Passing of a Prophet

Since President Hinckley passed away last week I thought I'd do an unusually serious post. I've been watching a lot of the coverage of his life and it never fails to strike me of what an extraordinary person he was and how we have all been blessed at having known him. I'm also so thankful that the church is a church of order and that we aren't thrown into a tizzy that our leader has passed away and that we know there are a line of wonderful men who can take his place. With that said I don't know that anyone will ever replace him. I think I have selective ADD and it seems it always kicks in when I watch conference. Seriously I feel like I'm five years old and the paint on the walls suddenly has my interest. However I never felt that way when President Hinckley spoke. I honestly sit a little straighter when I hear his voice. He had a way of talking about the gospel that anyone could understand and inspired me to be better. He often closed conference by saying that he felt he could be better or kinder and I always said to myself, "If President Hinckley thinks he can do better than so can I." I'm going to miss hearing him and seeing his smile but like everyone I'm so happy that he gets to be with his wife again. One quote from him that actually came from Pres. Hinckley's father when he was struggling on his mission is, "forget yourself and go to work." It is obvious that President Hinckley adopted that fully and lived every last day with that in mind. He also was a optimist to the extreme and would that I could live to be half as optimistic as he is. He makes me proud to be a Latter-Day Saint, not that I needed a reason but you know what I mean!