Elder Quentin L. Cook’s introduction to missionary work started when he was just a boy. At the age of 7, his mom gave him a copy of the history of his great-great-grandfather, Elder Heber C. Kimball.
At the 2020 Mission Leadership Seminar, Elder Cook shared some lessons he learned from the life of his great-great-grandfather and shared ways missionaries today can “build up the Church,” as reported by Church News.
Elder Kimball was one of the first missionaries to preach the gospel in England and is acknowledged by the Church as the first full-time mission president. When the call came from the Prophet Joseph Smith, Elder Kimball recorded, “The moment I understood the will of my Heavenly Father, I felt a determination to go at all hazards, believing that He would support me by His almighty power . . . and although my family was dear to me, and I should have to leave them almost destitute, I felt that the cause of truth, the Gospel of Christ, outweighed every other consideration.”
Elder Cook shared with the mission presidents that these feelings might resonate with them. He explained the “simple and profound” call of mission presidents and missionaries: “You shall build up my Church.”
One of the ways missionaries “build up the Church” is by building up themselves.
“A missionary is his or her first and most important convert,” Elder Cook said. “The role that you mission leaders play in helping each individual missionary obtain a permanent, lifelong conversion is beyond the ability of words to describe.”
Read more of the ways missionaries "build up the Church" as shared by Elder Cook at Church News.
