Capturing the Vision

Have you ever wondered what an affective vision statement looks like?  Elder Gordon B. Hinckley provides us with a powerful example:
                                                                                                                                                                            
      "In 1845, less than a year after Joseph's death,  Parley P. Pratt wrote a summary of the Prophet's work and a statement of our obligation to advance it.  These words, poetic in their beauty, are as follows:

         'He has organized the kingdom of God.--We will extend its dominion.  
          He has restored the fullness of the Gospel.--We will spread it abroad
          He has kindled up the dawn of a day of glory.--We will bring it to its meridian splendor.
          He was a "little one," and became a thousand--We are a small one, and will become a strong nation.
          In short, he quarried the stone. . .We will cause it to become a great mountain and fill the whole earth.'
          (Millennial Star 5 [March 1845]: 151-52.)

     "We are seeing the unfolding of that dream.  I hope we shall be true and faithful to the sacred trust given us to build this kingdom.  Our efforts will not be without sorrow and setbacks.  We may expect opposition, both determined and sophisticated.  As the work grows, we may expect a strengthening of the efforts of the adversary against it.  Our best defense is the quiet offense of allegiance to the teachings which have come to us from those whom we have sustained as prophets of God."  (Be Thou an Example, Deseret Book Co,  Salt Lake City. 1981 pgs  10-11).