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Students bow their heads for the opening prayer at the Marriott Center on the campus of Brigham Young University. The arena was filled to capacity with students and faculty listening to LDS Church president Gordon S. Monson at a devotional Tuesday.

Provo » With anecdotes and revealing nuggets of humor, LDS President Thomas S. Monson painted portraits Tuesday of the nine Mormon prophets who have served during his lifetime, choosing a trait from each to emphasize for 22,000 Brigham Young University students.

From Heber J. Grant's persistence to David O. McKay's considerate nature to Joseph Fielding Smith's emphasis on studying, each president taught a lesson, Monson told the students gathered at the Marriott Center for the devotional.

Monson, 82, evoked laughs with some of his stories about the men with whom he served for decades.

Monson, ordained prophet in February 2008, was called in 1963 at age 36 by McKay to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

His best stories were about Spencer W. Kimball, the 12th president of the LDS Church.

Kimball's secretary once confided that even though he would hide a pair of Kimball's shoes that had a large hole, Kimball would find and wear them.

Kimball liked to say, "'My life is like my shoes -- to be worn out in the service of the Lord,' " Monson said.

Once, Kimball was in a rush to clean up his office so that he could meet with parents of missionaries. First, he moved a bunch of papers to his closet. Others he moved to his secretary's desk.

"And then he picked up that big stack of papers he usually carried

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and stuck it in the refrigerator," Monson recalled. "It was the only place left. He refrigerated his notes and then he was ready."

Monson described how Kimball "adroitly told off" a father who came to complain about his son's mission call to New England. The father wanted his son to go to "old England."

When the father left, Kimball remarked, " 'Aren't some parents unusual?' "

"He didn't use the words I would use. But then, he wasn't in the Navy like I was," said Monson, prompting a round of surprised laughter among the BYU students.

He chuckled with the students about the time he rode through two red lights with President Howard W. Hunter at the wheel and about how the physician for President Gordon B. Hinckley wanted Monson to stop the president from using his cane to tap peoples' shoulders when he needed it for walking.

The church's 16th president also told the students about the favorite food of his nine predecessors, delicacies ranging from fresh raspberries to apple pie to Alaskan king crab. But a couple of them preferred bread and milk, including Kimball, who would roll up his date-nut bread, drop it in a glass of milk and eat the soggy mess with a spoon.

Monson let the description sink in for a few moments, his face showing a trace of disgust.

"I did not take his example."

kmoulton@sltrib.com