"President McKay, I want you to know that I accept without reservation the call which you have made of me, and I am willing to devote my life and all that I have to this service."
President Howard W. Hunter spoke those words on Oct. 11, 1959, in the closing session of general conference. He had been sustained the previous day as a member of the Council of the Twelve.No one who really knew President Hunter doubted his words. His life had been filled with examples of commitment - even in the face of adversity.
When he was 8 years old, President Hunter wanted to be baptized. However, his nonmember father felt that he should wait, which he did until he was 12 years old. His father finally gave his consent.
Many years later, President Hunter was speaking in the chapel meeting at the Arizona Temple during a stake excursion. "While I was speaking, I saw my father and mother come into the room, dressed in white, ready to go through the temple. I was completely overcome. I was unable to continue my talk."
When President Hunter was a deacon, he along with other ward members were asked to raise funds for a new chapel in Boise. He was the first to offer a pledge to donate $25; he raised the money through working odd jobs.
When President Hunter married Clara May "Claire" Jeffs, they were counseled to stay out of debt - to never buy anything on credit. They stuck to this advice throughout their marriage, even though it meant making sacrifices such as scrubbing clothes on a washboard until they could afford a washing machine.
That counsel came in handy during the Great Depression. President Hunter found himself out of work - but also out of debt. Not saddled with the pressure of debts, he was in a better position to find other employment.
President Hunter was 26 when he decided to go to law school. Armed with an unwavering commitment, he worked eight hours a day at a job and then took night classes.
"I did my studying at night and over the weekend," he said. "I found that the best time to study was 2 o'clock in the morning."
He graduated cum laude from Southwestern University Law School in Los Angeles. After passing the bar examination, he began practicing law in 1939.
Many years later, President Hunter nursed his beloved wife through a series of strokes that left her increasingly dependent. For more than eight years, he insisted on caring for her as much as possible. Finally, it became necessary to put her in a nursing care facility. Even then, his first priority was to visit her. Toward the end when she could no longer converse with him, he continued to talk to her.
Their son Robert said, "He was always in a hurry to see her, to be by her side, and to take care of her."
When President Hunter was called into President David O. McKay's office in October 1959 and told that he would be sustained as a member of the Council of the Twelve, "tears came to my eyes and I could not speak. I have never felt so completely humble."
He said that on the following day, when President J. Reuben Clark Jr. started to read the names of the general authorities, "my heart commenced to pound. I have never had such a feeling of panic."
Accepting this calling - and making the pledge to devote his life and all that he had to church service - meant a change in lifestyle - he had to give up his law practice and move from his home in California. But humbly and willingly he made that change, commuting between Salt Lake City and his California home and office until the final move to Salt Lake City in April 1961.
He kept that pledge.