PROVO, Utah — Addressing full-time missionaries at the Provo Missionary Training Center — and in other missionary training centers across the globe — Elder Quentin L. Cook offered a powerful promise on Tuesday evening, March 14.
“Everybody that you love will be blessed because you are serving as an emissary of Jesus Christ,” he said. “It will bless your parents and your siblings. It will bless your future spouse, and it will bless your children and your grandchildren.”
Elder Cook, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and chairman of the Church’s Missionary Executive Council, began his remarks by detailing another time of great missionary efforts in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 1840, Joseph Smith sent 10 of the 12 Apostles to England to teach and testify of the restored gospel.
Apostle Parley P. Pratt penned the words to a celebrated Latter-day Saint hymn.
“The morning breaks, the shadows flee;
Lo, Zion’s standard is unfurled!
The dawning of a brighter day,
The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world.”
In the coming months, as Elder Pratt prepared the Manchester hymnal, he included this quintessential hymn of the Restoration, “The Morning Breaks, the Shadows Flee,” first.
Elder Cook, who was accompanied to the MTC by his wife, Sister Mary Cook, invited missionaries to read and study the words to the hymn. “I want you to think about the urgency [Parley P. Pratt] felt … the urgency of sharing the gospel and how important that was to them,” said Elder Cook.
Recalling his own mission to England, Elder Cook spoke of his many missionary companions. “As I look back, I’m so grateful that we felt a great urgency during the time that I was serving. And I’m grateful for them and the influence that they had upon me,” he said.
Elder Cook shared an experience he had with one companion, now deceased. The young man had grown up on a farm far from a major city. The farm, devastated by drought years, was in foreclosure. Because the young man’s parents could not afford to send him on a mission, his older sister gave up her scholarship to BYU and became a legal secretary to support her brother so he could serve in the British Mission.
“When he prayed, it felt like angels were attending us — particularly when he prayed about his sister,” recalled Elder Cook. “He prayed about the Savior and having a chance to be on a mission and serving Him. And I felt the Holy Ghost so strongly.”
Elder Cook noted that this missionary had a sense of urgency because he understood the sacrifice his sister was making for him. “And he didn’t want to let her down, and he didn’t want to let the Lord down. And so he wanted to be as diligent as he could possibly be.”
Missionaries who have that sense of urgency in their heart can be effective from day one, said Elder Cook. “There are always elect people that we can reach and touch and share the gospel with,” he said.
Elder Cook recalled meeting with a couple who had been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ by two sisters missionaries but were hesitant to commit to baptism. The missionaries had taught the couple how to pray, had invited them to read the Book of Mormon and had invited them to Church, where members embraced and helped them. The missionaries taught them about and invited them to live the Word of Wisdom and the law of tithing. The missionaries promised the couple blessings.
When meeting with the couple, Elder Cook felt impressed during the opening prayer that the husband and father of the family already had a testimony. He shared that impression with the man. The man had questions, which Elder Cook answered, and was able to commit to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Because missionaries “invited them to read the Book of Mormon and had taught them how to pray,” the couple “received their own witness of the truth and they could move forward,” said Elder Cook.
Elder Cook also testified to the missionaries about the leadership of President Russell M. Nelson — who is capable and decisive and humble. “When he gets guidance from the Lord, he is going to act. When the Holy Ghost inspires him to do something, he will do it.”
Reflecting on President Nelson’s urgency to use the full and correct name of the Church — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — Elder Cook reminded missionaries that Jesus Christ will always be at the forefront of His Church.
He spoke of the woman from the New Testament who had an issue with blood. The woman had been ill for 12 years and spent everything she had to find a cure. She knew if she could touch the hem of the Savior’s clothes that she would be healed. “She got close enough to do that and was healed immediately.”
When she reached out in faith and touched the Savior’s garment, “virtue [went] out of him” (see Mark 5:30). Elder Cook noted that when translated into Spanish or Portuguese, the phrase reads “power” went out of Him.
Then Elder Cook summarized, “Her faith brought forth the healing power of the Son of God.”
He asked the missionaries to ponder this important lesson. “When you pray to the Father, think about being close to the Savior,” he said. “Think about how important it is for you to testify … how important it is for you to live so that you are worthy of His blessings, worthy to be His emissary.”
Addressing the missionaries as they “embark in the service of the Savior,” Sister Cook called missionary work “the greatest cause on earth.”
Quoting Alma 36:24, Sister Cook spoke of the joy that comes to those who “labored without ceasing.”
“My prayer for you is that you might be diligent and work hard, be obedient, be pure and be prayerful,” she said.