Heart, might, mind required of leaders
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PROVO, UTAH
New missionary training center presidents and visitors center directors and their wives need to understand they'll be serving nothing short of a full-time mission over the next two years, said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.
On the first day of the seminar Jan. 13, participants of a three-day event were treated to two talks by Elder Holland at the Provo Utah Missionary Training Center — an afternoon address just for them, and then they joined the missionaries in the Missionary Training Center for his Tuesday evening devotional message.
"You're not 'kind of a missionary' — you are a missionary," said Elder Holland of their specific leadership calls to missionary training centers and visitors centers.
"It's the real thing. It's full-bore. It can't be three-quarters speed. As with all missionary service, this has to be with all your heart, might, mind and strength."
Speaking of his 48 hours in the Salt Lake City mission home before embarking on his mission to England as inspiring and life-changing, he encouraged MTC presidents to see the potential in all incoming missionaries.
"See yourself as having an impact with that missionary the first moment you shake that hand," he said, later adding, "The history of the Church is people like you having impact on people like me."
Elder Holland emphasized that visitors centers "are not museums" filled with interesting religious exhibits but rather a vehicle for the Spirit of the Lord to lead to a conversion.
"It's a missionary tool — keep thinking 'spiritual experience,' " he said. "You're not a public relations agent, you are a servant of the Lord with access to a great missionary tool."
Speaking of the importance of missionary work, Elder Holland underscored the ordinance of baptism. "We can't perform any other saving ordinance for someone until he or she has made the covenant of baptism," he said, explaining that the other saving ordinances — including priesthood ordinations and temple work — can follow only then.
Calling baptism the "gateway," Elder Holland added: "We have to do more to get people through that 'gate,' because as far as salvation goes, everything else is on hold for them until that covenant is made."
