Holland - We Are All Enlisted - October 2011

Elder Holland speaks about missionary service.  He begins by reminding us of the First Vision and the effect that Satan had on the young Joseph Smith as he kept him from speaking before the vision.  He points out two realities of Satan that we need to be aware of.

• Number one, Satan, or Lucifer, or the father of lies—call him what you will—is real, the very personification of evil. His motives are in every case malicious, and he convulses at the appearance of redeeming light, at the very thought of truth.
  
• Number two, he is eternally opposed to the love of God, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the work of peace and salvation. He will fight against these whenever and wherever he can. He knows he will be defeated and cast out in the end, but he is determined to take down with him as many others as he possibly can.
  

Elder Holland talks about needing missionaries to meet the message of the restoration.  He speaks of the type of missionary that is worthy and willing to speak what the Lord instructs them to speak.

• I am looking tonight for missionaries who will not voluntarily bind their tongues but will, with the Spirit of the Lord and the power of their priesthood, open their mouths and speak miracles. Such speech, the early brethren taught, would be the means by which faith’s “mightiest works have been, and will be, performed.”

He speaks of being worthy to play for the Lord's team.

• In this battle between good and evil, you cannot play for the adversary whenever temptation comes along and then expect to suit up for the Savior at temple and mission time as if nothing has happened. That, my young friends, you cannot do. God will not be mocked.
  

He speaks of needing to prepare for service at younger and younger ages as Satan is tempting our children at younger and younger ages.

• The challenge is to have those deacons, teachers, and priests stay active enough and worthy enough to be ordained elders and serve as missionaries. So we need young men already on the team to stay on it and stop dribbling out of bounds just when we need you to get in the game and play your hearts out! In almost all athletic contests of which I know, there are lines drawn on the floor or the field within which every participant must stay in order to compete. Well, the Lord has drawn lines of worthiness for those called to labor with Him in this work. No missionary can be unrepentant of sexual transgression or profane language or pornographic indulgence and then expect to challenge others to repent of those very things! You can’t do that. The Spirit will not be with you, and the words will choke in your throat as you speak them. You cannot travel down what Lehi called “forbidden paths” and expect to guide others to the “strait and narrow” one—it can’t be done.
  

He speaks of the need for future missionaries and talks briefly about those that can't serve for health reasons.

• My young friends, we need tens of thousands of more missionaries in the months and years that lie ahead. They must come from an increased percentage of the Aaronic Priesthood who will be ordained, active, clean, and worthy to serve.
  
• To those of you who have served or are now serving, we thank you for the good you have done and for the lives you have touched. Bless you! We also recognize that there are some who have hoped all their lives to serve missions, but for health reasons or other impediments beyond their control, they cannot do so. We publicly and proudly salute this group. We know of your desires, and we applaud your devotion. You have our love and our admiration. You are “on the team” and you always will be, even as you are honorably excused from full-time service. But we need the rest of you!
  

The preaching of the gospel is the basis for all the other programs of the church.  We will not have people participating in Sacrament Meeting, Young Men's or Women's activities, or primary, unless first the gospel is brought to them by you and me and they are taught by the missionaries.

• Missionary work isn’t the only thing we need to do in this big, wide, wonderful Church. But almost everything else we need to do depends on people first hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and coming into the faith. Surely that is why Jesus’s final charge to the Twelve was just that basic—to “go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Then, and only then, can the rest of the blessings of the gospel fully come—family solidarity, youth programs, priesthood promises, and ordinances flowing right up to the temple.
  

He ends with a final challenge to all of us to speak up and share the gospel.

• From every man, young and old, who bears the priesthood, I ask for a stronger and more devoted voice, a voice not only against evil and him who is the personification of it, but a voice for good, a voice for the gospel, a voice for God. Brethren of all ages, unbind your tongues and watch your words work wonders in the lives of those “who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.”
  

Elder Holland invites us all into missionary service with his usual love and happiness.  This talk sets a clear standard of worthiness and expectation for all missionary service.  His bold speech leaves no chance for anyone to question what the Lord expects from those that go in His service.  It also leaves a charge for you and me to help raise the generation of future missionaries to be more worthy, more believing, and more in tune with the Spirit.  That is our charge and our challenge.