Inviting the Savior In

By Elder O. Vincent Haleck

Of the Seventy

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him (Revelation 3:20).

Illustration by Jennifer Tolman

When I was a boy, at Christmastime my mother put out a picture of the Savior knocking at a door. We weren’t members of the Church yet, and I always asked myself, “Why is Jesus knocking on the door? Who is on the other side?”

A few years later I discovered there was no handle on the outside of the door the Savior was knocking on. The person on the inside needed to open the door. Now I know who is on the other side of the door. We are! The Savior is knocking, and we all have to open the door and invite Him to come into our lives.

When I was a teenager, I decided to invite the Savior into my life by being baptized and becoming a member of the Church. My friends were good examples to me. So was my grandmother. She was a temple worker in the Los Angeles California Temple. She would leave our house at 4:00 in the morning to serve the Lord in the temple.

Just two years after I was baptized, I decided I wanted to serve the Lord as a full-time missionary. On my mission I helped many people learn about the Savior so that they could invite Him into their lives.

Later I served as a mission president in Samoa. I always asked new missionaries when they decided to serve a mission. Many said they were in Primary when they decided to serve!

Primary will help you prepare for missionary service. Learn as much as you can. Set a goal to serve a mission. Then you too will be able to help people invite the Savior into their lives. Being a missionary will change your life—it changed mine.