Service above self: Pres. Packer lauds Rotary Club relief efforts
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President Boyd K. Packer praised Rotary International's $850 million-effort to fight polio at a luncheon for members of the Rotary Club of Salt Lake City on Nov. 22.
"I have been around the world a bit — 2.5 million miles worth — and have seen the effects of what you do in eradicating polio," said President Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve, who suffered from polio as a child. "You cannot go to some of the countries where there is an indigenous disease without feeling deeply and having a heart-moving experience."
Today, he said, four countries remain endemic with polio — Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nigeria. "The work is still going on, and it will and must continue," he said.
The Church, he said, has contributed about $420,000 to the effort to eradicate polio. "I am sure that will not be the end of it," he said. "We have been more active in trying to eradicate measles. … Recently we spent a million dollars in one of their campaigns. But more than the money, we have had the volunteers that help. We cannot count what has been done by way of giving help to those who are trying to conquer that disease."
In addition, he said, the Church has contributed more than 300,000 wheelchairs in 112 countries.
President Packer said it is very difficult to see people in trouble who need help. "In dozens of countries, we cooperate with humanitarian organizations to help where we can with time and expertise and as much money as we can," he said.
President Packer then spoke of some of the suffering he has witnessed across the globe.
After a devastating tsunami struck Indonesia in 2004, for example, President Packer contacted a friend who served as a minister in the Indonesian government. A short time later, he and Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve traveled to Indonesia.
"There had been the city of Aceh, a city of a million people, and it was gone, literally gone."
President Packer also visited New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, traveled to California to offer comfort to Latter-day Saints who lost homes in wildfires, and mourned with survivors of the Teton Dam disaster.
"We have seen the earthquakes and hurricanes in Honduras and Guatemala and Central America," President Packer recalled. "And we have seen indiscriminate difficulties around the world where people are in terrible, terrible trouble.
"We deal with people en masse and think of crowds, but I want to talk to you about some personalities that bring it home, at least to my feeling."
First, President Packer spoke of a little boy in Japan, whom he saw while completing military service in Asia.
"I was on a train going from southern Japan into Tokyo. I was leaving Japan, and it was night. Early in the morning, I heard a tapping on the window, and I pulled back the blind. There stood a little boy, I think about five years old. He had a can and a spoon. That was the announcement that he was a beggar and slept in the stations. …
"I had some Japanese money. I went quickly down to the end of the car, and there he was standing outside the window expecting some help, and I could not get the door open. Before I could, the train pulled away.
"I will not forget him. He is in my mind and always will be and all the other little fellows and little girls like him."
Next, President Packer spoke of a little boy he met at Cuzco, a city high up in the Andes.
"We were holding a meeting in kind of a storefront chapel. President A. Theodore Tuttle and I were there sitting on chairs up at the front. They were all sitting there in the congregation. It was night, and it was cold. You get above 11,000 feet, and it is very cold at night. I saw a little boy come in the back, and you could tell he was nervous. He had on what we could describe as a ragged T-shirt. That was all. I saw him sliding along the wall. He had seen the bread up on the table that was going to be used for the sacrament service, and he was after the bread, of course. He slid along the wall and looked at the bread and looked at me. Brother Tuttle was up speaking.
"He got closer to the front, and there was a woman. I saw her see him, and she turned her head, and without saying a word, she chased him out of there with a gesture. …
"Pretty soon he came back in again along the wall. When he got about up to the point that the woman was going to see him, I held out my arms. He came running up to me, and I sat him on my lap for a few minutes, then I sat him on President Tuttle's chair. I thought he deserved to sit in a place of honor. After the meeting, when the closing prayer was said, he darted out into the night, and that was the last I saw him.
"I have been there several times since in Cuzco and other cities in the Andes, and always I am looking for him and others like him. They are all over."
President Packer then spoke about his own experience with polio, which he contracted when he was 5 years old. "That is why I am here to tell you that we are very, very grateful to you and your organization for what you have done."
Making reference to the Rotary Club motto, service above self, President Packer said: "The children are the future generation, and what you do — service above self — is incredibly important."
