The Story, Part 1

Psalm 84:11 For the Lord is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
                                                                                 This year's theme for BYU Women's Conference

So we heard a lot about grace, something we haven't heard a lot about until recently. Friday morning's class was on the Holy Ghost and Grace.

Richard Holzapfel spoke of the experience he and his wife had recently as he served as mission president of the Birmingham, Alabama mission. In the south, especially Alabama and Mississippi, Mormons are spoken of as "the devil," or, at best, a cult. And they are spoken of in this way often, regularly, from the pulpit and the radio and television.

In 2012, when it became clear that a Mormon--Mitt Romney--would be the Republican candidate for president, those people, who always vote Republican, were more than a little upset. The devil running for president. So Brother Holzapfel and the mission received many inquiries and many other kinds of mail and phone calls, not all good.

I remind you here that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is officially neutral politically. But certainly many Mormons voted for Romney, and the southerners didn't know of the Church's neutral position. And so on.

Richard Holzapfel is a very positive, energetic, and intelligent man. He seems unflappable, and he consistently instructed his missionaries to know the scriptures and to always be kind in their encounters with people. And, by the way, to always say Sir or Ma'am in speaking to the people. That is the custom in the south, and it is iron-clad.

At one point during the political campaign, Brother Holzapfel received an assignment from Salt Lake to appear for an interview on a radio talk show to answer questions about Romney and the Mormon Church and to clarify the Church's position on the matter. The talk show was widely heard, and its very popular host was openly anti-Mormon. They warned Holzapfel that he would no doubt ask "hard" questions.

To me that meant possibly nasty questions.

The interview was to last 30 minutes, but it ended up being two hours long.

The first hour went very well. The smiling host was friendly and polite, seemed genuinely interested in all that Brother Holzapfel was saying in response to his questions. Then they had a five-minute break before continuing. Brother Holzapfel said he could see a change in the face of the host, and he knew that during this next segment the man would not be so friendly. He didn't know exactly what was coming but knew it would be difficult.

The first question was something like this: "Now, President Holzapfel (mission president, remember), be honest. You're an intelligent man. You have a PhD from a well-known university in California; you're a university professor. How can a man like you believe that silly story about those "gold plates" and a young boy translating them?"

I thought: the perfect way to put him on the defense, not a happy place to be. And I wondered what on earth he could say.

But here is his answer. "Well, I have never seen the tablets of stone written upon by the finger of the Lord, but I still believe."

That was it. So simple, so perfect. The man was stunned. No more hard questions. Everything was very cordial and positive after that.

When the Church department that had asked Holzapfel to go on the show called him after the program, they were also stunned. "That was the perfect answer. How did you think of it?"

"It was the Holy Ghost," he said.

The Spirit of God giving grace, the very words to say.