President Oaks remembers President Holland as ‘an apostle of love and learning’

President Jeffrey R. Holland left “his unforgettable testimony of God on all that he touched,” said President Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during President Holland’s funeral Wednesday, Dec. 31.

“The lifetime personal and heartfelt assurance in President Holland’s teachings answers our most poignant feelings about our mortal failings,” President Oaks said.

President Holland died Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, at age 85, from complications associated with kidney disease. He had been serving as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since President Oaks and his counselors in a new First Presidency were announced Oct. 14 and as acting quorum president since November 2023.

Held in the Tabernacle on Temple Square, President Holland’s funeral was open to the public and included reflections by members of the Holland family and music by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. President Oaks presided at the funeral and offered concluding remarks.

A dear friend who ‘continued as my teacher’

President Oaks described President Holland as “my dear friend” and “an apostle of love and learning.” He spoke of their relationship in education and Church service that began more than 50 years ago.

“We had a long and loving association in the work of the Lord,” President Oaks said.

President Oaks’ and President Holland’s sequences of professional and Church leadership were closely related. Early in his service as president of Brigham Young University, President Oaks hired Jeffrey Holland to be the dean of the College of Religion at BYU. “I was his president; he was my teacher,” President Oaks recalled.

As a new BYU president, President Oaks wanted to make some changes, including establishing that women professors could teach the fundamental Book of Mormon course and that faithful teachers in other colleges of the university could do the same.

“Neither of those changes could have been accomplished without his leadership, coupled with my initiative and support,” President Oaks said of President Holland.

After a few years at BYU, Dean Holland was appointed commissioner of Church education. “Then he was the leader, and I was one of his presidents,” President Oaks said.

President Holland later succeeded President Oaks as president of BYU, where President Holland “emphasized the spiritual obligation of BYU” as a university founded on the belief that students are children of God.

“When he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve in 1994, he became my apostolic colleague, and I was his senior in the quorum,” President Oaks said. “In our most recent callings, I became his president. But throughout, he has continued as my teacher.”

President Holland’s influence and testimony

In speaking of President Holland’s teachings of the Savior, President Oaks quoted President Holland’s words from a book titled “Christ and the New Covenant” that President Holland wrote shortly after he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

“Christ walked the path every mortal is called to walk so that He would know how to succor and strengthen us in our most difficult times. He knows the deepest and most personal burdens we carry. … There is no anguish or sorrow or sadness in life that He has not suffered in our behalf and borne away upon His own valiant and compassionate shoulders.”

President Oaks shared the experience of a less-active Church member who said the last time she felt the Church was true was many years prior when she attended an Institute of Religion class at the University of Washington. “Her teacher was a man named Jeffrey Holland, and whenever he spoke, she felt loved, the Spirit and knew everything he said was true. She said, ‘I don’t know whatever happened to him, but he was the best.’

“Yes, sister, he still is,” President Oaks added.

Since President Holland’s death, several people have posted on social media about his influence and testimony, and the Church has received “an avalanche of praise for his positions and words on Jesus Christ, the Church and university subjects,” President Oaks said.

Social media comments highlight President Holland’s hope-giving words and his ability to speak truth in a way that was easy to understand. “My faith in Jesus Christ has only grown from his example,” one individual wrote. Another praised “his vigor for the work of the Lord and the love of the people he served.”

President Oaks read a response from a mission president, who reflected on President Holland’s encouragement to those who were struggling in their faith. “His words always seemed to spring from a space of compassion, authenticity, earned empathy and humility. His passion for compassion made him an irrepressible force and irreplaceable friend. It was easy to discern that where he called his listeners to come from, he himself had been before.”

Concluding his remarks, President Oaks added his testimony of Jesus Christ, “who is our Savior and Redeemer; who is the Only Begotten Son of God, our Eternal Father; who is the head of this Church.”

President Holland will be buried in a private service Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in St. George, Utah. He will be buried next to his wife, Sister Patricia Holland, who died in 2023.

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