Hank Smith: 00:02 Hello everyone, welcome to another followHIM Favorites. John and I are telling a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, today we’re in Mosiah 11-17, Abinadi. You’ve told me you have a story, I want to hear it.

John Bytheway: 00:16 Yeah, I do. If you remember Hank, they tried to stump Abinadi with an Isaiah question. What does it mean how beautiful upon the mountains of the feet of him that bringeth good tidings and publisheth peace? And I remembered this story about shoes that I just had never forgot. And actually it’s kind of fun Hank, because you might remember EFY books back when they used to make a book. Well, we have a new General Authority Seventy named Elder David L. Buckner. He was an EFY counselor with me back in the day, and he wrote-

Hank Smith: 00:48 I know Dave.

John Bytheway: 00:49 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 00:50 I should say Elder Buckner.

John Bytheway: 00:52 Right. We better call him Elder Buckner. But he wrote a chapter in this book and he tells this wonderful story. He said, not long ago, Elder M. Russell Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles was assigned to preside over and speak at a church conference in La Paz, Bolivia. Members traveled from far off towns and villages to attend. A number of members had to sacrifice much time, effort, and money to get to the meetings. Prior to the meeting, Elder Ballard stood in front of the chapel to greet some of the arriving brethren. And he noticed that many of them looked disheveled and pretty tired, and he noticed that some of them had a discoloration on their shirts. From mid-chest and above, their shirts were white and clean from mid-chest and below, they were stained with a reddish coloring. When they approached to shake Elder Ballard’s hand, they informed him that they were so pleased to have arrived in time to meet him and they spent many hours traveling to the meetings much of the time on foot.

  01:53 They were required to forward two rivers along the way where they held their books and their scriptures above their heads, and the waters came up to their chests. And that’s why their shirts were stained with that reddish shade. The final two hours were riding in the back of a pickup truck, and then they had to walk. Their shoes were soggy and wet. And as they greeted Elder Ballard, they said, “Elder Ballard, you are one of the Lord’s apostles. My brother and I would do whatever is required to be taught by you.” And you can just imagine how beautiful those soggy, wet, worn out shoes looked to Elder Ballard. So we want to say hello to our friends, brothers and sisters, who might be listening in La Paz, Bolivia and say, we love you and we sustain you, and we support you. And your feet are beautiful upon the mountains like Isaiah said.

Hank Smith: 03:00 Wow, what an incredible story. I was thinking maybe they had a spaghetti dinner or something, but they had that kind of journey to go see an apostle. That’s just beautiful. Beautiful feet.

John Bytheway: 03:13 And they were happy to do it.

Hank Smith: 03:16 Yeah.

John Bytheway: 03:16 They were happy to do it. “We would do whatever is required to be taught by you.” They said to Elder Ballard.

Hank Smith: 03:22 Fantastic. John, what a great story. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet? And for someone who doesn’t think feet are very beautiful, that was a beautiful story. I love it. We hope you’ll join us on our podcast. It’s called followHIM, you can get it wherever you get your podcast. And then join us back here next week, we’ll do another followHIM favorites.