Lessons learned from missionaries

"It is a great experience to learn that it is not your mission — it is the Lord's mission. . . . You will find through challenge, through work, through study, and through the difficulties and disappointments that you face that it is the Lord's mission. You will come to know that.

"Missionary work is work. . . . You will not be measured by the number of baptisms you have. You will be measured by the amount of work you do. . . . You may go to many doorsteps without having the exultation, the satisfaction of having someone listen to you, but you will have been a success judged by the amount of work that you do.

"You will learn the necessity of obedience. One day you are going to find out that the key to leadership is followship, and it comes from obedience. If you will learn to follow, the rules and regulations [of the mission] are just like an armor. Wear it well, and it will protect you."

— President Boyd K. Packer

The Book of Mormon

"We can, unapologetically, showcase the Book of Mormon much better than we now do. It is, after all, 'a marvelous work and a wonder.'

"As missionaries have even greater confidence in the book, they will have even greater confidence in themselves; investigators will sense both.

"Since this bold 'truth' has come 'out of the earth' so miraculously, let it not be 're-buried' beneath things of lesser significance.

"You can show your reverence for the book as you quote from it and demonstrate your Nephi-like ability to 'liken' the scriptures."

— Elder Neal A. Maxwell

The Atonement

"Before we can comprehend the Atonement of Christ . . . we must first understand the Fall of Adam. And before we can understand the Fall of Adam, we must first understand the Creation. These three crucial components of the Plan of Salvation relate to each other.

"The Creation required the Fall. The Fall required the Atonement. The Atonement enabled the purpose of the Creation to be accomplished. Eternal life, made possible by the Atonement, is the ultimate purpose of the Creation.

"The purposes of the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement all converge on the sacred work done in temples. . . . This is the great latter-day work of which we are a part. That is why we have missionaries. That is why we have temples — to bring the fullest blessings of the Atonement to faithful children of God."

— Elder Russell M. Nelson

Missionary status

"We have all heard the phrase: 'Every member a missionary.' For this purpose I urge the opposite: 'Every missionary a member.' The most fundamental principles of missionary spiritual health are the same as for every member. Foremost among these are: (1) keep the commandments; (2) partake of the sacrament to enjoy the promise that we will always have His spirit to be with us; (3) serve faithfully in your calling; and, (4) get the right spiritual nourishment by faithfully studying the scriptures and avoiding dangerous substances and influences like bad movies or music. The principles are clear."

— Elder Dallin H. Oaks

The role of members

"Gathering the harvest of the elect of God is not a task for our missionaries only. It is a task for the entire membership of the Church.

"If our goal is to [bring souls unto Christ], the most productive source is member referrals. . . . We can enlist the help of others and thus multiply the effectiveness of what we do.

"We see an ironic . . . trend in the Church. At the very time we are confirming the importance of members in the conversion process, evidence from . . . studies suggests that members are playing a proportionally smaller role in finding people to teach.

"By increasing the number of ward member referrals each month by only three, we could double baptisms."

— Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

The Restoration

"The simple truth of the matter is that without the Restoration, the great Plan of Salvation would be forever thwarted. . . and the full blessings of the Atonement . . . would have been lost to almost all of God's children, past, present and future.

"Almost all the work for the living and for the dead falls on the shoulders of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. Not Adam's time, or Noah's time, or Abraham's time . . . nor Peter's or Paul's in the Meridian of Time. Those churches and those efforts ended in disarray and decay, and they ended quickly.

"Without the Prophet Joseph Smith, we . . . would be left with fragmented scripture, unrelated doctrine, conflicting opinions, uninspired practices that over time became binding traditions.

"This is what existed prior to 1820."

— Elder Jeffrey R. Holland