A talk given at La Grande 5th Branch conference 17 November 1996.

Some years ago I had the opportunity of living in an Arabic country for 15 months.  What I'm about to say is not fair because I never learned their language, was never invited into their homes, and never learned about their customs.  But I formed an opinion of the people.  My opinion was that they were surly, feisty, and humorless.

I would like you to now form a picture in your minds of a desert.  Most of you saw pictures of the Gulf War, and of the area where those battles were fought in Kuwait and Iraq.  That's the picture I want you to have in your mind:  a desert devoid of any vegetation—no bushes, not even a weed—nothing but rocks, dirt, and sand.

I now want you to put a man into that picture.  He's in the distance, and slowly making his way toward you.  As he approaches, you can recognize him as an Arab.  He's bearded.  He has a head covering.  He's wearing a robe.  He's not clean.  His clothing is old and worn.

You have some feelings about this man.  I've purposely tried to prejudice your minds so that your feelings would be negative.

Would your feelings be altered if I told you that this man's name was Abraham?

Abraham:  Father of the Arabs!

Abraham:  The first Hebrew!

Abraham:  Ancestor of the Book of Mormon peoples!

Abraham:  Father of nations!

Abraham:  Ancestor of Jesus Christ!

Abraham:  The individual who figures into the genealogy of each person here present!

I would like to tell you now about a young man who grew up in some particularly difficult surroundings.  His country's government was corrupt.  The government and the state religion even gave their approval to certain forms of murder.  It was not a Christian society.  Immorality was rampant.  The young man's own father was a wicked man.  The father joined the Church, but later apostatized.  The young man was not a member of the Church, either, but tried very hard to be righteous.  His efforts to be righteous nearly got him killed.

How much chance did this young man have?

The young man that I'm talking about is the same man you saw walking across the desert:  Abraham.

I submit to you that the entire history of the world would be changed if this one young man hadn't had hold of himself.

Abraham didn't know who he was.  He didn't know his destiny.  He didn't know that the weight of human history rested upon his shoulders and upon his actions.  He simply lived one day at a time, just like we do.

Does it make any difference what you do?

Are you anything special?

Joseph Smith said that if you could see yourself as a spirit before you came to this earth, you'd see a being that you would feel like falling down and worshiping.

You bet it makes a difference what you do!  The destiny of worlds and of millions of people rests upon your shoulders.

I sat up here and made some quick calculations.  I have 10 children.  If you have half that many, you'll have five.  If each of those five children has five children, and if each of those has five children in turn, how many descendents would you have in the ninth generation after you?  If a generation is approximately 33 years long, nine generations from now is just 300 years.  Three hundred years from now will be the year 2296.  Three hundred years ago was about the year 1700.

How many descendents would you have in nine generations?

Nearly two million!

(Here are the statistics:)

5    1st Generation

25    2nd

125    3rd

625    4th

3,125    5th

15,625    6th

78,125    7th

390,625    8th

1,953,125    9th

2,411,405

I've gone through this whole lead-up just so that I could read to you a statement made by Ezra Taft Benson to a gathering of youth in southern California after he became President of the Church:

"For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming.  Every previous gospel dispensation has drifted into apostasy, but ours will not… God has saved for the final inning some of his strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly.  And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God… Make no mistake about it—you are a marked generation.  There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is of us… Each day we personally make many decisions that show where our support will go.  The final outcome is certain—the forces of righteousness will finally win.  What remains to be seen is where each of us personally, now and in the future, will stand in this fight—and how tall we will stand.  Will we be true to our last-days', foreordained mission?"  (As quoted by Marvin J. Ashton in Oct. 1989 General Conference, The Ensign, Nov. 1989, pg. 36, 37).

Last night I knelt beside my bed and asked Heavenly Father whether I was to give the talk that I've given in ward conferences all year, or whether there was another message that He'd have me give?  This is the message I was told to bring to you.  Make no mistake:  You're special.