Meeting an Apostle

Meeting an Apostle

Posted by Kristy

I have always wanted to meet an Apostle and shake his hand. I served as a missionary in Ireland for a few years mostly because 1: I wanted my "Get Into Heaven" free card, and 2: I wanted to meet an Apostle. Unfortunately neither of these things happened. I was able to meet Elder L. Whitney Clayton (Seventy) and Sister Julie Beck. Both people were amazing, but still not Apostles. Is is too much to ask just to shake an Apostle's hand? To add insult to injury, while I was on my mission, my whole family got to meet President Henry B. Eyring when he came to release our stake president. So not fair. You can imagine how excited I was to hear in church last Sunday that Elder Packer was coming to release our stake president.

So nice to meet you at last!

At first I thought that I had heard my Bishop wrong, but nope, it was true: Elder Packer was coming to my stake. That night, Trevor and I negotiated how early we were going to get to the church so we could get good seats and get to meet an Apostle. Of course Trevor wasn't as excited because he's from the magical land of Utah where General Authorities are as common as fake orange tans. He wanted to get to church at 9:15 (the meeting started at 10) but I wanted to get there around 8:30, we finally agreed on 8:45. So today, as agreed, we got up early and were ready to go by 8:25. We got a great front parking spot at the church and sat ourselves four benches from the pulpit on the right side. It was then that Trevor started saying "It would be so funny if it were a different Packer because you've been so excited." I rolled my eyes at him and then my heart dropped as I read the program. "Presiding: Elder Allen F. Packer" I couldn't believe it.

Not Boyd K. Packer

In spite of being tricked into going to stake conference, I was grateful we got there so early. It's pretty impossible for me to pay attention to a meeting when I have to sit on those awful, freezing, folding metal chairs. Also, the speakers did an incredible job. Elder Packer and the other Seventy (Craig. G. Fisher) both had amazing talks. So no, I didn't get to fulfill my dream of meeting an Apostle, but I did stay awake and enjoy Stake Conference, and that should count for something.