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procrastination is a sin in itself. Allow me to illustrate:

Owen Pearce was an outstanding gardener with whom I associ-
ated for years in the Businessman’s Garden Club of San Francisco. He
was an expert on rhododendrons, azaleas and alpine plants. I had only
known him a matter of months before asking his recommendation of
a variety of rhododendron to plant on either side of our living room
window. The Loder’s White that we planted there are a result of his
recommendation. In subsequent years he was always kind and helpful
to me. When Owen’s health deteriorated, making him unable to attend
our Garden Club meetings, all who knew him regretted his decline. I
intended to go see him in a convalescent home, but did not do so for
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conscious. He died shortly thereafter. I attended his funeral to pay my
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I gone to see him earlier, once or several times, before he lapsed into a
coma. I am ashamed of myself.

The opposite example can leave you with the inner satisfaction
of having done what is right. Bessie Burdette was the wife of an elderly
man in our ward. I had been their home teacher for a few months some
years before. Whenever she saw me at church she gave me a beam-
ing smile. When I was in the bishopric with Bishop Wells, one night
I received a phone call telling me that Bessie Burdette had fallen and
broken her hip. She was hospitalized and had a pin put in the bone to
hold it in place. That morning I had gotten up about quarter to six as
usual, commuted almost an hour on a Greyhound bus to work, worked
hard, ridden the bus home and arrived home at about quarter to six. I had
dinner with my family and sat down to read the newspaper and watch a
little TV. I was tired when I received the phone call. I vowed to myself
that I would go to see Sister Burdette tomorrow night at her hospital
in Oakland. As the evening went on, my conscience, or more probably
the Holy Ghost, reminded me several times that I ought to go see Sister
Burdette tonight. Finally I responded to this prompting. I picked a bou-
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Oakland. By that time visiting hours were over, but I was admitted on

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