After singing three verses of "We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet," members of the Fort Collins Regional almost held their breath. They'd been meeting for an hour in a hot auditorium, but now even makeshift paper fans were stilled.

All eyes were at the side door: Someone had just waved. Then he was there - President Ezra Taft Benson, the first Church president to ever visit Fort Collins - had arrived with his wife, Flora. The congregation rose to its feet and softly resumed the hymn as President and Sister Benson and their escorts walked across the hardwood floor to the podium.Just an hour later it was time for President and Sister Benson to bid farewell. The congregation rose as if to say goodbye to lifelong family members; children stood motionless in the aisles. President Benson waved, and waved again. Then again.

Just a few waved back. The rest seemed overwhelmed.

President Benson's visit to this area June 19, though short, will have lasting impact, reported Burns R. Sabey, regional representative.

"The prophet being here will have tremendous impact," he said. "The members will try to follow the counsel that President Benson gave them, and they will try to spend more time reading the scriptures, most particularly the Book of Mormon."

At the region's first-ever conference, he addressed some 4,500 members of the Fort Collins and Greeley Colorado stakes and the Laramie and Cheyenne Wyoming stakes. The Cheyenne Wyoming Stake choir provided music for the conference.

Members had gathered on a sweltering morning in the whale-shaped Moby Gymnasium in downtown Fort Collins. Fort Collins is a low-rise university town about 60 miles north of Denver, bordered on the west by the foothills of the Rockies and on the east by prairie.

In addition to President Benson, other speakers were Elder L. Tom Perry of the Council of the Twelve and his wife, Barbara; and Elder F. Burton Howard of the First Quorum of the Seventy and his wife, Caroline. Elder Howard is a counselor in the Area Presidency of the North America Central Area.

According to local leaders, no Church president had previously visited Fort Collins. President Benson, however, came to the city while serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the 1950s, and has returned several times, but not since he became president of the Church. When he visited in the 1950s, a few scattered wards and branches comprised the membership of what is now the Fort Collins region with an LDS population of some 10,300.

After the conference, President and Sister Benson had a luncheon with stake and regional leaders and then spent part of Father's Day with their daughter, Bonnie, and her husband, Lowell Madsen, and their family of Littleton, Colo.

In his conference address, President Benson counseled members to study and gain spirituality from the Book of Mormon. "As we read and teach, we are to liken the Book of Mormon scriptures to us `that it might be for our profit and learning.'"

He emphasized that members are to share the truths they gain from reading the Book of Mormon. "Our main task is to declare the gospel and do it effectively," he said. "We are not obligated to answer every objection.

"Every man is eventually backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand."

President Benson emphasized that "every Latter-day Saint should make the study of this book a lifetime pursuit. Otherwise he is placing his soul in jeopardy and neglecting that which could give spiritual and intellectual unity to his whole life.

Elder Perry, in his address, reminisced about the experiences of his family with Church presidents. He said President Heber J. Grant visited the Perry home many years ago.

At the time, Elder Perry was a boy of 7. After dinner, the Church president took a nap. Young Tom was sent in to awaken the prophet for a meeting. "I shook President Grant by the arm," he said. "When he awoke, he didn't seem to be disturbed. He took five or six minutes with me. Imagine! I was alone with a prophet of the Lord! I'll never forget that experience - the prophet took time to instruct a little lad."

He said that because "we have a prophet of the Lord, we are different than any other people. President Benson is the prophet today," he testified.

Elder Howard commented that traditional values are being replaced by a more worldly outlook. For example, "Our grandfathers referred to Sunday as the Holy Sabbath," he observed. "The next generation called it Sunday, and today it is referred to merely as the weekend."

But, he said, if traditional values are being abandoned by some, there is also cause for hope among others. "Last year, nearly a quarter of a million people said, in effect, `Enough is enough. I will live this way no longer,' and were baptized."