What an enthusiastic and humble apostle he his, full of vitality and strength!His reverberating and voluminous voice carries his spirit to the hearts of all in attendance, yet his kind thoughtfulness is exemplary. This week, ten new MTC Presidents and wives and seven new Visitor Centers' Directors and wives were wined, dined and trained at the MTC, causing the physical facilities to be transformed into a 'reception center.' The results were that even the weekly new missionaries from all over the world were greeting and largely processed and oriented 'off campus' at an LDS church a mile away, thus resulting in increased security and minimum noise and confusion. Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Holland both were involved in the training of these Presidents and Directors for three days.

Next door to our International Office, gourmet meals were presented to these 34 individuals plus General Authorities for three full days--fresh bouquets of flowers even graced the white linen-covered round tables. After one evening meal, Elder Perry poked his head into the office and greeted each of us with his usual firm, enthusiastic handshake and thanked each of us for our work!! What a sweet man!

Within the hour, Elder Cook and I had the privilege of attending the Devotional in 19M and performing our perfunctory duties of handing out over 60 translating machines to missionaries from 37 different languages. All thrilled to hear his speak of his testimony of the Book of Mormon and reminding us how blessed we are to he this book and that we should take the opportunity to seriously teach from that book. This is my renewed commitment!