Pres Monsons biography is amazing!!!

I have never read a biography of anyone before and my sister had read President Monsons and said how good it was.   So I started a very large book and I really don't have time to read or I don't make time to read. It took me about a year to read it all the way through.  This book is quite big so I knew it would take me a long time to finish it.  I would just read a few pages or sometimes a chapter before bed and I loved it.   I learned so much about his life.  I loved to see how as a boy he was slowly prepared for each task he was asked to do. Also to see that he was just a normal person learning how to do things.  He learned how to listen to the spirit and follow its promptings no matter what.  He was very young when he was called to serve others.  At 22 he was a bishop I can't even imagine that.
   Something I didn't know was that he was a big part in the Gospel being spread in Germany.  It goes into great detail about it. There is actually a whole book about his involvement with it.  I loved reading about how he was so dedicated to helping those saints. He went to support the saints and they finally after years and years opened up and built a temple because the government trusted him because they had watched him and the members for so long and liked how they were true and good people.  He had a lot of patience and faith that things would work out in a situation that didn't look so good in the beginning.

 I also loved reading about a lot of other apostles that he worked with and encountered before they were put in as apostles.  They were all prepared in the same way that he was.  They were also all very faithful and hard working.  I got to see some of their history and where they came from.

The biggest thing President Monson does it that he cares about the one.  He knows how important every individual is.  That focus on "the one", that willingness to stop, to pay heed to the spirits promptings, defined him long before he was called as an apostle, and that expression of Gods love has continued throughout his life.  His whole life was one story after another of helping or heeding to the spirit to stop and talk to the one, or take the long way home and he would meet someone that needed him.  He was always doing small little things that was more often then not be an answer to someones prayers.   He said something like he knew it would all work out because he knew that God would answer his prayers sooner or later in the way He wanted.  What faith he had.
Making others feel loved has been a hallmark of President Monsons life and ministry.

His accounts of personal experiences became the hallmark of his teaching.  He would give talks with his own personal experiences. Everyone loves his stories and experiences.  He helped with the Preach my Gospel Missionary book and he said that putting personal experiences in there would help more people understand the principle, and be able to apply it into our lives easier.  We tend to listen and understand more when its told in a story or real experience.  We can relate to it when we hear it.

Put simply he finds goodness in everyone.  No matter who you are he always looked at the best in them.  He said " Have the courage to refrain from judging and criticizing those around you as well as the courage to make certain everyone is included and feels loved and valued."  Once again it goes back to making sure that everyone felt loved and included.  Who are we to judge others?  He was such an example of unconditional love.  I know this is something that is a daily struggle for everyone,  we all try to put off the natural man every day and not judge others.   He was a great example to us all.


He has been in the quorum of the 12 for a long time he was able to see so many different things come to pass. He was there for when the Blacks were granted the priesthood,  the scriptures were updated with the footnotes, the ensign was put out.   The ensign was new in 1970 and would be written for the adults of the church, that they might be more adequately prepared to be examples to their children and to the world.  I loved reading about this and what the purpose of the ensign was.  I never really thought about how different the church was when my parents were growing up.  It was quite different in a lot of ways.  There were no Area authorities, and so many councils to help improve things.   The church has evolved in a lot of ways but the Gospel is always the same.   I loved reading about the changes and seeing how he was a part of it all.
 Reading about his life made me have a deeper testimony of the truth of him being the true and living prophet. I felt the spirit testify again and again of this truth, also that all of the apostles are called and have such an important role.  They are mostly all older gentleman and yet they still are able to carry on and travel and be active with their responsibilities.  I know that the Lord is with them and keeping them healthy so they can fulfill their callings.  I am so grateful for all they do.   He truly was prepared and called to serve and lead our church in these latter days.  I know when I listen to him speak again I will see him a little differently knowing more about his past.  I have a greater love for him personally because I have seen and learned about the sacrifices he has given to move the work of the Lord forward.