PROVO, Utah — President Jeffrey R. Holland told new mission leaders that they are about to embark on one of the most thrilling adventures of their lives as they begin their missionary service.
“In spite of some initial anxiety, be grateful you can’t stop this car or get out of it while it is still moving, because you would miss a truly incomparable experience and all the blessings that come with it,” said the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Pointing to the blessings extended to missionaries and their families in Doctrine and Covenants 31, President Holland said that “compared to the challenges you might face now and then, the blessings are disproportionately magnificent.”
President Holland was the first speaker at the 2025 Seminar for New Mission Leaders at the Provo Missionary Training Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday, June 19.
He said his purpose was to speak on how these new mission leaders can help their missionaries become successful.
Missionary success
President Holland said no young man in the Church was more affected by a mission than he was.
“My mission meant everything to me. Everything,” he said.
He said he wants every missionary shouting that same refrain “of being the most blessed returned missionary in the Church.”
Successful missionaries achieve that by living their missionary purpose, according to President Holland.
That purpose, as stated in "Preach My Gospel," is to “invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.”
Said President Holland: “In short, it means that the missionary has aligned his or her purpose directly with God’s purpose — that of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of a friend.”
Mission leaders won’t have to give endless sermons about obedience or being a kind companion or working hard when missionaries have the vision of Christ’s “atoning love elevated before them.”
“When they are focused on the mission of Jesus Christ, they will be investing heart, might, mind and strength in the quest,” he said.
Continuing commitment to Jesus Christ
After their faithful service, “we want to send them home with a love and a beginning mastery” of the Book of Mormon, President Holland said.
Continued commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Church comes from holding to the iron rod — the word of God in the scriptures and from prophets.
Said President Holland: “Teach them that they have strength and inspiration and power lying within their own home, within their bedroom, on the seat of their car and in their backpack as they go to school. Their strength and anchor while away from you will be in the standard works of this Church to which they will continue to hold fast at all costs, especially the Book of Mormon.”
President Holland called the Book of Mormon “the most important book” he has ever read.
“If they grasp the rod of iron everlastingly, they will withstand the mists of darkness that settle on the faithful as well as on the unfaithful,” he said.
The price to be a successful missionary
“You are going to have occasion to ask, and your missionaries will have occasion to ask, ‘Why is it so hard to be a successful missionary?’” President Holland continued.
He said he is convinced that missionary success is not easy because salvation was never easy.
“Brothers and sisters, salvation is not a cheap experience. How would we believe it would be easy or cheap for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?”
He also cautioned that although each missionary — and mission leader — will have to spend some time in “their Gethsemane,” it will not be anything anywhere near what Christ experienced.
“But I believe that missionaries who come to success and salvation — to know something of this price that Christ paid — will have to pay at least a token of that same price,” he said. “I do not believe missionary work has ever been easy. There has never been an easy mission. I have never believed that a mission is easy when done right.”
Because the human family was to be saved, “little wonder that success as a missionary is not a whimsical thing,” according to President Holland.
He concluded his remarks by testifying that Jesus Christ lives, “and because He does, so will we.”
He also made a promise to the new mission leaders: “That because of your faithful response to this mission call, He will bind up your broken hearts and dry your tears and set you and your families free. This is my missionary promise to you and your missionary message to the world.”
