President McKay, Counselors, President Smith, brethren and sisters, while being so affectionately helped by my son from where I was sitting to where I am now standing, a statement flashed through my mind attributed to a good friend, the late J. Golden Kimball, when he stated, "If you wish to live forever, just get an incurable disease and take care of it." Yes, I confess that I am guilty of having such thoughts about others, and it is stated that the measure ye mete unto others shall be meted unto you again  Matt. 7:2 so it is all right if some of you are thinking that of me; I hope that you are because I'd like that measure that I have meted to others to be wiped out or balanced before I go to the other side. I have always had an idea, a strong one, that it would be much better for all of us if we could repent of all our sins before we go to the other side. And as it has been stated this morning by President McKay also by Brother Moyle, we may get by on this side by a little lying and a little cheating and a little stealing, but we will have to meet it, brothers and sisters, as sure as we live. The Lord is just, and these things will have to be paid for before we can progress as we would like to on the other side.

POWER OF PRAYER

I am delighted beyond expression to be here with you this morning, and I wish openly to thank my Father in heaven for hearing and answering the prayers that have so thoughtfully been offered for me, and especially do I thank you, brethren and sisters, my dear friends, for remembering me in your prayers. I believe with all my heart in the power of prayer. I have always believed in and accepted prayer as one of the great principles governing us in our lives, and I am thankful that so many are now thinking of prayer. They are speaking of it from the pulpit, in the press, and also over the radio. Just last night we listened to a play, the Home Theatre, I think it is called, over the Mutual Broadcasting System, and the sponsors of this play generally make this very pertinent statement at the close: More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." (Tennyson.) The other statement, very applicable especially to this day where divorces are so prevalent: "The family that prays together, stays together."

PRAYER IN THE HOME

I am sure that many young couples who have started life, opening their homes for themselves, have heard that statement and would like very much, perhaps, to begin again by having prayer in the home. I know the young wives would like to have it, and maybe the young husbands, but some of them perhaps do not know how to pray. I know we had missionaries arrive in the field who didn't know how to pray. You could tell always when a missionary came from a home where they had family prayers and had had the opportunity to take part in that family prayer. And to avoid embarrassment of these young missionaries, who hadn't had that opportunity, because of neglect of their parents, I generally made it a point in our first meeting with the missionaries to help guide them in knowing how to pray. I told them, among other things, always to express appreciation in their prayers, followed by their requests, and if they thought of prayers divided in that manner, it would be of help to them, even if they had never prayed before. If they would just stand up and say, "We thank thee, Father in heaven," and then name the blessings: for health and strength, for our parents, for the privilege of being in the mission field, for the Church, for our citizenship, then they could go on. If they would just express their appreciation and then follow it by the requests that they have: "Continue to bless us, bless us in our family life that peace and love and unity may continue. Bless our brother who is in the war," perhaps. Well, if people would just think of prayer as being divided in that way, it might help them.

There may be young couples who are listening in who listened to that play last night, and when it was stated that "The family that prays together, stays together," I am sure they thought they would like to begin, and I hope that they will.

EXPRESSING APPRECIATION

Expressing appreciation: Do not ever forget to express appreciation to our Father in heaven for the blessings that we have received from him. There would be more love in the home if we expressed appreciation for our wives, menfolk. We love them as much as ever, but we don't tell them. We used to take them flowers occasionally, especially when we were courting them, but I am sure there are men listening in now who have never given their wives bouquets of flowers. This theme was developed in one of our stakes with scattered wards, some of them nearly fifty miles from where the conference was being held, and the presidency of the stake very wisely organized a transportation committee, comprised of adult members of the Aaronic Priesthood and adult members who have no priesthood, and even some non-members. They took their appointment seriously, and they made it possible for every person in that scattered community, stake, to be in conference. In that way the presidency, of course, had a large number of the adult members of the Aaronic Priesthood there.

After this theme had been developed, it was told that one of the men thought that the speaker was speaking directly to him. He was working at one of the defense plants at the time, making a lot of money. The men were paid every two weeks. They cashed their checks right there where they were working for convenience. As this man was driving home one night after receiving his two weeks' pay, making more in two weeks than he usually made in two months, he stopped at the drugstore and bought a box of candy, the kind he used to take to his sweetheart during his courting days. He saw a flower shop in the corner of the drugstore, and he thought ''Well, I believe I will get a bouquet of flowers. I know my sweetheart liked dark red roses." So he had the flower girl make up a beautiful bouquet of roses.

He took them home, gave his usual three rings to announce to his wife that he had arrived. She came hurrying to the door as usual, just as he was awkwardly pushing the door closed with his back. He handed the roses to his wife and then awkwardly pushed the box of candy towards her, blushing, I guess. She looked at the flowers, then the box of candy, then at her husband and said "John, let me smell your breath." Well, he was overdoing it a little perhaps all at once, but as she placed those flowers in the vase (one I am told she had received at her wedding and had never had occasion to use), tears came into her eyes. And as they were munching over the candy in the evening, she said, "John, remember this is the kind of candy you brought me the first time you called to see me, and I was so embarrassed because father kept returning for just another piece?"

And he said, "Yes, I do remember, and how pleased I was that your father did keep returning. I was worried because I thought maybe he wouldn't like me, and I saw that he liked my candy anyhow, and maybe liked me."

APPRECIATION BRINGS LOVE

I want to tell you brethren and sisters we would have more love in our homes and in our wards and in our stakes if we just took time not only to appreciate our wives, but also to tell them that we love them, not only to appreciate what our bishops are doing for our boys in the Aaronic Priesthood, but also put our hand on the shoulder of the bishop and tell him, "Bishop, how I do appreciate what you are doing for my boys." Tell the superintendent, and the Sunday School teachers, and tell your ward teachers. Next time they come, make them feel at home, and when they get up to say good-night after delivering their lesson, kneel down and pray with them, receiving their blessings.

May we, my brethren and sisters, have the will power to express our appreciation—not only to appreciate, but also to express that appreciation more, and to pray together oftener.

TESTIMONY

And in conclusion, may I, my brethren and sisters, express with all my heart my gratitude to my Father in heaven for giving me a testimony of the divinity of this work in which we are engaged. I know that he lives, that he is our Father. We are all his children. I know that Jesus is the Christ, and that his Church is upon the earth, and that the men who have stood at the head of this Church from the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith to the present time when President David O. McKay stands at the head, have all been called of God, and they have been set apart by the laying on of hands to preside over the Church, to preach the gospel, and to administer in the ordinances thereof. I bear you this testimony humbly, and in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.