Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. - Jer. 16:16
"In fulfillment of the all-important, God-given mandate, this great
missionaryT work has gone forward through the years unabated," Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Council of the Twelve said in the April 1974 general conference. "It is a dramatic chapter in the history of a `peculiar people.' But in all the annals of Christendom there is no greater evidence of courage, willingness to sacrifice, and unbounded devotion to duty. Men, women, and children all have joined in this heroic effort with no hope of material reward."These ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . have trudged through mud and snow, swum rivers, and gone without the common necessities of food, shelter, and clothing in response to a call. Voluntarily, fathers and sons have left homes, families, and jobs to go to all parts of the world, enduring great physical hardship and unrelenting persecution. Families have been left behind, often in dire straits, willingly laboring the harder to provide means for `their missionary.' And through it all there has been a joy and satisfaction which has caused families at home to express gratitude for special blessings received and missionaries to refer to this period as `the happiest time of my life. . . .'
"Why? What is it that brings forth such sacrifice of time, means, and comforts and sweet associations of home? Is it not the burning conviction . . . the personal testimony of the divinity of this great latter-day work . . . and the conviction that it is our mission to build and save men everywhere."