So it was with Joseph Smith. He too was there. He too sat in council with the noble and great ones. Occupying a prominent place of honor and distinction, he unquestionably helped in the planning and execution of the great work of the Lord to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man,” the salvation of all our Father’s children. His mission had had, and was to have, impact on all who had come to earth, all who then dwelt on earth, and the millions yet unborn. The Prophet Joseph Smith made this eternal fact clear in these words: “Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the grand council of heaven before this world was. I suppose that I was ordained to this very office in that grand council. It is the testimony that I want that I am God’s servant, and this people His people.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 365.) — Ezra Taft Benson, “God, Family, Country: Our Three Great Loyalties,” [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1974], p. 30