Hank Smith: 00:03 Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, this week is Doctrine & Covenants 67 through 70. I read a very small phrase in section 67, verse 13. I thought of a story to tell you in 67:13. The Lord says, continue in patience. Continue in patience. He goes on. Until you are perfected, it’s gonna be a slow process. Well, continue in patience is actually a talk given by President Uchtdorf years ago. I loved that talk. It’s one that I listen to over and over and over. While that spurred another thought I went to then Elder Uchtdorf’s talk, continue in patience. It remind me of another talk called The End from the beginning. Elder Uchtdorf is home run after home run after home run of talks. Lift Where You Stand. In Remembrance of Those Who Save. The sermons that President Uchtdorf has given over the last 20 years have been phenomenal.

  01:05 Alright. You’ll remember this one, John. It’s when President Uchtdorf said he was a young refugee. I think he was 10 years old, and this is when he went from speaking Russian to speaking English, and he said his tongue was not made to to speak English. Too hard. He was failing in school. He said, first time in my life, I thought, maybe I’m not smart enough to go to school. During that time of his life, because they were refugees and couldn’t really speak the language, his family opened up a laundry delivery service. Do you remember this story, John? He was in charge of picking up dirty laundry and delivering clean laundry. He said he’d always dreamed of having a red, shiny bicycle. That’s not what he got. He said, I got a workhorse of a bicycle. Can you imagine? With a heavy cart of clothes behind it. Especially a mom. A mom can pack clothes.

John Bytheway: 01:59 Like 3D Tetris. They’re amazing. Yeah.

Hank Smith: 02:03 I remember even with my wife Sara, I’ll say, I think that suitcase is full. She’s like, not even close.

John Bytheway: 02:08 No, it isn’t.

Hank Smith: 02:08 Yeah. I can fit more in there. His mom and dad would pack this cart full of clothes. He said the town that they lived in had a lot of hill. Now, John, I don’t know if kids today get to ride bikes like we did, but my childhood was constant bike riding. Do you remember going up a hill barely getting the pedals around?

John Bytheway: 02:30 Yeah. You have to stand up to put your weight on them.

Hank Smith: 02:33 Yeah. Yeah. You’re holding onto those handlebars and you imagine pulling a 50 pound cart of clothes behind you. You can’t say the word hate in general conference. I think they would bleep it out, but here’s what Elder Uchtdorf said about his bike.

  02:45 He said, I was never overly enthused about my job or the bike, so I think that means he did not like this experience.

John Bytheway: 02:57 Right.

Hank Smith: 02:59 He said, at times I thought my lungs would burst. You gotta remember that part. At times, I thought my lungs would burst. It’s just a constant workout. I imagine President Uchtdorf had really strong legs. This kid gets off the bike. He’s got these big muscular legs. He said the one good thing about having the bike was if he got done quickly, he could go over to the airfield. John, I know you would do the same thing.

John Bytheway: 03:25 That’s right.

Hank Smith: 03:26 He would go over to the airfield and he could watch the planes from post World War II with the airmen coming in and out. As their lives continue there, they learn English, able to get better jobs. They close the laundry delivery service.

  03:41 Then he joins the new German Air Force. He passes all, all the exams and all the tests. They ask him this question. They said, what treatment did you receive for your lung disease? And he tells them, I never had a lung disease. And they said they show him his x-rays. No, you had a lung disease when you were younger. You obviously received treatment. But what was the treatment again? I think he goes home to his parents and says, did I have a lung disease? Right. Did you guys not want to tell me? And I think the idea was, well, we were new to the country. We didn’t speak English. We didn’t have money for medicine. The idea was, oh, you did have asthma, but we did the best we could with it. Well, John, they find out that their son had a lung disease when he was younger.

  04:31 It would’ve caused significant damage, maybe even killed him had he not received treatment. But what was the treatment? It was the bike doing the bike deliveries. Day in and day out. At times I thought my lungs would burst. It’s treating him for a disease he did not know then that he had. And I’ve often wondered, what if we asked 11-year-old Elder Uchtdorf, what do you think of that bike? He would say, I hate this thing. Would you like to get rid of it? Yes, get rid of it. But then if you ask today’s Elder Uchtdorf about the bike, what would he say? Saved my life. Yeah. Saved my life. John, I wonder how many of us have those things in our lives right now? Those things that were not happening to us. We ask the Lord to take them away. When what if it’s our bike, it’s blessing us, and we might not even know it. I can’t remember if it’s in the talk. Continue in patience or a different talk. Elder Uchtdorf says, often the hardest times of our lives are essential stepping stones. What a lesson. Doctrine & Covenants 67:13. Continue in patience. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast for these sections, we’re with Peter Vidmar, John. Peter Vidmar, the gold medalist, Peter Vidmar. He walks us through these sections and tells some stories you are not gonna wanna miss, and then come back here next week. We’ll do another FollowHIM Favorites.