PROVO, Utah — Why did Heavenly Father allow His Only Begotten Son to be sacrificed? “Because He loves you. It’s one of the greatest manifestations of His love,” declared Bishop L. Todd Budge to training missionaries on May 6.
“One of the other great manifestations of His love is that He gave us commandments to help us during our mortal journey, so that we could return to Him and find joy and happiness.”
This same love also allows His children to repent. “The reason Jesus Christ performed the atoning sacrifice is so that we would have the opportunity to repent when we are not perfectly obedient,” said Bishop Budge, second counselor in the Presiding Bishopric.
So, believers can show their love for God through obedience and repentance, said Bishop Budge in a Provo Missionary Training Center devotional. He was accompanied by his wife, Sister Lori Budge, who explained how missionaries can be angels to those around them.
Bishop Budge explained three attributes missionaries can develop and invite others to as well: love, obedience and repentance.
Love
While serving in the Asia North Area presidency, Bishop Budge spoke with a missionary in Guam struggling to stay motivated. The elder, in his 27th month as a missionary, was unable to return home because his country’s borders had closed during COVID-19 health precautions.
“Every morning, I get up and I think I shouldn’t be here,” the elder told Bishop Budge. “I should be home, going to school, working, hanging out with my friends. I’ve already done my two years.”
The Spirit prompted Bishop Budge to read Mosiah 2:21, which lists great blessings from God — daily breath, agency, divine support. Then it says, “If ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.”
The elder responded, “I guess we can never really do enough to show God how grateful we are for all that He’s done for us.”
Bishop Budge asked the missionary, “What if you woke up with that attitude and said, ‘God, thank You for giving me this extra time so that I can show You just how much I love You’?”
Obedience
Doctrine and Covenants 42:29 says, “If thou lovest me thou shalt serve me and keep all my commandments.” Bishop Budge added: “Obedience really is the first law of heaven. But what is the first commandment? To love God and to love our neighbor (see Matthew 22:36-40).”
Bishop Budge learned the connection between love and obedience as a young missionary. As a senior companion, he committed himself to being perfectly obedient while working with his new companion.
Then in a companionship inventory, his companion said, “Elder Budge, I don’t feel your love.”
Bishop Budge responded to the comment by starting to study about love and its relationship with obedience. What he learned is that “obedience requires first of all that we’re obedient to the most important commandment of all, which is to love God and to love our neighbor.”
He continued, “That experience changed me, changed my mission, and it helped me understand what it means truly to be obedient.”
Repentance
“How often does President [Russell M.] Nelson say we should repent?” asked Bishop Budge. “Daily,” the training missionaries replied in unison.
“The best way to teach repentance is to try it yourself first,” he said. “It’s hard to teach it if you’ve never done it.”
Missionaries can help those they teach repent, with a particular chapter in “Preach My Gospel” standing out as a guide — Chapter 11: “Help People Make and Keep Commitments.” The section gives a four-step process to helping others repent: extend Spirit-led invitations, promise blessings, bear testimony and help people keep their commitments.
The Holy Ghost is the teacher, not just the missionaries, said Bishop Budge. The Spirit plays the principle role in one’s conversion, while the missionaries are the ones who invite others to draw closer to Christ.
“The Savior has already paid the price of their sins. He’s done the hard part. Now it’s just up to us to access the blessings of the atoning sacrifice by repenting.”
‘You can be ministering angels’
Sister Budge quoted President Nelson’s April 2025 general conference talk, when he said that God “sends angels to be with us and with those we love.”
In Doctrine and Covenants 84:88, the Lord said, “My Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” These angels could refer to angels both mortal and immortal, said Sister Budge.
“Earthly angels are instruments in the hands of God. They are kind, devoted and pure. They are emissaries sent from God. They accept love and embrace others. They minister to others as extensions of the hands of a loving Creator. They serve and they help.”
She then encouraged the training missionaries, “You can be ministering angels to all those around you.”
