After relating various impressions and feelings from his recent activities - of standing in a replica of the Smith family log home and meeting with business and professional leaders in Madison Square Garden - President Gordon B. Hinckley called on members of the Church "to be a thankful people."

"The Lord has blessed you with an abundance of the things of the earth. He has blessed you with peace. He has blessed you with knowledge. He has blessed you with testimony. And He has blessed you with the good things of the earth. . . ."How thankful we ought to be, my brothers and sisters, how very, very grateful we ought to be."

President Hinckley was in Ogden May 3 to address more than 12,000 members of the Church from eight stakes assembled in the Dee Events Center at Weber State University as part of the North Ogden Utah regional conference.

President Hinckley shared his feelings on a variety of topics, including the Baptists' summer convention in Salt Lake City with their plan to proselyte.

"These are good people," he said. "I hope when the Baptists come you will be very tolerant of them, that you will be hospitable toward them, that you will be cheerful about things, that you will welcome them into your home, that you will listen to them, that you will quietly and effectually and sincerely bear your testimonies to them concerning this work of the Lord.

"We must recognize however, that the knowledge which is theirs concerning the Christ . . . comes of a traditional background of Christianity.

"And the knowledge that we have comes of the personal experience of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The one is traditional, down through the centuries, subject to all the vagaries that occur over a long period of time. The other is personal and real and true and wonderfully believable."

Recounting recent experiences, President Hinckley spoke of dedicating a replica of the Smith family log home near the Hill Cumorah a few weeks ago.

"As I sat in that building, which on this occasion was crammed with people, I thought of Joseph, the boy, reading those words . . . `If any of you lack wisdom,' . . . of his pondering those words . . . of finally coming to the resolution to put that promise to the test and going down a short distance into the grove and getting on his knees . . . . And there appeared above him two Beings, clothed in white. . . . On that foundation rests all of our faith and all of our testimony and all of our witness of the truth of this great Latter-day work."

President Hinckley also related an experience that occurred a few years ago while attending a stake conference in Rochester. He invited the stake president, mission president and regional representative to arise at 5 a.m. to visit the Sacred Grove.

"It had been raining in the night and there were little drops of water on the new little leaves. We were there, all alone, nobody with us, and we knelt together in prayer and asked the Lord, in effect, for a witness of the truth of these things.

"I didn't hear a voice. None of the others did. But I heard the words of the Spirit which spoke into my heart saying, `It's true. It's true. It happened here as Joseph said it happened.'

President Hinckley then described his feelings while attending a member meeting in Madison Square Garden in New York City last week.

"I confess," he said, "I felt some fear, I guess. I don't know how to describe it - misgiving, wondering whether we were up to what was expected of us, pleading with the Lord for help in our time of need and extremity."

President Hinckley recounted the reception where he met 200 leaders of New York, including executives of corporations and the media, and United Nations ambassadors. He said that the ambassador from North Korea thanked him "lavishly in behalf of the entire Church for the great humanitarian good we have done in saving people in North Korea from starvation in a very literal way. We have sent tons of food and clothing and seeds and fertilizer and tried to help that beleaguered people with their problems of hunger and distress."

He said "The service was carried in 11 different languages, which says something of great significance itself. They obtained from the FCC the right to set up a radio station for this occasion and they broadcast the translators on a radio station in 11 languages and the people brought their little transistor radios and tuned them to the channel of their particular language. That was a wonderful and tremendous, tremendous experience," he said.

"Now, great things are happening in New York," he said. "Baptisms by the hundreds . . . are coming into the Church.

"This is the great day in the work of the Lord," he continued. "This is the day of prophecy fulfilled. This is the day of which the prophets of old spoke. You are the people whom they described. How thankful we ought to be that somehow in the majesty and kindness and goodness of the Lord you and I were brought forth in this generation with the marvelous and wonderful blessings we hold."