The most moving testimony of our lives concerning Joseph Smith was given to us by President Joseph Fielding Smith during his visit to us in Brazil.
As a child, as a missionary, as a friend, and as a stake president, I have been privileged to associate with almost all of the General Authorities who have lived during my lifetime.
Later I was set apart under the hands of the First Presidency to open a mission in Portugal. In April 1975, while still serving there, I was overwhelmed to be invited by President Kimball to general conference where I was called as one of the General Authorities.
The combined impact of my experiences with the General Authorities, who are among the choicest spirits the Lord has ever sent forth on the earth, has been overpowering. With great humility, I acknowledge the unusual privilege that has been mine to feel their influence, to look up to them, and to appreciate their great qualities.
I humbly pray that my influence may be as helpful to someone else as the guidance and inspiration of the General Authorities has been to me.