The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
At a time when “some things do not feel right in the world,” when “some things do not make sense,” when daily life feels like “swimming upstream,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland promised Finnish Latter-day Saints they can find peace and comfort in their discipleship of Jesus Christ.
“The chief characteristic of a disciple of Christ is to love as He loves us,” said Elder Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Visiting Finland from Nov. 10 through 13 — at the conclusion of a 10-day, three-nation European ministry assignment that also included meetings in Germany and Sweden — Elder Holland addressed Church leaders in the region, young adults in the Church’s Europe North Area, members throughout Finland and Latter-day Saints in Jyväskylä — the location of Finland’s newest stake.
Elder Holland was accompanied by his wife, Sister Patricia T. Holland; Elder Brent H. Nielson of the Presidency of the Seventy and his wife, Sister Marcia B. Nielson; and Elder Hans T. Boom, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Europe North Area, and his wife, Sister Ariena Johanna Boom.
His trip was in many ways “a walk down memory lane.” The Hollands lived in Solihull, England, from 1990 to 1993, while Elder Holland, then of the Seventy, served as president of the Church’s Europe North Area. The visit marked a return to places they served before, “all of which we visited time and time again when we were here,” and an opportunity to reconnect with “many of the people we knew then.”
Reflecting on his service, Elder Holland recalled being so close to the work that he wondered if they were “making any headway, making any progress.”
But visiting Finland “with a little distance” has given Elder Holland new perspective. “To come now, with a few years having passed, and to look at the size of these congregations, to see more stakes created than we had then, more missionary work, more missionary activity, more missions — it’s been very rewarding. So we need to be patient with ourselves, patient with the work.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
