When we received our mission call to serve at BYU-Hawaii in 2017, people often asked if that was going to be a mission or a vacation. When I talk to missionaries, I remind them that missionary work is work. It is also service. We sing the song Called to Serve. The letter from the prophet of the Lord says, “you are called to serve…”

Interestingly, both words “service” and “work” appear repeatedly in Doctrine and Covenants section 4:

1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.

6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.

7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

Adjusting to Missionary Life tells the experience of President Gordon B. Hinckley when he first began his mission in England.

“I was not well when I arrived. Those first few weeks, because of illness and the opposition which we felt, I was discouraged. I wrote a letter home to my good father and said that I felt I was wasting my time and his money. He was my father and my stake president, and he was a wise and inspired man. He wrote a very short letter to me which said, ‘Dear Gordon, I have your recent letter. I have only one suggestion: forget yourself and go to work.’ Earlier that morning in our scripture class my companion and I had read these words of the Lord: ‘Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.’ (Mark 8:35.)

“Those words of the Master, followed by my father’s letter with his counsel to forget myself and go to work, went into my very being. With my father’s letter in hand, I went into our bedroom in the house at 15 Wadham Road, where we lived, and got on my knees and made a pledge with the Lord. I covenanted that I would try to forget myself and lose myself in His service.

“That July day in 1933 was my day of decision. A new light came into my life and a new joy into my heart. The fog of England seemed to lift, and I saw the sunlight. I had a rich and wonderful mission experience, for which I shall ever be grateful” (“Taking the Gospel to Britain: A Declaration of Vision, Faith, Courage, and Truth,” Ensign, July 1987, 7).

President Hinckley found success in dealing with his discouragement as he renewed his decision to serve the Lord. He later said: “The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best medicine for despair is service. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired” (“Words of the Prophet: Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel,” New Era, July 2000, 7).

Also in Adjusting to Missionary Life is the counsel from President Ezra Taft Benson: “I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work, work, work—there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.” (President Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson (1988), 200).

In his April 2005 General Conference talk “The Sacred Call of Service,” President Thomas S. Monson taught us all that: “The performance of one’s duty brings a sense of happiness and peace.” President Monson quoted the poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941): 

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was duty.
I acted, and behold—
Duty was joy.

May the Lord bless us and our families to feel joy as we work and serve in this wondrous gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil.