We sat out in the lobby and waited for about 25 minutes. He was not yet at in the building but on his way. Kids had to go to the bathroom and met President Packer. He stopped and talked to them. Elder Perry came thru the lobby and Kevin shook his hand. I saw President Uchtdorf when they were all going to the bathroom!
OK so we went thru these double doors into this other lobby and then President Monson himself opened up the doors and kids TOOK OFF! It was AWESOME! My first reaction was, “Where are they going? They don’t know anyone here!” And then I realized it was the prophet! They did know him. Not in the way we know grandpa and grandma, but in the way that we know someone we pray for , love, listen to and hopefully obey. That, I imagine, is how our meeting the Savior will be. We have never met him, but pray to, love, listen to and hopefully obey. We will recognize him because we have known him thru service and prayer. Anyhow, the kids just all jumped right up in the chairs as soon as he told them to have a seat. We met in the meeting room that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency meet every Thursday before they go to the temple together. Daniel immediately got out his presents and started giving them to President Monson. He was SO excited! I couldn’t believe how much the twins just plopped down next to him in President Uchtdorf and President Eyring’s chairs! They were cute! President Monson sat down and said, “Hey boys, look at me.” Where he immediately started wiggling his ears! It was great because that is what Bryce wanted to ask him to do.
He told a LOT of stories....as you can imagine! He is a story teller, just like during conference! It was great. One of my favorites was (and it was because of the laughter in his voice when he told it) about one time when he and his buddies where catching dogs in the neighborhood. They didn’t care whose they were, they liked capturing them. They would slice open an orange and when to dog came up to eat it, they would capture it and put it in President Monson’s coal shed. Well, they had 8 dogs out it the coal shed and they kind of forgot about them. Later that night his dad when out to get some coal and some hungry dogs started barking as Dad Monson approached the shed. He said he is sure that his dad probably thought, “What did Tommy do now?” He then was told by his dad to let them all go. President Monson said all the dogs got back to their owners. I can just picture a little 10 or 11 year old doing that!
I don’t know the order of who asked what, but here is what was from our list. And hopefully I’ll remember what additional questions the boys came up with.
Ryan asked:
1. What is the weirdest dish you have ever eaten? He chuckled and said, “Anything slippery going down the hatch.”
2. Have you ever had a hobby? Fishing, especially fly fishing
Comptyn asked:
1. Did you ever have a collection? “Artificial flies. Like to fish with.”
2. What is your favorite book besides the scriptures? “A Christmas Carol. It has the true meaning of Christmas message in it.”
3. What is your favorite scripture story and why? At this point President Monson looked off and started tearing up and said, “I have lots of them, but if I had to pick one it would be the of Jesus. When he took the children into his arms and blessed them. Jesus loves children. ….” Then he quoted the scripture that tells of that how he blessed them. I need to look that up. It was neat, almost like he was witnessing that.
Bryce asked:
1. What is your favorite dessert? “I like them ALL! But if I had to pick one, ice cream!”
2. What is your favorite scripture prophet? “Probably the Apostle Peter or Apostle Paul.”
3. What did you like to do as a kid? “Run! And play ball. Any kind of ball, baseball, football. I liked to play marbles, too.” Then he described and demonstrated a game of marbles called “Pots”.
4. What subject did you like in school? Without hesitation “Recess!” Bryce laughed and said, “Mine is lunch!” President Monson said, “I liked that one, too!”
5. Where is your favorite place to be? Again, without hesitation “Home!” Then he said, “But if I had to pick a spot it would be in Germany in a town called Kingsay. (Spelling!?!?!) There is a boat that will go out on the lake and the man in it has a bugle. Do you know what a bugle is? I wish I had my bugle here. (Comptyn then said it was like a trumpet.) Yeah, kindof like a trumpet. So he goes out on this lake every morning and plays….” At this point he whistles. “And then it echos back….”And he whistles the same thing again. “It is very beautiful and peaceful.”
Bryce had quite a few questions and President Monson said, “He is going to be a good student! HE asks lots of questions.”
Nathan asked:
1. Do you watch TV and if you do what do you watch? “The World Series. I am for anyone who beats the Yankees!” We all laughed because that is how it is in our house, too!
2. Why are you named President Monson? “My mother liked her brother’s name of Thomas,(I belive.....I am having a hard time remembering the relation) and my father was named Spencer. There was also a poet named Evan Spencer.”
3. Who else has been in this room? “Richard Nixon sat in the very spot your mother is in. In fact, most of the Presidents of the United States that have been in since I have been here have been in here.”
Sammy & Daniel asked:
1. What is your favorite color? “Yellow and let me tell you why. I am a printer and in printing yellow gives like to other colors.
2. Are you dressing up for Halloween? “No, I just stand at the door and hand out candy.”
Sammy and Daniel were so busy showing him all the contents in Daniel's back pack (all his animals and books) and things. He was so patient and kind to them. Never being irrated when they shoved another toy in his face!
So then he took us into his office. He said, “OK boys. I am going to take you in my office, but only if you promise not to touch anything.” They all promised and so we went in. Beautiful office! Built in bookshelves on one wall. Windows on 2 other walls. Kids had to go to the bathroom, so they used his private bathroom! Everyone but Ryan. Comptyn and Nathan even stunk it up a little! He has a little closet where he has few extra white shirts and he temple clothes. A little sink and a few toothbrushes sit in there. There is a panic button if he gets in trouble. Nathan pushed that a few times and security came up and talked to the secretaries! He showed us a 6 lbs German brown trout he caught in the Provo River a few years back. He had a male and female pheasant in there. He showed us this walking stick that took a man 8 months to carve. It had all the merit badges on it that boy scout could earn. All carved in and painted by this man. The head of it was this little cage like thing with a wooden ball in it. He carved that wooden ball inside of there! He showed the kids the family pictures on one of the end tables. He has a son, a daughter (Sister Anne Dibbs….she is in the Primary General Presidency, I believe.) and another son and all their family had pictures there. He showed us on the other end table a statue that was commissioned by Larry H Miller. Apparently President Monson quoted a poem called “A Bridge Builder” (I believe…..need to look that us) and Brother Miller had this beautiful bronze scenic statue with a bridge over the water. He had me grab a piece of the rock and pull out the poem that was inside the statue and then had me read it. It went like this:
We got to visit some more. We asked him some more questions. If his wife travelled with him a lot. “People always ask that question. She doesn’t go unless I make her. She is shy and would prefer not to. One time she got sick on some potato salad in the Phillipines, salmonella poisoning. I was the only one who didn’t eat it and I am the only one who didn’t get sick! She threw up and threw up and threw up. She wanted to go to the hospital until I took her by the shack they called a hospital and she said she could wait until we got home. We got home and took her right to the hospital.” Terri ( with Make-A-Wish) asked why he didn’t’ like potato salad. He said, “I don’t know I’ve never tried it.” Terri said, “You’ve never had potato salad?” “Nope! I don’t like it!” Then Bryce said, “How do you know you don’t like it if you don’t try it?” President Monson pointed at Bryce and laughing said, “See? You are a smart boy!”
I asked him what book he was reading right now and it was the Church History Comprehensive series. He had Kevin go get a copy of it out of the bookshelf and give it to me. I thumbed thru it. He said, “There are not any pictures.” I told him I was looking to see if he wrote any notes. He said, “I don’t write in my books. I just give it to her (referring to Laurie) and she types everything up.” Then she said that he’ll just dog ear the corner and they have to figure out what he wanted. President Monson said, “And they always do!”
Kevin asked how he was able to visit all the widows in his ward. He was Bishop at age 22 to over 1000 people. Only 200 were active. But he had 84 widows that he visited EVERY year (and until they died! I always understood it to be until he was released as Bishop!) and took them something at Christmas. He said when he came in they’d say, “You know where the fridge is, put it in there.” He said all of them also asked him to speak at their funerals and he would say, “If I am around I will.” He said he knows how very aware Heavenly Father is of the widow’s wish. He spoke of 84 of the 84 widow’s funerals. He teared up as he was talking about that. It was very touching.
So that was a little bit about our visit. I know is the prophet! He carries that Spirit with him. You can't doubt it! (That is a picture outside the administration building afterwards.....my cute boyz!)
