Emotional farewell: Pres. Faust praised at funeral for his wisdom, compassion and love

"Peace be to his memory. All of us are the richer for our association with him. May his memory remain with us to comfort and guide us."

President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency, said, "Jim knew the Lord, and the Lord knew Jim. I have a firm testimony of this truth."

While not born to worldly wealth, President Monson said, "(President Faust) came from a home where love prevailed."

When attending sessions of the Cottonwood Stake conference in May 1967, President Monson first met President Faust, who was serving as the stake president. "Thus began a close and cherished friendship.

"There was no chink in his armor; there was no guile in his soul; there was no flaw in his character," President Monson said. "President Faust loved the Lord with all his heart and soul and served Him with all his might to the very end of his mortal life."

A few hours before President Faust died, his wife was sitting beside him, his hand in hers, President Monson said.

"He was a man for all seasons. He was a teacher of truth. He left behind a heritage of honor and a legacy of love. God bless his memory."

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve who had long worked with President Faust to help secure the construction of the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center, lauded the relationship between President Faust and his wife.

"Surely his almost storybook romance is among the sweetest in the annals of the church. Ruth Faust adored James E. Faust — everything he did and said, every act or deed or gesture melted her. He felt the same way about her, and they were 'melted."'

President Faust's most troubling concern during the past few weeks of his life was leaving his wife, Elder Holland said. "As stillness finally settled over him the hardest thing for him was saying goodbye to Ruth."

He praised President Faust's compassion and caring for the individual, and the sensitivity with which he taught and counseled those who came into his sphere. While he was calm and quiet much of the time, President Faust had "a backbone of steel as resolute as those soft hands were gentle and soothing," Elder Holland said.

"The bigger the issue was, the better he was," he said, adding that pressured decision-making and difficult challenges were when President Faust was at his very best. During one conversation with President Faust, Elder Holland remembered, he strongly advocated a particular course of action.

Commenting on his fervor, President Faust responded, "Jeffrey, my boy, before this hair was gray, it was red. And from time to time a strand of that still shows through."