When I was in Mexico, I served as the Mission President’s personal secretary. I was called to this position because I could spell and type. This meant that I traveled wherever he traveled, and so I got to see a lot of Mexico – at least the west coast.
One of my responsibilities as secretary was to collect histories from the various branches in the mission and send those histories to Salt Lake City. This was not easy, and I confess I did not take it seriously. I generally questioned the branch president or Relief Society president, jotted down a few baptisms and a few changes in leadership, considered it good enough and we moved to the next city.
One evening I was lying in bed reading 3 Nephi 23: 6-13. The Savior had come to the Americas and he was asking the people about their records. He specifically asked Nephi if Samuel the Lamanite had not prophesied of His coming.
Nephi said yes, that that had happened.
And then the Savior said, “How be it that ye have not written this thing?” He then commanded Nephi to update the history.
I cannot repeat from this pulpit what I said aloud on my bed, but it was enough that my companion looked up and said, “Do we have a problem, Elder?
I could imagine the Savior coming to me in the next life and asking, “Brother Smith, wasn’t there a presidency change in the Mazatlan Branch in August, 1971? Why isn’t it in the history? And what about those baptisms in Tepic?”
And so I learned from the scriptures an important lesson: be diligent in all of your callings, no matter how seemingly insignificant. Now in this ward we can be assured that when the Savior calls for the history of the Church in Wisconsin, Brother Art Peek will stand tall and say, “Got it right here Lord on the hard drive!” Bishop Peek is a proud historian, a caring minister, and an obedient child of God.