Pres. Packer speaks of recent hospitalization
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PROVO, UTAH
Addressing the 2011 Seminar for New Mission Presidents Saturday, June 25, President Boyd K. Packer took occasion to remark about the recent episode in which he was hospitalized immediately following the dedication of a reconstructed Church meetinghouse in Cambridge, Mass., on June 19.
"Well, this has been quite a week," he began, the understatement drawing knowing chuckles from the congregation assembled at the Provo Missionary Training Center.
President Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve, explained what happened just after the dedicatory service.
"There were two sets of steps. The first one I got through all right. But the second one, I looked down and the second step was gone. I didn't collapse; I didn't fall. But I know you can fall down inside of yourself, and I suppose that's what happened.
"So I spent a little time with doctors in Boston and then in Salt Lake City, and in the course of it, they installed a pacemaker to keep my heart beating. I like that!"
With a bit of self-deprecating humor, President Packer said that in thinking of the assignment before him to speak to the new mission presidents and their wives, he thought of a poem:
"They said it couldn't be done,
"But with a smile, he went right to it.
"He tackled a job that couldn't be done,
"And, by George, he couldn't do it!"
He added, "And so, we will see."
President Packer's message on "Teaching by the Spirit" will be summarized in a separate Church News article online and in the July 2 print edition.
