Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice

They just announced the new first presidency. I want to feel that surge of Spirit saying “yes” right now. I know it will come; President Monson looks different, more heavy laden perhaps. But for now, I’m still nursing loss. As I watched the funeral Saturday, I found bits of President Hinckley’s talks over the years swimming in my brain–hearing his wonderful voice. And his oft repeated phrase when testifying “to all within the sound of my voice” has gotten stuck. I am no longer within the sound of his voice. None of us are and we won’t be again “till we meet again.” And that’s what’s got me stuck. I want to be within the sound of his voice. The first general conference while I was on my mission was a solemn assembly sustaining President Hunter, which meant we got a video tape from Salt Lake City to play in a special meeting in Brasil. I was still somewhat homesick, but desperately looking forward to conference and as I stood in the alcove of the chapel peeking in (there were no available chairs for missionaries), I watched the proceedings and sobbed quietly. I kept singing to myself the hymn “Come Listen to a Prophet’s Voice”, and that only made matters worse. You see, the tape of the meeting was dubbed into Portuguese, so what our entire congregation was hearing was the voice of the translators, not the voices of the prophet and the general authorities. Most of the brasileiros I was quickly growing to love had never and would never actually hear the prophet’s voice, only his message. They have never known President Kimball’s scratchy voiceless whisper or Elder Richard G. Scott’s kind concern or President Eyring’s voice break with love for the gospel and for us. And they had never known President Hunter’s measured calm voice or President Hinckley’s warm assurances. This shouldn’t matter all that much I suppose; their messages are what’s important and we all still have the messages of the prophets at our disposal. But what I missed then and what I’m mourning now is the loss of the sound, the very electrifying feeling of hearing the word of the Lord through the voice of a living prophet, whose love is so very apparent it warms your ears. And that is it, I suppose, for me, for my testimony, part of the knowledge that we have a living prophet on earth is that I can hear his voice with my own ears. And because I have loved President Hinckley, have grown up with the sound of his voice for my whole life, it is that loss that I still mourn as I wait to follow the living prophet of God, President Thomas S. Monson.