It Seemed Unique to Him

LeGrand Richards

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What seemed unique to LeGrand Richards while reminiscing later in life of working in the hay field with his father, George F. Richards and his cousin Stephen L. Richards?

a.                  That their last names were the same

b.                  That they all served in the same mission

c.                   That all of them would go on to be apostles

d.                  That all three of them were married on the same date

Yesterday’s answer:

A   John A. Widtsoe

From the life of John A. Widtsoe:   In Logan, Utah, John entered Brigham Young College and graduated in 1891 at the age of nineteen. His mother had no qualms about undertaking what many of her associates thought was a rash and foolish venture for a poor widow—she sent him to Harvard, paying for this expensive privilege by long hours of sewing and by mortgaging all she had. John was one of a group of promising young Latter-day Saint men who were encouraged to attend Harvard by Dr. Joseph M. Tanner of Brigham Young College in Logan. This group of Mormon students enjoyed one another’s company and kept their expenses down by renting a house together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was here at Harvard that John found deep and lasting conviction concerning the truthfulness of the gospel. He wrote: “At that time I was having my religious battles. Was Mormonism what it pretended to be? Did Joseph Smith tell the truth? I read, listened, compared, thought, prayed. It was a real search for truth. Out of it in time came the certain knowledge that the resorted gospel is true and that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet, and the restorer of the simple true gospel of Jesus Christ. There has never been any doubt about it since that time of deep study and prayer.” He graduated in 1894, receiving the highest possible honors, including two awards that had never been presented to the same person before—one for demonstrating the greatest breadth of knowledge and the other for demonstrating the greatest depth of knowledge. Though he had many opportunities to go elsewhere at higher pay, John A. Widtsoe accepted a position at the Utah Agricultural College, where he could serve the people and kingdom he loved. Brother Widtsoe saw the forces of God at work in science. Once when doubts arose in his mind and he felt as if he might be losing his faith, he pled with the Lord for help. He expressed this earnest prayer by writing a beautiful hymn entitled “Father, Lead Me out of Darkness.” The Lord answered his prayer; his faith was strengthened and his testimony grew.

Flake, Lawrence R., Prophets and Apostles of the Last Dispensation, (Provo, Utah: Religious Study Center, Brigham Young University, 2001), 454-455.