Hank Smith:                      00:02                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, only one section of the Doctrine & Covenants this week, section 124, and it’s your turn for a story.

John Bytheway:               00:16                   There’s a verse in there Hank, the Lord just says the nicest thing to Hyrum. I the Lord love Hyrum because of the integrity of his heart. How would you like to have a section of the Doctrine & Covenants say that about you?

Hank Smith:                      00:28                   Yeah.

John Bytheway:               00:28                   I’m not holding my breath. Okay. What a great thing. I know Hank, that you love Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. I’ve heard you tell stories about him.

Hank Smith:                      00:37                   Oh, what a great soul.

John Bytheway:               00:39                   Yeah. There was a time when he was playing football. I mean, I remember the story about the helmet going sideways and his eyes were looking out the ear hole and… He was so funny. There was an experience that he had where he called it a defining experience. The play called for me, Elder Wirthlin said, a younger Elder Wirthlin to run the ball up the middle to score the go ahead touchdown. This is American football. I took the handoff and plunged into the line. I knew I was close to the goal line, but I didn’t know how close, although I was pinned at the bottom of the pile so the referees can’t see because there’s all these people on top. I reached my fingers forward a couple of inches and I could feel it. The goal line was two inches away.

Hank Smith:                      01:24                   Oh, so he could like feel the paint on the grass.

John Bytheway:               01:26                   He could feel where the goal line is.

Hank Smith:                      01:28                   Oh.

John Bytheway:               01:29                   At that moment, I was tempted to push the ball forward. I could have done it. See, everybody’s on top of him. Nobody would see. But then I remembered the words of my mother, Joseph. She had often said to me, do what is right, no matter the consequence. Do what is right and things will turn out okay. I wanted so desperately to score that touchdown. More than being a hero in the eyes of my friends, I wanted to be a hero in the eyes of my mother. So I left the ball where it was two inches from the goal line. Wow. Hank, your dad was a golf pro. What happens if you accidentally touch your ball or it moves? What are the rules of golf say you have to do?

Hank Smith:                      02:16                   That’s a penalty. It’s a two stroke penalty and you can put it back where it was. Many people would be like, oh, no one saw. I’m okay. John that’s an incredible story.

John Bytheway:               02:25                   It happened to Bobby Jones and he was like, no, I know that ball moved and I can’t deny that ball moved. And it just, stories of integrity like that get to you because you were this close. Nope. I wanna be a hero in the eyes of my mother.

Hank Smith:                      02:39                   I love that. I love that. Let’s put that on a t-shirt. I wanna be a hero in the eyes of my mother. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it on any podcast platform. We’re with Dr. Liz Darger this week. She shares some stories and some personal experiences that really will take your breath away. They’re really, really touching and then we hope you’ll join us next week we’ll do another followHIM Favorite.