I met Gordon B. Hinckley once when I was a missionary in Japan in the mid 1970s. After speaking to the missionaries at a special conference, he offered to call their parents when he returned home to America to wish them Merry Christmas and to pass on brief messages. (In those days missionaries never called their families or friends during their entire missions.) I went up afterwards to talk to him and told him that my parents weren't LDS and didn't really like the Church. I gave him my parents' names and phone number and some money to cover the expenses (I'm from Illinois and the phone call would have been long distance and have been a little expensive). He was very kind to me.

A few weeks later a letter arrived from him saying that he had a nice talk with my parents and that they were doing fine. He returned my money in the envelope and told me to use it for my mission. From this trip alone this busy man had made many hundreds of personal phone calls to people just to be kind and helpful, and who knows how many personal letters he wrote. My parents wrote me that they had a nice call from an "Elder Hinckley" who talked with them about meeting me in Japan.

My experience with the prophets and apostles is that they are among the sweetest, kindest, humblest, and most hardworking people on earth.

Gordon B. Hinckley was a great and good man, tireless in his testimony of Christ and faithful in his work for the Gospel. He was certainly a man who knew Christ, and it radiated from him almost as a real light.