It is my privilege to welcome you to BYU–Idaho for this fall semester. If I could, I would welcome each of you individually. I would love to go on a walk with you around the wheat and potato fields up by our home. I wish there were corn fields; I really like corn. I would like to hear about your plans for fall and what you hope to learn and do in the next four months. I would encourage you to set your sights high and include having fun alongside your hard work.
Many things that were missing during the pandemic are coming back. This semester, as part of Center Stage, we have a tribute band coming to BYU-Idaho. They will perform songs from one of the most well-known bands, the Beatles. It should be fun. In a similar fashion, I would like to share with you a devotional message given by one of the wittiest and wisest women I have ever heard from, Marjorie Pay Hinckley, the wife of our former prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley. I won’t be able to do it justice, but I hope you will enjoy Sister Hinckley’s counsel and apply her advice nonetheless. If she were here today, she might greet you the way she opened her remarks at a BYU women’s conference in 1999.
(Video of Sister Hinckley “The Hilarious Marjorie Hinckley – 1999 Women’s Conference).
Sister Hinckley titled her address “Unsolicited, Unwelcome, and Unwanted Advice From a Seventy-Five-Year-Old Woman to College Students[i].” Her advice is every bit as applicable to you as it was to her original audience. I wish she were here to deliver it in her clever way. She shared four suggestions for making your “college days” the best. Here you go:
First, she encourages jumping in with both feet. At BYU–Idaho, we have so many academic, artistic, service, and social opportunities that you won’t be able to do them all. However, by allocating your time, you may be able to try some things that you’ve always wanted to do.
The Wall Street Journal wrote,
The greatest waste of our natural resources is the number of people who never reach their potential. So get out of that slow lane, shift into the fast lane. If you think you can’t, you won’t. If you think you can, there is a good chance that you will. And even making the effort will make you feel like a new person. Don’t be afraid to fail; you’ve failed many times, though you may not remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim. Don’t worry about failure–worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.[ii]
Sister Hinckley’s “second bit of unasked-for advice” is to “make developing friendships on campus a very important goal[iii].” For those of you online, I would add that you can look forward to making new virtual friends. Sister Hinckley wisely counseled, quote,
Now, I’m not suggesting that you play when you should be studying, but developing friendships is important. It’s a skill you will need all of your lives. No man is an island, and associating with and learning to enjoy the company of good people is a valuable part of your education… And among the friends I would make on this campus, if I were you, is at least one of these wonderful faculty people.[iv]
My own children, who have gone to school here, consider a number of BYU-Idaho faculty members among their dearest friends.
“And now the third bit of advice… learn, learn, learn[v].” You could say, “Sister Eyring, of course I am here to learn.” But I might remind you that we have all had the experience of doing just enough to get by or to get a passing grade. Sister Hinckley encourages us to “learn to be a real student, an excellent student[vi].” To be the kind of student who enjoys “getting on the trail of something…and searching it down feverishly for hours[vii].” Sister Hinkley didn’t have Google at the time, but wouldn’t she be surprised at the things we can learn at our fingertips now? In the olden days, when my husband and I were young parents, the encyclopedia salesman made a lot of money from us. We had great fun at the dinner table when one of our children would ask a question and we would pull down the encyclopedia and look up an answer. Now my last two children hear me say, “I wonder why…,” and they say, “Mom, just Google it.” This summer as we read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein while on vacation, we googled a lot of vocabulary. It is fun to learn.
Finally, Sister Hinckley’s fourth bit of unasked-for advice is to “make religion an important part of [your] college life. You can’t be a whole person without religion. You can’t feed your body and your mind and starve your spirit[viii].” Of course, you have required religion courses here taught by incredible faculty. We are also blessed to have a temple adjacent to our campus and a second temple that will be built soon. I hope we can all enjoy the blessings of the eternal learning that takes place there.
President Harold B. Lee said, “Testimony isn’t something you have today, and you will have always. A testimony is fragile…It is something you have to recapture every day of your life[ix].”
In John 7:17 the Savior declared, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine[x].” A good way to do this is to really participate in your ward.
You each have a ward, either here on campus or wherever you are in the world. That is pretty amazing. Sister Hinckley said, “Discipline yourselves. Get out of bed on Sunday and go to your meetings. It’s important–terribly important.” I agree. As much as we enjoyed church with our family during the pandemic, I missed my ward family. According to Sister Hinckley, “A testimony comes from living the gospel and serving in the church[xi].”
And those are Marjorie Pay Hinckley’s four ideas for a great time at school: jump in with both feet, develop friendships, learn, and make religion an important part of your college life. I second her suggestions.
President Eyring and I will be praying for you and your success in the coming months. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Notes
[i] The full talk can be found in the appendix of Sister Hinckley’s 1999 book, “Glimpses.”
[ii] The Wall Street Journal. Harry Gray.
[iii] The full talk can be found in the appendix of Sister Hinckley’s 1999 book, “Glimpses.”
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Ibid.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] December 1985 Mormon Ad “Daily Minimum Requirements”
[ix] Church News, July 15, 1972, p.4.
[x] John 7:17
[xi] The full talk can be found in the appendix of Sister Hinckley’s 1999 book, “Glimpses.”