"In early 1961, Dallin was invited to lunch by a man he greatly admired - Chicago Stake President John K. Edmunds, himself a practicing lawyer. Over lunch, President Edmunds called Dallin to serve a stake mission, and to be a counselor in the stake mission presidency. ... 'I told him,' Dallin wrote, 'that I couldn't have been any more surprised if he had asked me to be the staff physician in a hospital. I told him I'd never turned down a church job, and that I wasn't going to start now, but did he know that he was calling a man to a position of leadership in missionary work who had never been on a mission?' 'Yes,' President Edmunds answered. Both he and the stake mission president were aware of that, and both felt confident he was the person for the job.

"In extending the call, Dallin wrote, President Edmunds told him the calling would require 40 hours of proselyting per month, plus gospel study and other time, equivalent to at least three to four evenings per week. Since Dallin's heavy load at the [law] firm already kept him at work three or four evenings a week, the calling required a great exercise of faith. 'I couldn't see how I could accept this calling and still keep up with my law practice,' Dallin agonized. 'Yet I could not say no to a calling that I knew to be from the Lord, especially when that calling came through a servant of the Lord who had wielded such a powerful influence in teaching me righteous principles. Gathering all my faith, I accepted the call.'"

President Oaks taught in his 1979 address, "The Formula for Success at BYU," "A learned person is an enemy to ignorance, and there is so much ignorance in the world. People by and large lack literacy in economics, history, and government; in nutrition, ethics, and education; in law and medicine. We are too easily victimized by quacks and demagogues, by rain-makers, panacea-peddlers, and political and other practitioners of the cults of something-for-nothing and get-rich-quick. A learned Latter-day Saint should seek answers to the important physical, social, and political problems of the day. He or she should be prepared to defend the truth, to withstand social pressures, and to make a positive contribution to society. Can you identify our most important current problems? Do you know what is happening in the world around you? Do you read a newspaper every day, or do you depend on the fragments of news you receive on television or radio (or these days, on social media)? … [Everybody] should read at least one … daily newspaper."

In addition to daily reading of local, church, and international news, President Oaks added, "If you miss one single forum assembly in this year (meaning BYU speeches/devotionals), you will have missed a great opportunity for learning."