Church Talks
MY TESTIMONY AFTER 30 YEARS
[Talk given by John E. Enslen at Wetumpka Ward Sacrament Meeting on May 4, 2003.]
Today I hope you will allow me to be more personal than usual. This very day is the last day of my and Dianne’s first 30 years in the Church. On May 5, 1973, we were the first of this city to be baptized.
The last 27 of those 30 years have been recorded on a daily basis in my journal of 83 volumes. I have witnessed among us many struggles and challenges, many successes and accomplishments. I have seen many lives dramatically changed for good, especially that of my own. I have also experienced the deep sadness of seeing many fall by the wayside as a result of their bad choices. Numerically, I think the sorrows far exceed the joys, but the joys far outweigh the sorrows.
Many of those in our branch and ward who have touched my life for good have now passed to the other side of the veil, or they have moved to other parts of the world and contact is not frequent. But I will never forget any of them.
Because of our joint adventures, undertakings, and experiences, there are many here whose special association I enjoy and cherish beyond measure. My immediate and extended family, of course, are foremost. But I truly consider all of you as part of my family. I was there when Ken Bailey was “born again.” I was with the missionaries when Frank Jarman was taught. I was there when Carl Stephens came forward from inactivity. I was there when Craig Curlee was an infant and an original member of the branch, and when Duffie and Sally Edwards were founding members of the branch. Cathy Gindle was an original member. I was there when Ron Anderson miraculously escaped death. I was there when Danny Carpenter made the right choice about this church. I was there to feel those special feelings at the baptisms of almost all of you who were baptized into this ward: Ann Lindley, even before she was a Lindley, Bob Lindley, Melissa Woodfin Welch, Rachel Grice, Randy Berkstresser, John Morse, Lillian Mullins, the Rhodes, Francis Maynard, Maxine Young, Tara Fenn, Toni Franklin, Marshall Hendrix, Tammy Faulk, and Greg and Rosa Robinson, to name only a few.
I have seen boys become true men through the power of the restored Aaronic and Melchezidek Priesthood. I have seen young women begin family life the right way, at the altars of our holy temples.
I have rejoiced with the arrival of every new move-in which swelled our numbers. The first move-in in 1974 to contribute talents to the branch was Ann Pattillo. Other families followed in a regular stream, sometimes to replace those who moved out. Buddy Maynard came here early on, as did the Welches and Peggy Clayton. Later came the Brooks, Callie Cook, the Bozemans, and in more modern times, the McLaughlins, the Clarks, the Mangubats, the Popes, Dotty Fillingin, Judy Loftin, the Cranes, Janet Rogers, Mona Penrose, Riley Parrish, the Pypers, Daniel Smith, two sets of Whites, the wonderful Wilsons, Cleghorns, McKinneys, and in my 30th year the miracle of miracles, my very own adopted Turnbow family. [Utah move-in who is direct lineal descendant of Samuel Turnbow, Alabama’s first convert, baptized March of 1840.] I know I have inadvertently left out some very important people. Please forgive me.
Our Heavenly Father, who knows the bounds of our habitations and who determined them before the foundations of the earth, has put us together, to serve and learn from one another, to pick one another up, to work out our salvation together with fear and trembling.
I have never felt closer to the Lord in my life than when I served as the 29-year-old branch president of this struggling little infant branch. I have served in this unit as mission leader, young men’s president, gospel doctrine teacher, priesthood pianist, and in a wide variety of other callings, at one time holding 7 callings simultaneously. I felt over blessed, not overworked. I was privileged to serve for 17 consecutive years in a stake presidency, 9 years of that as the stake president.
I have been a counsellor to 3 outstanding mission presidents.
Through the most unlikely events and circumstances, I have had personal associations with the highest leaders of our church and know them to be righteous, virtuous, humble followers of Christ. I have been personally acquainted with the Lord’s prophets in my lifetime. To President Spencer W. Kimball I was honored, while gazing downward into his penetrating eyes, to say, “I love you,” and to receive his most kind reply, “Thank you so very much.” I have shaken hands with Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, Pres. Marion G. Romney, Pres. N. Eldon Tanner, Elder Bruce R. McConkie and had short conversations with each of them. [Pres. Romney could not see very well through those coca-cola-thick eyeglasses. He asked me on my 30th birthday if I were a full-time missionary—a rare age-related compliment for me.]
I was personally interviewed by Pres. Howard W. Hunter who sought my opinion on an important matter of local Church administration. With only a handful present, I have sat at the very feet of and been instructed by Elders James E. Faust and Neal A. Maxwell. I have driven Elder L. Tom Perry around in my car. I have had dinner separately and in small settings with Elders David B. Haight, Boyd K. Packer, Joseph B. Withlin, and Henry B. Eyring, although it is unlikely that any of them would remember me.
I once put my arm around Elder Marvin J. Ashton’s shoulders and whispered in his left ear, “You sure are easy to love.” I have had a used briefcase given to me by Elder M. Russell Ballard. I have hosted Elder Richard G. Scott in a priesthood meeting at this very branch when we met on Tallassee Street. I have had the hands of Elder Russell M. Nelson placed upon my head as his voice pronounced a special blessing. I have had Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spend the night as a guest in our home, and observed his giving a special priesthood blessing to our son Joseph.
I will not take time to name all of the general authorities below the level of apostle with whom I have associated, but I want to mention one more apostle. President Gordon B. Hinckley was the first general authority I ever met. I was a new convert. Some of you may recall that during one of the early sessions of the Birmingham Temple dedication, President Hinckley called out my name and inquired if I were present. Fortunately, I was not there because I was scheduled for a different dedication session, but it is a very sobering feeling to know that the Lord’s prophet knows you by name. Infinitely better than President Hinckley knows me, the Lord knows each of us here by our very own names, and he will in time speak to each of us here and call us by our common mortal name, just as he opened this glorious dispensation with this single attention-capturing word—“Joseph.”
But far more important than all of my notable associations, and totally independent of any other mortal being, I possess my own personal knowledge of the truthfulness of this work. I have felt the undeniable influence of the Holy Ghost in my life as I have sought desperately to conform the manner in which I live from day to day after the pattern I have observed in the life of my Savior. Like the words of a primary song, “I’m trying to be like Jesus,” although I very often fall woefully short.
In regard to principle and doctrine, I know this Church to be founded upon plain and precious truths revealed from on high. These truths, including the Book of Mormon, have been sufficiently manifested to convince all honest men who study the subject with real intent of their absolute authenticity and veracity. My personal challenge, like yours, is to live daily in accordance with holy writ and the sacred covenants I made in the waters of baptism and at the altars of our holy temples.
We here are blessed above all others of the earth. We live in the most favored nation on earth. I feel we live in the best part of that favored nation. We live in the most exciting of times. We are all participants in the greatest adventure ever undertaken by mortal man, to establish the Kingdom of God, the only true and living church, in every nation of the earth and among every people. We, as members of the Church, have the very best of the very best. We have at our disposal the most glorious truths ever revealed to mankind, the fullness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We know of Christ long before he was the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manager, and long after his triumphant resurrection. He guides this Church today, and after 30 years there is one truth about which I am absolutely certain—we do not love Him enough.
May we learn of, live like, and love Him with all that is within us I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ.
John E. Enslen