We usually turned the missionaries away. But then they offered to pray

Editor's note: "This week from the pulpit" highlights recent messages by General Authorities and General Officers of the Church.

Earlier this year, about 26,000 missionaries were transported back to their home countries as a safety measure against the coronavirus. Many departures were abrupt and didn’t give missionaries or their families much time to prepare for the change. And while life was certainly hectic for returning missionaries, there were some behind-the-scenes heroes that expertly navigated their own level of frantic.

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square will begin a livestream organ recital series from the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square later this month.

The wave of support for racial justice following the senseless murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, after countless others, has been encouraging. Moved by recent events, we wonder what more we can do to keep our baptismal covenant “to mourn with those that mourn.”1

In some areas of the world, Church leaders have begun to open chapel doors and welcome Latter-day Saints back for limited sacrament meetings. Most doors to Primary classes, however, will remain closed as leaders have been instructed to give priority to meetings where ordinances are performed. But that isn’t stopping Saints in Australia and in many other places around the world from reaching out to their Primary children.

Given recent events, the topic of racism is at the forefront of people's minds. On Monday, President Nelson released a joint op-ed with the NAACP in which he wrote, “Solutions will come as we open our hearts to those whose lives are different than our own, as we work to build bonds of genuine friendship, and as we see each other as the brothers and sisters we are—for we are all children of a loving God.”

In 2018, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued a charge to Brigham Young University’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship to “consecrate their academic work for the broader body of Latter-day Saints.”

Brandon Flowers, frontman for The Killers and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently wrote some new lyrics to the song “Land of the Free” to address the death of George Floyd.

Latter-day Saint chapel doors aren’t the only ones that have been closed due to COVID-19. In fact, all of the churches in England closed their doors for the first time since 1208, according to Archbishop Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.