PROVO, Utah — Elder Patrick Kearon drew from personal experiences — his own conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then serving as a new branch president in England — to underscore the importance of goals and planning in missionary service.
“I want to present myself, for good or ill, as Exhibit A of the outcome of countless goals and plans established and offered in prayer and fasting by missionaries and friends,” said the member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “And without those missionaries and without those goals and plans, I just would not be here today.”
Speaking Saturday, June 20, at the 2026 Seminar for New Mission Leaders at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, Elder Kearon called himself a convert “who crept, you might say,” over a two-year period toward baptism in London in his mid-20s.
“I give thanks for missionaries who understood their purpose and lived it, and missionaries who set what for me at the beginning would have been extraordinary and incomprehensible goals and plans.”
Citing principles from Chapter 8 of “Preach My Gospel” — “Accomplish the Work Through Goals and Plans” — as well as scriptures and quotes from Church leaders, Elder Kearon underscored that learning to set goals and make plans can bless missionaries throughout all aspects of their lives and not just during their service.
“This is not just about the mission, it is also for life,” he said.
Of his own experience, Elder Kearon said: “I became aware that the goals and plans that were set for me and offered on my behalf — or I was invited to be a part of — were expressions of love. And just to encapsulate that, goal setting and planning for the purpose of serving others can become one of the greatest expressions of our love.”
He recalled that in his first few years of Church membership, he was serving as the president of a new branch in South West England in 1993, with his wife, Sister Jennifer Kearon, serving as the Relief Society president. “There were 30 of us meeting at the time,” he said, adding it was “a period of very low, slow baptisms.”
The two missionaries serving in the branch came to the Kearons’ door with an invitation — for the Kearons to each pray that night for the name of a street in the branch’s boundaries. “We will go there tomorrow, and a baptism will follow,” promised one of the elders.
The Kearons individually prayed, “and each of us came up independently with a name of a street we’d never heard before,” recounted Elder Kearon, calling it “just a word.” Taking a street map, they found a small street by that name in one of the several neighboring villages.
They gave the street name to the missionaries the next day, with the elder who recited the promise, “We will go, and a baptism will follow.” The elders later reported they went up and down the street all day, returning in the evening to their van, where they prayed.
“And they went out again,” Elder Kearon said, “and they found this woman, and it was her sister a little while later who was the promised baptism.”
The missionaries returned to the Kearons shortly after and asked about setting a branch goal — to double branch membership from 30 to 60 by the end of the year. To unify the branch, the missionaries invited members to pray daily at 6:15 a.m. for faith to meet the goal.
Aided by increased activities and efforts, branch numbers started to swell with a resulting increase of baptisms, move-ins and returning members. The missionary leading the goal setting was transferred before the end of the year.
On the final Sunday of December, the Kearons silently counted the arriving branch members — 54. “We thought, ‘Oh, that’s fantastic.’ We got so close,” Elder Kearon remembered.
Then just after the start of Sunday meeting, a family of six entered the meeting place; they became branch members and brought the total to 60. “The goal was met,” Elder Kearon said. “The original missionary was gone, but the goal had been achieved.”
Elder Kearon identified the missionary as President Daniel Greer, in attendance at the seminar and preparing to lead the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission.
Elder Kearon concluded with his testimony of setting goals and making plans. “I testify of the power of action and of the need to stretch to create these heaven-sent moments in your lives, the lives of the missionaries, and the lives of those they teach.”
