John Bytheway:               00:01                   Welcome to part two with Dr. Michael Ballam as we continue our study of the book of Psalms.

Hank Smith:                      00:07                   Before we hit record, we got to know Ben a little bit, but we keep bringing him up, but I don’t think our listeners know exactly who Ben is. Can you tell us more?

Dr. Michael Ballam:        00:16                   Yes. Ben was born, he was supposed to be born, on April 6th, in important day, 1992. I’d been asking the Lord for eight months to spare my child from spina bifida. I though that morning at the University of Utah Medical Center, “We’re going to have a miracle.” When he is born, he’s going to be perfect. He is perfect. Inside, he’s perfect, and his body is only temporary. I was given a chance before they took him into surgery. I pushed my hands in that incubator on his little head, and I had been thinking, “If I have this opportunity, I’m going to command him to be well.” Instead, I blessed him that he would be able to endure his life, and that he was sent on a special mission, and part of it was to have his challenges. So there was a miracle, but it wasn’t Ben, it was me.

                                           01:31                   I was able to accept it. So this is meant to be, and boy is it meant to be. Ben has touched the lives of millions of people. Elder Maxwell talked about him in general conference, and he called us before and said, “Would it be all right if I talk about Ben in general conference? I’d like your permission.” And we said, “Of course you can.” He said, “I wanted to tell the story of him in Israel.” He told the story. We were living in Jerusalem, and he started to have a grand mal seizure. That’s lethal to a child with spina bifida. We were panic stricken. It was the day of Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral, and they had closed down some of the hospitals. The one right next to us at Hebrew University was closed, and they didn’t even have the technology to know what was happening. But across town in Ein Karem, the city that Elizabeth lived in, Mary’s cousin, we were there in the hospital, and the doctor spoke a little Hebrew and a lot of Russian.

                                           02:39                   I spoke a little Hebrew and a lot of English. There wasn’t much communication except I got the idea that he was going to insert into Ben a glass pipette through his arm. They had to use glass. The flexible catheter had not been invented. It was invented by James Sorenson here in Salt Lake City. He said, “You need to warn Ben that it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt like he never believed he could hurt.” I said to Ben, “You’re going to have a bad experience. You’re going to have a lot of pain, but the doctor is doing this to save you.” And they strapped his arm to a board and they inserted the glass pipette. I saw the look of pain that was so profound, and Ben reached up and touched the doctor and said, “I love you anyway.” Like the Savior, “I love you anyway.” And Neal Maxwell wanted to quote that.

                                           03:52                   Ben is an amazing young man, and his life has been preserved. He was supposed, he wasn’t supposed to live past seven. He’s going to turn 34. He defied all the medicine. And it’s because he has a mission, and that mission is about spreading love. He spreads love everywhere he goes. He loves everybody. I think he was sent here protected by a bubble. There’s no evil in him anywhere. He loves everybody. He sees the good in everybody. He was sent because of that. When he was a little boy in Primary, the teacher was showing a picture of the Savior blessing the children, that beautiful depiction. She said to Ben,” If you were one of those children.” He was about six. “If you were one of those children, what would you ask him?” And Ben said, “I’d ask him how I could kiss him.” The teacher said, “Okay, that’s nice.

                                           05:00                   But then what would you ask him?” He said, “I’d ask him if I could kiss him again.” And the teacher said, “Ben, wouldn’t you ask him to heal you?” And Ben said, “Why? I’m not sick.” That’s why I’d rather, in my introduction, be called Ben’s dad, because I think his being sent to us has been such a blessing. It’s far superior. All the degrees and awards and things I’ve gotten, the fact that the Lord trusted us to care for this very special spirit. That’s who Ben is.

Hank Smith:                      05:39                   Elder Maxwell even said that in that talk. He said, “Children are often our spiritual superiors.”

John Bytheway:               05:46                   Yeah. And Ben is in the Logan Institute Choir, right?

Dr. Michael Ballam:        05:51                   He’s a permanent member as long as he wants to be there. He’s graduated from institute, I think, 15 times. But he still loves going up there and taking classes and singing in the choir. He lives for that. Yeah, he lives for that.

Hank Smith:                      06:11                   I wanted to quote Psalm 146 and just see what you both think. It says, “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” I’ve noticed, Michael, that music has a way of bringing joy. What songs do you feel make you happy?

Dr. Michael Ballam:        07:12                   You know that word Alle? What’s he saying? He’s saying, All mankind can be brothers. Alle, but he sets it in a syncopation, so you hear it. Alle Menschen werden Brüder. When I hear that, I can’t stay in a pity party because I think about Beethoven and what he went through, his deafness, his poor health, his ridicule, and he wrote that. If he can do that, I have no excuse for my little pity parties. My children and Laurie know that. When I’m in the dumps, all of a sudden I hear freude, schöner Götterfunken, all over our house. It’s the best way to ruin a pity party.

John Bytheway:               08:06                   Okay, let me see if I can, could get a right answer on a quiz in your class. Beethoven’s ninth?

Dr. Michael Ballam:        08:13                   It’s the choral symphony, and it’s different than all his other symphonies. And he was criticized mightily for it because Mozart symphonies were maybe 40 minutes max. His ninth symphony is 90 minutes and worth every penny. And he puts an extra movement in it with that set to choir. freude, schöner. The word begins with joy. Joyful. Freude, schöner Götterfunken. Joy is a gift from God. Himmlische, dein Heiligtum. Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum! Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was die Mode streng geteilt; Alle Menschen werden Brüder. It’s the words of the angels. It’s what they sang, “Peace on earth, good will to men.” I was sent on assignment by some of the brethren. The year we’d moved to Israel, I was supposed to seek some inspiration about it. Just before we came home, I climbed Mount Sinai, the opposite way that most people do. I wanted to see the sun rise on Sinai, not set, which means then you have to go up in total darkness. I had a hard time doing that.

                                           09:41                   It’s quite a climb and in total darkness. And the guide said to me, “Only show the flashlight where their next step is going to be. Just keep it down.” And all of a sudden, I smelled something and heard something, and I went like that. I was surrounded by camels, and then I fell over. And he said, “What did I tell you?” “You need the light for your next step.” What a profound lesson. God will enlighten us for a step. He’s not going to tell us everything that’s going to happen, because we’ll fall if he does. Profound lesson. I got on top of the mountain. I heard Freude, schöner Götterfunken. The voices of thousands of people up there. I heard them. Just a little revelation like that. I’m not a prophet, seer or revelator, but the Lord can use us as revelators on personal things. I’ll never get a vision for the whole church because I’m not responsible for the whole church. I’m responsible for me and my children, and I have received inspiration about my children.

Hank Smith:                      10:59                   And you can see the Lord speaks your language. He’ll meet us where we are.

Dr. Michael Ballam:        11:04                   Remember, he’s going to sing to us, and we know what he’s going to sing because it’s in the 84th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. The words are right there. The song of everlasting joy. There’s a Psalm in the Doctrine and Covenants, the song that he’s going to sing, and if we’re in tune with him, we’ll recognize his voice and we’ll hear the music. We’ll know the hymn and we will all sing it together. The song of redeeming joy. I can’t wait for that. We’ll all be there from one side of the veil or the other.

Hank Smith:                      11:51                   Michael, I just have a list of things I’d love for you to just pick your brain. Tell me about being in Carmen. What is that like?

Dr. Michael Ballam:        12:01                   It’s inspired, isn’t it? Carmen. Bizet wrote it. It’s the only thing he’s remembered for. It was a total catastrophe when it opened. People hated it because it was an Opéra-Comique that meant it had spoken dialogue in it. The Parisians had never heard that before. They thought, “What is it? Is it a piece of musical theater or is it an opera?” They hated it. The critics panned it, and Bizet died four days later. And about six days later, people started saying, “Wait a minute, this is grand opera with spoken dialogue. We’ll take it.” Then it became one of the three most popular operas of world history. It can be done in two ways. The Opéra-Comique where it was playing only seats about 300 people, the producers thought Carmen is going to make us some money, but not off of a 300-seat auditorium. It needs to move to the Grand Opera House where Phantom of the Opera takes place.

                                           13:20                   That’s where it needs to live, but there’s a problem. Nobody will hear the spoken dialogue. That’s why in opera, you sing every word, because it can be projected out to 4,000 people. When you talk, you can’t get it out there. You can use a microphone, but then if you sing into that microphone like an opera singer, it’s going to blow the sound off the wall. Bizet’s student took the spoken dialogue and he turned it into recitative. That means it’s set to music. It’s been done that way as a grand opera, and it’s also been done as an Opéra-Comique. And we, at the Utah Festival Opera, had done it both ways. I love Carmen. I love it because there’s children in it. My grandson, he’s in the third grade, and he came home one day and he said. We’re talking about an opera called Carmen, and he said to my daughter, “Do you know it?” And she started singing it in French, the children’s chorus.

                                           14:25                   She was six years old the first time we put it on. She was in the children’s chorus. She remembers it. She’ll remember the rest of her life in a language she did not speak at that point in her life. But how do you know that? He said, and she said, “I was in it.” He was impressed and couldn’t wait to tell his teacher, “My mom is an opera singer.” “She sang in Carmen.”

Hank Smith:                      14:53                   Wow. From what I’ve heard, the role of, is it Parsifal that is the most difficult?

Dr. Michael Ballam:        14:59                   And it’s so spiritual. It’s about the restoration of the priesthood. In the times of King Arthur, during the searching for the holy grail, you remember it? The high priest who’s supposed to lift the grail and have the sacrament, he’s not worthy to do it. Every time he tries, he feels the wound of Christ because he sinned. With a woman that’s still around, after 900 years, she’s still around, because she’s cursed that she will never die. She’ll live in pain because of something she did in Jerusalem at Golgatha. She saw three men on crosses, two tied, one nailed, and she went up to the one that was nailed. She looked up at him and she laughed.

                                           16:03                   He looked down at her with such a look of purity and love and forgiveness. She’s cursed to wander the earth until she sees that look again. And it’s going to have to come from somebody who is so Christlike, so Christlike that he can lift the holy grail. He can bring the priesthood back to Monsalvat, and he does. Takes him six hours to do it, but I loved playing it. It’s inspired. Written by a schmuck, written by a man who was the most antisemitic person in history, yet he wrote Parsifal. How is that possible? Because if the Lord wants to speak, he’ll speak. Oh, I love Parsifal. I just love it. And as he lifts the grail, Kundry is at his foot. He looks down upon her and she dies, a release from nine centuries of pain, because he can look at her like that.

Hank Smith:                      17:18                   Wow.

Dr. Michael Ballam:        17:19                   Because he’s pure.

Hank Smith:                      17:21                   I love how you love this. Yeah.

Dr. Michael Ballam:        17:25                   Can’t fit into the tights, but I can still sing.

Hank Smith:                      17:29                   Well, I would love to hear some if you’re okay.

Dr. Michael Ballam:        17:32                   <foreign>. And then it ends with, <foreign>. He lifts it, and the spirit of God descends in the form of a dove, and it cascades light from the holy grail. Not easy to pull off. You can do it in film really easily. Do it on stage, it’s a little bit harder, but we did it. The spirit of God descends at the end of Parsifal to bring the priesthood of God back to the earth. How profound is that? And who should it speak to more than us? I would love to sing a song. This song is for Ben. It was written by a friend of ours who lived at the time in Provo, then she moved to Logan. She passed away way too young. But now knowing what you know about my feelings for Ben, I’m going to sing this song by her, but I want you to think about Ben.

                                           19:00                   They’re all scuffed and worn from adventures that only a child understands. Laces, once broken, are mended, tied in knots by a boy’s tiny hands. When his two chubby arms come around me in a hug, I can never refuse. I think all the wonders of heaven are tucked in those two little shoes. Little shoes. When I think of the harsh words I’ve spoken, when those shoes scattered mud on the floor, I know that my heart would be broken if someday they weren’t there anymore. I see them at night where you left them on your way to a dream coming true. My heart filled with love overflowing. When I look at those two little shoes, and each night I kneel my heart sings a prayer. Thanks, dear God, for one little boy and two little shoes on the stairs, on the stairs.

                                           21:37                   Ben’s shoes are only ornamental, but if he were ever to leave us, he was sent to us to heal us, to love the world. He’s alive because of Daniel Radcliffe. Ring a bell? Harry Potter. Ben had a surgery. They put him in the hospital for nine months. They reconstructed his spine and put titanium in there. And after the nine months, the doctor came to visit him at the hospital and he said, “Ben, it was a catastrophic failure. We have to do it again.” And when he left the room, Ben said to me, “I don’t want to do it again. I don’t want to miss out on life for another nine months. It’s okay.” I said to Ben, “But you don’t understand that if you don’t have this surgery, you won’t be able to be around much longer, and we can’t lose you, Ben.

                                           22:53                   We rely on you.” “No, dad, I’ve had a good life. It’s okay.” I wanted to change the subject immediately. It was getting too somber. I said, “Ben, if I could do anything for you in the world, what would you have me do?” “I want to meet Harry Potter. I want to meet Daniel Radcliffe.” I said, “Ben, he lives in London. We live in Logan.” And he said, “I know, dad, but you said anything.”

                                           23:26                   Well, I started thinking about that. It just so happened that Daniel Radcliffe was coming to New York City to be in a play. I thought, “I wonder.” I went to the play, I watched him come out, and I saw him go through the crowd, get in his black RV, and he shook one person’s hand as he came out. I thought, “Could that one person be Ben?” I wrote a letter to him, and I said, “Is it possible if I bring him to New York and I have him outside the theater after a matinee performance, when you come out, can you just shake his hand?” He got the letter and a phone call came a few days later, “Hello, Mr. Ballam, this is Mark Radcliffe. My son, Daniel, got a letter from you. I’m here to inform you that Daniel won’t meet him at the stage door, but, he said bring him backstage to my dressing room.” And I did.

                                           24:47                   We got in there. The theater, the Lunt-Fontanne on Broadway, is completely inaccessible. Daniel’s dressing room was down a big flight of cement steps. It took a stage hand to carry him down, and when he got at the bottom, there was Daniel waiting for him. And, he gave him a Gryffindor tie, and he gave him a Gryffindor scarf, and he gave him a first edition of Harry Potter, which he had signed, and he talked to Ben for an hour, because Ben knows Harry Potter better than Daniel Radcliffe does. He grilled him on every point. He wanted to know, “Daniel, how did you do that underwater scene?” He told him and so forth. And just before we left, he said, “I do have one more gift. It’s kind of tawdry and tattered. It’s old, but somehow I feel like I need to give it to you.” And he opened a box, and he had the first academic gown he wore in the first movie.

                                           26:00                   His name is embroidered into the back. Yep. It’s seen some wear. And it saved Ben’s life. When I carried him up those steps, he whispered in my ear, “Dad, schedule the surgery.” And when that happened, I wrote Daniel, and I said, “You saved his life.” In the morning, he went in for the surgery, Daniel Radcliffe called to wish him well, and tomorrow night, on Ben’s birthday, he’s going to sit on the stage with Daniel Radcliffe in a theater in New York City as a surprise birthday present. Daniel does things like that all the time, but it’s not in the movie magazines. He doesn’t want to be pointed out, “Look what Daniel Radcliffe is doing.” He just does it because he wants to do it. He has met with Ben twice subsequently. And tomorrow night, we’re going to share the stage with him.

John Bytheway:               27:06                   Oh my. Imagine that.

Hank Smith:                      27:10                   Imagine that.

John Bytheway:               27:11                   I love hearing things like that.

Hank Smith:                      27:12                   Me too. I love that. Michael, I would love to hear the music that you think will fill our listeners with light and testimony. And we have people who are in dark, dark places. Music can reach people.

Dr. Michael Ballam:        27:27                   Let me tell you about it. It’s the 121st section of the Doctrine and Covenants.

John Bytheway:               27:33                   Liberty Jail.

Dr. Michael Ballam:        27:35                   Yep. Liberty Jail. The revelation in 121. Know thou my son, that all these things will be for thy good. And I had often talked at BYU Education Week about how wonderful it would be if that were set to music. The next year, a young man named David Cluff from Phoenix, Arizona, and his mother, Eloise Cluff, came backstage at the Marriott Center. He said, “I’ve set it to music.” I said, “Can I hear it?” This is it.

                                           28:38                   If thou art called to pass through tribulation, though worldly trials burden thee with care, and should thou question the loss that falls upon thee. In all my voice, do not my child despair. Know thou my son. Know thou my son that all these things shall be for thy good and give thee experience and shall be for thy good. Know thou my son. Know thou my son that the Son of Man has descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? If the billowing surge conspire against thee and all the elements combine to hedge the way, if thine enemies fall upon you, hold on thy way. Know thou my son. Know thou my son. The Son of Man has descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? Art thou greater than he?

                                           31:20                   Those words for everybody, not just Joseph. We’re all going to be there. We’re all going to have trouble. Remember what he went through. Are you greater than he? What a message. Hearing it’s put to music enhances it. It lets the Spirit imbue itself there. It’s incredible. He’s a lawyer. He’s a lawyer in Phoenix, Arizona. He was inspired. I told him I wish there were a song and he went home and wrote one.

Hank Smith:                      32:01                   That’s something John Bytheway, can do. He can do that same thing.

Dr. Michael Ballam:        32:05                   I love that man. I have a deep and abiding testimony in the belief that music, as Bruce R. McConkie said, is God’s most eloquent language. Within it is the power to go straight to our souls. The inspired, it’s been my life quest to find that music and to share it with others. Remember, Lucifer is a real being who hates us. He has his own gospel and he preaches it rather eloquently. And he preaches it through music, rather eloquently, by people who are great composers. They can spread his message where otherwise we would not listen to him. But if it’s in compelling music, we absorb the words. If not consciously, they go into our subconscious. Of course, I have a witness, Jesus lives and that he’s stronger than he is on one condition that we stay close to the Holy Spirit, to the Spirit of God, to the Holy Ghost.

                                           33:37                   As long as we are tied into that, he has no power. He has no power in our homes if we play inspired music. He is forced to depart. He is not comfortable in the light. And if we surround ourselves with inspired music, he’s not comfortable there. I don’t want him comfortable in my house and playing spiritual inspired music. He can’t come in. You need to do that. That would be my message to the world.

Hank Smith:                      34:18                   Wonderful.

John Bytheway:               34:21                   I’m thinking of Alma chapter five. If you have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, can you feel so now? There was a time you wanted to sing because you felt the Holy Ghost. Don’t let go of that. I want you to feel that now, Alma was saying.

Dr. Michael Ballam:        34:43                   Sing the song of redeeming love. We’re all going to sing it when he comes back. He’ll lead us by singing it to us first, but we will all sing the song of redeeming love. And we’ll know it. If we’re in tune with the Spirit, we’ll know it. We’ll know the music. It’ll all be enlightened to us because we’ve heard it before. Thank you for reminding me of that powerful moment. If you feel so now. I have to ask myself a lot of times when things are going really, really badly, I think you’ve been witness to miraculous things, to miracles. Think back to those moments. This thing can do miraculous things. Unbelievable. It’s got more information on it than the Queen’s Library. It’s miraculous, provided you charge it up. If you don’t charge it up, it’s no value at all. You lose everything. If you don’t charge up your spiritual batteries to recognize the Spirit, it’s not going to help you.

                                           36:00                   It’s how often every day you skip a day and it’s gone. Are we charging our batteries? Are we thinking back to those moments when we were witness to something? Can we still harken back to those moments? In the Doctrine and Covenants, the one about harkening back. Remember what I told you before, you shouldn’t have to ask me again. You knew the answer. Can you harken back to that moment? And I have to harken back all the time. The entrance to our building, the opera building says, “Expect a miracle.” And in my office, my dad had a woodcarving made that says, “Expect a miracle.” Because I think if you prepare spiritually and you prepare for that thing you’re asking for a miracle, you’ll get it. If what you’re asking for is noble, if it’s virtuous, kind, clean, all that thing, you’re going to get help from him. If you’re hoping to do something miraculous, you’ll have a miracle.

                                           37:13                   There should not be an opera company in Logan, Utah that has an audience that rivals the population of the town who come from all over the world. It’s impossible. It’s absolutely impossible. Why is it happening? He’s helping us. For 32 years, he has helped us through bad times because our mission is elevating souls through ennobling artistic experiences, ennobling. When I proposed that word to the board of directors, they said, “People won’t know what it means. They’ll have to look it up in the dictionary.” I said, “Good.” Then look up in the dictionary and they’ll never forget it. Ennobling, becoming noble, becoming better. Our goal with this opera company, it’s a charge that everyone who comes in our doors, they leave a better person because of what they experienced. I don’t want to entertain them. The world is over entertained. I want to endow them with truth.

Hank Smith:                      38:24                   Michael, if you don’t mind finishing with your favorite song about the Lord, do you have one?

Dr. Michael Ballam:        38:39                   Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the woods. I hear the mighty thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed. When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down on lofty mountain grandeurs and see the brook and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great the art.

                                           40:07                   When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy will fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Think of what it has done, hearing that hymn, people who might be investigating the church. I know that. I know that song. You mean they believe in Jesus? Maybe I need to check this out. For 28 years, I’ve held auditions for the opera company in New York in the church house there. I do it on purpose. One, chapels have the worst acoustic in the world. We put carpet on the floor, we put acoustic tile on the ceiling, so a voice is not enhanced in a Mormon church.

                                           41:48                   So I can put them up there and I can hear exactly what they’re going to sound like at the theater, because they’re not going to be enhanced. There’s no wonderful echo effect or anything like that. But more than that, I want 500 singers to walk in that building, come to the second floor and see those magnificent paintings of Jesus Christ, our Savior. You could walk in the church on Columbus Avenue and not know that we worship Jesus. Now, you can see in bold oils Jesus Christ. I just can’t believe how many of those 500 singers a year come in and say, “I didn’t know you guys were Christians.” They’ve walked past the building on their way to the Met, because it’s right across the street from the Met. They’ve walked past it for years. Never thought to come inside. If they had come inside, they wouldn’t know we’re Christians in the lobby.

                                           43:00                   Oh boy, they do now. Al Rounds, they witness we’re different. We’re kinder. We take care of each other. They see that and they want to know why, and they will, by their own desire, investigate it. That’s so wonderful. Think of all the singers for 30 years, 500 a year for 30 years have walked in that building and seen the Savior everywhere and felt him in there. Now it’s closed down and I don’t know how long it’s going to be. They’re working on the temple. Oh boy, was that a day! When the temple came to town, the nearest temple for New Yorkers was Washington DC, and that was a trek. There it is. In Manhattan. Who would’ve thought? Harold B. Lee knew there was going to be a temple on that spot in the 1950s. He came there, he had a realtor take him all over Manhattan, any vacant property.

                                           44:19                   They came up Columbus Avenue and at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 66th Street, the subway used to come out of the ground. Underneath that spot, people had used it as a junkyard for 50 years, and the city didn’t clean it. They didn’t clean it up. Harold B. Lee, who was sent there by the church to find a piece of property, he said, “This is the place.” They said, “Well, I don’t think it’s for sale. It’s a junkyard. It’s a junkyard in a terrible neighborhood. “Okay, take me to the other places.” He kept saying, “It was there. Take me back.” And he said, “There is going to be a temple to the Most High on this property.” Nobody believed that. Guess what? There’s Moroni in Manhattan, up on the temple. And Harold B. Lee, prophet, seer, revelator, saw a junkyard and what he perceived was a temple to God.

Hank Smith:                      45:32                   That’s a lesson right there. Well, what a treat today, Michael. Dr. Ballam, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for your time and for your voice and all you’ve done for the church. It’s been a wonderful career of blessing so many people and more yet to come. You want people to come up to Logan, to the Opera House, is that right?

Dr. Michael Ballam:        45:53                   I do. And be enlightened, have their lives changed for the better. I’m so honored to be here with you two extraordinary men who have made such a difference through your teaching and your speaking. You’ve influenced so many generations. God bless you for doing that.

Hank Smith:                      46:15                   Wow. You’re very kind and you’ve been a blessing to us today. With that, we want to thank Dr. Michael Ballam for being with us today. We want to thank our executive producer, Shannon Sorensen. She was instrumental in getting Dr. Ballam here with us. We want to thank our sponsors, David and Verla Sorensen, and every episode we remember our founder, Steve Sorensen. We hope you join us next week. We’re still studying the Old Testament on followHIM. As a thank you to our wonderful listeners, we’d love to gift you the digital version of our book, Finding Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. It offers short, meaningful insights drawn from our past Old Testament episodes. Visit followhim.co, that’s followhim.co, to download your free copy today, and you’ll also find the link to purchase the print edition. Thank you for being part of our followHIM family. Of course, none of this could happen without our incredible production crew, David Perry, Lisa Spice, Will Stoughton, Krystal Roberts, Ariel Cuadra, Heather Barlow, Amelia Kabwika, Sydney Smith, and Annabelle Sorensen.

Pres. Russell M…:            47:25                   Whatever questions or problems you have, the answer is always found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Turn to him, follow him.