President Thomas S. Monson

Our beloved Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints passed away today. It's surreal when someone of such strength and someone who you looked up to for guidance and light have passed away. He was an incredible man with a huge compassionate heart. 

For my children who will only remember him through pictures and what they hear in our home and Primary... I want you to know that I believe in the Power of our Prophet. I loved our beloved Prophet and all his teachings. I learned most from his example of serving and to never skip a prompting. To always listen and help those when you feel the urge. He was very influential in our lives as a married couple and in our family. 

I only met him once when the Rexburg Temple was being dedicated. We were in one of the temple rooms during the dedication. After all was finished, President Monson walked by our room, turned around and came in. He was looking around the room and then smiled. He told all the children in that room to prepare yourselves now to serve a mission. His presence was full of life and the spirit. It's a feeling I will never forget. 

Two quotes that I remember from President Monson the most (Though there are many I LOVE!) but ones that always come back to me...

"NEVER POSTPONE A PROMPTING" 

And one that hangs in my yoga room for encouragement 

"It is not enough to want to make the effort and to say we'll make the effort...

Its in the doing,

Not just the thinking, that we accomplish OUR GOALS.

If we constantly put our goals off, we will never see them fulfilled." 

Thank you President Monson for the constant love and encouragement. 

FROM DESERET NEWS: 

More than half a century before he became the 16th president of the LDS Church, Thomas S. Monson, who died Tuesday at 10:01 p.m. at age 90, was an inexperienced, 23-year-old Mormon bishop with a distressing problem that would define his life.

He had the distinct spiritual prompting to leave a priesthood leadership meeting as his stake president was speaking and visit an elderly member of his congregation in the hospital. It seemed rude to stand, shuffle over 20 people and exit as his presiding leader spoke. Instead, he sat uncomfortably until the talk ended, then bolted for the door before the closing prayer.

At the hospital, he ran down the corridor. He stopped when he saw commotion outside the room of the man he was to visit. A nurse told him the man had died, calling Bishop Monson's name as he passed away. Shattered, the fledgling bishop went outside and wept, sobbing. He vowed then, in the parking lot of the old Veterans Hospital in Salt Lake City's Avenues, that he would never turn a deaf ear to another prompting.

"It's the most impressive story I know from him about his ministry to the one," said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. "As far as I know he kept that promise ever since. It became fundamentally characteristic of his life and what sets him apart from others, that he committed to this idea of following a prompting, and the focus almost always was a single person."

President Monson's death, after nearly ten years as prophet-leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, closes a distinctive era in church leadership. During his time as one of the longest-serving apostles in Mormon history, church membership expanded from 2.1 million members to 15.9 million. The number of temples grew from 12 to 157.

Place in history

Elder Holland believes that President Monson, born on Aug. 21, 1927, in Salt Lake City, had a special gift for personal, one-on-one ministration that he honed throughout his life.

"I think," Elder Holland said, "that is probably the single-most startling and admirable characteristic in a very admirable life."