Hank Smith:                     00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. John and I share a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we are in the Articles of Faith, Official Declarations one and two this week for Come, Follow Me. You told me you have a good story.

John Bytheway:               00:16                   Yes. In fact, President Spencer W. Kimball was the signature on my mission call. Who was on your mission call Hank?

Hank Smith:                     00:23                   That would be Gordon B. Hinckley.

John Bytheway:               00:25                   Wow. There is a generation gap here, isn’t there?

Hank Smith:                     00:30                   Yeah.

John Bytheway:               00:31                   I remember President Kimball telling the story and I just thought, wow, maybe this is why in Primary we’re memorizing the Articles of Faith. Here’s an article that was printed in an October ’78 New Era, and I don’t know where, but I remember hearing President Kimball tell this story. Some years ago, a primary boy was sitting on a train going to California. He was all alone. He sat near a window watching the telephone poles go by across the aisle. A gentleman was also going to California. The attention of the gentleman was called to this very young boy traveling without friends or relatives. He was neatly dressed and well behaved, and this gentleman was quite impressed with him. Finally, he said, hello, young man. Where are you going? I’m going to Los Angeles. Do you have relatives there? Yeah, I have relatives there. I’m going to visit my grandparents. They’re gonna meet me at the station and I’ll stay with them a few days. Where did you come from? Where do you live? Boy said, Salt Lake City, Utah, and the gentleman said, oh, you must be a Mormon. Do you remember when we used to call ourselves that?

Hank Smith:                     01:28                   Yeah, I remember those. Yeah.

John Bytheway:               01:29                   Yeah. The boy said, yes I am. The gentleman said, that’s interesting. I’ve wondered about Mormons of what they believe. I’ve been through the city. I’ve noticed the buildings, the tree lined homes, lovely streets, beautiful rows and flower gardens. He must not have seen my house, but I’ve never stopped to find out what makes them what they are. I wish I knew what Mormons believe and the boy said, well, I’ll tell you what we believe. We believe in God, the Eternal Father and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. This businessman was surprised. The boy continued. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgression. The traveling companion thought, this is rather unusual for a mere boy to know these important things. The boy went on. We believe through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

                                           02:18                   The gentleman was amazed at the knowledge and understanding of a mere boy. He was yet to be a scout, but he continued. We believe the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.

Hank Smith:                     02:34                   Can you imagine?

John Bytheway:               02:34                   Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is wonderful, said the gentlemen. I’m amazed you know so well the doctrines of your church. I commend you. With a good start and encouragement Johnny continued. We believe a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands, by those who are in authority, to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. That’s very solid doctrine my boy, he said. I’m curious now how they get to be called of God. I understand how they could receive the call to be established by the laying on of hands, but who has the authority to preach the gospel?

                                           03:10                   They discussed the matter of calling and sustaining and then the lad said, would you like to know more? The gentleman thought it was very unusual and said, we believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church, namely apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth. This brought some more discussion and so forth. You mean your church has apostles like James, John, Peter, Paul, and prophets like Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Daniel? The boy responded. Yeah. Even evangelists, we call ’em patriarchs. They’re appointed in all parts of the church where there are stakes and by inspiration they give all the members of the church as required what’s called a patriarchal blessing. I’ve already had my patriarchal blessing. I read it frequently. Now we have 12 Apostles who have the same calling and the same authorities the 12 Apostles in days of old. The gentleman came back, do you speak in tongues?

                                           04:01                   Do you believe in revelations and prophecies? The boy said, we believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healings, interpretation of tongues and so forth. The gentleman said, well, this sounds like you believe in the Bible. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God. The gentleman discussed that we believe in both the scriptures and in revelation. The boy quoted, we believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And then he continued, we believe, I know this is one of your favorites, Hank, also in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the 10 tribes, that Zion will be built upon the American continent, that Christ will reign personally upon the earth and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

Hank Smith:                     04:53                   Can you imagine he says paradisiacal.

John Bytheway:               04:54                   I know he is just like, what? Who is this kid? The gentleman was listening. He showed no interest in crossing the aisle back to his own seat. Johnny continued. We claim the privilege of worshiping the Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all men the same privilege. Let them worship how, where, or what they may.

Hank Smith:                     05:16                   Uh. I find this really funny.

John Bytheway:               05:18                   I know. It just keeps going because the thing that was cool is how logically it came out. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, magistrates in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law, and then as a final contribution, the boy repeated the 13th Article of Faith. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say we follow the admonition of Paul. We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things, including this followHIM Favorite. If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. The youngster relaxed. Now, as he had finished the Articles of Faith, the gentleman was clearly excited not only at the ability of this young boy to outline the whole program of the church, but at the very completeness of its doctrine.

                                           06:11                   He said, you know, after I’ve been to Los Angeles a couple of days, I expect to go back to New York where my office is. I’m going to wire my company that I will be a day or two late. I’m going to stop in Salt Lake City en route and go to the information bureau and hear all these things in more detail about what you’ve told me. I’m wondering, President Kimball said, how many of you know the Articles of Faith? Have you repeated them? You are always prepared with a sermon when you know the Articles of Faith.

Hank Smith:                     06:39                   Oh, that’s awesome! I would’ve loved to just watch that. I think I would have to sing them like, what do you guys believe? We believe in God.

John Bytheway:               06:48                   Yeah, we believe. Right.

Hank Smith:                     06:52                   That’s so funny. I would just love to watch a little boy just, oh, I know what we believe.

John Bytheway:               06:58                   Well, I mean, yeah, you would be very impressed with the kid.

Hank Smith:                     07:02                   Yeah. Especially when he said and so forth. You may say we follow the admonition of Paul.

John Bytheway:               07:08                   Of Paul. Of course.

Hank Smith:                     07:10                   Well, hey, we hope you join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We’re with Brother Thom Reed this week and we have just as much fun with Brother Reed as we just did here. He is wonderful in every way, and then come back here next week. We’ll do another followHIM Favorites.