At the end of what he described as a "long and wonderful journey," President Gordon B. Hinckley told 12,000 members here Aug. 8 that "this is the greatest season in the history of the Church."

"There never before was a time like this," the Church president said as he concluded his tour that took him across six provinces of Canada."This is the 16th meeting in which we have participated during the last few days," the 88-year-old Church leader told the congregation in the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton. He said that it was "marvelous and wonderful" that members would turn out in such numbers.

"We are living, my brothers and sisters, in the day of prophecy fulfilled.

"We are larger in numbers, a great family of 10 million people scattered over 160 nations. The media treat us honestly and generously and right. We have a good reputation among most people, perhaps not in the small places of the world, in the great cities we have come to be recognized for what we are and the good we do. This is a wonderful time to be alive. It is a wonderful time to be a member of this Church."

President Hinckley said there is a bright future for the Church.

"It will go on and grow across the earth and fill the world," he explained. "I am satisfied of that."

He then shared one of his "great experiences" during the Canada trip.

"When we were in Ottawa, a counselor in a stake presidency said that he had found the place where my grandfather was born

in Leeds County, Ontario.T . . .

My great-grandfatherT came up here and he was baptized in that early missionary work that spread across upper Canada."

President Hinckley explained that his great-grandfather died of smallpox. "Three days ago, I stood at what we presume to be his grave in that part of the country. I walked out through a cow pasture to get to it, to find it. It is a little fenced-in cemetery there, and I had a thousand feelings of reverence and respect and gratitude and thanksgiving."

After her husband's death, President Hinckley's great-grandmother left Canada. She followed her husband in death, but her two sons, "my grandfather and his brother," walked to Nauvoo to join the Saints.

President Hinckley noted that he is grateful for the faith and devotion abundant among the early Church members. "And I see that same faith and that same devotion among the Latter-day Saints wherever we go. Men and women who try to do the right thing as they understand it. Men and women who love the Lord. . . . You are great people, my brothers and sisters."

President Hinckley continued, "We are all in together as part of the great family of the Lord. This is His work . . . in the dispensation of the fulness of times."

President Hinckley asked the men to live worthy of the priesthood. "You ought to be the best husbands in the world and the very best fathers. God help you to do so.

"You mothers, live up to the great potential that is yours. You are precious women. . . .

"You boys and girls, you be careful. Watch yourselves. You belong to this Church. You boys hold the priesthood of Aaron which carries with it the promise of the ministering of angels. Think of that!"

President Hinckley told the members that being in Canada was a wonderful experience. "We will go home now and we will feast on the experience we had in being with you."