Editor’s note: This and other related articles were published September 2026 in the Deseret News’ magazine titled Missionary Work in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In the 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord declares: “If ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work.”
Since ancient times, the Lord has called missionaries to “teach all nations.”
In the Old Testament, Jonah and other prophets were called to deliver a voice of warning and repentance to the people. Abraham was also called of the Lord “to make of thee a minister to bear my name in a strange land” (Abraham 2:6).
In the New Testament, following Jesus Christ’s Resurrection, He called his disciples to preach the gospel, saying in Matthew 28:19–20: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
The Lord has also called missionaries to preach his gospel in the Latter-days. One of the first revelations to the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1831 included the call and assignment of missionaries: “And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:6).
As missionaries around the world are called to serve today, they open a letter from Church President Dallin H. Oaks, which starts: “You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
President Oaks promises missionaries that as they devote time and attention to serving the Lord, “leaving behind all other personal affairs, you will be blessed with increased knowledge and testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.”
‘I’ll go where you want me to go’
In his October 2002 general conference address “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go,” President Oaks — then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — shared the examples of faithful senior missionaries who labor with “faith and devotion in the remote corners of the Lord’s vineyard.”
The talk included comments from Church leaders who recommended these senior couples for mission calls:
“Willing to go anyplace, do anything for whatever length of time required.”
“[These] are great examples of Church members who dedicate their lives to the Lord.”
“Will go where the Lord wants [us] to go,” another couple noted. “We pray we will be sent where we are needed.”
“They have slowed down some physically, but not in spiritual matters or missionary zeal.”
In that same talk, President Oaks described a letter from a returned missionary who had written to thank those who direct missionary work “for daring to send me where the Lord required rather than where I had deemed appropriate.”
President Oaks said this young missionary “was shocked to receive a call to serve in a mission in the United States. He didn’t know anything about the state where he would serve, except that it was in his own country, speaking English rather than abroad speaking the language he had learned.”
This young man eventually found the courage and faith to accept the call and to follow the direction and counsel of his fine mission president. And President Oaks said the young man received a “miracle of spiritual growth.”
The returned missionary wrote: “As I began to serve among the uneducated people of [this state], I struggled mightily for several months, but gradually the sweet workings of the Spirit began to tear down the walls of pride and disbelief that had wrapped themselves so tightly around my soul. The miracle of a conversion to Christ began. The sense of the reality of God and the eternal brotherhood of all men came more and more powerfully to my troubled mind.”
Added President Oaks: “I testify of Jesus Christ, who beckons us to His path and His service, and pray that we will have the faith and commitment to follow and the power to be what He wants us to be.”
Missionary call assignments
In a general conference talk given in April 2010, and again in a social media video in June 2026, Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles testified of the inspired and revelatory experience of assigning missionaries to a field of labor.
Elder Rasband, who chairs the Missionary Executive Committee, said in his recent post: “Every missionary is called by the President of the Church — he has assigned the Quorum of the Twelve that we assign every missionary.”
Continued Elder Rasband: “I testify to all of you that the process of doing this is inspired, it’s revelatory, and I love it with all my heart, as I love all of you, especially those of you young people who are considering serving the mission at this very moment.”
In the short two-minute video, Elder Rasband showed the inside of a missionary assignment room in the Church Administration Building in Salt Lake City, where members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles meet with staff of the Church’s Missionary Department to assign thousands of prospective missionaries to serve around the world.
“I come in the spirit of fasting and prayer, and our staff has prepared where the most urgent needs of all these missionaries are,” Elder Rasband said in the video.
With a pointer stick in hand, Elder Rasband sits in front of two screens. On one screen, a prospective missionary’s name, photo and other information are displayed for consideration.
“Prayerfully, we consider every one of them,” Elder Rasband explained. “We look at whether they’ve learned languages, we look at where their ancestors are from, and we read their priesthood leaders’ comments. And in the spirit of prayer and fasting, we assign them to somewhere in the world that the Lord needs them to serve and that they’re needed.”
‘The Divine Call of a Missionary’
In his April 2010 general conference talk, titled “The Divine Call of a Missionary,” Elder Rasband shared an experience he had while assigning missionaries years earlier with then-Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Observing Elder Eyring in this session was part of Elder Rasband’s training as a newly called General Authority Seventy.
“As each picture appeared, to me it was as if the missionary were in the room with us,” Elder Rasband recalled in his talk. “Elder Eyring would then greet the missionary with his kind and endearing voice: ‘Good morning, Elder Reier or Sister Yang. How are you today?’”
Elder Rasband continued: “After assigning a few missionaries, Elder Eyring turned to me as he pondered one particular missionary and said, ‘So, Brother Rasband, where do you think this missionary should go?’ I was startled. I quietly suggested to Elder Eyring that I did not know and that I did not know I could know. He looked at me directly and simply said, ‘Brother Rasband, pay closer attention, and you too can know.’”
As Elder Rasband and Elder Eyring reached the end of that assignment meeting, a picture of a certain missionary appeared on the screen. “I had the strongest prompting, the strongest of the morning, that the missionary we had before us was to be assigned to Japan,” Elder Rasband said.
“I did not know that Elder Eyring was going to ask me on this one, but amazingly he did. I rather tentatively and humbly said to him, ‘Japan?’ Elder Eyring responded immediately, ‘Yes, let’s go there.’ And up on the computer screen the missions of Japan appeared. I instantly knew that the missionary was to go to the Japan Sapporo Mission.
“Elder Eyring did not ask me the exact name of the mission, but he did assign that missionary to the Japan Sapporo Mission. ... I had a further witness that morning that every missionary called in this Church, and assigned or reassigned to a particular mission, is called by revelation from the Lord God Almighty through one of these, His servants,” Elder Rasband testified.
Imperfect messengers of a perfect message
Speaking at the Provo Missionary Training Center in March 2023, Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told training missionaries across the world that they don’t have to be a perfect messenger to deliver the perfect message.
“Elders and sisters, we have a perfect message,” said Elder Renlund, who is a member of the Missionary Executive Committee.
“That perfect message centers on the Lord Jesus Christ, on Heavenly Father and His plan and on the Restoration of the gospel in its fullness. That is the perfect message. That is what we preach. That is what we get to when we are at our strongest — and you are the perfect messenger, even if you are imperfect in some ways.”
God, he added, “has commissioned you, just the way you are, to go out and invite people to come unto the Savior. And then He expects you to do your best and try to get better over the course of your mission and throughout your life.”
