Joseph in Egypt • Bro. Donny Osmond • Special Episode • Come, Follow Me

Hello, my friends, welcome to another episode of Follow Him.

My name is Hank Smith, I am your host.

“I am here with my handsome and smart co-host, John, by the way.”

John, I was listening to a song the other day and the soloist said, I am handsome, I am smart and I thought, John should sing this song. Hey, I am testing the limits of the processor chip in this MacBook Pro. I have got improved my appearance all the way to the right. It's starting to smoke in the back, but I'm doing the best I can do.

That's so great. John, we are privileged. This is a special episode of Follow Him. One that I have been looking forward to for I can't tell you how long. In fact, I'll tell the story here in a minute.

We have Brother Donny Osmond with us.

Donny, welcome to Follow Him. Great to be with you. I just have to add something to what you just said. When I recorded that song, the true lyrics to his, John is handsome,

“John is smart, John is walking, work of art, those are the real lyrics.”

That's the Donny translation, right there. That's exactly right. The DST. I want that edition. The DST.

Which means don't say that, but yeah, it's a good to be with you guys. I've been looking forward to this.

We're going to be talking about one of my favorite subjects, Joseph.

I've done so much research on that now, and I played him for 2000 shows. I've started in '92, but actually I've been singing his song about him, close every door, and any doom will do and all that stuff. Here in Vegas, every night I sing, close every door, the lighting and everything is so dramatic, so I've been singing about Joseph pretty much for 30 years.

As I search for guests to be on the show, I write down thoughts and impressions that come to mind, John, I bounce ideas off of you all the time. I had this impression, Lisa Spice, a member of our team, can tell you this. It was years ago, and just after our last Old Testament year, I thought, "Oh, wouldn't be great if we could get Donny to come on the show."

And as we drew closer to this Old Testament year, I tried a number of different avenues on social media and things. Well, I wasn't really having any success. I figured, you know what, this probably is going to happen. Even after years of hoping, I actually think I said out loud in a prayer, it looks like this

is not going to happen, maybe this wasn't an impression, maybe this was just me wanting to talk to Donny Osmond, Lord, if this is going to happen, you're going to have to do some serious magic because I have come to Roadblock after Roadblock. Donny's obviously very busy. Within 48 hours of saying that vocal prayer, I was talking to Donny Osmond on the phone,

and I'm going, "Wait, how did this happen?" I think it was the Holy Ghost. I felt an impression saying, "We were waiting for you to ask," and I thought probably would have been helpful. Had I gone to the Lord, at least once and said, "If you want this to happen, could

you help me?" Once I invited the Lord, it happened, and Donny's been nothing but gracious. Well, thank you. That's happened so many times in my life. You go as far as you can, and then you turn it over to the Lord, he does work miracles.

Yes, we have to work hard, but faith in our Heavenly Father's abilities to make miracles happen. It works. I've seen it happen so many times in my life. Now, John, let's start with you before we turn the time over to Donny.

“First of all, when you think Joseph of Egypt, what do you think of?”

Could this be one of the greatest stories ever? With family, with betrayal, with redemption, with forgiveness? I just crazy forgiveness, with, "Hey, maybe God had this in mind," then foreshadowing future events of what Joseph's posterity would do. I mean, how do you overstate what a great story this is?

You've known me for a long time, I've often said, to me, this is one of if not the greatest story ever told with the drama and the characters and the depth, and like you said, the principles that are taught in the emotion, it really is divinely put together. Donny, as you've been thinking, what did your hope for today? I hope I can get through without looking like an idiot, 'cause I'm talking to theologians

here. This series, no, I hope that I can convey my innermost feelings about a man who I've studied so much, I've tried to live his life on stage and off. John mentioned a bunch of attributes, Joseph is kind of a guiding light to me, because it is probably one of the greatest stories in Holy Rit in general, because there's so many

principles you can take from it. So forgiveness is just one major factor, it's the constant dedication to his covenants.

in the pit. 17, I teach the 17-year-olds in Sunday school that was your age. I was doing the Donny Mauritio at 17. You're trying hard to understand who you are as a person, and then your brothers try to kill you.

13 years in slavery in imprisonment, but he never gave up on his covenants.

He never gave up on God. You would think that someday a young man like this, I've done my best, thanks a lot, but he never did, then this is a large swath and then we're going to get into the details of it. But he started interpreting dreams when it was around 28 years old.

He interpreted the dreams of the baker, and I called him the Butler in Joseph and the amazing technical drink code, but he was a cup holder or something like Web Bunny, which is so weird, handle your own cup, will you?

“But he never needed a cup holder, put it on the table, will you?”

The cup holder, Joseph said, you're going to get your old job back. The baker he says, you're going to die. He was so in tune with inspiration to the Holy Ghost. And he knew exactly what was going to happen. Now those are all the things we know about.

Then think about the fact that it took two years for the cup holder to say, oh, by the way, there's this guy, but he still didn't give up his devotion to his covenants to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and his father, Israel. He stayed true to his covenants. That's why he's a guiding light to me.

He knew when to run away when there was a compromising situation, like we know of Potiphar's wife. He's such an example to me, especially when I started living his life on stage. Now he was a musical. It's a comedy.

“There's all kinds of funny things that we did on stage.”

But when I sang close every door to me, I lived it. I was behind bars. Guys, I have to tell you, I don't want to get too dramatic here, but when you're acting apart and you're singing that music and your behind bars, there were nights you guys that I literally started crying because I felt like I was in jail.

That was the turning point. That's when he started climbing out of this proverbial pit. He prevailed. He is a guiding light to me and has been for so many years. I'm excited to hear more about your experiences.

That is why I invited you on Donnie. I am not a professional actor. John can do a pretty mean Barney Fife. But other than that, oh, I've heard it. I've seen it.

I know enough to know that a professional actor will learn everything they can about a character, will invest in this character. We'll think about moments of their lives and really try to become the person, put themselves in their shoes from their perspective. How did they see this?

What were they feeling? There are five places, if I remember correctly, there are five places in Genesis, where it mentions that Joseph wept, he balled his eyes out. Let's take for instance when his brothers come and plead for food and he saw them. They didn't recognize him immediately after that.

He went into the other room and cried his eyes out. Now I've got a theory about this, two theories that if he would have just said, guys, I'm your brother right there and then it would all have been over. He wouldn't have tested them and tried them. But here's where I don't have scriptures to back this up.

But here's what I'm going to say.

“I think one of the reasons why he had to leave the room and cry his eyes out, his brothers”

tried to kill him. They sold him into slavery. He suffered in dungeons and he finally got to a point where he's now second in command. He's the prime minister of Egypt. He had to go in the other room and say, "Why did they do this to me?

Why would they kill me?" Yes, I was favored of my father, but it was the birthright. It Ruben fell because of Moral's sin. It fell upon me. His father didn't just say, "You're my favorite child."

He gave him the coat. Now for many years, you guys, correct me if I'm wrong on this because I'm not a phyologian.

I always thought the coat represent priesthood authority.

The research that I've done, I've come to find out that it represents more of a worthiness of a birthright. It's not like I have authority. No, this is I am now the spokesperson of the family. Now, put yourself in the brother's position.

I used to think this when I dreamed that in the field one day the corn gave me a sign

which is the way we were directed to. You're 11 sheaves of corn all turned and bound to mine.

My sheep was quite a sight to see, a golden sheep and tall, yours were green and second

rate and really rather small. And the way I sang it was so innocent. I dreamed that in, I was just this young 17, 16-year-old kid at the time, living this role.

“Hey guys, I just dream this dream and you were bowing to me, isn't that cool?”

Now, be one of the brothers for a second. I can't stand you, Joseph, you're just this little kid. Now, our father has favored you, but where's the nut? Their peers were probably mock at you talking about bullying. Their peers were probably say, "So, naftily, you're low in the totem bowl.

Hey, Dan, you didn't get it. They were probably being bullied like crazy. No wonder they were angry. But why did they want to kill me? There was that much vitriol.

We've heard stories over and over again, where anger can get the best of people unto death. Where anger is such a cancer. It's such a great example.

That's where we go back to the way we first said.

The story of Joseph. There are so many principles to learn in this. One of them is anger. Don't let a getcha.

“That's why he had to leave in cry many times.”

Oh, man. This is really difficult, Heavenly Father. How do I get over this feeling of this anger that I have towards my brothers that tried to kill me? Then ultimately, look what he did. He forgave him.

But he put him through the test, didn't he? Especially, you're going to keep Benjamin back. Oh, but you'll kill our dad. He took a chance to say, no, you bring your father here. And inside he's saying, probably crying inside,

bring my father back to me. Oh, I got to tell you a story. I hope I can even get through this without being emotional. At the end of the show, when they go back and get Jacob to bring him to Egypt, when I say, your brother is me.

And there's a party on stage and everybody's jumping up and down and joyful, I exit stage. I go, get myself into the chariot, this golden chariot, and the stage fills with fog. Everybody leaves, and Jacob came to Egypt, his chariot of gold of gold. And I look, and I see my father coming towards me with fog on the floor. And he sees me, and he falls to the floor.

I get out of the chariot, and I pick him up out of the fog. Then he hands me my coat, that's tattered in torn. That his father has kept for all those years, holding onto who he thought was dead. He loved Joseph that much. And then I look at him in the eyes and I say, I close my eyes and start the song,

just Ocapella, and you guys, there were so many nights that he both of us were just crying our eyes and all, because it was real. Can you imagine what the real moment when Joseph saw his dad for the first time and gave him that tattered coat? However that happened, now over that took place, it did take place, because he did get

that coat that his father kept all those years and held onto the love of his child, what he thought was dead. Let a story of love and compassion. And I felt it every night. John, before we go any further, we do have listeners all over the world, so there may be someone

“listening who's saying, who are they talking to this week?”

Who is this Donnie Osmond? John, give us a bio. Give us a background of Donnie. I will, from memory, okay. If you make a mistake, I'll fill you in a little bit of a way.

Yeah. I'm the fifth of six children. My sister, Jerry and Sally, they had Osmond family albums. My sister Becky, too, who's younger than me. We all loved the Osmond brothers.

I think they first appeared on the Andy Williams show. Your older brothers, before you joined him, and then you started joining him, too.

Just amazing harmonies, barbershop stuff at first, incredible harmonies.

The kind of harmonies only a family could have because they, they just sang so beautifully together. It was the Osmond brothers for many years. I think that President Kimball actually called them on a mission.

Then over time, Donnie and Marie, oh, what did you sing together? A little bit country, a little bit rock, right? That show, we used to watch that show, because those were our people, these guys are in the church.

And the thing I just love about the Osmond family is, they have never left the comment

path, just watching them over the years going to Branson, Missouri, Donnie and Marie show for so many years. And they had Paul, Paul End on that land, which I always cracked me up, because he had vibrato in his voice, but we used to watch it for years. And of course, of all the parts, Donnie, that you could be associated with, how beautiful,

how wonderful is it that Joseph was the part, correct me if I'm on Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote Joseph, was he in college was he was, well, for those who don't know who Andrew like Weber is, he wrote Joseph, obviously, Jesus Christ Superstar, cats, the Phantom of the opera, if you look him up, if you jiggle him, he's the most successful playwright in history.

It's fun to be able to have his phone number call him up, just talk to him whenever

“but can I give you a story about how I got the gig?”

Oh, what do you do? Absolutely.

To answer your question, Andrew was 19, I think Tim Rice was 20, it was the first one

they ever wrote. It was 20 minutes long. Yeah. It was a little high school project that he wrote. It was a high school project.

That's what it was. It's 20 minutes long and it's turned into be one of the most celebrated musicals in history. I'll try to give you the short version. Debbie and I were living in Irvine, California at the time.

Debbie, she's a pillar of light. She's really in tune with the spirit. She started getting these feelings the week really should move.

“Sweetheart, I've worked for 10 years to get back on the charts and I just had to hit record”

soldier of love and sacred emotion and you want to move. This is where I need to be to continue my career and she's I know, but I just the feelings that keep getting. And all of a sudden you guys, I start getting these feelings of good acting school. You guys, I'm not interested in acting, so go to acting school.

So I enrolled in acting school, a beginner class, an intermediate class, and an advanced class all at the same time, a class of course. I also got the feeling, start training your voice to be theatrical, so what, why would I do that? So I pursued it, we sold our home, we looked all different places, ended up in St. George

Utah, which was not in 1991, the mecca of show business. They said they've had some really good theaters with like to a con and stuff like that. It didn't make any sense, but we both felt good about it. The script of Joseph came in. I thought this would be interesting, it's going to require acting, it's going to require

a theatrical voice and it's going to require us to move and we're renting a home in St. George. You see where this is going now? They said the auditions are going to take place in New York City on such and such a date.

“I was so busy with my acting classes and stuff in Los Angeles said the only way I can make”

this audition is to take a red eye, flight in New York, do the audition, go back on the plane and get back to Los Angeles to see only where I can do this audition. On the way to the airport is back when we have CDs, I stopped the tower records on sunset and got the CD of a soundtrack. I said I'm going to learn closely the door and any dream will do.

On the plane, on the way, I'll be right. Of course, get on the plane, put my headphones on, I hit play and I fall asleep. The next thing I know and landing, oh no, I'm unprepared. I go to this theater. You guys, it's just like the movies.

You got this one. They called it a ghost lamp on stage, a pianist with a piano, an upright piano and you

got these silhouette of these high powerful producers and directors that you cannot

see. It's just a silhouette in the audience. Five people out there. Next person up, Donnius, and there's a line of people to audition. Donniusman, and I get on the mic and said, Mr. Dubinsky, my producer, I hate to tell you

this, I'm unprepared, you don't say that to a producer. You had a crappy voice, you said, well, you got to sing something. I said, well, I'll sing on the piano. I kicked the piano player off, I sing a couple of my songs on the piano. There's no applause.

These guys are jaded. I hear him say, you got to sing something from the show kid. I said, well, if you want me to sing something, I'll sing closer to the heart of the two. I'll sing closer to the door.

But I got to read the lyrics, he said, yeah, go ahead, go ahead. He was very impatient. The piano starts. Before I sang, I said, I'm unprepared, and all of a sudden I felt, no, you're prepared.

You've got to acting class, you've studied theatrical voice, you've been singing all your life, now just execute.

“So I started singing, close every door to me.”

Very softly, hide all the world from me, and then I start being bar all the windows, and shut out the lights, and I keep going, do what you, and I start building. For my long hours I'll find a room piece of mine, for I have been promised a land of a big breath, a land of a room, and I held it forever. I stopped.

You could hear a pin drop in that theater. The next thing I heard was this gruffy voice that said, come here, kid. I walk out into the audience, as I got closer, I could see the faces, dark to materialize. There were several people there, I looked at Garth, he said, sit down. I'm canceling the rest of the additions you're my Joseph.

That's how I got it. I was just before I sang, I felt this, your prepared.

I thought back to what my mother would always say to all of our children, prepare yourself,

and the opportunity will come. You don't prepare yourself when the opportunity presents itself.

“No, prepare yourself, and the only way to know is to the spirit.”

In order to get through this sojourn we call life, we can't do it alone. I look at Joseph, which is our topic today, why was he proven? Why was he tested? I'm not putting myself on the same platform as Joseph, but there were moments where I was in a dungeon in my, I lost my career and everything. Right just before I sang that song, for Garth, I felt something that said, you are prepared. I'm with you, now just do it.

I love that. It was a great experience. No, one more other experience with that song. During rehearsals, Phil Reno, I can't remember, I remember his name, Phil Reno, my conductor.

He would always literally slap my hand, because I would sing as a pop singer.

Close him, he door to me, hide all the world from me. All these licks, you know, all the windows shut out the light. He said, what is that? You can't sing like that. Andrew Legweber didn't write it that way.

It was kind of a joke between the two of us all throughout rehearsals. Teaching me close, every door to me.

“The lyrics are the most important thing, long story short, at the end of closing the door.”

For we know we shall find that high note, I would sing that everyone's around rehearsal and feel would say, no, don't do that. Andrew did not write that note, it's not in the script. Everyone's so I'll just to tease him, I would sing it. Opening night, everybody's nervous, including me.

Because Andrew Legweber is dead center, third seat, third row back. The press are all in the back, but the very end of the show, I do a reprisal, have of closing the door. Close every door to me. I mean, they outfit the armor and everything hide all the world from me.

Bar all the windows is shut out the light, then at the very end, "For we know we," and I look at Phil. And this is all in nanoseconds. If Luke's could kill, he would have killed my right ear. He said, "Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it."

"For we know we shall find that one for us!" And then nailed it. And he was so upset, and I thought, okay, I'm gonna be fired. I'm gonna get fired by Andrew Legweber. I did a cardinal sin.

You never do this in the world of theater,

particularly to Lord Lloyd Weber. We're taking our bowels. I've got the narrator next to me, Janet Metz, an amazing singer, standing ovation, the press are up there recording, and I point to Andrew.

Come on up, Andrew! "You don't do that without permission!" "You don't do that!" He gets out of his seat and walks up on stage. The place is going "Besert!"

"Hi, here's Andrew Legweber, walks up next to me between the narrator, aren't the net genms at myself. We all hold hands, and we take one final bow.

"Where have you been keeping that voice all these years?"

That was all I needed, right there. And I told Phil Reno that and I said, "In your face, buddy!" Well, what was so funny?

“I'm leaving out of the most important part at the end of the show.”

He comes up to my dressing room, Andrew Legweber, and he says, "And I don't do a very good accent," he says, "You know, Donnie, that note that you sang at the end of Closer Redool." I said, "Yes, I'm so sorry." I said, "Yeah, I did not write that note."

I said, "I'm so sorry, I'll take it out." He said, "I actually kind of liked it. Keep it in." So, every time I hear somebody sing that note, I said, "That's my note, baby.

That's my note." That is beautiful. I love the look, don't you dare, don't you dare. Don't you dare, don't you dare, don't you dare, don't you dare.

“Sometimes in life, you have to take chances,”

not unrealistic chances, but sometimes, like in that audition process, you just have to say, "Go for it. Believe in yourself." That's the other thing that I've learned from Joseph. He could have given up so many times, you guys.

"So many times, he didn't." He said, "I believe in my God, and he believes in me."

I can prevail, I can do this, and he never lost his faith.

There are times in my life that I look back, where they were dark, very dark, because I lost my career, all my money, everything, but I never lost my faith in my Heavenly Father and my Savior. Jesus Christ. Thank you for that.

Since we're still talking bio here, it would be okay to tell us a little bit more about Deb. My wife, it's an interesting story, how we met. She was actually dating my brother, J. First. Okay, I stole my wife from J. Coincidentally, as we are recording this, it's his birthday today.

So, J, if you're watching Happy Birthday, my bro, Happy Birthday. I was dating this girl named Tammy and we double dated to a Dalton John concert. Up in Salt Lake City at the Salt Palace, Debbie was in front with her date, J, and I was in back with Tammy. Debbie and I were doing all the talking. I remember seeing the audience and Elton sat down to, "It's a little bit funny,

your song. This feeling, and you guys, I remember looking over at my brother's date and saying to myself, "I'm gonna marry that girl someday." And I did. I told Elton the story, I said, "Elton, you know, you're song. It's the reason I found my wife." She is my ascenev, who was Joseph's wife. She was converted to the god of Abraham, Jehovah.

What you said a while ago is, "Wow, I never heard anybody say that, but when you could save the

“god of Abraham, Isaac and of my father." It's an interesting way to say it, isn't it?”

Of course, well, go get your dad. Yeah, we're all starving. Here in Canaan, the future looked rough. Jacob's family was finding it tough for the family to left the moon for a pair. I mean, I know this play. Of all the things he would pack. He brought the coat. It just never thought of that. That is the moment that brings me to tears. You guys do that beautifully when here's Joseph's father again. That's the part and he has the coat, but what a moment.

That's one of the reasons why there's a lot of Broadway plays as we all know. But this one is out of books that we consider to be the word of God. And it's just that different connection. Oh, this is actually a true story. And it's from the scriptures that I love for you to have that part for all these years. God, to be by design. Do you know what's interesting? I've done a lot of studying about this, particularly as a teacher, Sunday school teacher. The reason why

the Savior taught in parables and here I'm preaching to the choir because you guys know this is it transcends translation. The story of Joseph regardless of the translation or who's telling it, the principles transcend translation. Jesus parables of the 10 virgins and the the prodigal son, all that's to Joseph and his coat and his brother. All of these principles transcend any translation because the story cuts right through. They speak to generations,

millennia. Anybody who has a family gets any generation. It's not a specific generation or a time. That story of dead makes me think, I need, I'm going to listen to my wife. My mom had the

You know, she doesn't say, hey, we need to move. We need to go to Saint George and

“that moment of, okay, it all made sense. It made sense in hindsight. This lesson I gave”

a sense to go yesterday, we ended it with a statement from Elder Hall and about trusting the Lord. And I've capped it up with, I'm 68. You guys are 16, 17 years old. I have a whole lifetime to look back on and I can see where there's only one footprint in the sand. So many times in my life. You just have to trust. Trust God, just like Joseph trusted God, his entire life, despite the adversity that he was under. So often we hear, I'll keep the commands in everything.

We'll be all right. Well, here's a kid who got him out when Podifer's wife and what does he get for that? More years in prison. There's got to be a level of things we'll work out eventually. You got a patience. Wait upon the Lord. Let's talk about that moment with Podifer's wife as uncomfortable as it is to talk about. She tried to seduce him and he ran. Now, what was he doing

there in the first place? He was a servant. He had to be there, but he'd never let go of his

covenants, which is a great lesson in living in the world but not of it. He was surrounded by all this decadence and opulence, all that stuff, downright evil in certain places. But he ran. Now, here's what's interesting about the balance of this story. His wife, Podifer's wife, went to her husband and say, "This is what Joseph tried to do to me." Now, Podifer, he was in charge of the guard. He had every bit of authority to have him killed.

Why didn't he kill him? He threw him in prison. He saved his life. Why did he do that?

“Because the only thing I can surmise from this is that his wife is a little bit of a trouble maker.”

He knows it. He knows Joseph. He knows the integrity of Joseph, so I'm going to spare your life. But for the sake of my appearance to the public, because my wife is going to go out there and say all this against Joseph, I got to do something. I got to appease the situation. I'm sorry Joseph, but this is what I got to do. But I'm going to spare your life. Now, your Joseph, and say, "Thank you very much. I appreciate you."

Now I'm a person. Okay. For doing the right thing, God, I said, you go back to Joseph in one section one twenty one. God, where art thou and where is the pavilion? A cover at the hiding place. Don't give up. Don't ever lose trust in the Lord. When he was back in that prison, even after he told the cup holder,

or the butlers, what I said in Joseph of the amazing technically dream coat,

you're going to get your job back. It took him two years to say, "Oh, by the way, there's this guy in prison." But he was patient. Joseph was patient. He waited upon the Lord. On the Lord's time.

“I always love the saying, "If you want to make God laugh, make plans."”

He's got to be on his time on his watch. Donnie, we have listeners who we hear from, who are in real. Just as Joseph was real, heartache, real pain. We actually do have people who listen from penitentiaries. Just last night, John, I told Donnie this as we talked on the phone. A woman came to me and said, "Hey, I listen to your show through this period of, I was getting a divorce." It really wasn't anything we said. It was more of the way she felt.

Donnie, I would love to hear from your perspective. Here you are. Really trying to invest into this character. This must have been on your mind over and over. How do you feel when you are in severe trial? In dark, dark places? How do you find hope? I just need something to hold on to. I can make it through. Please God send me a little light. Why has everything taken from me? There have been moments in my life. Again, I'm not going

to try to compare, but I have gone through some really dark times. I was 15, maybe 14, I did a concert in Nashville, Tennessee. Place was in an arena. Place was sold out. Everybody was having a great time. And the next day in a front page is a picture of my brothers and me on stage and the guy ripped

Bubble gum and all this stuff. Maybe a year or two after that. Rolling stone magazine came out

“with an article that said, "The worst day in rock and roll history was the day Donnie Osmond was born."”

I mean, I've been through this my whole career. Now granted, I have some wonderful fans out there, but you get darts. When you're a target and you're a big target, you'll get darts. How do you get away from that? How do you withstand that? I go back to many conference talks. I love conference, I listen to it and I read the conference talks on my phone over and over again. There's a common theme in many talks that says, "By living the gospel principles,

the standards of the church, it's not going to take away all your problems." But it'll give you strength to bear them. It'll give you just enough hope. I'm reminded of Elder Bednar's talk. When he says, "Step into the darkness and the light will follow you."

“If you're living your life right, you're going to be in those moments where,”

guys, I don't think I can do this. I trust you Lord and you take the step and he will follow you. I'm reminded of another. Oh, this was such a wonderful experience a couple of weeks ago. I had the privilege of having president and sister Kristofferson at my show here in Vegas. Not very many people get an opportunity of having a private audience with a member of the

first presidents in their dressing room. So after the show and they really enjoyed themselves and

I said, "Well, we loved it. It was great." It was fun and I said, "Well, president, this is a great opportunity that I've got to seize. Is there some advice?" I don't think he'd mind me telling the world what he told us. I said, "What would you tell me and my family to do right now?"

“He sat there and I watched this second council of the first presidency receive inspiration.”

He looks up at me and he says, "No one is immune from temptation." He said, "Keep that in mind. Even the very elect can fall as we learn in the scriptures." And here's how you avoid the temptation.

He started quoting Elder Holland's final talk. When he came back from the dead, basically.

Elder Holland, we've all heard the talk. If you haven't, you've got to listen to this talk. He said, "I've been given a message to bring back to pray." And when you've prayed, pray again. And when you've prayed again, pray some more, unceasingly. To answer your question, for those who are suffering, trust in God, it's not going to save you from your divorce or your problems, health issues or whatever, but it'll give you strength. It'll give you that light as you

go into a dark place. You know he's there. I've felt it so many times in my life. I have such a testimony that he loves you. He loves us. Our Savior loves us. If you let them into your life, your burdens will be eased. If we could circle back, John, I failed to ask this question. So, here's Joseph and Potter for his wife. When they showed you your costume for that. Like, oh yeah. There we go. That's all I wore. I hated this loincloth.

But you know what, guys? This thing kept me in the gym. It really did because with this all you're wearing on stage. It kept me. Oh, you know what else it should do? Hold on. There's the coat. There's the coat. Wow. Look at that. Yeah. There's the coat. There it is. Now I got a funny story. I got to tell you about the coat. When I was filming the movie, the show was pretty much over. And now we do the film and that's for at least to work to the world.

So I've done my 2000 shows, life performances. We fly over to England to the Pinewood Studios. That's where they shot all of the James Bond movies. And I loved 007. I was filming Joseph in a James Bond studio. I've made it. I've made it in life. This was the end of Joseph for me. It was the end of the road. And we're going to close up shop and we're going to find something else. Just before I walk out to do this final scene in my loincloth. I turned to my dresser as an

even eggmolkin. I said, Stephen, here are the keys to my car. In the trunk you'll find two large

in my dress. This is my stuff. I started thinking, I get blood sweat and tears. Six years,

2000 shows in that coat. I'm not going to let that be hanging in some warehouse someplace. They all turned their heads. And I guess they had a good laugh. It don't even stole the coat. All in the loincloth. Oh, and this. I got to show you this is the golden cup. There it is. There's the cup that I would turn over. That's the one I did for 2000 times. Wow. What unique thing would you then tell the youth that find themselves in temptation? There's

“pot of fur swides all around them much more than ever before. What was it going on in Joseph's mind?”

I can't do this. How could I do this? Well, I think of what I've told my students in my

studies go class. Sometimes, like with Joseph, you find yourself in a compromising situation.

Have you already made a decision beforehand what you're going to do in that situation? Because if you have, you know what you're going to do. If you haven't, the temptations of the flesh will take over. And the officer has got you. I had an experience. This is when I was really trying hard to get my career going over in the UK. I was at the Montreal Music Festival. This back when it was called the Montro Jazz Festival.

There were some bands I'm not going to tell you which ones, but their lyrics were not the best. Let's

“put it that way. I had to follow this one band. I don't even want to mention the name because”

the name of the band is awful. I had to follow them and then this other band, which was even worse, followed me. I'm in what we call the green room. Waiting to go on. This whole show would be being televised. It was live. My manager at the time said, "I'm wearing this leather jacket. I'm trying to look cool with my torn jeans and stuff like that. Play the part and really trying hard to get my career going." He said, "It's so hot in here. I'll go get you something to drink."

I said, "Okay, thanks." So I'm watching the monitor and I see them come up next to me. I know he's got in his hand. He's got two glasses of ice cold beer. He gives me one of them. So I said, "Okay, I'm going to test him. I start to put it to my lips and I'm just about to drink and I put it down and I look at it. His eyeballs were this big." And I said, "What would you have done?

“Had I drank that beer?" His response, "I'll never forget. It surprised me." He said,”

"I would never have forgiven myself because I was the one that made you compromise." Wow,

that interesting. Just that lesson. Decide beforehand. Decide beforehand. Am I going to take it to the limit? First of all, why would you go to the precipice, which just went a little push you're going to fall over? Did you stay away from the edge? Now granted, I've had to to a certain extent in my life. Play the part. Be out there, doing the rock and roll stuff. But I don't go to the edge. There have been television roles

and even songs that I've turned down. I knew it would be hits, but it would compromise my standards. Going back to what I said earlier, "Trust in the Lord." When I was about probably eight, seven or eight years old, my mom would have us memorize scripture. She was the greatest, she was a scholar at theologian. Elvis Presley would call it all the time on the phone, because he wanted to be a preacher. He loved to talk about the gospel because he loved gospel,

because he wanted to be a preacher, so he'd call my mom all the time. She would make us learn these scriptures and one that is my guiding light is Proverbs 356. Trust in the Lord with all of mine heart, lean not until I know an understanding in all thy ways of knowledge and he shall direct that paths. In other words, make a decision beforehand. Don't put yourself in a bad situation. If you do find yourself in a situation, be in the world, but not of it. Be like Joseph. This

thing I mentioned about Elvis, I gotta tell you a funny side to that. My brother, Alan, was at the house when he called one day when Elvis called picked up the phone and he said, "Hello, and he hears this voice, there's your mother there." He said, "Yeah, who's calling?" He said, "This was Elvis. He didn't put two and two, he got it." He said, "Mom, some guy named Elvis is on the phone for you!" It's Elvis Presley! How many Elvis's do you know?

Exactly. Are you in the world? Are you our home teacher?

part. Let's talk about family and betrayal. Is Joseph as being drug away by this caravan?

“We find out later, John, you'll have to correct me here. The brothers say something.”

Like we still hear his cries in our ears. It's been decades. They've suffered with this decision as well. Yeah. There's some regret. Yeah. What did you learn from Joseph as you tried to put yourself in his shoes about family and betrayal? Well, I got to be careful about that because my brothers didn't sell me into Los Angeles. They were not those guys of brothers. What happens when the person or the people who are supposed to love you

betray you? And how do you not allow that become the centerpiece of your life?

Because that can happen. Now, this betrayal becomes, in essence, who I am, I'm defined by, that's probably, I'm defined by this betrayal. And Joseph, that doesn't happen to him. Like you said, he does not give up on his covenants. He does not give up on God. So in those moments in the show, I mean, it's 2000 shows. How many times do you drug away by the Ishmael lights? Is there anything that went through your head? Anything that you thought? How would this be

“to be betrayed by the very people that are supposed to care for you? That's what I love. And”

Genesis 42 and Joseph is hearing them talk about still with the weepings of Joseph. It really speaks to the human experience of betrayal. I have an experience that I'll tell you. I think I can mention his name because he's passed away now. In the dark years, the 80s, I couldn't get a record deal. In this process of trying to climb out of the pit, my proverbial pit, I had all these record deals pending. In the 11th hour, they'd fall apart. I wrote a song about a call groove.

I wrote a line says, "Putting money where their mouth is took just a little too long." Said, "Oh, you're great singer. Yeah, we'd love you in the time to sign the contract. We changed our mind." Well, I had a sign contract with Quincy Jones. Michael Jackson's producer.

“He said, "We're going to blow the world away." The sign contract.”

Ready to go. 11th hour, he said, "I can't do it." My field people say it's too hard to get radio play. I have to cancel the contract. Guys, I've got to suit it like crazy. Now, here's the principle that I learned from that experience. If I had vitriol against him, if I had anger, if I had all this pent-up in me in the long run, who loses? I do. In many instances, you just have to lick your wounds. Say, "Okay, have any father?" That avenue didn't work. Open up another door for me and I'll try that.

Otherwise, you're living your life in regret, in anger, hatred. Yeah, it'll consume you. It will consume you. I would rather say, "Okay, it didn't work." All right, Heavenly Father, give me strength to go another path. And maybe the Lord allows us to go down these dead end roads to strengthen us. Maybe the Lord allows that to happen to teach us a lesson that we can use later on in our lives.

Everything is an experience. If you try with humility to say, "Guide me," Heavenly Father, "Guide me." I will do "vi will." Somebody said, "In a talk the other day." It was really interesting the way they put it and I'm not going to put it in the same impactful way. But he said, "I kept praying. I want to do this. I really would like this to happen, Heavenly Father." The humbly umpspy, I want this to happen. And after all this praying and weeks and weeks and weeks,

he realized, I started every sentence with "I and me," instead of "Vine and D." The fact that Joseph has this situation he didn't choose in part for his home. But says, "This is what I have. I will make something great out of this." And then it happens again. And again, and again, I said, "How many tests do I need?"

Yeah, be patient and wait upon the Lord because you'll always come through for you. He's there.

Now, and you're going to learn a lesson from it. What you started with, Donnie, was, I think at the beginning of our recording, the anger,

He had the power as Farrell's right-hand man. Could have wiped him all out,

“or put them all in prison? Let's see how you like it. But who would that have destroyed?”

Joseph, that question of where will this lead? That takes the maturity, some patience to humility, to step back and say, "I could do that." But where would that lead? John, there's an interesting point to follow up on that. There's a comes-up point in time where you say enough. Don't push me any further. Turn the cheek. And I've learned this hard lesson in my life as well. Don't cross me anymore. Don't do that. Which is why he tests them.

Have you actually changed? Because I'm not going to re-enter this. They'd say exactly what Joseph was doing to him. He was testing them. In our lives, we have to find those moments, not all the time where we say, "There's the line, don't cross it." I've had to do that in business because I've been taking advantage of many times

in my life. First time as your fault, the second time as my fault. Right? I'm not going to let it happen

to me anymore. I say that with confidence because the Savior did it. When he went into the town, he was not just some weak little person. He went in there and turned the tables over on the money changers. He said, "Don't do this anymore. Stop." He was authoritative. But then, just like

“in section 121, reproving B times and increased the love. You have to do both. You have to be able”

to forgive. You have to be able to have boundaries. The Lord is the perfect example of that. Donnie, I'm interested in the conversation you and I have had the leading up to this. You said you did the show six years, 2000 shows. That's quite an investment in scripture study. I don't think I can ever say I studied a certain character in the scriptures every night for six years. 2000 times. Yeah, for 2000 and really invested. I'm really going to put my heart and soul

into this and feel what he felt and see what he saw. John, you told me, I mean, even just the few hours you played Amulek. You said it changed you. Yeah, we did a voice recording of the whole book of Mormon where every character was spoken by a different person. Oh, wooden honor to be Amulek. I can't even imagine. Oh, my goodness. Amulek, who, how can we witness this awful scene when the people, uh, I can't even imagine. That's just one of the most horrible parts of the book

of Mormon. It is. I read it and the director said do it again and double the emotion. And I didn't take the acting classes just for a couple hours. As I was reading it, I was, I don't usually read this that way. I've read this before, but I put it in the infranifices on this and I just thought, am I getting some help? So now let's talk about doing gels of 2000 times. Yeah, I need a lot of help. Sometimes you drag yourself to the theater. I know exactly what you went through, John,

because when you really throw yourself into a part, something takes over. I don't know the words I don't have the vocabulary to explain it. I just know what it feels like. Sometimes when I sing and people have pointed this out, she's done it. You close your eyes too much when you sing. Well, I go to a different place. I actually live the experience. So you say, you know, 2000 times, over six years, I still live it every night. Every night here in Vegas, I sing close every door.

Five nights a week, I go through that trajectory. The second verse really gets to me. Because close every door, it sits it up, but the second verse just gives me a number. Instead of my name, forget all about me and let me decay. I do not matter. I'm only one person. Destroying me completely than throwing me away. Those are harsh words. When I sing it,

“I'm sing it as Joseph, not as Donnie Osman. If my life were important, I would ask,”

"Well, I live or die, but I know the answers like far from this world." That's where the crescendo happens and the key chains close every door to me. Keep those I love from me.

Children of Israel are never alone and that far we know we shall find. We shall find

our own peace of mind for we have been promised a land of our own, but I'm really up high at the very end. I live it every night. So when you talk about the feelings of what you did, I get it. And I completely understand that feeling and golf shoe and it gives you even more energy to project and become that character. And you know in that song at first, I love how it's like

suddenly comes out. I'm okay. I'm gonna get through this because of God because of the God of my father. Yep. And then he says, "For we know we shall find our own peace of mind because we have been promised from God a land of our own. We belong, we matter. It gives me chills now, just saying the words. But can you imagine on stage with the orchestra and the energy of the audience and the spotlight and the sound? It's a great feeling. I love show business in that regard. It's a tough business to be

in. But when it works, it works. It works. It works. It works. It works. I don't think I could even sing in the tavern out of the choir because, well first of all, I can't sing but second of all, my emotions would overtake me. If I'm singing it as well with my soul, I couldn't get through it.

“How do you do that? How do you sing that? And not let the emotions overtake you so that you have to”

say to the audience, I need a minute. Why do you do that? Like Joseph did. I'm gonna go over here and wait for a little while and then come back out. I guess it's called focus. You focus on the the task at hand. Yes, I get caught up in the motion but I don't let it get the best of me because there's a lot of things going through my mind to distract what I'm doing. But you have to learn how to

focus and say, okay, I have a mission. I always go back to that audition just before I start

singing. I'm with you. You're prepared. Now, execute it. John, last year we had Carol Kossley on the show with us. She talked about the family proclamation. I didn't know this before we brought her on the show. We asked her about how she became interested in the church and she just said, the ultimate. It wasn't, I had a roommate and I had this and that, oh yeah, I had the ultimate. It was 100% she said, the ultimate. What's that been like, Donnie? I mean, Joseph was the same way.

People kept saying, if Pharaoh, can we find such a one as this? They noticed something about him. John, I know you wanted to talk about this with President Kimball. Yeah, the story that I heard was that he had called your family as missionaries. I would love to hear more about that. I remember the moment, put yourself into my family shoes. First presidency calls us up and said, we'd like you to give the first presidency in the 12 of fireside.

Okay. I have never got that call. Have you think? Yeah, give us your testimonies in a little

“fire side. I'll never forget it. I don't know how many feet away from President Kimball. He's sitting there.”

Members of the 12, not all of them, but a lot of them in the first presidency. It was my turn to bear my testimony. Now, can you imagine bearing your testimony to the first presidency in the 12? What are you going to say? How old are you? 15? 15? Oh, something like that. 16 maybe? He can't drive yet, but yeah. No. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I do remember one moment and I'll never forget it. I was looking at President Kimball in the eyes. You know,

how we always say, I know that President Kimball is a true prophet God. I looked at him and said, I know you are a true prophet of God. What a moment that was. I started crying because the spirit just took over and I looked at the prophet in his eyes and said, I know you're a prophet. Oh, I got to tell you story about President Hinkley. He asked me to perform at the conference center. So I was saying this song and he got up and spoke afterwards and it was really a wonderful

evening. It always goes day's left to go to the tunnel to go to the church office building.

There's that tunnel to get on golf cart. So he leaves in a distance and following behind and there's a corner. I turn the corner and he's right in front of me sitting in his golf cart. So I slapped him on the knee and I said, hello, buddy. I called the prophet a buddy and he told he did. He slapped me on my knees and said, hello, buddy. We're buddies. Man, I love that. Just the coolest guy. Oh, that is that is wonderful. I'm a Hinkleyite through and through. I love those stories.

“Was that an interesting thing to represent the church to the world? What was that like?”

Well, don't put that much pressure and responsibility on us, but every member of missionary, let's look at it that way. Whether you know it or not, people are watching you. They know you're a member of the church. Maybe not as high profile as we've been, but we went to Germany. The year was like 1970 or something like that. Just trying to get our career going. Things were really starting to pick up in England. Nobody knew us in Germany. Our tour guide took us to this

you've got to try, you've got to sample, they have samples. And my dad wasn't smart. He was a Joseph.

He said, no, Apple juice is fine. Thank you. Our tour guide said, hey, this is what this restaurant is known for. You're not even known in this country. Nobody will know. You just got to try. This is what we're famous for. My father looked at him again firmly and said, Apple juice will be fine. He gave us all Apple juice. The next day, front page in the newspaper, with a picture,

“the Ottomans prefer Apple juice to Munich beer. What would the story had said had brought down that?”

Exactly. Maybe we're high profile, but every member, you represent the church. Somebody's watching you. Don't compromise. Be like Joseph. Run away. Be in the world, but not of it. I've asked this question a lot. How do you stick to your principles and be in show business? It's such a simple answer. You either believe it or you don't. Make a choice. There's no gray area. Do you believe the gospel is true?

Or you don't. If you believe it's true, then live it. It's so simple. Live the gospel. The decisions are made beforehand. I'm sure your family did not make that decision there. Hey, guys, should we do this? No. Should we do this? Yeah. My dad said, there's the red line. Don't cross it. Don't he? Music speaks to people in a way that speaking can't. I remember hearing other Holland one saying we should sing and pray a lot more and talk a lot less. Here you have

this story put to music. It can become like scripture. It can speak scripture.

You have this incredible gift that you have worked on and honed and it changes lives.

It speaks to people, including John and I. How does that work in your mind? Exactly. Taking the story of Joseph, the text, the black and white, the words, and putting it to music, why does that change the story for us? I know exactly just saying because I live at every night that I do a show. I could say close every door to me. Hide all the world from me. Bar all the windows and shut out the light. Do what you want with me. Hate me and laugh at me.

Darken my daytime. Torture my nights. That's an act that's great. Close every door to me. Hide all the world prompts. A whole different meeting.

“So music with lyrics. It brings back memories. If I sing, Is it she lovely?”

If it's she wonderful. It means so different than, isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful? The words are important but the notes enhance the words. Get your words. You convey the feeling, close every door to me. Hide all the world. Just give me a number. Instead of my name. When I sing that on stage, I look at certain people in the audience. They don't know that I'm looking right at them. But I'm singing right to that person. Just give me a number.

Instead of my name. And then I back down, forget all about me and let me decay. I do not matter. I'm only one person. Destroy me completely. And I really then I get into it. Destroy me completely. Then throw me away. Then I mean, if my life were, then I really get into it. But it's the notes and the intensity of the note that really conveys the message. To me, people like, would you kind of Lord Weber? Lord Weber, yes, that's his title now.

Lord Weber. It used to be Sir, Lord Weber, but it's Lord, Lord Weber.

“This is inspired. This is one of God's prophets. We're singing about him. Is that inspiration to you?”

It doesn't he write that by inspiration. I'm convinced he was. I'm convinced because it is listed the test of time. It comes from Holy Rit. I can't lose the story. It was inspired.

The person he's writing about is amazing. The life he lived, the trials he went through,

the truth that's taught. He wanted to teach it. Exactly. But let's give a lot of credit to Tim Rice. He is the lyricist. But Andrew put the magic to it. And the combination of Tim Rice and Angela Weber, when they put all that together, it was gold. It's absolute gold. And they expanded on it. It create more and more and more to where's to our musical now. The still going. Still going.

Puppy love. That's generational. It belongs to a certain generation.

“A little kids have no idea. Puppy love was that. Donnie and Marie is generational. Yes, it'll be on”

YouTube for however long. But Joseph will always be there. The other thing is, let's get down to

business Mulan to defeat the hands. I'll always be Captain Shay. Those two things. But mainly Joseph, because it speaks to so many generations with such a positive message. It does. I gotta tell you the story. The story of Joseph, it deals with some pretty bad stuff that was going on. He was wonderful. But the decadents and the impurities of the society that was awful. Some of the costumes, if you watch the video, let alone the live show. You know, it kind of raises an

eyebrow. Especially like, I'm in a loincloth. So I'm almost naked on stage. And like I said earlier,

“motivation to keep me in the gym and work out. But some of the costumes, they were like a new color.”

And looked a little bit, you know, uncomfortable. But it was the biblical story. Here's the funny part. This gentleman in his wife came to the show. I hope I don't get into trouble.

But very faithful in the gospel. This is a story of judging. Never judge.

Got him great seats, best seats in the house. They left in the middle of the show. I got a message back from him. How dare you perform in a show that the costumes are that I'm not revealing because they weren't revealing. But everybody was covered up just that it was a suggestive. I guess or whatever. The reason I say this because don't judge anybody, be careful.

“Don't be self-righteous. We have the truth. We have the fullness of the gospel.”

And a lot of people on this earth are wonderful people. The great Christians inspired. All over. Be Christlike in all your dealings. Don't elevate yourself more than anybody. My parents taught me that. Yes, I've been able to be very fortunate in this business and be on a platform. When I go on stage, it's a platform. People come to see a star. I learned this from Elvis. When he walked off stage, he was just over. Just lost God. When that curtain comes down,

I leave the star on stage. I'm a grandpa. I'm a father. I'm a husband. Don't elevate yourself. Even though we know we have the truth, the fullness of the gospel and the gospel's still being restored. They're still in the process of restoration. There's still great people out there who are celestial. Be careful about putting yourself in that kingdom before the Lord Judges. That's a great line. This conversation I had with President Christophe for sitting on the other day. Within that

conversation, he said pride, which is pretty much what the Book of Mormon is all about, is the fall of these nations was all about pride. Be careful of pride. And it's so easy to get it in show business because you surround yourself with all these, "Oh, you're great. I love you.

Your show has never seen. It's fantastic if I go home." I must be really great.

People are just seeing how great I don't do that. Let the Lord someday say, "Well done. I'm a good and faithful servant." Then, I'll accept it. I really like that. And that was Joseph's life. Yes. How do you tell the story without showing the world? He was thrown into, which is much worse than the actual kind of thing. He was such a humble man. He was in such a powerful position, yet he was humble enough to say, "Father, brothers, was it Goshen that he had the moves?"

Yeah. He said, "Move out of Goshen. My family's coming in. There's a best part of the land and you're going to have it." He said, "I'm much better. I'm going to stay in the palace." No, it's part of the family. He was a great father. Raised two wonderful children. He was a wonderful father, a wonderful husband dedicated to his wife. I could go on and on about Joseph because he's like my role model. I'm so glad I had the great opportunity to do that audition in New York

City and go for it and take the chance and go for the high note and hear my producer say, "You're

I went upstairs and my wife said, "You just talked to Donnie, hasn't it?" I said, "I know

and he's the nicest guy." He's the nicest guy. I felt like we were old friends. We were chatting. Did you tell John what a text did you just before? I said, "Hey, we're excited to talk to you tomorrow. Tell you this, but I have to cancel. I have to cancel." Oh, I'm like space, space, space, just kidding. Oh, some of my stomach drops. Let me tell you a personal Donnie story. My wife and I when we

“are first married, Kim and I lived at some condominiums. I think I first ran into it. It”

does our book at University Mall and you were super nice. Well, I came over one day not on your door. Would you sing happy birthday to my sister Sally and Hank? Donnie's so nice. Tours the house with this sits down at the Grand Piano and sings happy birthday to Sally. The scream heard around the world is when I played that video first. But it's so kind, so down to earth. Yeah, Kim and I were just, okay, we love this guy. Did you ever receive my invoice for that? It must have been lost in the

mail somewhere. And Donnie, as the gospel been part of that, I mean, because you Donnie Osmond,

but then you're still brother Osmond to church and your grandpa. Here's what helps me the most,

the temple. I love the fact that nobody's different. We're all the same. Everybody's dressed the same. Everybody's in white. We're all trying hard. Yeah, people kind of recognize me a lot

“stuff, but I can write down to it. We're all trying hard. We're all doing our best. That's what I love”

about the temple is that put a transition. That's why I loved when they called me and asked me to be on the mass singer. Do you ever see me on the mass as the people I did? Yeah, I was the very first one that they called Dina Katz. She used to actually book me on dancing with the stars. She called me and said we got this new show. It's called the mass singer. I said, tell me more about it. It said, all these singers are going to put masks on. She started explaining, I said, stop right there. I'm in

because everybody is on an equal ground. I get the joke. I get it. That was the very first one.

T-paint beat me fairly, but I almost got it at the peacock, but it was so much fun. I got kids coming to my show. I had these two little nine-year-old boys. They had a t-shirt on. I got them up on stage the other day and they just had peacock on their t-shirt. They just wanted to meet the peacock. They didn't know anything about my career. They just wanted to meet the peacock. That speaks to who you are, speaks to your family, speaks to your wife. I'm just like you. I have a platform. Yes,

but I dress like a peacock. The show starts airing and I've signed a non-disclosure. I can't tell anybody. Eventually told my wife, obviously, but I didn't tell my kids, nor my grandkids, no way, because it would get out. The show airs and I get a call from my son Don. He said, Dad, what are you talking about? He said, it's you, isn't it? I said, Don, you can't say a word. Please don't tell your grandkids. I won't say a word, Dad, but I've got to tell you something.

My children are in love with the peacock. It's especially my oldest one, Truman. Comes the day. I've got to take the peacock mask off and the audience is screaming, take it off, take it, and Don was videoing his kids and Truman. All the kids are in front of the television screaming, take it off and I took it off and he went, Grandpa! That is awesome. Every once in a while they refer to be as the peacock, it's in a grandpa. Yes, that's awesome. What a treat,

right? What a treat for those kids. That's my grandpa. That's grandpa. Yeah. And I've noticed that about the entire family. It reminds me a little bit. I know this is an odd comparison, but John, we've talked about John the Baptist when he appears to these two

“YSAs and says, "Hello, my fellow servants. You're John the Baptist." Yeah. How are we fellow servants?”

Yeah. He seems like this person who says, "No, no, we're all." Well, look at the Savior. Look at the Savior. He would come up and watch somebody's feet. It's like, "Really? You're the

I wrote a song called "Start Again." You know, life's not always simple. You stumble and fall.

“And things don't always work out and you feel small. Then it goes to gone to say, "These scars”

are who I am." And when you're walking through the valley, just hold my hand. So if you read the lyrics of that song that I wrote called, "Start Again, it's the Atonement." The scars are who I am. And when you're walking through the valley of shadow depth, hold my hand, because I've been there before. That's all right. You can start again. It's really cool song. That's another song in the show that I don't relate to Joseph, but it's just my own experiences of talking about what the Lord

did for us. How do you come to a place of forgiveness? We talked a little bit about the

earlier. It can consume you this anger. But to not just forgive but to reconcile, I find it interesting that after Jacob dies, after Israel dies, the brothers are scared again. Now that our father is dead, he's going to come after us. And Joseph says to them, "Again, no, no, be not angry with yourself." Not just I'm not angry at you. I don't want you to be angry at you. To me, that is so inspiring, just another inspiring part of this story. As you're playing that part, and he reveals who he is.

Doing that 2,000 times, I'm sure there were moments where he thought, "How do someone do this?" How do someone say, "I'm your brother." And he doesn't, he doesn't beat around the bush. He's like,

“"Who me sold?" I will never forget that. Yeah, let's talk about it. Come to me.”

Does he say that, John? Come near to me. Yeah, Genesis 45 verse 4, "Come near to me, I pray you, and they came near and he said, "I am Joseph, your brother, who me sold into Egypt." Moment. Yeah, what a moment! So in Joseph, in the mentioned technical dream coat, the moment was, "Can you recognize my face? Is it hard to see that Joseph, who you thought was dead?" Your brother, is me. Hmm. Ooh, I get the chills, it just, really living that experience.

'Cause they were all kneeling down, face down on the ground, as I'm singing, "Can you recognize my face?" Joseph is me, and they all start looking up, but Benjamin stayed down. Now, this isn't biblical, but it was the way it was choreographed or staged,

“but they all started looking up in unbelief, and the chills that I got. I started hugging my brothers,”

and that forgiveness started going throughout all the brothers, but then I saw my blood brother, that Rachel bore, blood brothers. And when he looked up, oh, he was the last one for me to hug, and we just embraced. The audience went crazy. The brothers go crazy. The orchestra starts playing this party music, and it embraced jumping up and down. I can't imagine what that was like in real life with the real brothers and the real Joseph. There must have been so much weeping

of "Please forgive us." And then Joseph, more or less, said, "For give yourselves do not be angry with yourselves." Yeah. Let it go. I joke around with my students and say, "Come on, guys, who hasn't sold a brother?" Let's, yeah. Right, like, who hasn't done that? Come on. I've thrown many people into pits. Right. That's for

incredible. Don't be angry with yourselves. I can forgive someone and say, "I forgive you,

but you probably ought to be angry with yourself for quite a while." Well, he allowed that to happen. He allowed them to go through the pain. There's got to be reconciling of paying a penance as it were for the wrongdoings that you've made. And then, turn it over to the Lord because the Atonement takes care of the rest of it. How do we figure out how to reconcile? You know, we have people leaving the church thinking that I'm so far off the covenant path. There's no way back.

I just listened to this talk the other day. Was it President Oaks? You cannot go off the path further than what is it, John? Further than the reach of the Atonement or further than. That's it. Yeah. So, forgive yourself. We all make mistakes. I've made enormous amounts of mistakes. And I still need to apply that principle of forgiving myself and pick yourself up. Move on. Try harder. You can hear the Lord saying that. Be not angry with yourself. Come near to me.

blessing. I could spend an hour talking about that one. And then I have a father's blessing.

“I'm going to give you something I don't really share my father's blessing or my”

patriarchal blessing very much, but I'm going to give you an excerpt from my father's blessing. I was 21 years old. My career was gone. I really had to rebuild myself. I'm trying to figure out what am I going to do the rest of my life. I've got children now. I've got a wife. I got to provide. I've lost all my money. I've got to rebuild. My parents were serving a mission over in Hawaii at the visitor center. I flew over there with my wife. We had one child at the time.

I called him about three weeks prior to the trip and I said, "Father, I need a father's blessing. I need some guidance. I need what Jacob did to his sons." He said, "I will prepare for the next three weeks and I want you to prepare too." I want the spirit to be very strong because I want this

“to come from the Lord, not me. I will not obviously read it to you because it's very personal,”

but the one excerpt from there that has been a guiding light for me. I can hear Joseph saying it.

He said, "Never do a performance that you wouldn't do in front of a general authority."

That little statement right there has been a guide for me when all of these opportunities come in on my desk that might have a little bit of a compromising. Would I do that if President Christopherson was in the audience? Would I be embarrassed? I'm not embarrassed to blunt thing on this show what he saw the show. That is a Joseph moment. That is a Joseph moment, absolutely not compromise. Take that one step further when my father said, "Never do a performance

that you wouldn't do in front of a general authority." Never do a performance that you wouldn't do in front of the Savior because he's watching. He's watching. How many times John did it say,

and the Lord was with Joseph? He wanted to be righteous and because he had that desire,

the Lord was with him. My hope is this week that all of our listeners will sit down with their family. Let's talk about one of the greatest stories I've heard and all we can learn. Watch the video. It's on YouTube. Watch it. And then try to pick out a principle. After finishing

“it, turn to your choices. What did you learn? Just give me one thing. What principle did you learn?”

Yeah, there was singing. There was dancing and all this colorful stuff. But what did you give me one principle? It's a great little activity for a family to do. Johnny, we were interviewing Dr. Mike Harris a couple of weeks ago. We looked at the moment where Jacob reconciles with Isa. It all three of us, we got to that moment and it said, and Rachel came near with her children. And you think, he saw this. Yeah. He saw brother saw Jack and saw Isa. He saw his father

reconciled with his brother as a young boy. He watched his father and his brother reckons after years of a strange meant. If you look at verse, Genesis 33 verse 4, it sounds like the prodigal son. It sounds like kind of a reunion. And Isa ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they whept. He lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, who are those with thee? And he said, the children, which God hath graciously given

them by servant, then the handmaiden came near. They and their children and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with their children came near and bowed themselves. And after came Joseph near and Rachel and they bowed themselves. It's a little bit of a prequel. Again, a type of shadow of the Savior. Speaking of that, Johnny, there is this moment where Judah offers himself in place of Benjamin. Here is the Savior's great, great, whatever grandfather, saying,

I cannot go back to the Father and the lab not be with me. Take me instead. Just another beautiful part of this story. Yeah. Oh, take me instead. I can't go back to the Father without all of these. It'll kill him. We did it to him once. We will not do it to him again. And here, Joseph knows. Oh, you're not the same brothers I knew. He's putting him to the test. He proved them. Yeah. And it goes to what you said earlier, which is

he's going to have a boundary here. He's not going to reenter this relationship. If it's going to be abusive, right? Am I going to put myself back into that? I want to know if this is different now. Yeah. Hence, the times he went and wept like crazy. Both sides with love and

Egyptian therapist that can walk in through this trauma. I'm having a lot of feelings here.

“I just want to say thank you. I think that so many people will love”

hearing from someone who said he Joseph so completely and lived at that part probably like nobody else on the planet. Seriously, I've loved it. Thank you so much. And for anybody out there listening who wonders if Donnie Osmond is the person you hope he is. He is. I got to experience it. I feel so lucky. I'm so blessed that I texted Donnie and said, "Hey, my name's Hank Smith. It's on home for." And the phone rings comes up. Donnie Osmond. So, I'm going to call him and

I hope I don't get ached. Don't call me again. I get this friend. This friendly voice. Hey, I'm interesting. What do you want to do? This is great. It's been wonderful. Donnie, just a last message for our listeners all over the world. Some in Joseph's prime years. Things are

“great. And others in Joseph's darkest times. I think they'd love to just hear from you.”

Well, thank you for the opportunity. We live in a very dangerous world right now.

I had a wonderful conversation with Elder Razz Band the other day. And he said, "The church has never

been stronger." You watch the news. The world is falling apart. You talk to the journal authorities of the first presidency of the 12th world's a great place. They're the ones I'm going to believe. You can get sucked into all the bad things that are going on or you can look at the glasses half full because we know the ending of the story. The Savior wins in the end. Yes, we're going to have some turbulent times as we have right now. But have faith in the Lord. He's in control. He will

prevail at the end. What a wonderful time to be living. When all of these prophecies are being

fulfilled. When I kneel down and say my prayers every night, never morning,

I thank my Heavenly Father for being able to see these things happen. See all these things transpire that prophets have been writing about for thousands of years. And we're watching it. We're living it. We don't know when the second coming is going to happen. But be of good cheer. The Lord's in control. I love it. I love it. What a day. We've been so richly blessed and laughed. And I feel so uplifted. John, I've said this before. I know when I'm aligned with the

spirits. I don't want it to end. And I want to be better. The Lord sees that too. And we're going to make mistakes. Forgive yourself. That's the other thing that might take away. Forgive yourself. Try harder. Pick yourself up. Start again. Allow the atonement to be applied in your life because the Lord died for you. He paid for you since. His mercy will pick you up and allow him to do that. He is mighty to save. With that, we want to thank Brother Donny Osmond for being with

this today. What a treat for all of us. And I can't forget to thank Dr. Brad Wilcox, our wonderful friend Brad for helping me put this episode together. We want to thank our executive producer,

“Shannon Swanson, our sponsors, David and Verlas Swanson, and every episode. We remember our”

founder. Oh, he would love this. Steve Swanson. We hope you'll join us next week. We're going to continue to talk about Joseph of Egypt on follow him. As a thank you to our wonderful listeners, we'd love to gift you the digital version of our book, Finding Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. It offers short, meaningful insights drawn from our past Old Testament episodes. Visit follow him.co that's follow him.co to download your free copy today and you'll also find

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