PROVO, Utah — The "grand theme of our message," President Gordon B. Hinckley told new mission presidents June 25, is "that God has revealed Himself to men, that He has spoken and introduced His beloved Son.

President Gordon B. Hinckley addressed newly called mission presidents and their wives June 25, two days before dedicating the Nauvoo Illinois Temple.

"There can be no greater declaration than this."

Addressing 129 newly called mission presidents and their wives at the Provo Missionary Training Center, President Hinckley was the first speaker during the four-day 2002 New Mission Presidents Seminar. In his remarks, the Church president assured them of his love and of prayers on their behalf. He acknowledged their sacrifice in accepting their calls.

"You follow a long tradition of men and women who, in response to the calls of the Church, have left whatever they were doing and gone into the mission field. Thank you very much for your willingness to serve, for your prayers unto the Lord to bless you and make you equal to the responsibility."

He spoke of the dedication of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, which occurred two days later on June 27. (Please see June 29, 2002, Church News.) "As I've thought about Joseph Smith and his associates who originally built that temple and of the circumstances surrounding its construction, I've reflected on the great sacrifices which have gone into the building of this cause and kingdom."

President Hinckley spoke of early missionary efforts to Canada, then of the 1837 call by the Prophet Joseph for Heber C. Kimball to undertake a mission to England. "A few associates were called to accompany him. You're familiar with that history. Our people were literally in poverty. . . . Leaving sick families with practically nothing on their backs and nothing in their pockets they made the long journey to England."

Great success followed their efforts, he added, speaking of emigrants from the British Isles and from other parts of Europe traveling across the seas to Nauvoo, which was settled after the Church was banished from Missouri. Although Joseph and Hyrum were killed, the work continued. "When the work was established in these western valleys, missionary work continued. Groups were traveling both ways across the plains; missionaries going eastward and converts coming westward."

President Hinckley shared the historical account of a small girl whose father was called to serve a mission in Denmark in 1860. The girl watched as her mother toiled to support her children while her husband was gone for four years. She wrote how her mother wept because the children had nothing for the Christmas of 1862 except for slices of an apple.

"Fortunately, those days are behind us," President Hinckley said. Now, missionaries are relatively comfortable. Those who preside have good homes and apartments in which to live, he added.

"But the work will not be easy. It will be strenuous. It will be demanding. It will require all of your best efforts and your deepest searching prayers. . . . But it is the Lord's work in which you will be engaged, and the enemy of all righteousness will try to frustrate their efforts and will try to frustrate your efforts."

President Hinckley told the new mission presidents and their wives that they will be "part of a great miracle that goes on constantly in this Church. While preparing this talk, he related, he looked out his apartment window in Salt Lake City and saw two missionaries "climbing the hill in the heat of the day. I do not know where they were from or who they were going to see. But it was evident that they were about their duty. The heat did not deter them. The hill they were climbing was not an obstacle. They were on their way to teach somebody, and how absolutely miraculous is the fruit of their service. A miracle which you will see as you serve."

To illustrate this miracle, he related the account of a young mother in England who lost her husband in a tragic accident. A declared atheist, she was in despair and struggled even to care for her children. Then one day two missionaries knocked on her door, bringing her the gospel — and hope. Gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon, she joined the Church. "My heart was filled with joy. I began to live again," she said.

A year later, she and her children went to the London England Temple where she was sealed to her husband and their children to them.

"Now, my brothers and sisters, isn't that a story of miracles? I believe it is," President Hinckley said. "You will see things as miraculous as that. You will absolutely marvel at some of the things you will see and some of the experiences you will have.

"Brethren and sisters, this is the work of God in which we are engaged. It is His work, a part of His eternal plan for the blessing of His sons and daughters of all generations of time. This is the dispensation of the fullness of times when all of previous dispensations [have] been restored and added to in this dispensation. Jesus Christ is His beloved Son, the first-born of the Father. He left the royal courts on high and came to work, to walk the dusty roads of Palestine. He gave His life on Calvary's Hill to atone for the sins of all of us, to give assurance of the resurrection to all men and to offer a plan under which those who walk in obedience might go on to exaltation and eternal life.

"The Father and the Son appeared to the Prophet Joseph, a 14-year-old farm boy and parted the curtains which led to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel. . . . There is no greater message we can give than of the living reality of God our eternal Father and His beloved Son and that they have spoken again in this time of history. You and I both know these things are true. Now we are sent forth to communicate them to others. Most will reject them. But there will be a soul here and a soul there. A family here and a family there will accept the message. With proper teaching, they will enter the waters of baptism.

"With proper nurturing and care, they will become strong and faithful members of this Church, the beginning of Latter-day Saints. Such is our task, such is our responsibility. Such is our opportunity."