‘Stay in the boat,’ President Holland pleads in new video

The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE. 

As President Jeffrey R. Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, ministered in the Dominican Republic in November 2024, he observed a common thread among some questions asked by members, leaders and missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those questions revolved around how to endure through hard times.

He answered the questions in a variety of ways over the course of that four-day ministry. As he concluded his time there, President Holland sat down for a final interview and gave counsel on persevering to the end.

“We were talking about people who have difficult lives or troubles that come. But we all do. Everybody does,” he said.

Stay on board the ship

Comparing life’s challenges to the sometimes roaring seas, President Holland encouraged those experiencing the confusion that comes with hard times to ride out the storm.

“Do not abandon the ship when the waves are a little high,” he said. “That is when you tie yourself in and get the life jacket on, and you hold on to an oar, and you do not move.”

President Holland said that getting out of the boat — which symbolizes the gospel of Jesus Christ in this example — is leaving its protection behind.

Heavenly Father loves His children

To read the full article, CLICK HERE. 

Proctors on a Mission #16—Kisses at the Temple

If someone told me that the Puerto Rican temple was actually paradise, I’d believe it. Because we come home from our mission November 1, we are trying to memorize every moment, engrave it in our hearts, and particularly the wonder of living 117 steps from the temple.

It’s what happens when we walk through that door that I want to take with me, because I am kissed and hugged several times over. The Puerto Ricans aren’t so distant as we northerners are. They don’t keep you an arms-length away with a handshake. No, you are pulled affectionately right into their hearts. They love you and you know it, like a feeling of goodness and well-being that immediately chases any dim corners away and lights up the world.

It’s like last week. I went to show my recommend at the desk, but immediately the woman there, left her chair, came around the desk and kissed my cheek and hugged me. I met someone on my way to the locker and the love was repeated. Open arms like long lost friends that you have been looking for a long time. In the locker room there were four workers in their pristine white. Each loved me. Most kissed me. Then while I was waiting on a bench to go into the endowment room, another walked across the lobby, took my head in both of her hands and kissed me three times. It reminded me of how my Grandmother Stevens kissed me when I was just a little girl.

Now, if that sounds like too much hugging for you in the states, in Europe or many other places where we pride ourselves on efficiency and a bit of distance, you just don’t understand what is behind all this effusion. I felt through them the pure love of Christ, that this love is possible because we are centered together on Him.

The Spirit began its stirrings, and then its motions of fire, and I felt like the greatest thing I could ever do was to give that kind of purring contentment and sense of well-being to others. All is right with the world in the walls of the Puerto Rican temple

Love and the Missionaries

 We also feel a great affection for our missionaries. We love them and sense both how young they are and how much is asked of them. We say to the bewildered missionaries who are young in the mission and still struggling with the language, “How is it going, Elder?” “How is it going Hermana?” They give very game answers, with only the slightest hesitation. “It’s coming.” We know with certainty that it will come and that this mission will shape, sanctify and transform them. What fortifies them for the great work they are doing is love.

We have never been told so many times that we are loved as they tell us. It is in almost all communications. We tell them the same. They tell each other. They are trained to see goodness, so, of course, they see it amply and generously in each other and in us.

That is the language of the mission. It is laced with affection and understanding as we share the connection with each other of giving our all to the Savior. It is as if we are dancing with ribbons of light around the same maypole, our strands crossing and weaving and making an intricate pattern of hope and missionary devotion. But the maypole is actually the Savior, and we are dancing and working in concourses around Him.

Oh, what becomes of these missionaries as the days, and then the weeks, and then the months pass. They grow in beauty and strength before our eyes. See, for instance, this photo where it took five missionaries to help a wheel-bound friend be baptized in the ocean.

Striplings

In our Sunday school class this week, where we teach new converts and investigating friends, we spoke of the Stripling Warriors. This is one of those profound moments in the Book of Mormon as we see the goodness a group of virtuous, young men who are riveted and fixed in the covenant.

“And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted. (Alma 53:20)

Then, as we were teaching, we glanced over and saw Elder Luke Stacey and Elder Samuel Green. These are the Assistants to the President in our mission, whose days are numbered in Puerto Rico. Elder Green leaves Wednesday morning and Elder Stacey leaves the end of October. They are both exceptional missionaries.

We asked, “Do we have striping warriors among us today, who can be so true, firm, steadfast and immovable as they were? All eyes turned to Elder Stacey and Elder Green, whose faces shine with that kind of radiance and dedication. Truly, you can see this light all over them. Their goodness is palpable as they see to every detail to care for those they teach. That is what happens when you yield yourselves to God. He makes so much of you.

Ask them about their schedule for the next day, and they say, “We have an appointment at 1, at 3, another at 5 and one at 6. What happens at each of these appointments? They bear testimony of Jesus Christ again and again, and their souls are quickened by their recurring witness.

Ada Osorio, who was baptized in February, and whom we dearly love, gave the closing prayer. She said, “We are grateful, dear God, that we have another striping warrior to add to your army today, in our dear brother, Craig.”

Craig’s Baptism

This was appropriate because it was Craig Raffucci’s baptism day and he asked Scot to perform both the baptism and confirmation for him.

For the baptism, about a hundred ward members gathered, but something especially made us happy. There on the front row, filling every chair, were the members of our class, all of them so new to the church, and all of them eager to welcome Craig. When the ordinance finished, they were clapping their hands together for joy, just as happened at the baptismal scene at the Waters of Mormon. It was this spontaneous leap of joy.

This group of new ones to the Church have become like a family for each other. They talk often, help each other out, laugh together—and the bond really comes from this marvelous and growing connection they have to Christ.

Truly, every ward should have a class like this to bond their new converts and friends to the Lord, to the Church and to each other. This, for us, is one of the most satisfying surprises of our mission. Of course, we need to nurse a new convert along with knowledge, so the Spirit and understanding grows in them. It’s been a powerful thing to watch the process so closely.

Ernesto and Brown Outs

Hurricane season in Puerto Rico is June through November, and this year, a heavy hurricane season has been predicted. So far, we haven’t seen too much, but Tropical Storm Ernesto came pounding through here recently and we all got prepared. We have lanterns, flashlights, water, food and camp stoves, waiting for the storm and the inevitable loss of power.

Since our power grows dim if you plug in a curling iron, and flickers for no reason, just to remind you not to count on it, we decided to weather Ernesto at a friend’s house with a generator. The only challenge is that his home is near the beach on the northeast side of the island, about thirty minutes from our home, and this was in an area that was hit hardest.

The sky was ominous, dark and troubled the day that the storm was to hit, and then at 3:30 am, it woke us with a thundering sound and ferocity like a freight train. We watched out the window as the torrents fell, but we were completely warm and safe in the house.

It reminded us of what it is like to have the Lord in your life. The storms may be fierce and even a bit frightening, but inside calm can reign, a supernal stillness that is not touched by ravages just outside your soul.

Most of our friends in other places on the island hardly felt the storm, though many lost power. Rather than hitting us directly, Ernesto side-stepped Puerto Rico by 85 miles and then barreled northward to become a Category 1 hurricane.

We all remembered this part of Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s dedicatory prayer in the temple 19 months ago:

“Dear Father, we pray that the presence of Thy temple on this island may draw down Thy blessings upon Puerto Rico, its people and its leaders. In recent years, they have endured storms and natural disasters that have caused destruction, hardship and suffering. Bless them now with a period of calm and respite and with the time and means to recover and rebuild and to prepare for a brighter future.”

For the hurricane outlook this season by meteorologists, we are prepared, but not worried.

However, we do have a thing we must endure with grace—electrical outages, the brownouts, that seem sudden and undeserved, even though they are scheduled. Puerto Rico has trouble with its electrical power grid and one of its major generators is on the skids. Our neighbor learns all about this on the Spanish-speaking news, so she is our source of information about it. We have searched the Internet in vain for news of this. She said it was announced that our power would be turned off every other day for four hours to conserve energy for many months. When she told me, it was the first day for an outage, and sure enough it came.

I hoped she had it wrong, but 48 hours later, at about the same time—5:30 p.m., the power went out again. So now, today is the question. If it goes out at 5:30, the pattern will be clear, and we’d better have our phones and computer charged and ready.

Diving Deep on Joseph Smith

Studying the life of Joseph Smith has been both a great passion and pleasure of ours for many years. Scot’s heroes, even when he was a teenager, were those people who gave birth to the gospel’s restoration.

Now, as we have mentioned before, we are preparing to shoot a series of mini-docs on his life for a YouTube channel devoted specifically to Joseph Smith. We are shooting at the places he knew, using voice actors to give life to the story, and exploring the chapters of his life visually, so people get a clearer sense of who he was and his astonishing connection to God.

We are doing this in part because so many people say they are leaving the Church because of Joseph Smith. Our unspoken response when we hear this is: “Do you really know Joseph? Have you considered his life, his remarkable optimism, his stamina and perseverance, his keen intellect, his profound ability to sacrifice for others or the revelation that flowed through him like a spring and upended all the rigid religious traditions that had blinded and limited man? Do you know how he opened the heavens for all of us to have more direct contact with God?

I love what Truman Madsen says about the prophet here:

Joseph Smith said: “’It is the first principle of the gospel, to know for a certainty the character of God.’ That is more than saying it is the first principle to know that God exists. He doesn’t use the word existence at all in this context. You can’t find one argument in Joseph Smith for the existence of God. Why not? One answer: Because one does not begin to argue about a thing’s existence until serious doubts have arisen. The arguments for God are a kind of whistling in the dark. In the absence of experience with God, men have invented arguments to justify the experience of the absence of God.

“They have built a rational Tower of Babel, from which they comfort themselves with, ‘We haven’t heard from God, but he must still be there.’ But Joseph wasn’t speculating. He was reporting his firsthand experience. Prophets always have.

“’It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character [the personality, the attributes] of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another.’ That is the testimony of Joseph Smith from beginning to end. He is talking about all of us, now. A man, a woman-it is the first principle for any of us. That is where we begin.

“And lest we should say, as occasionally we do, ‘But his remarkable life and experience is utterly beyond my own,” we should note that Joseph said in 1839: ‘God hath not revealed anything to Joseph [calling himself by name], but what He will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them.’ Even the least Saint, I repeat.

The Prophet continued: ” ‘For the day must come when no man need say to his neighbor, Know ye the Lord; for all shall know Him (who remain) from the least to the greatest. Note that ‘all shall know him’ is different from knowing about him.” (Madsen, Truman G., Joseph Smith the Prophet (pp. 18-19). Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.

“Shall we not go on, in so great a cause?”

Cartoon: Any Questions

Cartoon: Valentine Dear John

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An Unforgettable Meeting in Africa with a Young Elder Thomas S. Monson

Cover image via LDS.org. 

In 1975, I was serving as a full-time missionary in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Africa, which at that time was part of the Johannesburg, South Africa Mission.  Our small town of Salisbury (now Harare) was located about 700 miles north of the mission home in Johannesburg, so transfers were typically handled by plane.  Visits from the mission president were usually months apart, since the missionaries were spread over an area the size of the western United States.

To say we were isolated is an understatement.  At that time there was only one mission in all of the African Continent, and the distance from our town of Harare to Cape Town, South Africa (also in our mission) was approximately 1,600 miles away.  This is about the distance from Tijuana, Mexico to Calgary, Canada.  Hence, such a transfer usually involved a flight and a three day train trip to Cape Town.  We had no cell phones, no faxes, no texting, no emails, and the only phone belonged to our land-lady downstairs.  Mail from the United States took almost a month to arrive, and so any letters were extremely outdated by the time we read the “current news” from back home.  We were grateful for a small LDS branch located in our town, but there were no stakes yet created in all of Africa.

It was in this context that we first learned that Elder Thomas S. Monson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was planning on a brief visit to our isolated African community as part of his mission tour.  We were elated.  Because of the size of the mission, such things as Zone Conferences or Mission Conferences were impossible,  and even interviews with the mission president could be months apart.

So it was with great anticipation that we drove one morning to the LDS chapel across town on the designated date and sat in one of the small class rooms awaiting our special visitor from Salt Lake City.  Our small district of 8 missionaries was sitting in a semi-circle when Elder Thomas Monson entered the room, accompanied by our beloved Mission President, Robert P. Thorn.  At that point in his ministry, Elder Monson had been serving about 12 years as an apostle since his calling in 1963, at the young age of 36.

After a song, prayer and some pleasantries, Elder Monson, then just 48 years old, started at one end of the line of missionaries and began asking some very pointed questions, customized by inspiration to fit the needs of each individual recipient.  I was amazed to note that each question was precisely what each respective missionary was struggling with in his own personal ministry.

The questions went something like this.  “Elder, have you told your companion that you love him?”  This was the only missionary in the room struggling with his relationship with his companion.  I was impressed.  As the District Leader of this isolated district of elders serving in the middle of Africa, I was privy to some confidential information due to my private interviews and exchanges with the elders.

A different question would then be asked to the next missionary:  “Elder, are you memorizing the lessons?”  This was the only elder in the room who refused to try to memorize the lessons, which was standard procedure in those days.  “Elder, are you exercising daily?  Then, “Elder, are you reading the scriptures every day? Followed by, “Elder are you saying your personal prayers every day?” This went on and on, with a little sermon and some loving advice shared by Elder Monson with each missionary after their honest and sincere answers to his queries.  No two questions were the same. Each question was tailor fit for the recipient, and to the best of my recollection, each question dealt with the single most important issue that the particular missionary was struggling to overcome or master.

 It was an electrifying experience to observe first hand an Apostle of the Lord walk into a room filled with missionaries he did not know, look them each in the eye, and then know exactly, through the Holy Ghost, with no hesitation whatsoever, the particular challenge that each respective missionary was struggling with and how to best encourage them to overcome their unique challenges.  It was an inspiring meeting never to be forgotten.  I still recall it as if it was yesterday.

That was the day when I first learned that Elder Thomas S. Monson was an inspired servant of the Lord.  What he did was not possible without divine inspiration.   We were sitting randomly in a row.  He had not met any of us previously.  He had other meetings before and after our brief encounter, and had a hundred other missionaries to meet on his tour.

That singular experience with a young Elder Thomas Monson in Africa has supported me through many callings of my own over the following years, including serving as a Stake President and Mission President.  I know and testify that these special witnesses are called by God to help build up the Kingdom of God on the Earth! Their counsel is inspired.  They know the challenges we face both individually and as a society.  Where we live is irrelevant.  Their love for us spans continents and oceans.  The rescue taught by Elder Monson for many years continues unabated.

As for me and my house, we love and miss President Monson, a true Prophet and Seer of the Lord!

Sincerely,
Mark Albright

New LDS Booklet: Adjusting to Missionary Life

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Cover image via LDS.org. 

A new booklet from the Church can help missionaries deal with stress. The booklet Adjusting to Missionary Life is available online, in the Gospel Library mobile app, or in print from store.lds.org.

Challenges in adjusting to missionary life are real—especially in the first few weeks and months of a mission. This resource booklet provides insight and ideas to help missionaries deal with the stress that they or their companions may feel as missionaries.

For example, the booklet suggests that missionaries take things one step at a time, not set too many personal goals all at once, and not expect perfection.

It also has a self-assessment that guides the missionary to ideas specific to his or her situation.

Cartoon: Road Kill

How Do You Get Them to Do All That?: The Miracle of the Church

Occasionally, with my tongue firmly lodged in my cheek, I’ll say: “This Church’s such a class outfit, I’d belong to it even if it weren’t true.” Then quickly add, “Of course, it’s a class outfit because it is true.”

Years ago while serving in the stake presidency of the Orange California stake, I received a phone call from a prominent protestant minister asking if I would be willing to share with him what our Church does to help its members prepare for emergencies. We met, and for all of five minutes we discussed the Church’s emergency preparedness program. Then my friend (and he did become my good friend) asked the questions he really wanted to ask.

“How do you get nineteen-year-old boys to give up schooling and their fun to leave their homes for two years at their own expense to teach people about Jesus Christ?” He went on to say that in his very large congregation there wasn’t one young man who would do this.

My answer was simple and direct. “This is the Savior’s Church, and to one extent or another these young men know that and want to do what the Savior wants them to do.”

He smiled and asked another question. “I know you don’t have a paid ministry. How do you get men and women to volunteer to spend the kind of time necessary to run your wards and stakes?” My answer pretty much parroted what I said before. Again he smiled.

He went on. “Is it true that every member of your church is visited each month by a representative of the bishop?”

This time I smiled. “Theoretically.” I explained the home teaching and visiting teaching programs and that most of our members are visited each month.

“How do you get them to do that?” he asked. “Is them being able to go to your temples the incentive?” With maybe a slight variation, I gave my same answer.

Then finally he said, “I understand your teenagers have some kind of catechism training on a regular basis. Tell me about that.” He was talking about seminary. I told him our young people attended classes to study our standard works, including the Bible, at 6:00 a.m. during the week.

His mouth literally dropped open. “Six o’clock? How often do they do that?”

“Five days a week,” I responded.

His head was shaking now. “How do you get teenage kids to get up for scripture study at that time of the morning five days a week?” He knew my answer.

After my friend left, I thought about the miracle of the Church; how easy it was for me, being smack dab in the middle of it, to take for granted the extraordinary thing I was part of. My minister friend saw it and was trying to find “practical” reasons for it. There was only one reason. And that was the one I gave him.

The Church is true.

For a long time, I thought about the Church and why it was a miracle:

The unfailing testimony of Jesus Christ in every policy, written word, and practice.

An organization that allows each of us to give meaningful Christ-centered service; to receive practical and spiritual support and encouragement from one another; to learn the doctrines of Christ; and, to receive assistance as appropriate to help meet our temporal and spiritual needs.

The latter-day scriptures including The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Book of Moses, the Book of Abraham, and the on-going word of the Lord given through his prophets to provide us up-to-the-minute direction and knowledge and encouragement.

The gift of the Holy Ghost. Through this reality alone I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. When I was eight years of age, my father laid his hands on my head and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Literally from that moment on and for the past sixty-seven years, the Holy Ghost has been pretty much my constant companion. My father had the power to bless me with that gift because the keys of that power were restored through the Prophet Joseph and passed on to my dad through the authorized priesthood leaders of the Church.

The ordinances of the holy priesthood as administered in our Churches and temples. From baptism and the sacrament, to the endowment and sealing, these ordinances are gateways that put us under covenant, bless us, and allow us to enter the presence of God and become one with Him. Through them we know who we are, why we are here, and what lies ahead. We have eternal purpose and are enabled to achieve it.

The binding of families eternally and the work of salvation for our kindred dead.

As I watched all of the sessions of conference this past week, time and again the reality of the miracle of the Church bore upon me. Apostles were called and sustained. Men and women of God spoke by the Spirit. Our prophet, encumbered by his aging body and mind, still witnessed of Jesus Christ, and admonished us to repent and be an example and a light.

As if to make certain that none of us who watched conference would forget the blessing of and need for the Church, Elder Christofferson, in the very last session, masterfully laid out why the Lord has established His Church. He said that for him personally, “the Church . . . has been a place to come toknow the Lord.

For me also, it has been a place where I have come to know the Lord.

And that is a miracle.

Missionaries Serving in Some Missions No Longer Required to Wear Suit Coats

Mormon male missionaries, or “elders,” are recognized in many parts of the world by their suits and black name tags. However, in some parts of world with hot climates, suit coats are impractical.

To reduce the financial burden on missionaries and their families, elders who are called to serve in missions identified by the Church as having hot climates will no longer be required to purchase or wear suit coats. Missionaries called to serve in these missions will be notified in their call packets.

See the list of the missions where suit coats are not required (PDF document).

Here is a sample of some of the missions on the list:

Update: Missionaries Return to Liberia

UPDATE (June 10, 2015)

Mission Calls to Liberia Resuming

Church spokesperson Eric Hawkins provided the following update today:

“Missionaries are once again being called to serve in the African nation of Liberia. Non-native missionaries (those from outside Liberia) will serve in surrounding areas until it is determined that it is safe for them to enter Liberia. We are touched by the faithfulness of the members in this region as they have continued missionary work in the absence of full-time missionaries. We know they will welcome the return of elders and sisters to their country.”

UPDATE (May 5, 2015)

Reestablishing Missionary Work

Ensuring the safety of missionaries is a top priority. Since the Ebola outbreak of last year, the Church has been monitoring the situation. When health officials declare that the region is free from Ebola, we will begin the process of reestablishing full-time missionary work in Sierra Leone and Liberia. While new mission presidents have been called and will begin on or about July 1 to initiate this process, it will be a gradual effort, and it may be several months before the infrastructure is in place and full-time missionaries are called to serve in these areas.

UPDATE (October 29, 2014, at 8:00 a.m. MDT)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shares in the growing concern across the world about the Ebola virus and is monitoring the situation carefully. Below is an update on how the Church is responding.

Humanitarian Efforts

In Sierra Leone, the Church is working with International Medical Corps to provide a local hospital with medical clothing and supplies to help care for patients. The Church continues to work through recognized relief organizations and on-the-ground partners to help communities in need.

Church Members

Church members in all areas are being encouraged to follow the health guidelines and recommendations given by local health officials.

In Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Church has provided its members with sanitation supplies, along with basic instruction materials that help teach sanitation. The Church has provided a two-month supply of food to members, some of whom are in quarantined areas, and to others in need. In many cases, members have shared these food supplies with extended family and neighbors.

Many members have also volunteered their own time to help spread awareness of proper sanitation practices throughout communities.

See also:

• Ghana Mormon Newsroom: Church Aids Latter-day Saints Affected by Ebola Outbreak
• Ghana Mormon Newsroom: Latter-day Saints Worship at Home during Ebola Lock Down

Missionaries

Missionary safety is a top priority. In areas where there is an increased potential for cases of Ebola, the Church has asked mission presidents to train missionaries in precautions they should take to avoid and prevent the spread of the disease. These include common sense measures and also more specific guidelines about contact with other people, symptoms to watch for and how to avoid situations with higher risk. The Church will continue to work with mission leaders and local members to evaluate these circumstances and, when necessary, will take steps to further protect missionaries from areas where their safety is in question.

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Missionaries Serving in Two African Nations are Reassigned (August 6, 2014, at 3:00 p.m. MDT)

All missionaries have safely departed from Sierra Leone and Liberia, and have been reassigned to other locations. Missionaries will be traveling to their new assignments over the next few days. When they arrive they will call their families to update them. All missionaries are safe and in good health.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a strong presence in Liberia and Sierra Leone, where thousands of our members continue to live, worship and serve. The Church, through its humanitarian programs and partners, is in the process of assessing needs and considering how to best support relief efforts to its members and the people of these countries.

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Missionaries Serving in Two African Nations are Reassigned (August 1, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. MDT)

Due to the outbreak of illness related to the Ebola virus, as a precautionary measure, all missionaries serving in the African nations of Sierra Leone and Liberia are in the process of being transferred out of these countries and reassigned to other missions. Ensuring the health and safety of our missionaries is our top priority. In recent weeks measures have been taken to reduce risk to missionaries, including asking them to remain in their apartments. To date, there are no reports of illness among the missionaries. Families are being notified as the missionaries arrive in their new assignments. This is a very challenging situation for the missionaries, members and citizens of these countries, and like other organizations, we are taking every practical step to reduce risk.