At 84 years old, President Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told listeners at a Sunday devotional for young single adults that he is “growing old.”
“I have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel,” he said, lightheartedly. “So I don’t have a lot of talks left to give.”
Yet in that reflection, President Holland asked listeners to “indulge” him as he shared three of his youth’s most “pivotal moments” and experiences: his decision to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his commitment to schooling and education, and his marriage to his late wife, Sister Patricia T. Holland.
These moments, combined with many others, all led President Holland’s younger self “closer to Christ,” he explained. And as he shared them, he offered young adults counsel for their own lives, expressing to them his belief in their future and potential.
“I am totally convinced that it is the young adult age group of this church — single and married — that offers the richest resource we have anywhere,” President Holland said.
“Don’t wait. Strive every day to be close to Christ. Keep his commandments. And as we say in the church, be active.”
A decision to serve
President Holland recalled that his decision to serve as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ was largely influenced by the example of four friends — Stephen Jones, Wendell Gray, Mervin Cox and R.J. Snow.
“It was obvious that on their missions they had experienced a mighty change,” President Holland said. “They had come closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
But their example didn’t end with their missionary service, he explained. According to President Holland, these four friends — a few years older than him — led lives that “simply kept adding to the mighty change which the temple and their mission had begun.”
Thus, President Holland recalled thinking he wanted to become like them. “If that is what a mission does, making friends like this even greater disciples of Christ,” President Holland said he thought, “then I want to serve a mission.”
Recognizing many of the young adults in the audience have served missions, President Holland encouraged them to remember that while they were released from their full-time missionary service, they were “not released from (their) temple covenants nor (their) continuing conversion toward being more and more like the Savior.”
“No, in this church we believe in consistent, calculated, eternal progress,” he said. He explained this means that mission or not, school or not, employment or not, young adults should strive for continual progress and build on the “spiritual momentum” they gain, as taught by church President Russell M. Nelson.
“Things are just beginning to get exciting,” President Holland said. “(So) keep it up. Keep moving. Keep scoring.
“If one form of play got you the lead, well stay with it. … Don’t forget what got you and made you successful.”
President Holland urged listeners to continue progressing by practicing “spiritual habits,” such as prayer, temple worship and scripture study — especially of the Book of Mormon.
He expressed hope that as young adults follow this invitation, they will set an example that will inspire his grandchildren and the youth of the church at large.
An expectation to succeed in school
The expectation and “unwritten commandment” that he was to do all he could to succeed in school was the “second pivotal experience” that moved him closer to Christ, President Holland told listeners.
Yet, he explained the path he was to take in terms of a major and career was not always clear. In fact, it wasn’t until he was two semesters away from graduation that — after a “great deal of prayer and soul searching” — he was able to receive divine inspiration on what his major and next steps should be.
“(It) is amazing when you think about it,” he said, “(that) our Father in Heaven would reach down to grab me, an absolute nobody, and direct my early study, give me a major, lead me to a very specific graduate program and graduate school.”
With that experience, President Holland told listeners they need not panic if a path forward is not clear. Instead, he said, they should trust that as they seek to become “one with Christ” and build a relationship with God, they will receive guidance from him.
“That is what I wanted,” he said. “I didn’t care about a major, I wanted to be one with Christ and to do so I needed all the education I could get.
“(So), if you are trying to draw close to the Savior and you have a relationship started with your Father in Heaven and you are striving to improve every year, you can count on revelation to guide you.”
President Holland then encouraged listeners to be strong, patient and stay active in their commitment to Christ. He also encouraged them to learn and attain all of the education they could.
“We owe it to the great causes of life still before us that we get as much learning as we can get for as long as we can get it,” he said.
He added that education can come in “many different ways” and invited listeners to find their talents and “pursue their strengths.”
“It is doctrine in this church that every single solitary — one of us — has a gift and, sometimes, many gifts. Pursue your strength and decide what you want to do. Your future will unfold before you.”
President Holland then noted the success of church education programs, such as BYU–Pathway Worldwide, which is helping more than 80,000 people around the world have access to education.
“Be a learner,” he continued. “Know how to do things. Know that, especially in pursuing the work and the will of the Lord, the scriptures and the words of the prophets provide a syllabus that never grows old.”
A friendship of a lifetime
“The friendship of my life,” President Holland said, “(was) that of my beautiful, forever unequaled, recently deceased wife, Patricia Terry.”
He explained that “not only was she the inspired, perfect choice for marriage,” but that she was also — above all other influences — the reason he went on a mission.
Her example and commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ changed the trajectory of his life, President Holland said, and it also influenced their marriage.
“She was always ready to have both of us accept any calling that came in the church,” he said, “always ready to have family prayer and family home evening, even on a busy calendar. She had devoted all of her life to studying the scriptures, and paying tithing, and so on.”
With that, President Holland told listeners that as they draw closer to Christ — he who is their “ultimate companion” — God will one day lead them to the “most important friend (they) will ever meet and the most permanently influential mortal figure (they) will have in time or eternity.”
“That is the person you will marry,” he said, adding an invitation for listeners to not “underestimate” their influence on each other during their young single adult years of friendship.
He then taught every “ideal friendship” will be “enhanced dramatically” as couples and individuals keep trying to come to Christ, and testified of temple marriage, sharing how its blessings have comforted him since his wife’s passing.
“If I thought I was not going to see her and be with her in eternity, I would be inconsolable regardless of who tried to extend that consolation,” President Holland said. “I don’t think I would be anywhere near this pulpit. But I will see her, and if I am worthy, I will be with her in eternity.”
President Holland closed his message by inviting listeners to prepare for the future, and testified of Christ’s ability to “intensify the momentum” they already have in their lives as they strive to come unto him.
“I bear witness of him, the living son of the living God,” President Holland said, “(he) who, through his atonement and unfailing obedience to the father, makes our dreams a reality.”