My mission

I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, 11 years ago, on Wednesday, 17 January 2001. During my three weeks there, several general authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke to us. But there is one talk in particular I will never forget.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve spoke to us on 30 January. I would liken his remarks to a pep talk for missionaries. I think he gives that talk—or similar talks—to missionaries pretty often. In fact, an article by Elder Holland entitled “Missionary Work and the Atonement” ran in the March 2001 Ensign shortly after I left the MTC and entered the mission field. His words in the article were very similar to those he spoke to us in the MTC—but the magazine says that the article is based on a talk he gave at the MTC on 20 June 2000. Yet whether his words were spoken just to us that evening or whether they have been repeated again and again to thousands of missionaries is beside the point. Either way, they were meant for us.

But there is one thing he said to us that evening that is not recorded in that very similar article that appeared in the Ensign. He said that everything in his life he owes to his mission. Here he was, an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, happily married with three children. The Church’s website lists his other achievements:

From 1980 until his call as a General Authority in 1989, Jeffrey R. Holland served as the ninth president of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He is a former Church commissioner of education and dean of the College of Religious Education at BYU.

A student leader and varsity athlete at Dixie High School and Dixie College in his native St. George, Utah, he received his bachelor and master degrees in English and religious education, respectively, from Brigham Young University. He obtained master and doctor of philosophy degrees in American Studies from Yale University.

Elder Holland was active in professional educational activity prior to his call to full-time Church service. He served as president of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities (AAPICU), on the board of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) and as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Presidents Commission. For his work in improving understanding between Christians and Jews he was awarded the “Torch of Liberty” award by the Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai B’rith. He has served on the governing boards of a number of civic and business related corporations and has received the “Distinguished Eagle Scout” award from the Boy Scouts of America. He is the author of eight books, one of which he co-authored with his wife, Patricia.

And yet everything in his life he attributes to his service as a missionary! I decided then and there that I wanted to serve a mission that would make it possible for me one day to attribute everything in my life to my service as a missionary.

More than a third of my life has passed since then. I was by no means a perfect missionary. Toward the end of my mission, I was seeking confirmation from the Lord that I had done what he had wanted me to do, in spite of my foibles. That answer came in December 2002, a month before the end of my mission. It was the last transfer (what we called the six-week period between transfer days) of my mission. It happened during the Saturday evening leadership session of the stake conference of one of the stakes I was serving in, the West Jordan Utah Stake. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (1917–2008) of the Quorum of the Twelve was the visiting general authority. Throughout most of the session, my companions and I had been sitting up on the stand, as we often did in our mission so members would realize that, yes, even in Utah there are missionaries. But when Elder Wirthlin was speaking, he presented some things on the screen using an overhead projector. So we could see better, my companions and I moved down to the front row with the rest of the congregation. Then Elder Wirthlin said that he wanted to ask the missionaries a question. Since we had moved, he wasn’t sure where we were, and everyone pointed to the three of us in the front row. He said, “Would the senior companion please stand?” Since I had been on my mission the longest, I stood. He then asked me a question, and I gave my answer. I don’t remember his inquiry, or even the subject (I assume it had to do with missionary work), and I don’t remember my response. But I will never forget what he said next. He announced, “Brothers and sisters, that is a great missionary!” After two years of service as a full-time missionary, an Apostle said that I was a great missionary. The Lord had given me my answer. I had served him well.

Four months after coming home from my mission, I returned to Salt Lake to attend the University of Utah. My first summer back in Utah I stayed with a family I had met in one my areas, the Fausetts in the Kearns Utah South Stake in Taylorsville. I never would have gone to the University of Utah had I not served my mission in Salt Lake first.

It was through the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics that I found my internship in Washington, D.C., which led to the job that kept me in D.C., which led me to Susan.

I can now say that everything in my life—my wonderful wife, my lovely daughter, my temple marriage, and where I am today because of those things—is the result of my mission. Just as Elder Holland said was the case in his life.