By Susan Knight
Some people say “coincidence.” I say “Providence.”
For some reason, I received an email from my singles group
announcing an Education Weekend the day before it was supposed to happen. I
thought, “Why didn’t I get this email sooner?”
The keynote speaker last Friday night was to be Heidi
Swinton, author of President Thomas S. Monson’s biography. Since her son used
to be in my ward back east, and I know she writes beautiful “Music and the
Spoken Word” narrations, I decided to go, even though it was short notice.
When I arrived at the stake building in Salt Lake City, I
found out this was not a singles event. The program announced it was for “Adults
and Youth.” I figured, I’m an adult. So I stayed.
Providence, I tell you.
I figured she would tell the story of writing the biography of President Monson.
Sister Swinton delved deeply into her experience,
beginning with “the phone call” she got while serving as Mission President’s
wife in the South London Mission. Unbelievable.
She said President Monson always asks, “How are you doing?”
before he begins any conversation or business. “And he really means it,” we were told. “He wants to know how you are.”
President Monson spoke to her for a good half hour on the
phone, long distance from Salt Lake City to London, before he came to the real
reason for his call--to ask her to write his biography. She said, until then, she thought maybe he called mission
president’s wives on Wednesdays.
Sister Swinton painted a perfect picture of our prophet for
the audience in attendance that night. I came to know the man as one who heeds
impressions and promptings from the Holy Ghost.
The stories she told were familiar. I’d heard them in
General Conference. However, looking into her eyes, and hearing her own words,
more poignantly touched my awareness. The Spirit was so strong it filled the
chapel. If there were windows, they would have burst.
A turning point in the prophet’s life, according to Sister
Swinton, was when he was a 22-year-old bishop. An elderly man was in the
hospital and didn’t have much time left. President Monson promised the dying
man he would come to see him right after Stake Conference. He was a new
bishop and new bishops had to sit on the stand that evening.
During the first speaker’s talk, President Monson heard an urgent
voice say, “Go the hospital now.”
Being only 22, he didn’t know what to do. He thought, “Should
I go? But how would that look?”
He received the same prompting, with more force, as the
second speaker took the stand. Again, “Should I go?”
As the closing hymn began, he rushed out the door, sped to
the hospital, and got to the room just as the nurse stepped into the hallway to stop him from entering. “You must
be Bishop Monson,” she said.
“Yes, I am.”
“He was asking for you right before he passed away.”
Sister Swinton said, the phrase, “That lesson was not lost
on me,” was one she heard many times in her conversations during interviews. There were oh, so many more stories she told to add to the Spirit that night.
We all know, from the stories the prophet tells, that he
heeds promptings. He is a ministering angel. I chastised myself. “The Holy Ghost
knows not to prompt me. I never listen.”
How many times have I heard the still, small voice, yet did
not act? I’ve lost count. Imagine how that man, plotting to take his own life,
felt as President Monson showed up, out of the blue, to rescue him as he sat in
a wheelchair at the deep end of the swimming pool.
Yes, he learned that lesson well. It was not lost on him. Nor
were his other life lessons missed.
Sister Swinton said many times how Christlike “Tommy” is. I
felt a prompting. I heard the Spirit say to me, “Christ is like Thomas S.
Monson.” A thought came to my mind that, when Christ walked on the earth,
perhaps his personality was like our prophet’s. After all, Thomas S. loves to
tell stories. Our Savior told parables to get his points across.
In fact, Sister Swinton said, our prophet doesn’t think in
linear time. She would ask interview questions about when certain events
happened and he would always answer, “Let me tell you a story.” Who does that
sound like? When questions were asked of Him, he answered, “There was a certain man who. . .”
She said he thinks in celestial terms, not in earth time. I
can’t explain it very well, but she did.
I exhort you all, if you ever have a chance to hear Heidi
Swinton speak, make no excuses and go--quickly--to wherever she is. She didn’t use notes but spoke from the heart and spirit. Her
delivery was sure. Her eyes scanned the congregation and met mine quite a few
times.
She probably thought, “Who is that crazy lady down there
crying so much?”