Apparently it all began with some fast text-messaging, and it spread like wildfire. President Gordon B. Hinckley, the prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormons”) since 1995, passed away on January 27, 2008. And the next day, Latter-day Saint youth all over the United States wore their Sunday best to school to honor him.
Keep in mind that Latter-day Saints have a tradition of dressing more formally for church than many denominations do. Girls and women usually wear skirts or dresses, and men and many of the boys wear button-up shirts, slacks, and ties – and often full suits. So wearing church clothes to school is something that would call attention to these youth, to say the least.
But these youth were glad to be able to do participate. “I could wear my white shirt, my very best, to remember the prophet,” Daniel, a student at Indian Hills Middle School in Salt Lake City, Utah, explained, as quoted by the Newsroom at lds.org.
“A lot of people loved him,” said Morgan Mabey, a student at East High School in Salt Lake City, to the Associated Press. “I know I did.”
“He’s the only prophet we’ve ever known,” Chandler Daniels, a student at Murray High School in the Salt Lake City area, said to the Deseret Morning News.
Mark Farmer, also a Murray High School student, told the Deseret Morning News that he first learned of President Hinckley’s death on a TV news bulletin Sunday night, not long after it had occurred. Then the text messages started pouring in: “hey everyone wear church clothes tomorrow to respect president hinkly’s death. Like for real. Pass this on.”
And the students did. They passed the message on and on. One young woman reported receiving 42 text messages about the dress-up day. According to www.lds.org, the origin of the message is unknown, but participants were noted throughout Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Texas and Washington D.C. Cell phone service providers in some areas noted the increased traffic.
It just goes to show what this tech-savvy generation of youth can and will do to honor their prophet. As President Hinckley’s grandson James Pearce said to www.lds.org, “He loved the youth so much. He really cared about them, and they felt that love. They acknowledged it with their behavior.”
