LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson led a flock of millions but he inspired one by one, with personal stories. On Wednesday, people around Temple Square shared some of their favorites.
Katie Hertig: "I think probably my favorite one was when he was playing marbles. I think he was with one of his friends or a cousin. I can't remember. But they're trying to clear a path so that they can play better marbles and they set the field on fire. He used his marbles story to just illustrate that, you know, we all make mistakes, we all do things we regret later, but we can always do our best to make it better."
...He put something within all of our reach to help others.
Paul Schulte: "Mine is the story he told about when he was a young bishop and he had a prompting to go to the hospital. And they got there just after the person had passed away. And then he kind of made that the foundation of his ministry throughout his life. And I love that, because that's something we all can do. We can all go visit people. And you don't have to be particularly talented, you don't have to have a degree or be articulate. And so he put something within all of our reach to help others."
Tom Checketts: "The thing I love about President Monson is that, even though he was this leader of this multimillion-member global organization, that he always focused on the individual."
He had a way of making people laugh and getting to people on a personal level.
Taylor Saunders: "I don't know that I have a favorite story but I loved when he wiggled his ears in conference. He had a way of making people laugh and getting to people on a personal level."
Kyle Treasure: "One of my favorite stories that he told often was when he was up some canyons somewhere, and he was inner tubing down a river and he comes across this little girl drowning - and he was just like a teenager, I think - and he grabbed her and pulled her into his tube. And he just used that to talk about how he was just in the right place at the right time. And each of us have those moments in our lives where we will be in the right place at the right time - yeah, to help people."
Correction: A version of this story that aired on All Things Considered Jan. 3 reversed the names of two interviews.
