Gospel topic
Jeffrey R. Holland's Hospitalization & Aftermath
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As we celebrated Thanksgiving
Elder Dale G. Renlund
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of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Another experience began 48 hours after my wife’s burial. At that time, I was rushed to the hospital in an acute medical crisis. I then spent the first four weeks of a six-week stay in and out of intensive care and in and out of consciousness. Virtually all my experience in the hospital during that first period is lost to my memory. What is not lost is my memory of a journey outside the hospital, out to what seemed the edge of eternity. I cannot speak fully of that experience here, but I can say that part of what I received was an admonition to return to my ministry with more urgency, more consecration, more focus on the Savior, more faith in His word. I couldn’t help but feel I was receiving my own personal version of a revelation given to the Twelve nearly 200 years ago: “Thou shalt bear record of my name … [and] send forth my word unto the ends of the earth. … “… Morning by morning; and day after day let thy warning voice go forth; and when the night cometh let not the inhabitants of the earth slumber, because of thy speech. … “Arise[,] … take up your cross, [and] follow me.” My beloved sisters and brothers, since that experience, I have tried to take up my cross more earnestly, with more resolve to find where I can raise an apostolic voice of both warmth and warning in the morning, during the day, and into the night. ... I bear witness that when Christ comes, He needs to recognize us—not as nominal members listed on a faded baptismal record but as thoroughly committed, faithfully believing, covenant-keeping disciples. This is an urgent matter for all of us, lest we ever hear with devastating regret: “I never knew you,” or, as Joseph Smith translated that phrase, “[You] never knew me.”
President Jeffrey R. Holland
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of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles One of President Holland’s messages for youth was that his health challenges of 2023 — he was often unconscious for a full month and nearly passed away — are proof of miracles. “I want the young people to know there are still miracles in this Church,” he said. “The miracle that I represent in the restoration of my life is as real as any miracle in the Old Testament or the New Testament or the Doctrine and Covenants or the Book of Mormon. Miracles still exist.”
President Jeffrey R. Holland
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of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Wherever I go and wherever you are, we find people who've had disappointments. We find people who've had heartache. We see things that are broken in our life. It's a little bit like having your great-grandmother's precious piece of china saved on the trip over from England two centuries ago. And suddenly you have an accident in the home. And that little piece of china is broken. Almost it would appear to be irreparable. You couldn't get it back. Well, in the gosepl of Jesus Christ, you get it back. And things are broken regularly. It takes broken clouds to nourish the earth. It takes broken earth to grow grain. It takes broken grain to make bread. It takes broken bread to feed us. These are the cycles of life. Like that parable the Saviour taught where he said, unless a man cast away his kernel of corn - corn being the translation for wheat - let's say, cast it away in the spring, he won't have that harvest in the fall. And that's the way it is with us. We have to manage this and live with it. And when there's a broken dream or a broken marriage, broken unity with the children in the family, well, there's an answer to that. We can survive that. It's going to grow. If we live the gospel, plant that seed it's going to come back to us at harvest time rich and abundant, and it will be better than it was before. One of the reasons that it works is because we offer a sacrifice that's also broken, and ours is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. If we will be that humble, which is one of the lessons I thought I was being taught in my hospitalization, if we could be more humble, if we could be more like a child, if we could be more receptive to the Spirit of the Lord, we're going to be healed too. We're going to be put back together. Marriages will and families will and financial challenges will. They'll all be improved finally to perfection and that's what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers. Through the Saviour's atonement, through His sacrifice for us, our sacrifices, little as they are, our sacrifices then take on real meaning, and a broken heart is given back to us. And we will have the stature and the dignity and the faith and the purpose of someone who's better than they knew they were, better than they thought things could be. And that all comes from a little parable about throwing away a kernel of corn. And we reap the benefit of a saving, loving, atoning Jesus Christ who accepts our gift and gives it back. And we're renewed. We're born again. We're whole and complete and powerful as long as we live that gospel principle that brought us there.
President Jeffrey R. Holland
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Emeritus General Authority
Elder David F. Evans
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of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Elder Neil L. Andersen: President, you have taught our quorum a lot about prayer. Even all of us who pray very, very much and constantly. What would you teach us about prayer today? President Holland: In our last general conference, I spoke about prayer. I had had a near-death experience. For four weeks, I was somewhere with a foot in another world. And the two lessons that I was given there and, in effect, told to take back to the Church. And now I speak as much more to adults than the children. And those two lessons were "Pray more than you pray." And I thought I prayed all the time, more or less. But the lesson was "pray more than you pray." However much you've prayed, pray more." And in however many places you've prayed, pray in more places. However many times during the day you pray, pray more times in the day. And it started to give meaning to me, an overwhelming meaning to me that there really was significance. There really was meaning. It was quite literal when God had said, "Pray always," Pray always. And I thought that meant just kind of be serious about it. Well, it is to be serious about it—and a lot more. I took that to be part of this hastening. The hastening of the work, the hastening of family history and every other aspect of our work, missionary work and all else. But we're to do this that you portrayed, Neil. We're to pray more and in more places and more often than we do. And if you've prayed a lot, pray more. The other lesson was to testify, to be a witness. And however much you testify, testify more. However many people you meet and declare the gospel of Jesus Christ to—however many that is—it's got to be more. And so thank you. That's not an invitation I knew I'd have, but I care very much about it.
President Jeffrey R. Holland
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Relief Society General President
President Camille N. Johnson
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