"A Legacy of Honor"
President Henry J. Eyring
December 15, 2021
I am grateful to be with you, in person or virtually, to celebrate the December 2021 graduates of BYU-Idaho. Congratulations on your perseverance and success! Congratulations are also due to those family members and other friends who have contributed to this success.
Today’s graduation is also special due to our two assigned speakers from Church headquarters, Elder Brent H. Nielson of the Presidency of the Seventy, and R. Kelly Haws, Assistant to the Commissioner of the Church Educational System and Secretary to the Boards.
I have a confession to make. I’ve enjoyed the pleasure of reading the addresses that Elder Nielson and Assistant Commissioner Haws are prepared to give us. Elder Nielsen will speak to the admonition we receive from the Prophet Jacob, Nephi’s younger brother, who declared, “O be wise.”[1] Elder Nielsen will help us recognize the sophistry and sin which besets us, in a world that is simultaneously becoming more informed and, in too many cases, less wise.
My CES colleague Kelly Haws will teach us the importance of being willing to learn and change. I have seen him do that often. And he has helped me to learn and change; I deeply appreciate his counsel. Almost every week, if not more often, I find myself saying to my BYU-Idaho colleagues, “Let’s get Kelly’s opinion.”
In addition to thinking about wisdom and willingness to learn, I have been pondering the trait of honor. For almost two years now, the world has been battling a pandemic. I am grateful for the honorable, effective responses we have made as a BYU-Idaho community. Thank you.
Second only to my parents, I learned the principles and practices of honor from one of my father’s associates in the Church, Elder Robert D. Hales. I was a college student when Elder Hales became the Church’s Presiding Bishop, in 1985. He called my father to be his First Counselor in the Bishopric. Sister Eyring and I were young and just married, and Elder Hales and his wife, Mary, took a loving interest in us.
As Heaven arranged things, we later became fellow ward members. By then Elder Hales was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Sister Eyring and I were the parents of three young children. Elder and Sister Hales were always kind to them and to us.
Through the rest of his life, Elder Hales suffered with physical maladies, including heart and lung disease. For much of that time, he was housebound, convalescing. I was blessed to visit him often, as his home was just a five-minute walk from mine.
We often talked about a book he hoped to write. It would be based on a 1990 general conference talk, called “Return with Honor,” which he gave as the Presiding Bishop. I’m pleased to say that our university colleague Rob Eaton helped Elder Hales write that book, finishing in 2010. Its title is “Return: Four Phases of Our Mortal Journey Home.”
As the years passed, Elder Hales found it harder to attend meetings of the Quorum of the Twelve, let alone travel. He was in and out of the hospital. Mary was a faithful nurse to her husband and a collaborator in diagnosing maladies and prescribing treatments. His welfare and comfort were her constant concern.
They were an inseparable, irrepressible team. Notwithstanding missing some general conferences due to health challenges, Elder Hales spoke in that setting 58 times. Mary was his essential companion in the work.
Recently, my son Spencer visited with Sister Hales. Please listen with me to an excerpt of their conversation.
The Hales’ family motto, “Return with Honor,” were the words written on the jet fighter plane that Elder Hales flew as a young man. As he said in later life, “This motto was a constant reminder to us of our determination to return to our home base with honor only after having expended all of our efforts to successfully complete every aspect of our mission.” [2]
I am grateful for the strong signs of honor at BYU-Idaho, not only on the Rexburg campus, but also among online students around the world. The comments made on our weekly devotional discussion board inspire me to be a better member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Honor is common among the students, employees, parents, alumni, and donors of BYU-Idaho.
That tradition of honor makes it easier for us to do what Brother Haws has urged. When we have a sense of honor, we are more open to learning and changing, knowing that Heaven will bless us, even if the tasks are hard and the rewards aren’t immediate or easily discernable.
And, as Elder Nielsen will show us, an attitude of learning and changing is the essential foundation for increasing in wisdom. O may we be honorable, eager to learn and change, and wise. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
[1] Jacob 6:12.
[2] See "https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2017/11-se/elder-robert-d-hales-an-honorable-life?lang=eng."