PROVO, Utah — Full-time missionary service begins with an act of moral agency, and mission leaders can help their missionaries continue to exercise that moral agency, establishing a pattern for life, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught at the 2025 Seminar for New Mission Leaders.
“The selfless exercise of moral agency lends a holiness to the work and to the people,” said Elder Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, speaking Saturday, June 21, at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.
Whatever struggles or weaknesses missionaries may have, they also have “one huge and decisive thing going for them — they chose to serve a mission,” said Elder Uchtdorf, noting each met with a bishop or branch president and expressed a desire to serve the Lord, setting everything aside to be a representative of Christ.
The process differs from most callings in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as no one sends in applications to serve, for example, as a bishop, Relief Society president, Primary music leader or even mission leader.
“In a sacred act of agency, they said to the Lord, ‘Here am I; send me,’” Elder Uchtdorf said. “Then, when the call came from the Lord’s prophet, they accepted. … It is their choices, not just their abilities, that show who they truly are.”
He reminded the mission leaders to let that truth transform the way they help their missionaries live up to their potential. “Always remember there is a sacred flame of righteous desire inside of each missionary. Part of your responsibility is to help your missionaries to give full expression to that desire.”
That full expression, Elder Uchtdorf said, can be found in Doctrine and Covenants 58:28: “The power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves.”
That power comes by their love for God and neighbor, by the covenants they’ve made, by the consecration they’re making and by their setting apart.
“With that power in them, your missionaries have chosen to be ‘anxiously engaged in a good cause,’” Elder Uchtdorf said, citing Doctrine and Covenants 58:27. “They can ‘do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.’ With that power in them, and their free choice, they will accomplish far more than if you spell out everything they must do or over-regiment their every move.”
How missionaries exercise their moral agency also impacts others, including friends of the Church who are seeking courage to make their own difficult choices in embracing the gospel. “It is the power of example that brings miracles to pass.”
Elder Uchtdorf encouraged the mission leaders to “help your missionaries to understand that moral agency is not the freedom to decide what is right or what is wrong. Agency is the freedom to choose between right or wrong — to show, by their choices, which one they prefer.”
He called attention to the first word of the missionary purpose: “invite.” Every other action — from baptism to teaching — needs the consent of someone outside of a missionary’s individual control. But “once we invite someone, we give them the opportunity to exercise their faith and their agency,” he said, later adding, “And if people decide not to accept our invitation, that is their decision.”
Elder Uchtdorf emphasized that missionaries need to know they will be held accountable for their own choices, not for the choices of others, and underscored how goals and plans are foundational to exercising one’s agency. “Goals give life to your plans, and plans give muscle to your goals,” he said.
When diligent efforts — on a mission or anytime — don’t seem to be making a difference, rather than give up or let up, Elder Uchtdorf suggests recalling Doctrine and Covenants 64:32-34, which includes: “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind.”
Said Elder Uchtdorf: “A mission is an opportunity to give the Lord your ‘heart and [your] willing mind.’ It is a chance to show — and develop — your faith that small and simple things really do produce a great and marvelous work. You get to demonstrate, by your consistent choices, that you believe in what you are building and that it will be monumental, even majestic.
“So never be weary of well-doing,” he added. “Instead, be joyful, be grateful, rejoice in the freedom to choose this wonderful work. You will give thanks that the Savior, Jesus Christ, called you and you were able to leave your nets and follow Him.”
