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Video: Elder Uchtdorf says missionary work should move 'back to the future' after pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated across the world in early 2020, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints turned their attention to the safety of 62,000 full-time missionaries. Facing increasing health risks and nations about to close their borders, wherever necessary Church leaders began returning missionaries to their home nations.

"We might have been surprised, but God was not," said Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and chairman of the Church’s Missionary Executive Council.

In a new Church News video, titled "Back to the Future," Elder Uchtdorf shares an important lesson about missionary work, learned during the pandemic: “Don’t focus on the things you cannot do, focus on the things you can do.”

When the pandemic ends, missionary work cannot move back to the old ways, Elder Uchtdorf said. "We need to move back to the future."

Watch more Church News videos here.

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his wife, Sister Harriet R. Uchtdorf, address missionaries during a devotional, broadcast on Feb. 23, 2021. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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