Sugar Beets and President Monson

Today when the mail came, I opened the new Ensign fully expecting to find information regarding the church in Ghana. That is what the cover depicted. But I stopped short when I saw the title of the First Presidency Message: "Sugar Beets and the Worth of a Soul". It is a President Monson special.

Quoting the first few paragraphs:

"..........Picture with me,...a farmer driving a large open-bed truck filled with sugar beets en route to the sugar refinery. As the farmer drives along a bumpy dirt road, some of the sugar beets bounce from the truck and are strewn along the roadside. When he realizes he has lost some of the beets, he instructs his helpers, "There's just as much sugar in those which have slipped off. Let's go back and get them!"

...The sugar beets represent the members of this Church for whom we who are called as leaders have responsibility; and those that have fallen out of the truck represent men and women, youth and children who, for whatever reason, have fallen from the path of activity. Paraphrasing the farmer's comments concerning the sugar beets, I say of these souls, precious to our Father and our Master: "There's just as much value in those who have slipped off. Let's go back and get them!"

"Right now, today, some of them are caught in the current of popular opinion. Others are torn by the tide of turbulent times. Yet others are drawn down and drowned in the whirlpool of sin."

"This need not be. We have the doctrines of truth. We have the programs. We have the people. We have the power. Our mission is more than meetings. Our service is to save souls."