“Contents,” Ensign, Feb. 1977, 1 Ensign February 1977 Volume 7 Number 2 Contents Special Features First Presidency Message: “Choose Ye This Day”President Marion G. Romney Alma the ElderArthur R. Bassett Reverence in the Church: A New Long-range Emphasis Area Conferences from Monterrey to Santiago It’s a Young Church in … MexicoOrson Scott Card Unconventional ConventionGordon Irving Central America: Saints in Six Nations Grow in the Gospel Colombia VenezuelaMario G. Echeverri Ecuador Peru Bolivia ChileSteven J. Iverson Great-Grandfather’s FamilyDavis Bitton A Prophet Touched My LifeAndrew Worden Ruth Hale: High Drama and a Great Sense of HumorLaurie J. Wilson “A Strange Thing in the Land”: The Return of the Book of Enoch, Part 9Hugh Nibley “I Had a Mother Who Read to MeAnn Moulton Johnson They Collected LegendsFranklin S. Harris III Regular Features I Have a QuestionH. Dean GarrettG. Hugh AlIredCarma Cutler Mormon Journal“2,000 People Are Praying for You” Lyn NiemeyerProdigal Parents Jo Castleton PoetryWithout Benefit of Roses D. J. HarperA Trilogy Companionship Vernice Wineera PereThe Daisies Kathleen Spillman Random Sampler Discovery“Had You Stood in the Presence of Peter”: A Letter from Oliver Cowdery to Phineas Young, 1846 Ronald G. WattThe Macks of Marlow A. Gary Anderson Mirthright Insights Comment Five Ways to Bear TestimonyKenneth L. Higbee News of the Church On the cover: Saints, scenery, and artifacts from Mexico and Central and South America Inside front cover: The Council of the Twelve Apostles. Seated, left to right, are Elder Mark E. Petersen, President Ezra Taft Benson, and Elder Delbert L. Stapley. Standing, left to right, are Elders Boyd K. Packer, Thomas S. Monson, LeGrand Richards, Marvin J. Ashton, Howard W. Hunter, Bruce R. McConkie, Gordon B. Hinckley, L. Tom Perry, and David B. Haight. Photography by Eldon K. Linschoten. Inside back cover: King Lamoni under the Power of God, Ronald Crosby, oil. Lamoni’s queen pleads with Ammon to restore her husband as he lies unconscious and apparently dead. Because of her faith in Ammon’s word that he would revive at a given time, she resisted her counselors’ advice to place him in a sepulchre. (See Alma 19.) Copyright 1965 by Deseret Book Co., from The Book of Mormon Story by Mary Pratt Parrish. Used by permission.