You know, we live in strange times.

If you think about it, there's lots going on right now.

This is just, you know, as we looked forward to the end days, and you read the scriptures, as you were growing up, and you think about what that might be like, I'm sure your vision of that in your head is completely different than the reality today.

This is an interesting time to live.

And there are lots of challenges.

Any one of these can cause you interesting times.

And this is just probably the tip of the iceberg. I think this is going to accelerate as we get closer and closer to the return of the Savior.

And as we think about all these things that are going on, these are things that

the older chaplains in the group, when they first started, most of these weren't on the radar, or they weren't on the radar in the degree that they're on the radar today.

But we see all of this acceleration.

And as you read closely in the scriptures, this has all been foretold.

I love this line. Every time we sing this song in sacrament meeting, "The Day Dawn is

Breaking," that line just jumps out at me, "the worldwide commotion from ocean to ocean..." I don't think when that was written they had in mind what 2020 and 2021 looked like.

And have you thought about what 2022's going to bring, and 20...

(chuckles) you know, 2023, and so on. But the world is definitely in commotion today.

How wonderful that we get to do this though in conjunction with General Conference.

Because did you hear any panic, any uncertainty or any worry from the leaders of the Church over the last couple of days?

I didn't hear any.

What I heard was confidence and love and trust and, you know, let's harness up and get this done.

"Let's buckle up." Well here is what Elder Steven Snow said. He was a former Church Historian. He said, "It would be nice if we could anticipate all the changes that would occur in a lifetime." So as you're beginning your time as chaplain, if you could sit down and if your headquarters would just give you a list, "Chaplain, these are the 17 events you're going to experience over the course of your career with us.

We have rank ordered them, and we have also given you an approximate number of hours you’re going to need to prepare for them.” Wouldn't that be a really nice list?

Well I don’t know about you, but when I came on active duty, they forgot to give me the list. It was apparently probably locked in a safe somewhere.

He goes on and says, "Some changes we see coming." Some of these things you're not really surprised when they happen.

The pandemic probably caught us all a bit by surprise with its severity, but the fact that a pandemic was coming, I’ve been reading reports about that. I remember seeing the first classified report that's now been unclassified, 20 years ago saying at some point we're going to face a pandemic, and so we need to start doing something about it. And of course they shelved it, and we didn't.

"But what about the changes which are thrust upon us rather unexpectedly?"

Those are the ones that just kind of blindside you, smack you in the side of the head. And then he said, "How do we deal with such unexpected setbacks in life's

journey?" That's what I'd like you to think about today.

Because when those kinds of things happen, when something major happens, who do people turn to in your organizations?

When it's something that completely knocks them off their feet or knocks them through a loop morally or ethically, they turn to,

naturally, the chaplain.

And so this is the group that needs to kind of anticipate, as best you can, keep your pulse on the way things are going, and look where things are going, and recognize what is it we can do?

And this "we" I would say is you as a group of chaplains.

This isn't your general population. These are things that I want to share that you can do to teach, to

inspire, to set an example, and also just to support and love those that are under your charge.

So I'm going to suggest five things today.

The first thing I'm going to suggest, and I think it leads the list.

And that is to "Be of good cheer." It always amazes me, every time I read the account of the Savior's crucifixion, as He is going from the last supper to do that wonderful event, what is one of the last things recorded in the scriptures?

He tells His disciples there, "Be of good cheer." He is about to undergo the most

horrible thing that anyone will ever do in all of eternity, and His advice to them is "Be of good cheer." So I think whatever setting we see, it kind of puts it in perspective.

That if we're of good cheer I just think it's worthwhile. So what I’m going to do here, this is Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin.

His father, by the way, was an apostle as well.

"The next time you're tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead." Do you remember when his knees locked up at conference?

Do you remember that, and he kind of...?

And Elder Nelson jumped up and just kind of supported him during that. Do you remember what he did as soon as...

if you watch the video, as soon as Elder Nelson got up to support him, he smiles.

It's funny to him. "Hey, I'm about to wipe out and just embarrass myself in front of the entire world.

Isn't this hilarious?" I just love it.

The look on his face is classic.

"It will extend your life," and he lived to be very old by the way, "and make the lives of those around you more enjoyable." I think that's one of the things that a chaplain is charged to do.

And for some of you that can be a really challenging thing to do.

Let me share you two stories of two chaplains, one in this very room, and one who has gone to his eternal reward.

This is Chaplain Vance Theodore right here, and Vance has said I can tell this story, so we'll go ahead and do that.

Vance shared this with a program we’ve got at BYU that I would just mention to you briefly. It's called BYU Saints at War.

And if you deploy as a Latter-day Saint, we would love to get your stories, okay?

Feel free to contact me or Brother Bob Freeman.

But we're always collecting stories. So I'm just going to read this in Vance's words, okay? So if I get anything wrong, you're here, feel free to correct it, okay? "During Desert Storm there were some funny things that happened. My wife sent me some white socks.

When you're going to war your command sergeant major puts out a packing list and you have to take all that stuff.

Well, we also needed a bunch of black socks.

But the First Infantry Division had taken all the available socks,” those dirty dogs. I added that, okay?

(Chuckles) "There were none left.

So my wife came up with a brilliant idea, as wives are want to do, and she

dyed them." Perfect, right?

"And I thought I was good to go.

When I got to the desert I had my hummer, and I got to wash once in a while. I had a little plastic tub, and washed my uniforms and black socks together.

I looked at the water and as I was finishing, pulled up my uniforms and saw that they were now pink." So here is the chaplain wearing pink uniforms.

Okay, those of you that have deployed in a military setting, if the chaplain's wearing pink, how is that going down?

You are going to bring good cheer to your unit.

I mean mission accomplished, Vance, okay?

I just think that's a great story. This is not the day that the socks turned pink, but I've wondered is this the washed-out version of

those? Yeah? Okay.

(Chuckles) Second story I want to tell you is about one of my personal heroes.

This is Calvin Schwartz Smith.

His father is a guy you've heard of, his name is Joseph F. Smith, he was president of the Church.

Calvin was born when Utah was still a territory.

He was born to a polygamist family.

He had 45, if I remember right, brothers and sisters.

And

his mom had five or six sister wives.

And he serves as one of the first three chaplains in World War I.

And he had actually, by the way, been declared unfit to serve

because of health reasons, when he tried to enlist in the infantry.

But the First Presidency picked him to be a chaplain, medical standards were different for chaplains, and they took him, and he served without any questions.

But I want to share a story that happened with Chaplain Smith.

On board the ship, they sailed across to France on the RMS Empress of Russia.

And when they did so, and by the way, these are pictures that he took. He had a little Instamatic camera, well kind of an Instamatic camera, a little Kodak 27A it's called.

These are pictures that he took as they were sailing across.

Now, those of you that are military chaplains may have noticed that occasionally the commander gives duties that no one else wants to...

the chaplain. Yeah, I knew you'd figure that one out.

And that happened on this ship.

So while everybody else is doing whatever they're doing on the ship, he and the other chaplain on board that ship were down in the very bottom of the ship

with no portholes, censoring the mail.

Because all these hundreds of soldiers had to do was write letters.

They could read, they could write letters, they could exercise a little bit, but mostly they just wrote letters.

And so he said we read the same letter over and over and over.

And let me just share some of what he said.

He said, "It was a tedious job because the letters were so much alike."

But he did have one humorous experience. Here is what he said, "A sergeant in the 362nd infantry wrote to his fiancé in Los Angeles.

The same man also wrote to his best girl in Tacoma.

He also wrote to his only beloved in Olympia, and the only girl he ever truly loved in Seattle." And then Chaplain Smith adds this in his journal, he says, "Somehow, apparently, inadvertently, as the letters were replaced into the envelope, they somehow got switched."

(Laughter) So, you can have immediate humor with pink uniforms, or you can do

delayed humor. I’m sure that it took many years for that sergeant to figure out what had happened to him. But I'm guessing it just kind of ruined his life.

But I want to share with you a statement that was made in the Salt Lake Tribune in 1919 following World War I.

Chaplain Smith became known as "the fighting chaplain".

He never carried a weapon, but at one point in the offensive on

Meuse-Argonne, he went over the wall, or went over out into the trenches

with his soldiers in the first wave.

And he said in all of the smoke and the bombardment and all of the rifle fire he said, the adrenaline was running, and he said, "I paused for a moment and realized I was 100 yards in front of the lead man of my division." So the point man of the entire 91st division, the pine trees, was

the chaplain from Utah.

So he said, "I did what any respectable chaplain would do, I sat down and waited for my unit to catch me." (Chuckles) But here is what I want to share, if you go back to the old Deseret News and Tribunes you can find statement after statement after statement about the service of this great chaplain. And here is what one of the soldiers in his division said: "Every time we saw him while he were in action, he was in the thick of it." This is not somebody that shied away from anything.

He got wounded twice, he got the equivalent of the Purple Heart twice.

And once he continued working for 18 hours carrying wounded off

the battlefield while he, himself, had been hit by shrapnel.

Okay, this guy is just a super hero.

But I think this next statement says a lot.

"He made his way along the line," so picture those trenches in World War I, how miserable that experience was.

But "he makes his way up and down the line of the division, slapping the boys on the back with a cheery word." And then they see the chaplain go over the edge with them in the first wave.

"And a few minutes later he would be seen crawling towards some

wounded or dying boy."

I've done a lot of research on Chaplain Smith, and I think he got it.

He just got it. And when he came home from the war, for the rest of his life, he cared for the soldiers who had served in his division.

He saw it as a lifelong calling.

Doctrine and Covenants 68:6 says this, and I think it's just very appropriate. "Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you." You have that opportunity as a chaplain, and you have the opportunity to let others know that the Lord will stand with them.

But I think it begins with good cheer, so that's the first thing I would

offer to you. Second, I would suggest that, well, also let me mention this.

For chaplains, and I think especially, you know, too often in the world today the glass is half-empty, even when it's full to the brim, we still have people complaining that it's half-empty.

But I think for chaplains, the glass has to always be half-full.

The glass can't ever be half-empty, even if you're

honestly, personally feeling that way, for a chaplain, your glass has to

always be more than half-full.

People just depend on you for their morale, okay?

Well, second: Put on the armor of God.

If there was ever a scripture tailored by the Apostle Paul, I think it’s in Ephesians 6.

And this scripture is tailored right for chaplains.

"Stand therefore, having your loins girt with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feed shod with the preparation of the gospel of

peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the toward of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

I've heard lots of chaplains speak on these verses, and each time it's been different, and each time it’s been appropriate, and each time it's been wonderful.

And I just think it's the most wonderful set of scriptures for chaplains.

But what I would like to do is tell you a story of this guy.

This is Rich Hatch here, right here, that's Rich.

Rich and I, we've been buddies for goodness, a long time.

And we graduated by each other at BYU, and we served several times together. And we were the last two members of our BYU class to leave active duty.

Rich was the senior lawyer for the 101st Airborne Division, and he was hand-picked by General Petraeus to be his lawyer when they were going to go into Iraq, this is 2003.

This is just right after they went in.

Rich let me get his comments and so I'll get it right. He said, it was in the middle of March, 2003, we were sitting on the Kuwait/Iraqi border waiting for orders.

He said, "I felt impressed to gather my soldiers together and give them

a warning and a message that I had received from the Holy Ghost." And he said, "So, I didn't know what to tell them." He said, "I just knew I had to talk to them." And he said it wasn't until just a few minutes before it was time to gather them together that he knew what he was supposed to say.

He said, "I gathered them into a large mess tent and we had about 75 officers who were young lawyers," because as many of you all know, every time the Army deploys, if we run over a chicken, we pay for that chicken, and five generations of chickens. If we knock down a wall we pay for a new house.

And so he said we came behind the front lines, and we just carried satchels full of money, and lots of paperwork, and we paid everybody that we broke.

And he said that was our job. But he said, "I had 75 officers and soldiers," and he said, "here is what I told them." He said, "I received a prompting to tell them three things."

And he said they all surrounded the Stripling Warriors.

Now, remember Rich is the senior lawyer for the 101st Airborne Division.

And he said, "I had an initial problem because I'm the guy who is charged with keeping church and state separate, and I'm about to tell them about the Book of Mormon.

And I'm the colonel." And he said, "I don't want this to be a problem," so here is how he phrased it. He said, "In my faith tradition, we have a story.

And it comes from our Book of Mormon, that is a precious book to us."

And he put it in those kind of terms. But he said three things.

He said, "I told my troops first that the reason the stripling warriors were successful was because they had a conviction of the justness of their cause.”

And he talked about the justness of their cause as they were going into Iraq.

Second, he said, "The stripling warriors were confident of their abilities," and he reminded them of the training they received and all of the gear that they had, and all of the things that they had to keep them safe, and that they had the entire division around them protecting them.

And then third he said, "The stripling warriors were successful because they obeyed all commands with exactness." And he said on that third point, as I was speaking, the Holy Ghost let me know I needed to tell them something else. So he said, "I told them the following, that you are always to be in the prescribed uniform.

Always.

No matter how hot and uncomfortable it might be, and how seemingly safe

the environment is." If you're to have your flak jacket on, you're to have it on.

I don't care if you're just coming out of the shower or going into the mess tent.

If the uniform requires for you to have your jacket on, you’re going to have it on.

When you go to bed at night, you hang it where you can reach it immediately upon leaving your cot.

If you're in the shower, it doesn't have to be on while you're showering, but I want it on a hook where you can put it on if there's a siren.

And he said, "You need to do this with exactness, folks." And he says, "If you will do that, I promise you that all of us will return home alive." And then he said, "I left that tent and I walked to my own tent and fell to my knees and said, Heavenly Father what have I just said?" If one of these kids gets killed in an accident, you know, if a deuce and a half rolls up over them and kills them because they were watching, then none of the 75 here are

ever going to listen to the gospel of Jesus Christ from the Latter-day Saint missionaries if they ever come knocking on their door because Rich Hatch, the Mormon bishop, told them they'd all come home safely and Fred got killed.

He said, "Can you just confirm that what I said was okay?" And he said, "the heavens were kind of silent right then." And he said, "But three days later

the promise was fulfilled, or at least tested." He said, "A US soldier and devout Muslim rolled grenades into three tents in the middle of the night

that housed our brigade's leadership, and then began shooting the officers as they exited the tent.

He killed two of the officers and wounded 14 others.

Among the most seriously wounded was one of my legal officers,” he said a Captain Martin.

And Captain Martin, this is a picture of Captain Martin just seconds after the grenade rolled into his tent.

And you'll notice that he has his flak jacket on halfway.

His protective vest.

It's on halfway, and the grenade blew up on this side.

Rich said he talked to him, as they were getting ready to air-evac him out to Landstuhl in Germany.

And he said he grabbed my hand, and he said, "Colonel, I remembered what you said.

He said I heard a grenade going off in the other tent so I jumped out of bed. And the second I jumped out of bed he said I could hear your voice in my head saying, if your feet are on the ground and you're supposed to be in that

protective vest, put it on.

He said, I was in the process of putting it on when the grenade rolled in and exploded." The medical authorities told Rich that if he had not had that on, as it was he got a piece of shrapnel that punctured and collapsed one lung.

But it would've killed him.

He underwent about a dozen and a half surgeries in Germany over the next

several months, but he lived.

And Rich said that the Holy Ghost let him know this is why you were prompted to tell them that, this young man was saved.

So I would just encourage you as chaplains to help those that you support put on the armor of God.

Teach them to listen when they're prompted.

Teach them to do those things that will cause them to be in a position so that

they can

claim the blessings of the Lord as far as they're able to.

As Ephesians 6:13 says, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God." You know if you're going into battle, what are you going to leave? You're going to leave your

protective vest, you’re going to leave your boots, you're going to leave your helmet? What are you going to leave home? I'm going to take it all, I'm going to want a couple of other things as well, right?

"That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Well, the third thing I would tell you is to choose faith.

And as a chaplain, this is where you really get to be the example.

It's becoming easier and easier as the world gets dark that -

I have 35 minutes, so I actually have 12, thanks.

Choose faith. Let me just show you a picture here.

This is my oldest daughter, that's Suzanne, that's her husband, Kendall, and that's their four kids, they live in Provo.

In August last year, his back was hurting.

So he got a scan and they found a tumor on his back. It was a very large tumor and he underwent eight hours of surgery in September, two and a half foot scar on his back.

Put a lot of metal in him, and they were taking care of him at the University of Utah.

And the very next day they came in and they said, "We're sorry, we have to stop your pain medication.

We have just determined that you have leukemia.

And not only do you have leukemia, but you have so rare of a kind of leukemia that only four other people in history have had your leukemia.”

And so this is Kendall two months later, after 18 different regimens.

This is Kendall at the beginning of March of this year at the Huntsman Institute. He set the record for being in the ICU the longest at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

So this is the beginning down there of March.

And unfortunately, this is the end of March.

This kind of came out of the sky. I mean who expects to get a cancer that only four other people have had?

And to add to the challenge and the change, just five days before he

passed, my wife had her tenth cancer surgery.

So it was kind of a tough time for our family.

But let me share with you what my sweet daughter had to say.

And again, this is Suzanne right here.

She has kept a blog for family and friends, but here is what she had to say.

She said, "The kids and I," that's her four kids, "have had several conversations over the past few months when Kendall was in the hospital, where we would talk about what the worst thing would be.

And do you know what, it wasn't that Kendall might, and did indeed die." And so she had this conversation several times with her kids.

"We recognize how infinitely worse it would be if we didn't get to continue as a family beyond this life."

And then she says,

"But we do.

We very consciously made the decision at the beginning of this cancer experience that our family was going to choose faith and gratitude, and keep our focus on Jesus Christ.

And it was not easy, and it's far from easy now;

but I think it's made all the difference."

You as chaplains, I think have an added responsibility to help those you serve

choose faith, whether they are faithful people or not.

There are lots of ways to choose faith.

And maybe in some circumstances it's not anything more than just optimism.

But wouldn't you rather be with somebody who is optimistic than pessimistic?

Remember the glass has to stay half-full for you.

Brigham Young had a father who was a great dreamer.

A couple friends and I from BYU assembled a bunch of dreams a couple of years ago, did a volume on it and found some really fun things.

This is a story that Brigham Young shared in 1857, of his father, John Young. He said, "John Young dreamed that he was traveling and came to a tremendous mountain of snow." So this is in the dream, "and saw that his pathway was hedged up." So you've been probably out in the snow where it just looks like there's just nowhere to go.

"But someone says," so he hears a voice, doesn't know who it is, "someone says take one more step, and my father replied, but that will be the last.

However, he took that step and then his guide said, do you not see that there is room for you to take another?

And when he had taken another his guide told him to take still another in advance, and there was a passage all the way through." Isn't that the way life is?

Brigham Young then goes on. The thing I love about Brigham Young, when he shares a dream, is he always gives you the punchline.

Here is how Brigham Young summed that up.

"So it will be with us.

The Lord will not reveal all that we at times wish him to. If a schoolmaster were to undertake a little child algebra, you would call him foolish, would you not?" Think of the recent talk we heard in conference, the Lord didn't come in the first watch, He didn't come in the second watch.

He didn't come in the third watch.

The Lord came in the fourth watch.

He doesn't reveal all to us at the time we would like it.

And then Brigham Young sums up and says,

"Just so with our father, our Heavenly Father, He reveals to us as we are

prepared to receive; and I hope to continue to learn." So please help those you serve to recognize there's always one more step you can take.

And it just takes a little bit of faith for one step. It takes a lot of faith to see it to the end from the beginning, but it just takes a little bit of faith to take it one step at a time.

So Doctrine and Covenants 19 says, "Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my spirit;" isn't that the key, "and you shall have peace in me."

Well fourth, keep perspective.

You know the pandemic's been really horrible, but this is a picture from 100 years ago.

It was horrible for them too, but guess what, they got through it.

December 7th, 1941 was a very horrible day in our nation's history, but they got through it. September 11th, 2001 was a horrible day.

I was at West Point, and we could see the smoke from the tower.

And I had students who had parents working in the Trade Towers.

But we got through these, and we will get through every other challenge that lies in our future.

And if you look back, think of how the Saints must have felt when Joseph was killed at Carthage.

Think of how the Saints must have felt when they had been promised they could leave Nauvoo in the spring, the agreement with the mob said when the grass grows. And then they were pushed out in February and the river was frozen, and had to

cross, and spend time at Winter Quarters and then cross the plains. And then at the end of your journey, what is

the prize? Utah.

Okay?

And you know, it's a beautiful place today but when they arrived there are journals of British Saints that knowing how green Britain is, there were British Saints that arrived here and learned that this is the destination, and they just knelt down and cried, and it wasn't out of joy.

But

you take one step at a time.

Or they've been here ten years and Johnston's Army marches in. I mean, if you look through history...

sometimes I think we do a disservice to the rising generation that we make them think that their challenges are the only challenges that any people have ever faced and things are so much worse than they've ever, ever been.

There have been tough times all through history, and they got through, we will get through.

The Lord will not leave us defenseless.

"There's a tendency to think of change as the enemy," right?

"Many of us are suspect of change and will fight and resist it before we've

even discovered what the actual effects will be.

Sometimes some of the greatest advances come out of adversity and change." Do you know that the number of people taught actually went up in many missions around the world during the pandemic?

Unheard of. The missionaries had no idea that was going to happen.

And yet I've talked to returned missionaries at BYU that are in my classes, and they said our numbers, the people we were teaching went up 3- and 400% during the pandemic because we had their attention and they had nowhere to go.

(Chuckles) "When change is thought through carefully it can produce the most rewarding and profound experiences in life."

Elder Bednar said it this way, "I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real." And I want to tell you they're real. Throughout the experience of my daughter losing her husband, there were just enough tender mercies scattered along the way where we could see the hand of the Lord.

"And they do not occur randomly or merely my coincidence." And I will tell you as you talk to veterans and those that have deployed, there are

tender mercies to be found everywhere.

"Often the Lord's timing of His tender mercies help us to both discern

and acknowledge them." Well, fifth and finally I would tell you to trust God.

And I would share with you Alma 36 in which Alma wrote, "for I do know that

whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." You especially as chaplains have to keep the big

picture, and wherever you can, teach those you support to trust.

We are losing trust as nations and people in our institutions, in many things.

Help restore some of that trust.

Well, I began with "The Day Dawn is Breaking." There's another great line in there, and it says, "still let us be doing," and that I think is the challenge for each of you as chaplains is to be doing, to do those things you can do. "Our lessons renewing." You're going to have to teach your soldiers and those you support and sailors and marines and you know, many, many times the same things, "which God has revealed for our walk in his way; and then, wondrous story, the Lord in his glory will come in his power in the beautiful day." There's going to be a day when all of this is going to be history.

You know, it's just going to be as Joseph was told in Liberty Jail, "but a small moment." Now it doesn't seem like a small moment right now.

I tell students it's like finals week.

Finals seems like it's never going to end, but it always does, and there's always light and happiness on the other side, especially if you studied.

(Chuckles) Well, let me end with this story.

This is a militiaman during the Revolutionary War.

Around his waist he is wearing a piece of red cloth, that signifies that he was an officer. There are several things on his uniform that signify that as cockade and so on.

This is his counterpart from his majesty's forces. He is also, if you'll notice, wearing a similar cloth around his waist.

Now the military is really good at naming things.

I mean they're very, very clever.

So this is a red-colored sash, and so the military calls it the red sash.

And this is a real red sash.

This is a real red sash worn by an officer in the Revolutionary War, this is worn by an American officer. This is in the museum at West Point, the military academy.

This red sash is 12 feet long and 6 feet wide. It also doubled as a litter or a way to carry soldiers off the field. You would fold it and fold it again. Because the average Revolutionary War soldier was my height, 5-6.

And so a 12-foot cloth would fit that soldier very well.

The reason it's red is so that it didn't show the blood.

You had to go to the officer to get the cloth.

It was given to you, and then you would carry the soldier off. And then you would bring the cloth back and report to the officer what you had done with the cloth and how the soldier was doing. So it was an accountability system too. Then you would wrap it around your waist so many times.

Well, at West Point, these are young high school kids reporting on what's called

R-day, Reception Day.

This is Thayer Hall, the building I taught in for many years.

And so they're there, they're all scared and they're reporting.

Throughout that process, they are told to report - it used to be when West Point was only male, it was "report to the man in the red sash." Today it's "report to the cadet in the red sash." But the cadets wear a ceremonial version of that red sash from the Revolutionary War, and other wars.

And it's a symbol of their authority, and the fact that they have gone through this program themselves and can successfully help others do the same thing. So, these new cadets, here he's learning how to carry a duffel bag because they weigh about 70, 80 pounds, we don't want to wreck your back on the first day and send you home.

And so they tell them how to do that, and these cadets with red sashes are scattered throughout West Point to help the cadets learn everything they need to know.

And they know throughout what's called Beast, a six-week summer camp, to find the cadets in the Red Sash to learn what they need to know.

The cadets wear red sashes as a symbol of their authority and their seniority, and the fact that they have successfully done this program.

Now in the 1990s, I took my institute class down, I was the institute officer in charge for West Point. And we took a group of cadets down to the Washington, D.C. Temple to do baptisms and endowments for those that were returned missionaries.

I was following my institute president into the celestial room in the Washington, D.C. Temple. And all of the sudden he got to the edge of the door, and he just froze and came to the position of attention, which cadets just do instinctively when they stop.

And I was thinking of other things, and as I came in the celestial room, he had frozen there, and I bumped into him.

He was bigger than I was. I bounced, he didn't.

And so I said, "Everything okay?" And he said, "I get it.

I get it." I didn't know what he got.

And he's like, "I get it." And he's pointing across the room.

So I looked around the side into the celestial room, and he was pointing across the celestial room to a picture.

And he said, "I get it, I get why I am in the temple.

I get it." And he pointed to Harry Anderson's picture.

And he said, "I am here to report to the man in the red sash.

Because He has done this program that I am in, and He knows how to bring me safely home.

And He will bring me safely home if I will let Him teach me."

You have a wonderful opportunity as chaplains to teach, to inspire, to assist, and to provide just all manner of aid and assistance.

May you do so, listening to the Lord, knowing what to say.

And I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.