Referrals from Visitors’ Centers and Historic Sites Are Increasing

Referrals from North American visitors’ centers and historic sites have increased significantly in recent years, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said at a recent seminar for new visitors’ center directors and Missionary Training Center presidents.

“The efforts at our visitors’ centers and historic sites have begun to make a positive difference,” said Elder Oaks, citing a more than three-fold increase in the number of annual referrals received from these locations in North America over the past six years. “These impressive increases in teaching opportunities are especially significant when you know that the total number of visitors at our visitors’ centers and historical sites has not [significantly] increased and, in fact, was almost the same in the year 2001 (6.6 million) as it was in 1996 (6.3 million).”

Elder Oaks urged new visitors’ center directors to “double and quadruple the number of teaching opportunities we receive from our visitors’ centers and historical sites,” especially those received from Church members.

Elders Joseph B. Wirthlin and Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and several members of the Seventy also participated in training during the four-day seminar held 15–18 January at the Provo MTC.

“The best thing you have is your testimony,” Elder Wirthlin told the new leaders and their wives. Elder Wirthlin shared experiences that led to gaining his own testimony, as well as experiences from the lives of Elder Parley P. Pratt and President Heber J. Grant. Elder Holland shared his witness of the Atonement and of the importance of missionary work in a testimony meeting with the newly called couples.