“Our Call to Share the Savior’s Gospel,” Liahona, July 2023.
Our Call to Share the Savior’s Gospel
As God’s servants, we are called to share the hope the Savior offers through His life, teachings, Atonement, and restored gospel.
As young missionaries in England, my companion and I taught a man who had experienced terrible, life-threatening events during World War II. He had been engaged in armed conflict on land and then survived a devastating attack to the ship he was on before returning home to England. When he finally arrived in England, he was so overcome with emotion and gratitude for having returned home safely that he knelt, kissed the soil, and offered thanks.
When we taught him the Restoration and described Joseph Smith’s First Vision, he wept. With tears in his eyes, he described the overwhelming witness he had received. He explained that the Restoration message gave him feelings similar to what he had felt when he returned safely to English soil. He felt that he had an eternal destiny.
“The restored gospel offers the very light God’s children need during tumultuous times,” says Elder Quentin L. Cook (top row, fifth from right), who served in the British Mission with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (top row, seventh from left).
Right: photograph courtesy of the author
Our Calling as Servants of God
As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are servants of God. As His servants, our mission is to share with others—like those I taught in England—the hope the Savior offers through His life, teachings, Atonement, and restored gospel (see 3 Nephi 27:13–14). That is not an easy task in a world filled with doubt, despair, and darkness, but the restored gospel offers the very light God’s children need during tumultuous times.
President Russell M. Nelson has declared that the world needs the gospel of Jesus Christ now more than ever: “His gospel is the only answer when many in the world are stunned with fear. This underscores the urgent need for us to follow the Lord’s instruction to His disciples to ‘go … into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature’ [Mark 16:15, emphasis added; see also Matthew 28:19]. We have the sacred responsibility to share the power and peace of Jesus Christ with all who will listen and who will let God prevail in their lives.” President Nelson added, “Each of us has a role to play in the gathering of Israel.”1
One way we fulfill that role is by accepting calls to serve as full-time missionaries. We know, as President Nelson recently emphasized, that the responsibility of full-time missionary work falls primarily to young men who have been preserved for the latter-day gathering. For them, missionary work is a “priesthood responsibility.” Though missionary work is optional for young women, President Nelson has asked them to ask the Lord whether He would have them serve as well. “What you contribute to this work is magnificent!” he has told them. And, of course, the Lord needs senior couples to serve as their circumstances allow. “Their efforts,” in President Nelson’s words, “are simply irreplaceable.”2
Another way we fulfill our role in gathering Israel is to remember our covenant to “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9). We do not need a full-time missionary calling to stand as a witness. As we live the gospel, love and serve others, stand strong in the face of temptation and persecution, and bear testimony in word and deed, we will draw others to Jesus Christ.
Sharing the gospel can be daunting, even for those who have already served missions. But when we have a strong testimony of the Savior and the Restoration, we cannot help but bear witness of what we know.
The Importance of Testimony
How do we strengthen our testimony so that we can become effective missionaries? We simply need to follow the counsel of our living prophet. Our testimonies grow as we:
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Accelerate our spiritual momentum.3
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Make time for the Lord.4
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Strengthen our spiritual foundation.5
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Let God prevail in our lives.6
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Hear Him.7
As we study President Nelson’s words and heed his counsel, we will strengthen our testimony of the Savior and His gospel, the role the Prophet Joseph Smith played in the Restoration, the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and the calling of modern prophets and apostles. A strengthened testimony will prepare us—and enhance our desires—to heed President Nelson’s prophetic call to gather Israel on both sides of the veil.
To share the gospel effectively, we don’t need to be a gifted orator. We don’t need to know every jot and tittle of gospel doctrine. We don’t need to memorize dozens of scriptures. We don’t even need to be highly educated. Those things help us share our message, but true converting power comes from a humble heart, a vibrant testimony, and an affirming witness from the Holy Ghost.
“No man,” said the Prophet Joseph Smith, “can preach the Gospel without the Holy Ghost.”8
“Fire in My Bones”
In 1830, after hearing missionaries teach the message of the restored gospel, Brigham Young wanted to know for himself the truth of what they were teaching. Methodically, he studied the Book of Mormon as well as the character of those who testified of it and of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Something about those early missionaries touched Brigham’s heart and soul. “Their testimony was like fire in my bones,” he said.9
One of those missionaries, Eleazer Miller, had been a member of the Church for only four months.10 He was, in today’s missionary vernacular, a “greenie,” and he was not a good public speaker. But those things did not matter.
Eleazer Miller
Years later, President Brigham Young declared: “When I saw a man without eloquence, or talents for public speaking, who could only just say, ‘I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true [and] that Joseph Smith is a prophet of the Lord[,]’ [t]he Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminate[d] my understanding, and light, glory, and immortality [were] before me.”
President Young said he was encircled and filled by that light and glory and that he knew for himself that Eleazer’s testimony was true.
“The world with all its wisdom and power, with all the glory, and gilded show of its kings and potentates,” President Young said, “sinks into perfect insignificance compared with the simple, unadorned testimony of a servant of God.”11
How Great Is Our Joy
The Prophet Joseph Smith declared, “After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel.”12
Honoring our covenants as members of the kingdom of God includes sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sharing the gospel is one of the highest expressions of loving our neighbor as ourselves (see Mathew 22:37–39). Sharing the gospel is the Savior’s great commission.
Those of us who have helped bring souls to Christ have tasted the eternal joy promised to those who labor to save God’s children (see Doctrine and Covenants 18:15–16). I still think back on my full-time service as a young missionary in England—the companions I served with, the people we met, the precious sons and daughters of God we helped bring into His fold. My life was never the same afterward.
From my personal experience, I echo the promise of the First Presidency to those who “bring the world his truth,”13 whether at home or abroad: “The Lord will reward and richly bless you as you humbly and prayerfully serve Him. More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among His children.”14