James E. Faust, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

BYU Devotional, March 1979

“I now wish to set my seal and testimony upon these events, and upon the divine calling of Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer, in my capacity as the newest special witness. In my journal for September 28, 1978, it is noted, ‘Today I was called as a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have prayed to make myself somehow worthy in a small measure and to be qualified, and I hope that I come to this new calling with a pure heart and purged of all personal ambition.’

I will not chronicle further the details concerning this calling because they are so personal and so sacred that the smallest part which one feels cannot be said. I am certain that it is an experience like none other. It is a feeling of terrible aloneness, a feeling of wounds in the heart, a feeling of sweet agony. There are the buffetings of Satan, and the encircling warm comfort of the Spirit of the Master. There are the feelings of crushing burden, self-doubt, and unworthiness—the fleeting feeling of being alone, and then of being reinforced a hundredfold. This special sacred feeling is a sustaining influence, and often a very close companion. I have prayed to be sustained in a work that I have come to appreciate more than life itself.

I testify that He lives, that He loves us, that this is His holy work. I testify that His are the words of eternal life. I testify that through this Church His work and His glory—to bring about the immortality and eternal life of the faithful and the obedient—is being accomplished.”

[Note: Elder Faust passed away on August 10, 2007]