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My wonderful friends.

Jeffrey Holland, a personal friend,

many of these state presidencies have been friends over many years.

To you and to you wonderful students, I come before you very humbly tonight.

I have thought about this assignment for some few weeks, and I sincerely pray for your

and interest in your prayers tonight. When I was at BYU, they didn't have this facility,

and in the old basketball games that I used to be a cheerleader at,

we played them over in the Springville gym in Springville, Utah.

That was before the field house even was built.

And it was a great day when we were able to leave the Springville High School Gymnasium and come here.

I have loved being in Provo most of my life.

I have loved growing up in Happy Valley.

I remember a missionary who came from the east and was in our mission field and all the course of his

mission he talked about not coming to BYU, how he wouldn't come here where he would

need to be regimented. And I remember this good elder, Elder Hinkley, who went back to Dartmouth on a basketball scholarship.

And after he had been there just a few weeks, he called me in Brussels, where we were still serving. And he said, President, do you think you could help

get me into BYU? He was tired of smoke-filled rooms and all of the innuendos that go on in some of the universities of the world, having returned from a mission.

He came here and, as is often the case, found someone to take to the temple, completed his education,

and has thanked me profusely many times since then.

Tonight, I would first like to tell you a little story about LaGran Richards.

And I choose him as my subject because he represents the qualities that I want to talk about tonight.

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