New Mission Presidents Instructed

“Each of you will have a wonderful experience and work very hard, perhaps harder than you have ever worked in your lives, but you will gain deeper satisfaction as you do so,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley to new mission presidents and their wives at the annual seminar for new mission presidents held the last week of June at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. “Your burden will be lightened by the Spirit of the Lord. You will be motivated by that Spirit, and you will do things you thought you were never capable of accomplishing.”

Suggesting five principles for effective missionary work, President Hinckley said, “I don’t hesitate to promise that if you observe them, you will be blessed in your work and in your ministry.” The principles included working with an eye single to the glory of God, practicing and teaching effective habits of study and work, observing habits of personal safety and welfare, having love be the lodestar of their lives, and living close to the Lord at all times and in all circumstances.

“Draw near to the Lord and make Him your constant source of strength,” President Hinckley said. “I know as you do that, there is joy in this service that can be found nowhere else.”

During the week-long seminar, Presidents Thomas S. Monson, First Counselor, and James E. Faust, Second Counselor, of the First Presidency spoke, as did several members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Presidency of the Seventy.

“The promise I want you to carry in your minds and in your hearts and to instill within your missionaries is in the 84th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 88,” said President Monson: “‘I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.’ On disappointing days, if you just read that promise, the Spirit will enlighten your soul and you will be doubly prepared to move forward with that great band of missionaries.”

Talking about cooperation between stake and full-time missionaries, President Monson said, “I maintain that no mission will achieve its full potential unless it has a cooperative effort with the members of the Church in bringing that about.”

President Faust expressed how, in selecting mission presidents, one question was particularly meaningful: “Would I wish my son or grandson to serve under that mission president and his wife?” He then discussed his hopes that mission presidents and their wives would help their missionaries acquire a testimony of the Savior’s Atonement and of the mission of Joseph Smith and develop traits of honesty, courage, and obedience.

New mission presidents who attended the annual training seminar are now serving in some 39 lands. (Photo by John Hart, courtesy of Church News.)