An Evening with Apostle Robert D. Hales

Sunday evening Pam and I had the opportunity to attend the 67th annual Joseph Smith fireside which was held in the Spectrum on the USU campus. Traditionally, this event has been held in the Kent Concert hall but they end up turning people away so the decision was made to hold it in the Spectrum. I was surprised by the cost to rent that building for an afternoon - $8000.00. We were invited to sit right up close to the front on the floor so it was very memorable.

Elder Hales talked about the life of the prophet Joseph Smith and his life experiences. Many of these stories, we have heard before. What made this so interesting was that Elder Hales would talk about an aspect of the prophet’s life and then he would draw a correlation to our lives. One area he talked about was patience.

Elder Hales talked about Joseph Smith and the period of time between the first vision when Joseph was 14 and when he finally received the plates was 8 years. The Lord and Moroni taught Joseph about patience as he matured. Had Joseph Smith received the plates at age 14, he may have lost them. Instead he was taught and tested for 8 years until he was ready and mature enough to receive them.

Elder Hales then stopped and told about when his mother was sick and dying. She suffered horrible pain for months. Elder Hales was at her bedside one day when he told his mother to “Have patience”. Elder Hales’ mother took him by the hand and said, “Robert, I have learned patience. Have you?” It was then that Elder Hales realized the illness and suffering of his mother was to teach him about patience.

With regard to our family, I firmly believe that dad passed away with no anxiety or physical pain because he had already learned patience in this life. The Lord loved dad which is evidenced about how he passed. Among a myriad of trials he experienced in life he had to have learned an incredible amount of patience. It all started with that broken arm to the cancer that finally took him. Hopefully, we can all learn to have the patience that dad had in life. The eloquent talk by Elder Hales confirmed to me that there is meaning in dad's passing and patience something we all need to remember.