Elder Boyd K. Packer, April 1, 1977

Regional Representatives Seminar

Some years ago, I learned a lesson that I shall never forget.  I had been called as an Assistant to the Twelve (Quorum of the Twelve Apostles), and we were to move to Salt Lake City and find an adequate and permanent home.  President Henry D. Moyle, of the First Presidency of the Church, assigned someone to help us.
 

A home was located that was ideally suited for our needs.  Elder Harold B. Lee came and looked it over very carefully and then counseled, "By all means, you are to proceed."
 

But there was no way we could proceed.  I had just completed the course work on a doctor's degree and was writing the dissertation.  With the support of my wife and our eight children, all of the resources we could gather over the years had been spent on an education.
 

By borrowing on our insurance, gathering every resource, we could barely get into the house, without sufficient left to even make the first house payment. 
 

Brother Lee insisted.  "Go ahead, I know it is right."
 

I was in deep turmoil because I had been counseled to do something I had never done before--to sign a contract with not the resources to meet the payments.
 

When Brother Lee sensed my feelings, he sent me to President David O. McKay, who listened very carefully as I explained the circumstances.
 

He said, "You do this.  It is the right thing."  But he extended no resources to make the doing of it possible.
 

When I reported to Brother Lee, he said, "That confirms what I have told you."
 

I was still not at peace.....and then came the lesson.
 

Elder Lee said, "Boyd, do you know what is wrong with you?  You always want to see the end from the beginning."
 

I replied quietly that I always wanted to see at least a few steps ahead.  He answered by quoting from the sixth verse of the twelfth chapter of Ether.  "Wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
 

And then he added, "My boy, you must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and perhaps a few steps into the darkness, and you will find that the light will appear and move ahead of you."  And so it has.....but, only as we have walked to the edge of the light.