Monson Concern Swinton

 Today I listened to the All In podcast.  Morgan Jones interviewed Heidi Swinton.  Heidi Swinton wrote President Nelson's biography.  She was able to spend a great deal of time with President Monson.  At one point, she was struggling to explain how President Monson was able to touch lives in a way that changed them.  She felt a huge responsibility to portray President Monson accurately...to "get it right."  

In the All In podcast she shared this story:

Well, in order to understand how President Monson works, you have to get beyond the academic and I was still in the academic, you know, put all this together. I had a really bad day one day, where I was just – I was at the end of my ability to cope with the fact I couldn't figure this out. And I walked into the office, and he was standing there and I was so discouraged. And he said, "Top of the morning to you." And I thought to myself, "Yeah, right." And I went over and sat down at my desk and started to work and he walked by and stopped, looked at me said, "Are you doing okay?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm doing fine." He said, "Good." Went into a meeting in the West boardroom, came back out an hour and a half later, stopped at my desk, looked at me and said, "Is everything going okay for you?" And I said, "Yeah, everything's fine." Now, you know, lied twice to him, and, and so he goes into his office and he comes right back out. And he looks over at me and motions to me to come in. And I went to pick up my recorder. So I could, you know, keep track of what he was saying. He said, "Don't bring that." So I went into that office that I've been in a million times, not a million, but you know, so many times. And I sat down, and he looked at me, and he said, "So how are you really doing?" And I wasn't doing well, but I wasn't going to tell him because I didn't want to be a failure in his eyes, you know, and I didn't want to add to his burden of – he's got this person writing his book that can't figure him out. And so I said, "I'm fine." And he leaned back in his chair, and he looked at me again, and he said, "So how are you really doing?" And the way he said it, just opened up my heart. And I started to cry. And I said to him, "You know, I'm at this roadblock, and I can't figure out how to do this and I don't know what to do about it." And I'm weeping in his office and feeling like, "Oh, you shouldn't be doing this." And he listened so patiently. And as I looked at him, I could see light around him like I'd never seen before. And I'd been in that room so many times. And I imagined that it was the Lord saying, "How are you really doing?" And it was that. "Have you received His image in your countenance?" Because President Monson had that image of the Lord in his countenance. And then he paused and said, "What can I do to help you?" And I thought, "Well, send Elijah, you know, with the chariot of fire and the book on the back and we'll all be good." But I didn't say that. I just said, "I don't know." And he said, "Well, I do." He said, "Here's what I'm going to do. Every morning when I get up. I'm gonna kneel down by the side of my bed and I'm gonna pray for you by name. I'm going to ask the Lord to be on your right hand and on your left." Well, to a writer who uses the right hand and the left all the time. That just – those mountains that were on my shoulder just kind of were gone. And I thought, "My goodness, he has moved Mount Olympus 10 feet to the left, and it's not there anymore." I had the experience that everybody had when they went in this office, where he was able to reach in and pull out the strength within me that I didn't know I had, that came by way of the power of the Atonement and the power of the Savior to help me. And that's what he did for people. And so, when I titled the book, To the Rescue, that was it. That he goes to the rescue of people, reaching in with what he knows they need, and helping them move forward. And he got me past that. It was an incredible moment in time because it changed the landscape of everything. And I was okay after that. I just motored after that. But I had to have the experience that other people had had, in order to feel it, so that I could write about how it felt, not observed. Not write about what I have – had observed.

Morgan shared that her family was once staying at a Marriott Hotel with her family and President Monson was also staying in the Marriott.  Her family met Monson and she said he was warm and genuine.   Swinton said that he was genuinely interested in people.

LESSON LEARNED:  Show genuine concern and interest in people.  

(I already knew this, but I loved the reminder):  President Monson was a prophet of God.  Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.