Pres. M. Russell Ballard and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland - October 22, 2020

Elder Marcus B. Nash: President Ballard and Elder Holland, it is such a blessing and privilege to be with you today.

President M. Russell Ballard: Thank you.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: Thank you.

Nash: Oh, thank you. I have a few questions that, as we have watched the missionaries, as we have been with the missionaries, we think are very appropriate to the time and circumstances of our missionaries. So, the first question: How, in your opinion, has the pandemic affected missionary work worldwide?

Ballard: Well, I’ll let my junior companion—

Holland: Listen, before we get into that question, I want to say the key—I want to say this to those missionaries. The key to great missionary work is to have President Russell Ballard as your senior companion. You’ve got it all done. It’s all over. Well, obviously, the pandemic has changed almost everything in our lives, culturally and across the land. And it’s changed missionary work. But we see remarkable things that are happening as a result of it. We’ve been more creative. We’ve gone to the Lord more directly, perhaps. And some of the things we’re learning regarding the use of technology and some of the things that have almost been required or forced upon us, if you will, are turning out to be remarkable tools that we will use forever now, long after the pandemic is over. So it’s changed it, but we’re finding the blessings in it.

Ballard: And I would add to that that sometimes these quiet times are a very, very precious moment in the life of a full-time missionary, because we are limited a little bit as to what we can do right now. They ought to maximize their devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ and do all they can to come to know Him, because it’s His Church that we all represent. We’re on His errand, and we should not lose one moment of building our relationship with our Father in Heaven and with the Lord Jesus Christ, which we can do as companions, as you can do sometimes when you can’t get out into the streets the way you would like to.

But we don’t waste time. We spend every moment trying to build our relationship with our Heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose Church this is. Because missionaries that have internalized that—missionaries that really know and have come to know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and our Savior and that they also know that the Father and Son appeared to Joseph and restored the fulness of the gospel—when that’s really down deep in missionaries’ hearts, then you teach differently. You testify differently. You’re much more bold in finding. Everything’s better when that’s been internalized in the hearts of a full-time missionary.

Nash: Thank you. Another question: during these unique and challenging times, what advice do you have for missionaries as they valiantly continue to invite and help others to come unto Christ? We’ve received some wonderful counsel already. Any additional counseling you have?

Holland: Well, President, let me offer that, for one thing, don’t get discouraged. I don’t know of any time that missionary work has been very easy. If you read these stories, I think we’ve got it pretty easy compared to some of the challenges these early brethren went through, whether it’s Book of Mormon people or Paul or even the early hours of this dispensation. So don’t get discouraged. And don’t feel like you’re being badly done by. This is the great delight of the work of the kingdom. This lets us stand with the ancients and the moderns who’ve done this work. So, I think there’s a great brotherhood and sisterhood in saying we’ve been out there and taken our stripes. We might not be shipwrecked with Paul, or we might not have an entire civilization turn against us, like Mormon and Moroni at the end of their service. But in our own small way, we can talk about valor. We can talk about devotion and working when it’s hard.

It just so happens—this is literally by coincidence, but my scripture study this morning happened to be in the book of Moroni. And I read a verse that I don’t think I’d ever read before. They keep putting those verses in there. I keep finding new ones. When you talk about continuing revelation, I didn’t realize it meant slipping them into the Book of Mormon. But here’s Mormon to his son when things are really, really bad at the end. You know how the civilization has been destroyed? And after he gives him some encouragement about laboring with them continually—I’m in Moroni 9, verse 4. “I am laboring with them continually”—with those that he’s teaching. And he says to Moroni, “Now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently.”

It doesn’t matter when we serve. It doesn’t matter what day or century or era or time. The work’s the same, and the call is the same, and we do the work the same. And you just put your shoulder into it and have this preparation that President Ballard has talked about. You know whose Church it is and why you’re called. And this is our time. We don’t look back to some other era and say, oh, gosh, they had it easy. They didn’t have it easy. And we don’t look ahead to some future time. This is our hour, and you seize every moment of it. It’ll be terrific. It’ll be your mission forever, and we can make it precious.

Ballard: Well, that’s all very, very good counsel from a great British missionary.

Holland: We’re British missionaries together.

Ballard: I think that the missionaries need to always be thinking about what their purpose is. Their purpose begins with internalizing, as I mentioned earlier, that this is the Church of Jesus Christ restored to these the latter days through the Prophet Joseph Smith. So, they would never go to the market and not try to talk to people about who they are and why they are there. They would never pass an opportunity in an elevator—or anywhere else—not to introduce themselves. And as missionaries become—I like to say, when they get it down here, then they can’t contain themselves from wanting to give it. So they become very bold, righteously and wisely bold in talking to people about the gospel.

Now, nothing is going to happen in missionary work till somebody is greeted and talked to by a missionary. That’s missionary work. It’s not just becoming a doctrinal expert by studying the scriptures and becoming masterful at that. Do all of that you can. But missionary work is finding people, teaching them, and preparing them for baptism. So, they’re thinking all the time, “How do I do that?” They do it everywhere they are. And they are watching just all the time for opportunities to introduce the gospel.

If we had a silver bullet that worked every time, we would’ve given it to the missionaries years ago. But they do have the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost is their companion. And if they will listen and they will watch, they’ll find people to teach. They’ll find people who want to know, “What are you young men and young women doing? Who are you? Why are you here?” Get out among the people. Serve. If you get a chance to work in the soup kitchens, and if you get a chance to do community service, and your mission president feels it’s safe and wise for you to do it, then do it. And when you’re out rubbing shoulders with people, what ends up happening after a little while, generally, they say, “Well, who are you? What is that badge you’ve got there on your lapel? What does that mean?”

Well, I just love missionary work, as some of you know, because we have the truth. We have the fulness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. And it’s been restored through a prophet, the Prophet Joseph Smith. Why wouldn’t we be, just, heralding this from every possible way when we’re on a full-time mission?

And using technology now? What a generation to be taught now and having to have another way to do it.

Nash: Yeah. Yeah.

Ballard: In our day, there was no such thing as—well, in my day—

Holland: No, my day too. 17:40

Ballard: —the dinosaurs were still on the earth when I was a missionary. It was a long time ago—over seventy years ago. We didn’t have all of the resources that missionaries have today. Use them. Be smart and maximize every minute.

Nash: Well, that’s a great lead-in to the next question. This is a marvelous discussion. I have to say that. How can missionaries best utilize the blessing of technology?

Ballard: Well, he knows a lot more about technology then I do. He’s younger.

Holland: I don’t. I’m the lead-in here to the real missionary. I do want to say to these missionaries that they are privileged beyond how much you know, elders and sisters, to have President Russell Ballard teaching you and talking to you today. He is among the greatest missionaries in this dispensation—I mean in this whole dispensation—and certainly has had a profound impact on me. I’ll just pause to say—I mean this about our companionship—I was a newly called General Authority. My first assignment was to England to be the Area President. And my contact in the Quorum of the Twelve was Russell Ballard. And he came, and we toured England day and night, night and day, rain and sleet and mud and rain, and loved every minute of it. And he taught me missionary work, and he’s teaching you, if you’ll be open to this and feel the Spirit of this. This is a great privilege to have Russell Ballard in this conversation. I just need to say that. He’s still my senior companion and always will be.

Now, your question about using technology. Clearly, the Lord is blessing us. Now, at the outset, I think every one of us worried, “What on earth are we going to do with the missionaries locked in an apartment?” And the members can’t do much with the missionaries. And we’re not even holding church. We can’t invite anybody to church. I mean, the first impression was, “This is just going to be terrible.”

Well, the fact of the matter is that in an increasing percentage of the membership of our missionary force, they’re having more success than they had before. Not in every case. But it’s building. It’s growing because we’re learning how to do this.

I had, just yesterday, a missionary mother reported to me that her son had just had three baptisms and has never, ever met the investigator, except on Facebook and Instagram and the kinds of things that we’re using. So, they’ve figured out how to do it. Bless those missionaries and bless those mission presidents. But three baptisms—I’d have crawled through all the mud of England to get to three baptisms. And he’s had three without ever actually having human contact with them.

So, my point is that’s the Lord’s blessing. We wouldn’t be smart enough to figure that out. It would be a crisis. It would be a limitation out of this pandemic, if it were just us doing it. But because it’s the Lord’s work, and because the Spirit will be with the missionaries and with the members and with the investigators, people are joining the Church. And that’s just the hand of the Lord. There’s no other expression for that. There’s no other reason for that. Because it’s still His work. He invented Facebook and Instagram and computers, and He knows all about how to use them for His work.

Just like President Kimball got off an airplane once and turned around and said to the missionaries, “How do you like my airplane?” Well, it was a 747. He didn’t have any such airplane in his possession, but he was making a point. He said, “I’ll let some other people use that airplane, but it’s my plane. The Lord has given it to us for the work.” Well, that’s true of computers and social media and things that are going to come yet in the days and years ahead. So let’s see this as a major step forward, not a step backward, and have the missionaries enthusiastic about it, have the members enthusiastic about it. We’ve got to have members involved in this, as we’ve always had to have, or we’re not going to get anywhere. So, this is a message to the members, as well as the missionaries.

Nash: Beautiful. President?

Ballard: Well, I think that’s very well said. I think we use every tool, every wise resource, that we have. And as long as missionaries can stay focused on that—their assignment is to find, and finding is made easier when they really know the doctrine, they know the gospel. Because when a missionary has internalized and knows what’s in Preach My Gospel as it relates to the message, and daily know the message—and not by memory, but they know how to talk to people about this glorious message of the Restoration—then they reach out, and they do whatever the Spirit prompts them to do.

Holland: I think one of the things we would say, Elder Nash, for these missionaries is that technology is going to be something they’re going to be living with and have been. They’ve come into their missions having used it in school and grown up with it. And they’ll certainly have it when they return. And I want to note that we’ve provided safeguards with, I think, a little safeguard booklet that’s available to all the missionaries to protect them and to protect each other. And that’s one of the reasons, by the way, we do things two by two, is that we’re helping each other about how we use technology so that we don’t get into any of the dark side and downside of this wonderful, marvelous tool. In the hands of the adversary and in the hands of less-than-valiant or -determined missionaries, this could be a tragedy. This could be a disaster. So, follow those safeguards in that booklet. Watch each other. And always do this together as companions and help each other in that regard.

And then enjoy the blessings of it, the fruits of it, on your mission and ever after. This will be something that missionaries can go home and, in time, teach their children and their children’s children about how to use a computer and how not to use a computer in terms of what’s available out there in the wrong hands. We just wanted to say that on probably enough that’s been said about technology now.

Nash: Thank you very much. Now, we know how important members are to this work. How can missionaries work with members more effectively?

Ballard: Well, I used to study that very, very carefully when I was mission president a long time ago. And I came to realize, and I think most mission presidents ultimately do, that missionary power alone is only going to develop—there seems like you hit a ceiling, and you can’t get above that. You can’t make a significant move up in finding, teaching, and baptizing more converts. But when missionaries are able to build confidence in the members that they are worthy, that they are working hard, that they can trust—the members can trust them with their friends, their relatives, or whomever they would like to see the gospel go to—when that happens and members see that they’re safe in moving friendships and associates’ names and even setting up appointments, even bringing people into their homes, that is a great day on a mission.

So, missionaries have to be everything that members envision that they are. And which means that we get up on time. We follow a program that makes us prepared for the day. We’re devoted totally to the Savior of the world, because we’re starting to learn for ourselves that He really is Jesus Christ the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind, and that this really is His Church, and that He really did, in the presence of our Heavenly Father, appear to Joseph Smith. And They did open the heavens again and poured out onto the human family the gospel, if they’ll just listen, if they’ll just accept it. And Doctrine and Covenants says that there are many who would join the Church, but they just don’t know where to find it. Well, we have it. Let’s let them not be looking. Let’s show them where it is. And we can do that with wise use of technology. We can do that with wise relationships with members. We can do that through our own individual finding ourselves. And missionaries must remember that they’re always, always finding. I mean, when they get up in the morning, that is always on their list of things that they’re going to do. They’re going to find every way they can. And, surely, they’re going to use all of the resources they can. That’s why this technology thing is such a wonderful thing—

Nash: Sure.

Ballard: —because they can communicate and can pep members up and get members to help them and others to help them. But they’ve got to be wise on it. And they’ve got to be spiritually in tune, because members are pretty smart. Members can sense whether or not missionaries have now really devoted themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they love Him, and they want to serve Him. And they want to bring souls unto Him, which is what He’s asked all of us to do. “Help them repent and come unto me,” the Lord said, “and then follow me, and I’ll lead you back into the presence of our Heavenly Father.” What a wonderful period. And the missionaries have got to remember that this is—18 months for the sisters or two years for the young men—may never, ever be a time in their lives again when 100 percent of their focus is on learning how to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I’d have to say, and I think Elder Holland would—I know what a great missionary he was in England. I was a missionary in England in 1948. That’s 70-some-odd years ago. And I would say, my full-time mission prepared me as well as anything that’s happened in my lifetime for me to fulfill the various priesthood callings and assignments I’ve had along the way. So, when I was 19 and 20 and 21, I was learning how to ultimately use the gospel in my learning how to communicate with people. And it was helpful when I went into bishopric. It was helpful when I became a bishop. It was helpful when I became a mission president and certainly helpful now as I think—What is it? Forty-five years I’ve been running around doing missionary work. These missionaries sometimes think they’re out there in the lone and dreary world all by themselves. No, sir. We’re out there with you. We’re right with you. We go out and we do all we can to try to share the gospel with others.

Holland: Let me add my second witness—that’s what companions do—that my mission changed everything in my life, or refined it, or altered it, or polished it, or did something to it. You wonder how, in 24 short months, all of that can happen, but that’s true of your mission, Elder Nash.

Nash: Yes.

Holland: It’s true of President Ballard’s and mine. And he helped shape my second mission. And the fact of the matter is I don’t think those missionaries—there’s no way these elders and sisters can understand yet what these months mean, what this period in their life means. It’s really when you get through and look back—now over years, over decades, you look back and say everything was altered and improved and emphasized all that was good in our lives. And you could go through the Quorum of the Twelve and the Seventy and every one of them would say the same thing. And we don’t want them to miss a day. We don’t want them to miss a minute of the good days, bad days, rainy days, snowy days, hot days, whatever. Just enjoy it all.

And the bit about the members: I think members have an immense amount of guilt. I think it’s easy for members to feel, “I should be doing more missionary work, and I don’t know how.” It’s not because they don’t want to. I think you could ask every member in this Church, more or less, if they wanted to be good missionaries, and they’d all say yes. But by and large, many of them at least—maybe not all, but many of them, most of them—would say, “I don’t really know how to do it.” And President Ballard has introduced such an easy way. It’s just—we’re supposed to be doing this in normal and natural ways, just conversational ways. And he’s made that conversational. You’ve just heard it. But think of the things that a member can share now that probably—you’re so young, Marcus, that I don’t know whether you count or not. But at least in our lifetime, there was nothing even remotely near anything called a Gospel Library.

Ballard: We didn’t have a plan.

Holland: We didn’t have a plan. No Preach My Gospel. It was “Go do the best you can, elders.” But think of the things you can share. Little vignettes from the Church library. There are videos. There are clips from conference. I mean, for a missionary to team up with a member and say, “Let’s share this little clip or this little idea with that nonmember that you know across the street, and we’re going to get that door open.” The resources are overwhelming. They’re just staggering about entrees.

Now, that isn’t the final message. The final message is what I’ve heard President Ballard say three or four times in this devotional. The final message is that the Father and the Son appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and we’ve got the restored gospel. But you’ve got to get in the door. You’ve got to get in and get it started somehow. And we have just got an abundance. We’ve got a blessing, like no missionary in an earlier day had, to get somebody’s interest. And you can think about the investigator. You can think about the person you want to teach and what’s right for them, what’s right for their children. You can tailor-make this. You can customize it.

See, I get excited, and I want to go do this over. I could be a lot better now than I was, I think, with all the tools that we have. So, turn that part of technology to our advantage. And by technology, I mean the storehouse that can be door openers, door approaches, first entrees, then get into the real message of the gospel and the Restoration.

Ballard: Good counsel.

Nash: Beautiful. And I just want to say one thing: members can join the missionaries in teaching a lesson through WhatsApp. Just join them on a video call.

Holland: That’s right. Do video conferences. And we’ve always said the most successful teaching is with a member present, and maybe it’s virtually now, but to have a member present is one of the keys that we know from Preach My Gospel. Get a member involved in the teaching experience.

Nash: Wonderful. How should missionaries use the Book of Mormon in their finding and their teaching?

Ballard: Well, here’s the man that helped write it right here.

Holland: Well, if you get us going on that, Elder Nash, you’re going to have to double the time on this devotional, because the Book of Mormon remains, continues to be, the single most powerful missionary tool God has ever given this Church. Now, it is not a coincidence, it is not by happenstance, that young Joseph the Prophet was told to not pursue any other gift. And he’s told, “Do not pursue any other revelation. Don’t organize the Quorum of the Twelve. Don’t call a bishop. Don’t get a revelation on tithing. Don’t organize young adult basketball. Don’t do anything until you get the Book of Mormon translated. And when it’s translated, 10 days later, we can organize the Church.” That’s not by coincidence. It is the single greatest tool that the Lord has ever given this Church because it has a spirit, it has a power, it is the revealed word of God. And to get it into people’s hands and to get them into that book is—there are other things you’ll have to do. There are other ways to help people. But that’s as fundamental and basic as has ever existed since Joseph went home and told his mother that he learned that Presbyterianism wasn’t the true church. And since we’ve had the Book of Mormon come in those years and the Restoration of the gospel, we just still don’t use it as effectively as we might.

Ballard: You know that the eleventh section of the Doctrine and Covenants is a wonderful experience with Joseph’s brother Hyrum. Hyrum wanted to get anxious and to get going. And the Lord cautioned him to wait until that which is translating, which was the Book of Mormon, was ready. Then he could move forward with more power.

Now, just think how hard it would be for us to try to witness to the world that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God without the Book of Mormon as an evidence that he was and is a prophet. The great power of the Book of Mormon, for me, is it’s the witness to anyone that you are talking to that we’re talking to you about God opening the heavens again and has raised up a prophet. And his name was Joseph Smith. And by the gift and power of God, he was able to translate the ancient record. And it’s the Book of Mormon, which is another testament that Jesus is the Christ. This is our witness we present to you, that what our message is, is worth listening to. We have a lot we’d like to tell you about the marvelous Restoration of the fulness of the gospel. But this book that we would like you to get introduced to, the Book of Mormon, is a witness of what we’re going to tell you is true. Wow. Just think. And the Lord knew that we’d have to have—I think we’d have to have something other than—

Holland: Yes, something.

Ballard: —just our voices. So He gave us another testament, another witness that He is everything that we witness and testify that He is.

Holland: Again, I don’t think the missionaries will understand this enough. This is President Ballard talking with 70 years of experience as a missionary and 45 as a General Authority. And he’s talking about something that’s in your hands. It’s evidence. You’re a lawyer—you used to be a lawyer, Marcus. You put all that behind you. But I think if we’re going into a courtroom, it’s important to have evidence. And this is the magnificent evidence that the Lord said. Look, you could conceivably go to somebody and say, “Well, I want to tell you about a vision. I want to tell you about a vision that a young man had.” And it’s true, but somebody might say, “Well, how do I know? I mean, who else had a vision?” And I think you can have a learner, a student of the gospel, even a serious student of the gospel, sort of groping to say, “Well, how do I get my arms around that?” Well, that vision, that reality of the Father and the Son to the Prophet Joseph, takes on real meaning when then you hand them 534 pages of documentation that you have to do something with.

Let me say this to the missionaries, you’ll find somebody that’ll disregard this, and they’ll have something negative to say about the Book of Mormon. And I want to say to those people: then you write one. If you’re so fancy and you’re so smart, you write me a tenth of it. If you can’t do 500 pages, do 50. I don’t believe anybody could do five and have it anything anybody would want to read. I tried to write something once and nobody would read it, even my mother. And I can’t stand to read it. What a witness—that’s just the right word; it’s the word President Ballard used—that this is evidence that God really did speak to that young man.

Ballard: Let me just share an experience I had as a mission president. My assistants had arranged for me to meet with a group of ecclesiastical leaders—that is, priests and ministers of all different religions. And I opened the meeting, after I had given them just a brief of what we’ve been talking about, for questions. The first question was asked, “Well, Mr. Ballard, if you’d just show us the gold plates, then we would know then that what you’re saying about the Book of Mormon is true.”

And I said, “Oh, Father”—he was a—that’s what their title was. “You know better than that. I could give you the gold plates, and you could hand them, and you could turn them one by one, and you wouldn’t know any more whether or not it’s the word of God than before. Have you ever read the Book of Mormon?”

“No.”

I said, “Do you have a Book of Mormon?”

“No.”

I said, “Well, my missionaries and I just happen to have a Book of Mormon for all of you.” There were about 30 priests there. And we passed out the Book of Mormon to them. “Now, you read the Book of Mormon, and then you’ll know what we’re trying to tell you about this book is true.”

So that’s the power of the Book of Mormon. The power of the Book of Mormon is getting people into it. It’s not just seeing how many Books of Mormon you can pass out. We went through a period in the Church where—I don’t know quite where it came from. But it was kind of a contest to see how many Books of Mormon you could place. I think we want to place Books of Mormon with a little understanding and follow up. That’s the way you find converts. You’re not going to just leave a Book of Mormon and bear testimony it’s true, and then hope that something else will happen. No. We try to teach enough that we can get them into the Book of Mormon, and even sit down and read a few, wonderful key passages to them that will touch their hearts. The Spirit will touch them. And then they’ll want to know more. They’ll want to have us back again. So, missionaries, the Book of Mormon is one of your great tools. It’s your companion that you carry under your arm that says, “Yes, what we’re doing is true, it comes from God, and that Joseph is the Prophet of this the dispensation of the fulness of times.”

Holland: President Ballard is—the missionaries probably don’t know—but President Ballard is the father of Preach My Gospel. That’s a product of M. Russell Ballard’s work in the Missionary Department in an earlier day. And he was sweet enough to include something, a comment, that I used to give to our missionaries. And that was: If you go back for that second lesson and one of the first questions you ask is “How did you enjoy the Book of Mormon?“—because that was in the first lesson. You introduced them to the Prophet Joseph and the Book of Mormon—and if they say they haven’t read it, which about a third of them or half of them or more are going to say—I don’t know how much. I hope none of them would say it. But a lot of them are going to say, “Well, we didn’t get a chance to. We didn’t get a chance to read.” I used to teach our missionaries to just throw a fit.

Now you have to be careful how that’s defined, because you have to maintain your dignity. But you’ve got to be a little devastated if somebody doesn’t respond to that book. After what you told them it was, the way it came, and what it meant, and angels appearing in our day, and the heavens opened, and you didn’t quite find time to read a page? Now, you have to be careful. You’ve got to be good about this.

But look, if you don’t care—I better talk to the missionaries. If the missionaries don’t care that the Book of Mormon wasn’t read, why on earth would that couple care? If it didn’t matter to companions Ballard and Holland when we walk in and say, “Oh, well, yeah. Let’s go on to the next lesson.” If it’s just ho hum, so be it—if that’s the reaction of the missionaries, you can’t expect more than that from the people you are teaching. If you’re a little devastated, they might say, “Maybe we missed something here. Maybe these two young whippersnappers really are serious about this.” And I just want to reaffirm that that witness—that it will matter to them if it matters to you. And we need to teach in a way that we show that all these principles matter—First Vision, Book of Mormon, Restoration of the priesthood, the kinds of things that we’ve come to teach. Those have really got to be serious with us if we expect it to be serious with them.

Nash: Yes.

Holland: End of sermon.

Nash: Wonderful sermon. While, President, it looks like you’re looking up a scripture, I’ll just say one thing. This just keeps percolating in my mind. You’d come back to that home, and they haven’t read it. Well, read it with them.

Holland: Read it with them. Don’t go on to another one. Don’t launch into the next, the other one. If they didn’t get the first one, read with them.

Nash: The Book of Mormon is a witness, it’s evidence, and it shapes the human soul. It has a unique power, as you’ve testified so beautifully. President, did you have something you want to add?

Ballard: I just think that sometimes we don’t realize ourselves the power that’s within the Book of Mormon. I would think that if a missionary had a chance, they’d want to—when they give the Book of Mormon—they’d maybe want to turn to 3 Nephi, and maybe the 11th chapter, and say, “This is what this book is about.” And just read the story of the Savior appearing to the people in the Americas. That alone will carry a powerful Spirit that will be with you every time, because that happened. And it is true. And it’s beautifully stated.

And I think every missionary sometimes misses opportunities to make the Book of Mormon come alive by not just using a few examples in the Book of Mormon. And if you understand it well enough, there will be examples that will be appropriate to the circumstance. But almost always, I think that 3 Nephi, the 11th chapter, is a pretty powerful spiritual experience to read to someone or have them read to you, and then to bear testimony that this is true. It’s right there in just one chapter.

Holland: Yes, let me just add a second witness to that idea, President Ballard’s comment, that if you know it and can apply it, this is going to come to life. This is going to be a living book. President Hinckley told the story. It was in the days when we were developing Preach My Gospel. And President Hinckley told the story, and I’ll try to shorten it. But the short version of a very moving, decades-long experience was the early days of Czechoslovakia when there wasn’t much missionary work going on. And they knocked on a door and got rejected—the missionaries. And the missionary was smart enough to put his foot in the door and say, “Why are you resisting our invitation to come in?”

And she said, “Because you’re a minister.”

And she said, “What do you have against ministers?”—Or the elder said, “What do you have against ministers?”

And she said, “Years ago, when my baby died, I went to church, and my minister said that not only was the baby in hell, but I was in hell because I didn’t have her baptized. And so I’ve never gone back to that church, and I’ve never talked to a minister since, and I’m not going to talk to you.”

And with his foot in the door, this elder said, “Do you want me to tell you where your daughter is?” And he opened the Book of Mormon to the eighth chapter of Moroni on infant baptism, on the horror, on the rejection of infant baptism. And that woman joined the Church and was instrumental in holding the Church together through those terrible World War II years. And the aftermath of communism for 70 years, the thread of people like that held the Church together in places like Eastern Europe till the missionaries could go back in.

But President Hinckley’s point was most missionaries wouldn’t have even known the eighth chapter of Moroni was in there. And that’s that coming to life that President Ballard mentioned—the applicability. Something you can find in a family, a child growing up, or a child on drugs, or a child who’s in the middle of a divorce or something—you’ll find something that’ll help in that book.

Nash: Wonderful. How do you feel missionaries are being impacted by all they’re currently being asked to do?

Ballard: Well, they ought to be excited that they’ve got something to do. When the alarm clock goes off, they put it always—the alarm clock’s never next to the bed. It’s always—

Holland: Go across the room.

Ballard: Somebody has to get out of bed and turn it off. And that’s a great principle. But once they’re up, what else is there for them to do but to waste and wear their lives out, bring into light the things of hidden darkness. That’s what the Lord asked us all to do. And that’s missionary work. So, I would hope we would never have any missionary anywhere in the world that would get up in the morning and be grumpy. My, oh my. If any of you there hearing this have ever been grumpy in the morning, get over it. Even if it’s snowing. You look out the window and it’s snowing, you get up and you say, “Wow, we get to be persecuted all day today. We’re going to be in a snowstorm.”

You’ve got to keep upbeat. Be upbeat. You’ve got the truth. You’ve got the fulness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. I can’t think of anything more exciting. I wish I knew then, when I was a missionary, what I know now. I would have been dynamite. I would have converted all of Nottingham and probably all of the Midlands.

Holland: If you’ll take me back, I’ll be your junior companion forever.

Ballard: Yeah, between the two of us, we would turn England around overnight. It’s enthusiasm and being excited about this. And that comes with your attitude and how you greet each day and how much you love the Lord. And if you’re struggling, if there’s any of the missionaries that are listening that are a little discouraged or you might even feel a little depressed or something, sometimes that happens. Well, get over it. And how do you get over it? You get over it on your knees.

May I say that again? You get over it on your knees and talk to your Heavenly Father. And tell Him you need a little help. And He’ll give you the help you need. And then you trust in the Lord. And you just think what a privilege is mine for the balance of my mission to step into that lone and dreary world and witness and testify that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He who came to earth, took upon Him all of our sins—those who would repent—died on a cross, all for us. And here you are having an opportunity for 18 months, you dear sisters or you elders, to testify and witness of His divine mission. That’s what we are.

And you ought to remember that the General Authorities of this Church are, number one, missionaries. That’s what we are. You may call us Seventies. What are Apostles? Apostles are missionaries. We’re to carry the good news to the ends of the earth. And we can’t get in airplanes right now, but I want you to know that I’ve been in Zoom meetings in the high Andes of Cusco in Peru, and all over South America—

Nash: All over the world.

Ballard: —and Asia and Africa. And I’m 92 years old now. So, in a lot of ways, it’s not bad to be able to do that on Zoom. I’ll let all you young guys run around on the airplanes once we can do it again. But, elders and sisters, love the gospel, love the Lord, love this opportunity. Don’t lose a minute of giving it all you’ve got. And you will be so pleased all the rest of your life to reflect back on the great days when you served your mission. I think we would both say those were great days.

Holland: Absolutely. Absolutely. They’ve got to understand that and not miss a day, not miss an hour. We don’t need 12-month missionaries or 15-month missionaries or 8-month missionaries, meaning they finally got it about halfway through. We want 24-month missionaries and 18-month missionaries in those elders and sisters. Just don’t miss a minute. And when you talk about how much is being asked, Marcus, Elder Nash, they’ve got—Look. We were back in a day when there wasn’t very good transportation. Nobody got to call home, ever, for any reason. In fact, if you wrote a letter, it might take two weeks to get there or get one. And we did write letters. But the health, the medicine that’s available, the transportation and communication, almost everything about our world is better just even in our lifetimes and yours for the missionaries that are out there now. So, I’m not going to be too impressed with somebody who says they’ve got too hard a mission or too difficult a challenge. They could listen to the old-timers. We’ll tell you how really tough it was. You know, going uphill to school both directions, you know, that kind of thing.

Nash: President Ballard and Elder Holland, thank you from the bottom of my heart. It has been a privilege to be here for this magnificent opportunity to sit at the feet of two of the great missionaries in this dispensation. You bless my life and the lives of our beloved missionaries. Thank you.