PROVO, UTAH

Photo by Scott Lloyd

Addressing the seminar for new mission presidents, President Boyd K. Packer urged the leaders to "be prayerful," and to "worry a little if you want, but only as a gesture."

President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve counseled newly called mission presidents and their wives about the need for and nature of revelation.

Speaking June 26 at the 2010 Seminar for New Mission Presidents, President Packer said of revelation, "You are going to have a constancy of it if you will learn to detect when it is happening. It comes so delicately and silently that you may miss the first intimations of that sacred whispering that tells you what to do and tells you what not to do."

He told the missionary leaders they will have many experiences that typify what was reported in Alma 26:27. The chapter relates Ammon's words to his missionary companions, recalling that when they were depressed, the Lord comforted them, telling them to bear their afflictions with patience and go among the Lamanites and they would have success.

"When they were depressed they would simply pray, and the power of inspiration would come to them," President Packer commented.

"You will learn from your experiences, many of which will not be pleasant, that 'it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things,' as Lehi taught," he said.

"When you are looking at it practically, it could be enough to frighten you," he said, "but I think there could not be a confrontation that would give you any substantive fear. If it does, you push it aside."

To mission presidents' wives, President Packer said, "You have that tender heart and you have an insight, a spiritual insight superior to that of your husband. We do not like to admit that, but it is true."

He added, "The power that you bring and the steadiness that you bring will see not only you but also the missionaries and your husband through these very troubled times. You will see what those who have gone before have suffered so much and built for you."

He admonished, "You brethren take care of your wives, and you wives reassure your husbands. You have the steadiness and the power that is going to see you through."

President Packer counseled the couples not to worry about their families and things at home. "Be prayerful and worry a little, if you want, but only as a gesture," he quipped.

He said that when troubled times come in the areas to which the mission presidents are assigned, "you will stand in awe at the power of revelation that you carry with you. We know that you will be a seer insofar as your mission is concerned, but a lot of times you will be able to see more by looking backwards and understanding that that could not have happened unless there was a managing of events bringing it together to cause it so that the Lord's servants and the Lord's work would go forward."

President Packer cited Doctrine and Covenants 88:78, which promises the Lord's servants that His grace will attend them and they will be taught more perfectly.

"How are you taught?" he asked. "You feel it. If you can understand those delicate inspirations that come, you will have a comfort and a power that will cause it to be that you will not fear. Once in a while, a mission president fears more for one of his missionaries or one of the members than for himself. But this is the Lord's work, and it is incredible that as Latter-day Saints we are caught up in the thick of thin things and really are not quite sensitive when the Lord is speaking to us."

He gave this assurance: "The eternal purposes of the Lord will roll on, and they will not be thwarted, and you cannot be thwarted."