President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, joined fellow quorum member Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife, Sister Kathy Andersen, for their Family Discovery Day keynote presentation at RootsTech 2025 on Saturday, March 8.
Elder Patrick Kearon, also a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, attended Family Discovery Day with his wife, Sister Jennifer Kearon, and watched from the audience.
Several thousand attended the event in person at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, and millions more watched online as Elder and Sister Andersen told meaningful life experiences and gospel lessons learned. Elder Andersen invited President Holland to share his own thoughts and experiences from his youth and from his own family life.
After Elder Andersen related a farm lesson that taught him about the importance of being led by the Savior in his life, President Holland reflected on the difference that Jesus Christ and His gospel have made to him.
“It is as different as a life could be, even having been born into the Church,” he said. “It is just so significantly shaped by the Savior that I cannot really tell you the difference in that 85 years; it means everything to me. And the work is hastening. The work is moving.”
Women and the priesthood
During the presentation, Sister Andersen shared inspiring stories about her great-grandfather and father honoring the priesthood and making tremendous sacrifices to ensure their families could journey across the country to be sealed in the temple. President Holland said he was deeply moved by these stories.
“There is only one thing more powerful than a man talking about the priesthood, and that is a woman talking about the priesthood,” he said. “I am deeply moved when a woman chooses to talk, as she rightfully could and should, about the power of the priesthood in her life. Women, we salute you. I love you.”
Elder and Sister Andersen surprised President Holland by showing a video from his family history — a story he related in an October 1999 general conference talk about a poor young father and family with a broken-down car in southern Utah — titled “Good Things To Come.”
The heartfelt video and message reminded President Holland of his wife, and once again, he paid tribute to all women and left his blessing on everyone in attendance, but “especially the women.”
“She has given me everything in the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said of his wife, Sister Patricia T. Holland, who died in 2023. “When God finished the work of creation … and had Adam ready to serve, he still was not complete. The great, final, culminating, crowning work of God’s creation was a woman, and I am eternally grateful for all of you, and especially my wife.”
He continued: “I want to leave a blessing on all of you here today — every one of you — but especially the women of whatever age, from the tiniest baby, child, daughter, to the most senior citizen among us, may God bless all of you, and I do bless all of you, with the rights of the priesthood and the promises of eternity.”
Pray and testify — more
After Elder Andersen told a childhood story that taught him about the power of prayer, President Holland reflected on his April 2024 talk “Motions of a Hidden Fire” and two lessons he learned while in the hospital.
“We are to pray more often, and in more places, than we do. And if you have prayed a lot, pray more,” he said. “The other lesson was to testify, to be a witness. However much you testify, testify more.”
Temple attendance
Speaking about the importance of temple attendance, President Holland spoke of his father, Frank Holland, who was less active in the Church during his early years but became active later in his life. Without a calling or manual — just a car — he single-handedly contacted and persuaded others to go with him to the temple.
“Today, those descendants tell his descendants they are indebted to him for shaping their lives,” President Holland said. “I love Frank Holland for not only bringing that priesthood and those covenants into our home, but he brought it to so many others.”
