Whether you are in the armed forces or
whether you are among your friends, day by day there is opportunity for you to
say something and to do something and to open the way—to invite people to hear
of this wonderful truth.
There is not an honest man or woman in
this world who loves the Lord who wouldn't join this Church if they knew what
it was. To me it is truly what Isaiah called it: "A marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise
men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be
hid." (Isaiah 29:[14]). If we can just get their attention long enough to
show them what it is, they will join the Church.
I like to look at the Church a little
like these jigsaw puzzles. You dump all the pieces out on a table, and you pick
them up one at a time. After you have looked at every piece, you don't know
what it is all about. You might have a giraffe's neck and an elephant's trunk,
or the back of a barn; but when they are fitted together there is a beautiful
pattern. You couldn’t take one piece away without destroying it.
When you get a little Mormonism here
and a little over there, you don't know what it is all about; but when it is
fitted together, nobody could take anything away from it.
Some six years ago I spoke to a group
of ministers who were holding a convention in Salt Lake. I talked to them at
their request to tell them what Mormonism really is. They wanted to have the
privilege of asking questions. As I reflect, I can only remember that they asked
one question. The leader of the group said, "Mr. Richards, you have told
us that you believe that God is a personal God." I said, "That's
right." No church in the world believed that when the Father and the Son
appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said, "We've heard it said that
you believe that God has a wife. Could you explain that to us?" I think he
thought he had me over a barrel, so to speak; so, rather facetiously, I said,
"I don't see how in the world He could have a Son without a wife, do you?
and I didn't have any more with that question. LeGrand Richards, "Invite
Friends to Listen to the Truth," address to BYU Student Assembly,
Provo, December 7, 1965, in Deseret News, Church News section [January
22, 1966], 16)
