As it says in 1 Samuel 9:9, “(Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.)”

The doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which is frequently mistakenly called the “Mormon Church”) teaches that all seers are prophets, but not all prophets are seers. There is a story in the Book of Mormon (a book of scripture that is a companion to the Bible) where seers are discussed in more detail. A record was found by a group of people, but it was in a language they could not understand. They brought the record to their king, but no one in their kingdom could translate the record.

Book of Mormon Seers

A man named Ammon, who held the priesthood (the power and authority to act in God’s name), came among their people and the king asked if Ammon could translate the record. Ammon said he could not translate the record, but he knew of someone in his own kingdom who could. These are Ammon’s words:

Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.

And behold, the king of the people who are in the land of Zarahemla is the man that is commanded to do these things, and who has this high gift from God.

And the king said that a seer is greater than a prophet.

And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can; yet a man may have great power given him from God.

But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.

Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings (Mosiah 8:13–18).

From this scripture, we learn that a seer may be given power from God to use these interpreters (also called a Urim and Thummim) to learn from God anything which God wishes him to know. In addition, a seer can have things revealed to him by God about the past, the present, and the future.

Living Seers Today

General authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ are sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators. General authorities of the Church include the president of the Church and his two counselors, as well as the men who comprise the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This structure is the same as it was immediately following Jesus’ resurrection, when he made Peter, James, and John the head of the Church and more men were called to fill up the Quorum of the Twelve. Sustaining these leaders means that the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognize these men have been called of God and have been given the authority to lead His church on the earth. By sustaining these men, members promise to follow their counsel as they would God’s, recognizing that their words come from God.

Joseph Smith as a Seer

Joseph Smith was called as the first prophet, seer, and revelator of this last dispensation of time. A dispensation is a period of time in which the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth and a prophet is leading God’s people. However, due to wickedness and apostasy (a turning away from the truth), the fulness of the gospel has been lost periodically. Each time the fulness has been restored, it has begun a new dispensation. Modern scripture teaches that our day is the last dispensation before Jesus Christ will come again to the earth.

The Book of Mormon contains a marvelous prophecy about Joseph Smith being called as a seer in our day. This prophecy says the prophet would be named Joseph and would come through the line of Joseph of Egypt; that this prophet would be a seer and would restore the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the descendants of Israel and to the whole earth; and that those who tried to destroy him would be confounded. (See2 Nephi 3:6–14.)

It is a testimony of God’s love for His children that He will never leave them without His spokesperson for long, even when they turn away from Him. There are living prophets, seers, and revelators today. They are the general authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a wonderful blessing to have men who act as the mouthpieces of God to reveal His will for His children today. Study for yourself the words of these living seers by reading the words of the semi-annual General Conferences of the Mormon Church.

dwhite

Doris White is a native of Oregon and graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English and a minor in Editing. She loves to talk with others about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

… I have [discovered] that countless experiences I have had were not necessarily those one would consider extraordinary. In fact, at the time they transpired, they often seemed unremarkable and even ordinary. And yet, in retrospect, they enriched and blessed lives—not the least of which was my own. [2]

Through his humorous and heartfelt reflections of these “unremarkable” events, we come to know the unconditional love, friendship and devotion to God that endear us to our prophet.

A Righteous Mother Teaches Compassion

President Monson was born on August 21, 1927, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to G. Spencer and Gladys Condie Monson. President Monson has fond memories of his mother.

I learned many lessons from my mother. I must have been a very active boy, for Mother was always telling me, “Slow down, Tommy, slow down. You’re on the verge of Saint Vitus’ dance!” You know, I never did know what Saint Vitus’ dance was. All I knew was that Mother said I was on the verge of it—and the way she spoke the words, I assumed it was a drastic ailment. [3]

Sister Swinton said:

He learned Christlike living at home, where charity—the pure love of Christ—compassion, and a desire to lift and bless the lives of others were the standard and where, though his parents did not read him the scriptures, they lived them. [1]

President Monson grew up during the Great Depression, “between the tracks” on the west side of Salt Lake City, and learned much of compassion for others from his mother. [1] He said:

Since we lived just a block or two from the railroad tracks, frequently men, unemployed, without funds for food, would leave the train and come to our house for something to eat. … Indelibly imprinted on my mind is the picture of a gaunt and hungry man standing at our kitchen door, hat in hand, pleading for food. Mother would welcome such a visitor and would direct him to the kitchen sink to wash up while she prepared food for him to eat. She never skimped on quality or quantity; the visitor ate exactly the same lunch as did my father. As he wolfed down the food, Mother took the opportunity to counsel him to return to his home and his family. When he left the table, he had been nourished physically and spiritually. These men never failed to say thank you. Tears in their eyes revealed ever so silently the gratitude of their hearts. [3]

A Christmas Lesson on Following Christ

In addition to teaching compassion through her example, President Monson’s mother allowed her son to learn by experience. One such occurred on Christmas Day when he was about 10 years old. The prophet recalls that he really wanted an electric train. “Not … the economical and everywhere-to-be-found wind-up model train, but rather one that operated through the miracle of electricity.” Although this was during the Depression, his parents—likely through some sacrifice— presented to him a beautiful electric train. His mother also purchased a less expensive, non-electric train set for the son of a widow who lived down the road. Young Tommy, as he was called then, noticed an oil tanker car that his set lacked, and begged his mother for it. She finally gave in, saying, “If you need it more than he does, then take it.” He took the oil tanker, and they brought the gift to Mark Hansen. President Monson concludes:

[Mark] had never anticipated such a gift and was thrilled beyond words. He wound the key in his engine, it not being electric like mine, and was overjoyed as the engine and two cars, plus a caboose, went around the track. Mother wisely asked, “What do you think of Mark’s train, Tommy?” I felt a keen sense of guilt and became very much aware of my selfishness. I said to Mother, “Wait just a moment—I’ll be right back.”

As swiftly as my legs could carry me, I ran to our home, picked up the oil tanker car plus an additional car of my own, ran back down the lane to the Hansen home, and said joyfully to Mark, “We forgot to bring two cars which belong to your train.” Mark coupled the two extra cars to his set. I watched the engine make its labored way around the track and felt a supreme joy difficult to describe and impossible to forget. [4]

Sometimes the simplest lessons are the most profound—and the most memorable.

The ‘Other Half of His Success Story’

It is often said that behind every good man is an even better woman. Certainly, behind President Monson is a righteous woman who stands by his side and takes care of their home so that he can serve the Lord. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (with the First Presidency, the governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ), said:

One of the sweetest chapters in a book of life filled with things of the heart and of the spirit begins with President Monson’s courtship of Frances Johnson. [5]

President Monson recounts the beginning of their courtship:

The first day I saw Frances, I knew I’d found the right one. The Lord brought us together later, and I asked her to go out with me. I went to her home to call on her. She introduced me, and her father said, “‘Monson’—that’s a Swedish name, isn’t it?” I said, “Yes.”

…Then he went into another room and brought out a picture of two missionaries with their top hats and their copies of the Book of Mormon. “Are you related to this Monson,” he said, “Elias Monson?”

I said, “Yes, he’s my grandfather’s brother. He too was a missionary in Sweden.”

Her father wept. He wept easily. He said, “He and his companion were the missionaries who taught the gospel to my mother and my father and all of my brothers and sisters and to me.” He kissed me on the cheek. And then her mother cried, and she kissed me on the other cheek. And then I looked around for Frances. She said, “I’ll go get my coat.” [6]

Their daughter, Ann Monson Dibb, said:

 Mom is the other half of Dad’s success story, the half no one really knows. He gave a conference address once entitled “Anonymous” about people who serve so faithfully and give so much, yet never seek recognition. That talk applies beautifully to my mother; maybe he even wrote it about her. He couldn’t have done what he has done without her. [5]

Thomas S. Monson and Frances Johnson were married October 7, 1948, in the Salt Lake Temple. They were blessed with 3 children, 8 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Frances passed away in 2013, and her funeral was broadcast to members of the Church. [7]

A Loyal and Devoted Friend to the Widows

President Monson is well-known for his love of others. Elder Holland said:

Loyalty is a word which often comes to the lips of those who best know Tom (or in his youth, “Tommy”) Monson. His is a deep-seated, undying loyalty to friends of many years, friends he might not be expected to remember in the rush of his now very busy life—but remember them he does.

His lifelong friend John Burt says, “Tom’s care of the widows who lived in his ward—eighty-seven of them—is an example of his loyalty and devotion to people. When the rest of us were released as bishops, we just kind of moved on to the next task and left the widows to our successors. Not Tom. He somehow found time to keep visiting them. He is the most loyal man I know. He never forgets where he came from, and he never forgets the people who knew him before he was ‘somebody.’” [5]

A bishop is the priesthood leader of the ward—or congregation. The priesthood is the authority that God gives to worthy males to act in all things for the salvation of His children. When President Monson was the bishop, there were over a thousand people in the ward, and a bishop is the presiding priesthood leader of each one. One experience taught him to listen to the whisperings of the Holy Ghost—no matter what. At 23, he was the bishop of his ward. He was in a stake leadership meeting (a stake is comprised of a group of wards) when the prompting came to go to the hospital. He had been asked to give an elderly member of his ward a blessing, and had planned to go right after the meeting. During the meeting, the prompting was very strong but he didn’t want to disrupt everyone there. He hurried out after the last speaker—even before the closing prayer. Elder Holland said:

Running the full length of the corridor on the fourth floor of the hospital, the young bishop saw some extra activity outside the designated room. A nurse stopped him and said, “Are you Bishop Monson?” “Yes,” was the anxious reply.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “The patient was calling your name just before he died.”

Fighting back the tears, Thomas S. Monson turned and walked back into the night. He vowed then and there that he would never again fail to act upon a prompting from the Lord. He would acknowledge the impressions of the Spirit when they came, and he would follow wherever they led him, ever to be “on the Lord’s errand.” [8]

President Monson never forgot that experience. As he served as the bishop and in other callings, President Monson faithfully visited his 87 widows the rest of their lives. Elder Holland said:

Nearly all of those eighty-seven widows are gone now, but their “bishop” kept visiting them to the end. One night during the Christmas holidays some years ago, President Monson was making his customary rounds to “his” widows, leaving gifts purchased from his own pocket, including plump dressed chickens that were, in the early years, raised in his own coops. In one of the many Salt Lake City rest homes he has come to know so intimately, he found one of his ward members, alone and silent in the darkened room of a world made even darker by the onset of blindness. As President Monson made his way to this sweet sister’s side, she reached out awkwardly, groping for the hand of the only visitor she had received in the whole of the Christmas season. “Bishop, is that you?” she inquired. “Yes, dear Hattie, it is I.” “Oh, Bishop,” she wept through sightless eyes, “I knew you would come.” They all knew he would come, and he always did. [5]

A Window to the Love of the Savior

President Monson’s love for others shows his true devotion and love for our Savior, Jesus Christ. An experience recounted by Elder Holland illustrates the tenderness of President Monson’s love for people.

A well-meaning person once told President Monson that it was useless for him to visit these elderly people, talking at length with them when they seldom answered a word. “You might as well save your time and breath, Elder Monson. They don’t know who you are.”

“Whether they know me or not is beside the point,” the determined Thomas Monson replied. “I don’t talk to them because they know me; I talk to them because I know them.” [8]

After serving as bishop, President Monson served in the stake presidency and then as a mission president. He was ordained an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ in October 1963 at the age of 36. He has served as a counselor in the Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ since 1985. President Monson had a distinguished career in publishing and printing. [7] Regardless of the success he attains, President Monson never forgets those he has met along the way. The late Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, then an Apostle of Jesus Christ, said:

I have known President Monson for a long time. He is a mighty man of Israel who was foreordained to preside over this Church. He is well-known for his captivating stories and parables, but we who know him best understand that his life is a practical and exemplary model of the application of those stories. While it is a compliment to him that many of the great and mighty of this world know and honor him, perhaps it is an even greater tribute that many of the lowly call him friend. To his core, President Monson is kind and compassionate. His words and deeds exemplify his concern for the one. [9]

Lisa M.

I am a wife and mother of 4 beautiful children in a small town in the mountains of Idaho. We ski as a family in the winter and camp, fish, and go to the beach in the summer. I’m a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I am grateful for the Savior and the blessings of the gospel in my life.

Sister Monson Was Endeared by Her Family

President and Sister Monson were married for 64 years. In October 2013 they would have celebrated 65 years of marriage. They have three children – Thomas Lee, Ann Frances, and Clark Spencer. Making mention of her in his biography titled To the Rescue, President Monson stated, “If there was ever a heroine in my life, it would have to be Frances.” [2] The LDS Church news release stated that President Monson recognized his companion as the family’s “beacon of love, compassion and encouragement.” [1] Again in his biography, President Monson further commented, “I am so grateful for my mother-in-law. She brought into the world a lovely daughter who is my wife and companion, who I can assure you is her husband’s keeper, and the keeper of her children as well — a noble daughter of our Heavenly Father.” [2]

Ann Monson Dibb, the only daughter of President and Sister Monson, once made a comment in an Ensign article titled President Thomas S. Monson: Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith about her mother that could now serve as an appropriate tribute as she recalled the true character of one of Heavenly Father’s special daughters:

My mother is unlike many of the women of today’s generation. Instead of looking for the recognition of the world, she has always received her acknowledgment of worth from such things as the happy smile of a son or the outstretched hand of a grandchild. President Wilford Woodruff once said that the mother has greater influence over her posterity than any other person can have, and her influence is felt through time and eternity. I am grateful to my mother, thankful for her influence and pray that I might always be worthy of her love. As I reflect upon the many blessings which I have received as the daughter of an apostle of the Lord, the one which means the most to me is the gift and blessing of the woman he married, my mother.”  [3]

In a recent YouTube video posted on Friday, 17 May 2013, by LDS Public Affairs, Ann Dibb Monson remarks that a person could not know her mother without her father, and a person could not know her father without her mother. They made each other complete. Ann further comments that this became even more evident during her father’s visits to her mother’s hospital room during the past 6 and a half weeks.

A Life of Dedication and Devotion

Frances Beverley Johnson was born on 27 October 1927, to Franz Emanuel Johnson and Hildur Augusta Booth Johnson. She was the youngest, and only daughter of 5 children, and was named after her father. She grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah during the days of the Great Depression. The date of her death, 17 May, would have been the birthday of her father, as well as, the birthday of President Monson’s father. She was born of Swedish descent.

She attended Emerson Elementary School, and was a graduate of East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. She became proficient in both playing tennis and playing the piano in her teenage years. Following high school, she studied math and science at the University of Utah, and worked at the Deseret News in the accounting department at a local department store to help pay the cost of her education. While she was attending the University, she met, and fell in love with a young man, Thomas S. Monson, who would become her eternal companion. Her father, Franz, felt an immediate connection with young Thomas Monson because Monson’s great uncle had baptized him into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sweden. Thomas Spencer Monson and Frances Beverley Johnson were married for all time and eternity in the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple on 7 October 1948. He was 21 years of age, and she was 20.

As a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ, Sister Monson had a keen understanding of the meaning of service. She served in the Relief Society and Primary. “She also earned the church’s Golden Gleaner award, part of a now-discontinued program for 18-to-30-year-old single church members, by meeting a rigorous set of requirements for church activity and self-improvement.” [3] She also served with President Monson in the LDS Canadian Mission, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

The LDS Church news release further stated that, “Sister Monson lived a Christ-centered life in word and deed. She will forever be remembered for her kindness and quiet, sustained support of her husband in his Church duties.” [1]

A Loving Legacy Left to Her Family

Frances Beverley Johnson Monson will always be remembered as a woman who had a heart full of compassion, was patient and understanding, always had words of encouragement to share, and loved the Savior. She was always by her eternal companion’s side and supported him in all of his many Church callings throughout the years. “My mother is the other part of my father’s success story because she has been supportive of him in everything he’s done,” Sister Dibb (Ann Monson Dibb, daughter of President and Sister Monson) said. [2]

As the matriarch of the Monson home, she nurtured each of her three children in the admonition of the Lord. She clearly understood the words of Solomon, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:26.) Perhaps one of the guiding principles from the scriptures that she used in the rearing of her children, and instilled in each of them, is also found in the wise words of Solomon, “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:6.) As her children now, and in the days ahead, reflect upon the love that this remarkable woman gave to each of them, and the lessons that she taught them, will be able to say with surety, “We do not doubt our mother knew it” (see Alma 56:48, Book of Mormon.)

Keith L. Brown

Keith L. Brown is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having been born and raised Baptist. He was studying to be a Baptist minister at the time of his conversion to the LDS faith. He was baptized on 10 March 1998 in Reykjavik, Iceland while serving on active duty in the United States Navy in Keflavic, Iceland. He currently serves as the First Assistant to the High Priest Group for the Annapolis, Maryland Ward. He is a 30-year honorably retired United States Navy Veteran.

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