President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was in good spirits and good form as he addressed the new mission presidents seminar at the missionary training center in Provo, Utah, on Saturday, June 25.
Before he began his formal address, entitled “The Voice That Can Be Felt Rather Than Heard,” he reassured everyone about his health, explaining an event that occurred at the dedication of the newly rebuilt Longfellow Park meetinghouse in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Sunday, June 19.
“A Sunday ago I went with President Eyring to Cambridge, Massachusetts—where I served as mission president—to dedicate a chapel,” President Packer said. “The chapel had been burned and essentially destroyed, but it’s been rebuilt to the early specifications and it stands now much as it did before, except inside it’s been improved a lot. That’s the way we do things in the Church.
“After the dedicatory service, the prayer had been said and we were leaving the stand, and there were two sets of steps,” he continued. “The first one I got through all right, but the second one I looked down and the second step was gone. I didn’t collapse, and I didn’t fall. But I know you can fall down inside of yourself, and I suppose that’s what happened. So I spent a little time with the doctors in Boston and then in Salt Lake City, and in the course of it, they installed a pacemaker to keep my heart beating.”
He paused and then added, “I quite like that.”
He continued, using a modification of a poem by Edgar A. Guest.
“Thinking of this assignment, I thought of a few words that expressed my feelings and probably yours [as you enter the mission field]: ‘They said it couldn’t be done, but with a smile he went right to it. He tackled the job that couldn’t be done, and by George, he couldn’t do it,’” he said, smiling. “So we will see.”
The humor brought laughter from the congregation. President Packer then delivered a powerful message about following the Spirit and reassured the new mission presidents that if they will follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, they will have all of the guidance they need to succeed in leading their missionaries and bringing souls to Christ.
