A Disciple's Life Quotes

“Looking back, Colleen and Neal have somewhat different perspectives. . . . She remembers she "was impressed that he seemed to have so much charisma. People were looking to him for answers and just had a great regard for him." Then Neal adds, "So much charisma [that] she turned me down when I first asked her for a date." Fortunately for both, he called again, and this time she said yes. . . .

Colleen found herself increasingly drawn to him. She found him "really cute and interesting," even if he did lack just a little social polish. He didn't care for dancing and didn't like small talk, both of which were more important to other people than they were to her. He "was so knowledgeable and such a good speaker, even though he did talk fast. But if you could listen fast you could learn a lot." As Neal came to know her better, he was impressed with her maturity, her sensitivity to other people, and the depth of her spiritual convictions. He began feeling a "spiritual impetus that this was a young woman out of the ordinary." . . .

Emma remembered, "Our first introduction to Colleen was when you came home one night and said, 'I've got to see more of that girl. She has some thinking under her hood.'" . . . "I knew I was not dealing with an eighteen-year-old co-ed who was so anxious to please me that I'd have my way when I shouldn't," he said. "We hadn't been married long before I knew I had a kind of Gibraltar--someone who would be tough and strong in the storms of life.”
― Bruce C. Hafen, A Disciple's Life: The Biography of Neal A. Maxwell

“Young Neal also needed to work on his attitude toward sacrament meetings. He had come alive with his excitement for fresh gospel teachings, both as a missionary and from his discovery as a student that the gospel could illuminate so many other issues. With his engine running in such high gear, he sometimes found it frustrating, or perhaps a little boring, to sit through classes and meetings that fell short of what he thought the gospel really had to say. As a result, when a sacrament meeting seemed to drag a little, Neal, sitting in the congregation, would quietly pull out his scriptures and start reading about some topic that held his interest more.”
― Bruce C. Hafen, A Disciple's Life

“Along with Neal's discoveries about secular and religious learning, his attitudes toward institutions including the Church also developed during his student years. His tendency toward what he called his "institutional chafing" had earlier made him impatient about the quality of classes and meetings in his home ward, about the United States military bureaucracy, about waiting for his bishop to approach him with a mission call, or about missionary teaching resources. Part of Neal's chafing came from his inborn impatience. "I thought, All right, Heavenly Father, if I've got to be more patient, let's get it over with right now.”
― Bruce C. Hafen, A Disciple's Life