11. Angels and Ministers of Grace

A bishopric message written on Monday, January 29, 1996, the day after I was sustained as the eighth bishop of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward in the Bountiful Utah South Stake. The message was published in the February 1996 issue of the Newsette, the monthly newsletter of the Bountiful 20th Ward. Larry Young and Kevin Thueson were my counselors in the bishopric.

In one of Shakespeare’s immortal plays, Hamlet wisely implores, “Angels and ministers of grace defend us!” (Hamlet, act 1, scene 4, line 39). Angels and ministers of grace! All of us need and in fact receive far more help than we realize in our daily lives from the angels and ministers of grace who surround us—on both sides of the veil.

This last Sunday we released a beloved bishopric. Bishop [Gail] Anger and his counselors were just such angels and ministers of grace in the lives of many ward members. We may never know the countless, quiet ways they went about blessing lives and ministering to the needs of people in our ward, but virtually all of us can think back with gratitude on instances of their love and attention in our own lives and in the lives of our families.

The greatest thanks we can give them, the ultimate tribute we can pay them is the way we continue to live our lives in quiet devotion to the cause of the Master whom they loved and followed while serving as our bishopric.

And now you have a new bishopric. We are grateful for the inspiration that lead to our calls and the sustaining vote of confidence we received from the membership of the ward. Your faith and prayers will mean a lot to us as we move forward with the next chapter in the history of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward.

God lives. His beloved Son lives. This is Their work in which we are engaged. They send angels and ministers of grace into our lives to bless us everlastingly. May we, like all who have gone before us, be as the Book of Mormon writer described, “instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer. And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good” (Mosiah 27:36–37).

May each of us go and do likewise.