1. Love seeks out the sick and weary Elder Ezra Taft Benson: I shall never cease to be grateful for the visits President George Albert Smith made to my home in Salt Lake City while I was serving as a missionary in the nations of war-torn Europe at the end of World War II. Particularly am I thankful for a visit in the still of the night when our little one lay at death’s door. Without any announcement, President Smith found time to come into that home and place his hands upon the head of that little one, held in her mother’s arms as she had been for many hours, and promise her complete recovery. This was President Smith, he always had time to help, particularly those who were sick, those who needed him most.
2. Love is alert for opportunities to serve President Heber J. Grant’s Daughter: On one occasion President Smith was travelling back from a convention on a train. I was in his company and saw him looking across the aisle and seeing a young mother and her children, surrounded by luggage. He felt a need to talk with her and to inquire after her welfare. In a few minutes President Smith was over talking to the young mother. He came back to our seat and said “Yes it is just as I thought. The little mother is going on a long journey; I have looked at her ticket. I can’t understand why the man who sold it to her didn’t know a better route for her to travel. As it is she will have a long wait in Ogden and again in Chicago. I have her ticket and am going to get off in Ogden and see if I cant get it changed so she can make other connections and not have the long wait in Ogden and Chicago.”
3. Love finds time for others Brother D. Arthur Haycock On a trip to the Middle West, President Smith was rushing to catch a train when a mother with four small youngsters stopped him so that her children might have the opportunity of shaking hands with him. Someone took a picture of the incident and a copy was sent to President Smith with this notation: ‘I am sending you this picture because it is a graphic illustration of the man we believe you are. The reason we treasure it so is because, busy as you were, in spite of the fact that you were being hurried into your car and then to your waiting train, you still took time out to shake the hand of each child in this family.’
4. Love forgives President George Albert Smith had a profound concern for people who had become disaffected from the Church, and he sought to show them their error. A large faction had broken away from the Church and established their own church. They were disgruntled with some leaders and presumed to take matters into their own hands. President Smith made a historic visit to this group in 1946. He met with them and shook their hands, spoke to them and prayed and wept for them. They were touched by his presence. He looked and acted like a prophet. They acknowledged that he was a prophet. Twelve hundred people, feeling the radiant love of Christ reaching out to them through the Lord’s annointed, returned to the safety of the Church from which they had strayed.
5. President George Albert Smith’s Goals I would be a friend to the friendless and find joy in ministering to the needs of the poor. I would visit the sick and afflicted and inspire in them a desire for faith to be healed. I would teach the truth to the understanding and blessing of all mankind. I would seek out the erring one and try to win him back to a righteous and happy life. I would not seek to force people to live up to my ideals but rather love them into doing the thing that is right. I would live with the masses and help to solve their problems that their earth life may be happy. I would avoid the publicity of high positions and discourage the flattery of thoughtless friends. I would not knowingly wound the feeling of any, not even one who had wronged me, but would seek to do him good and make him my friend. I would overcome the tendency to selfishness and jealousy and rejoice in the successes of all the children of my Heavenly Father. I would not be an enemy to any living soul. Knowing that the Redeemer of mankind has offered to the world the only plan that will fully develop us and make us really happy here and hereafter I feel it not only a duty but a blessed privilege to disseminate this truth.
6. Love for others brings happiness President George Albert Smith: “Do not forget no matter how much you may give in money, no matter how you may desire the things of this world to make yourselves happy, your happiness will be in proportion to your charity and to your kindness and to your love of those with whom you associate here on earth. Our Heavenly Father has said in very plain terms that he who says he loves God and does not love his brother is not truthful.”
