The story begins in November of 1985. President Ezra Taft Benson was ordained as the President of the Church. He and his counselors came into the temple with new assignments for members of the Quorum of the Twelve. President Benson charged me with specific responsibility to open the doors of the nations in Europe now under the yoke of Communism. Well, I didn't know how to do that. But I had faith that the Lord would help me.

In our first visit in Moscow, we tried to get an appointment and couldn't do so. Nobody wanted to see us. We finally found out where the minister of religion was. We went to his office and would not be admitted in to see him. I said, "If he's in there, he'll have to come out before he goes home. We will wait." Finally, he came. We said, "We have just one question: What would be required for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be established here in this country?" And he had a ready reply. He said, "You would need to have 20 adult Russian citizens who would be willing to sign a paper saying they were members of your Church. And all 20 of them would have to be from one political district." We had no members, of course, in the entire Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, much less in just Russia. I said, "Well, Mr. [INAUDIBLE], you've given me a chicken and an egg problem. You can't have a chicken without an egg, and you can't have an egg without a chicken." He said, "That, sir, is your problem. Good day." We pondered every imaginable method to meet that requirement. And we realized that none of those plans would work. But within a matter of just a few years, the Lord did it.

One by one, He brought people out of the country. They learned the gospel, and they came back to the city of Leningrad, which is now Saint Petersburg. We applied for recognition. Nothing happened. Three or so months later, I came back to that same individual, and I said, "What's happened to our application for recognition?" "Well, it's here in the drawer. We don't know what to do with it because we've never had anybody ask for recognition before." Then the Mormon Tabernacle Choir came. Following the concert in the Bolshoi Theater, the Church hosted a little reception. We greeted the vice president of the country, Alexander Rutskoy, and asked him if he'd like to say anything. So he pulled out a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and read it to the people. "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has now received recognition from Leningrad in the west to Vladivostok on the east, in the entire Republic of Russia." That's just six years after President Benson gave me that charge. To go from no one to recognition for the whole country in that short interval of time is evidence of the hand of the Lord. We're not smart enough to figure that out, but the Lord did it. I have a great testimony of the divinity of this work in which we are all engaged. It is true, and I so add my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.