Elder Holland

Elder Holland, Elder Christofferson, and Elder Hallstrum have been in Mexico all week training all over the country.  Last night Elder Holland gave a devotional for young single adults in 8 of the nearby stakes.  IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE! I love how passionate, bold, and loving Elder Holland is all at the same time.  He began by telling us a bunch of the statistics of the church that are breaking records everyday (missionary force hit 70,000 yesterday for example!).  He said there has never been a time on the earth with such rapid growth and with that comes a lot of responsibility for us.  He shared the story of Esther and asked if we have that same courage to stand up for the church.  Why were we lucky enough to be born at this time and to have the gospel in our lives?  Why us?  He said he doesn't know why, but that we have a huge responsibility because of that.  What have we done with what we have been given?  What do we give?  Don't just be willing to die for the church, live for the church.  Give it all.  He also came down on us for being single :).  He said he thinks sometime we focus too much on the young part and the single part, but not on the adult part.  He said to stop acting young, to stop being single, and to be an adult.  We need more adults in this world.  It was funny the way he said it, and filled with love, but also very true.  He talked about 2 missionaries from the early days of the church that probably most people haven't heard of (Eliazer Miller and Alfias Gifford) who probably thought they didn't have success as missionaries.  They only baptized two people.  Sometimes we get discouraged with our own efforts because we give it all but think nothing comes of it.  Well, these two baptisms were Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.  If they had only known who these men would become, they probably wouldn't have been discouraged.  So we also shouldn't get discouraged.  We have to do this together.  Everyone matters.  It's not enough to just live a good life and make sure we don't do things wrong.  We we meet God again, we will need to give an accounting of ourselves but also of who we helped.  What we did.  What we gave.  I wish words could convey what Elder Holland can convey.