Is President Monson a Chicken? (Or an Egg?)

In this morning's session of conference, President Monson mentioned that he was called to be a bishop at the age of 22. I knew he had served in a lot of positions at early ages, but this still surprised me. He was also called as a counselor in a stake presidency at 27, a mission president at around 32, and an apostle at age 36.

This made we wonder: Was President Monson called to such positions at such early ages because he is such a great man, or is he a great man because of his unique opportunities of service and leadership?

Perhaps it is some of both.

Wait, Who am I Sustaining Again?

Today was high council Sunday, and the high councilor stood up to take care of his stake business. Someone was called to be a high priest in a different ward. Yada yada, same old stuff. And then he said:

"Will all those who can sustain the stake president in this ordination, please manifest it."

Suddenly the monotony train went off the tracks and a torrent of questions came to my mind. Am I sustaining the stake president here, or is this just an interesting way to say that I'm sustaining the high priest? Do we always implicitly sustain the caller as well as the callee, or is this unique to the ordination of high priests? If I don't think the man is qualified and don't sustain him, am I not sustaining the stake president? Or does "in this ordination" sufficient to add specificity to how I'm sustaining the stake president in this instance?

All of these questions were left unanswered as I only had a split second before my vote would be required. So I put the questions on the back burner and "manifested it."

But now I'm left to wonder: who/what did I just sustain?

(Note: if you're not LDS you probably won't understand what I'm talking about. Sorry about that.)

Building the Kingdom, Stone by Stone

At the start of my mission I was struggling to reconcile how much effort we were expending--physical and otherwise--and how little progress we were seeing while trying to build up a small branch. Somehow, I thought of the builders of the Salt Lake Temple. It took them 40 years to build the temple, and my understanding is that it was all done by the general membership, without pay. I imagined what it would be like to work in the quarry--cutting stones every day and sending them off the in the wagon. Did those guys feel like they were making a difference? Did they feel like they were building the kingdom? Perhaps they did, but I imagine there were some days where they felt like all of the hard work was yielding slow, if any, progress. What about the skilled artists who carved the stone designs? I imagine their job was slightly more rewarding, but still after several years it would have become monotonous. A person who was 20 when the building began would have been 60 when it finished. The fact that it was finished is a testament to the faith and diligence of the people.

Of course there are many stories of faith in Mormon history, the most obvious of which is the Mormon pioneers with their handcarts walking across the continent seeking religious freedom. But what makes the building of the temple special as well is that it was not under extreme circumstances. These were normal people, going about their normal, daily lives, who were also doing something great over a long period of time.

Now, whenever I feel like progress is going slow, I think of the man in the quarry.