His father-also named LeGrand, who would later serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles-called the loss one of the greatest sorrows” he and his family ever experienced, and both parents felt partially to blame for “having let him go to the beach that day with his friends.” Furthermore, they “had read his Patriarchal Blessing, and we could not feel that it was time for him to go.” Then one Saturday evening, young LeGrand’s younger brother, LaMont, read his own blessing alongside that of his deceased brother. LeGrand Richards died two months before he turned sixteen, in a tragic accident at the Santa Monica Beach in California. Though Heber had first fixated on the passing of time, he later gained a deeper understanding-that his blessing had promised a call to the ministry, not a call on a mission. Less than two years later he was called to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. A few weeks later, the twenty-three-year-old was called to be the president of the Tooele Stake, the youngest stake president in the Church. The negative thoughts about the promise never again returned. I don’t care if every patriarch in the Church has made a mistake in a blessing, and told a lie, I believe with all my heart and soul that the gospel is true and I will not allow my faith to be upset.” Suddenly, he stopped walking, turned around, and said aloud, “Mr. ![]() One day these thoughts flooded his mind as he walked alone down Main Street in Salt Lake City. He did not tell anyone of his trouble, though the questions strained his faith. There was too much evidence he had received too many personal confirmations to doubt.” So he reasoned that the patriarch had simply made a mistake. As he reflected, “he realized that there could be no doubt about the reality of God and the truthfulness of the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. He grew concerned about his status in the Church, about the patriarch’s lack of inspiration, and about the truth of the Church itself. The lack of a mission call prompted self-doubt and personal anguish. He waited and waited and grew disturbed when, by age twenty-three, he had received no call. In his day, young people did not submit papers for a mission but rather waited to receive notice of a call. Smith and Elder Erastus Snow of the Twelve had been called on missions as teens, so he anticipated that he would be called to serve a full-time mission as a very young man. ![]() Heber Grant received a patriarchal blessing that promised he would be called to the ministry in his youth.
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