President Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told Latter-day Saint youth in a worldwide devotional broadcast that he is “more certain than anything else” he knows in this world that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that it is “the way to peace and salvation.”
“I know that Joseph Smith, exactly the age some of you are now,” he said, “saw God, the eternal father, and his son, Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of Mormon is the most important book I have ever read in my life, and I’ve read a lot of books.”
And all these things he knows, the apostle continued, “because I’ve tried to look to God in every thought.”
“I’ve tried to pass by my questions to find them answered later in virtually every instance,” he said. And “I’m not fearful for the future of this church because of you.”
In the devotional broadcast, made available to youth and youth leaders worldwide on Sunday, Oct. 26, President Holland reflected on the 2025 youth theme, “Look unto Christ,” and extended youth the invitation to “doubt not, fear not.”
His remarks were prerecorded from the visitors’ center of the Kirtland Temple and were coupled with a joint message from Young Men and Young Women general presidents Timothy L. Farnes and Emily Belle Freeman.
‘Doubt not, fear not’
Recognizing there are things an “old duffer” like him has learned in his years that the youth have not yet learned in their days, President Holland discussed the different stages of a Latter-day Saint youth’s progress and the decisions they will be called to make.
A youth’s young men and young women years should be some of the happiest in their entire life, he said. “But already in that journey, we begin to face life-shaping, future-shaping activities and decisions.”
These include decisions on church and school participation, friends, dating, making covenants in the temple and preparing for missionary service, said President Holland.
He then paused a moment to speak on the impact of his own missionary service and said: “The decision I made to go on a mission was the most life-changing, world-shaking experience I had ever had. … Every good thing that has happened to me since then has come through that portal of my two year service in Great Britain.”
So, “if I can talk to you about a veritable pot of gold at the end of your rainbow, it is that combined experience of receiving your temple endowment and going on a mission,” he continued. “There are lots of reasons for this, but at the top of the list is that it is God’s work. He already knows you, and perhaps for the first time in your life, you get to know him.”
With this outline of a youth’s “decade of decision,” President Holland then highlighted the importance of Christ’s invitation — as recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants — to “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”
“Doubt not,” he said, is “one of the most important lines of scripture we could give a young man or young woman in this current decade of decision, or any decade.”
Even currently, he continued, there are adults who are “doubting needlessly, recklessly and in the end, fatally — spiritually speaking.
“Whether young or old, some are walking away from saving ordinances and eternal covenants for which Christ died and by which we have promised to live.”
As for Christ’s invitation to “fear not,” that one addresses “perhaps the one temptation we can all identify with,” President Holland said.
“Every single one of us have reason to feel fear sometime,” he said. But President Holland added an invitation to trust, saying:
The church’s leaders, “your parents, your advisers and teachers — even an old, old great grandfather like I — we’ve learned things in our years that you’ve not yet had a chance to learn in your days. Please trust us. Please understand why we spend hours and hours doing this voluntarily. Please know we have walked the same path you are walking and faced the same issues you are facing.
“Look unto God. Don’t let doubts obscure your way. Fear not.”
The relationship between looking unto Christ and repentance
Also speaking from the grounds of the Kirtland Temple, Young Men and Young Women general presidents Farnes and Freeman reflected on this year’s youth theme, “Look unto Christ,” sharing their learnings and inviting the youth to reflect on theirs.
“When we turn to Christ, we repent in every small and simple way,” President Farnes said. “As we read our scriptures, as we say our prayers, as we think kind thoughts and do kind deeds, we’re actually repenting. And I think oftentimes the struggle we have with repentance is when we don’t fully turn.”
President Farnes explained that the joy of repentance comes as individuals “turn fully to the Savior,” taking small and simple steps toward him.
And if individuals do that, added President Freeman, “if we choose to do that and let him direct our steps, miracles will happen (and) amazing things will happen in our life.”
Later in their message, presidents Farnes and Freeman listed examples of steps the youth may take to look unto Christ. These included starting the day with prayer, studying the scriptures, worshipping in the temple or becoming temple worthy, engaging in family history work, preparing to receive a patriarchal blessing and living in a way that invites the presence of the Holy Ghost.
“As we feel that constant companionship (of the Holy Ghost),” said President Farnes, “we’ll feel the resolve to more fully turn to Christ.”
‘Grab your shovel’: Learning from Hyrum Smith’s example
In their message, presidents Farnes and Freeman also turned to the example of Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith’s brother, and the early Saints when they were instructed to build the Kirtland Temple, the first temple built since the restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“At this time in the work of the church and the building up of the kingdom, the Saints were being really persecuted,” President Freeman said. “It was a time of doubt and fear for the Saints, and I think they probably had to be daily making that decision to turn again and look to Christ, to remember that was their cause.”
President Freeman then recounted the start of the Kirtland Temple’s construction, noting the early Saints’ readiness to build the temple so they could receive God’s promised “endowment of power.”
Yet as excited as everyone was, she said, Hyrum Smith was “probably the most excited.”
“He ran home to get a tool to help and went running back out. And (when) his mom asked where he was going, … Hyrum said: ‘We are preparing to build a house for the Lord, and I am determined to be the first at the work.’”
The building up of the Kirtland Temple became “his purpose, his work and his cause,” President Freeman added. “And I love that enthusiasm. I love that looking unto Christ overcame that doubt and that fear of everything that was happening … (and that) taking that next step toward the Lord included grabbing a shovel and getting to work.”
With this anecdote, President Farnes then said to the youth: “So, what’s your shovel? What are you gonna do to begin with that kind of enthusiasm?”
“We invite you now today to take that charge,” he later stated, “to take his name more fully upon you, to look unto Him in every thought.”
At the close of the devotional broadcast, a slide invited listeners to reflect on how looking to Christ has helped them in times of need and what specific actions they can take to continue to look to him.
“I know that Jesus Christ is our strength, and I know that the Holy Ghost will not fail us,” President Freeman said. “If we listen and respond to his promptings, then we will be led to look unto Christ in every thought.”