Perry honors 75 years of Logan Institute
A member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints testified of the prophetic mission of Joseph Smith to an audience that nearly filled the Spectrum Sunday.
Apostle L. Tom Perry was the featured speaker Sunday at the annual Joseph Smith Memorial Fireside sponsored by the Logan LDS Institute of Religion. The event also commemorated the Logan Institute’s 75th anniversary this year.
Perry challenged those present, “as the prophet would challenge you if he were here, as potential leadership, to raise the bar” in their personal understanding of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith’s testimony and mission.
He quoted from a former president of the church, Joseph F. Smith, who delivered the speech at the first Joseph Smith Memorial Fireside when he was the church patriarch in 1944.
“I am confident we do not know enough about [Joseph Smith],” Perry quoted Joseph F. Smith. “Whatever Joseph Smith was in realm of a social leader, whatever he was in the civic arena, whatever he was as an organizer, whatever he was as an economic planner, he was and primarily is a prophet.”
Joseph F. Smith went on to say that great scientists know there are many things that cannot be proven by scientific methods.
“Was Joseph Smith a prophet? Some things are difficult to prove,” he said, but cited a scripture passage Joseph Smith revealed, which Mormons believe prophesied the American Civil War 30 years before it began.
Joseph F. Smith said the scripture provides logical evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet but “a human creature isn’t especially given to logic … I don’t care how much evidence is presented, unless you have the spirit of the Lord testify to you [you will not believe].”
Perry gave an example of a woman who moved to Salt Lake City, saw wisdom in many of the LDS teachings, and began living them. The woman said to herself, Perry related, that if those teachings are true, then logically Joseph Smith must be a prophet. But the woman could not bring herself to believe that. Then one day the woman received a prompting from the Spirit, Perry said, that converted her to the church when logic did not.
Perry also shared his memories as an alumnus of Utah State University and the Institute, joking that the First Presidency of the church invited him to speak at the fireside this year since he was the only one old enough to remember the long history of the Institute. He graduated from the Logan Institute in 1944, when the graduating class was unusually small since many men were occupied with fighting in World War II. The graduates consisted on 27 women and one Marine in uniform – Perry.
“Who could forget such an honor?” Perry said, to laughter from the audience.
Perry credited much of the Institute’s success to three men who served there in its early years – Elder Romney “a master teacher,” Milton R. Hunter and W.W. Richards.
“Can you imagine a greater start?” Perry said. “What a lineup.”
Perry said the Logan Institute has grown from 114 students the first year to about 7,200 now – the second-largest LDS Institute of Religion in the world.
“A little low, soon to be 10,000,” Perry said.
Perry ended by bearing his testimony that those who have a testimony of Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon should have a desire to carry that message to everyone in the world.
Perry’s wife Barbara spoke briefly on his life, and said Perry’s father was once told that his children would be preachers of righteousness and leaders of men.
“This has been so true,” she said.
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Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quarum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to the Institute students at the Spectrum. (Photo by Jennifer Wheatley)