If you’ve ever felt as though you are wandering through your own personal wilderness, Elder Matthew S. Holland’s recent address at Brigham Young University is for you.
In the devotional, titled “The Path and Power for Your Promised Land,” Elder Holland shared that lately, one theme has stood out to him in the Book of Mormon: the idea of “the wilderness,” which is mentioned approximately 336 times, by his count.
He reminds us that the Book of Mormon was “written for our day,” meaning that the prophet Mormon carefully selected every story in the book with our lives in mind.
“God knew that in these latter days, so many of us would so often wander through our own personal metaphorical wilderness,” Elder Holland said. Whether it’s a wilderness of faith, family, morality, or something else, many people today feel lost or unfulfilled in one way or another.
His prescription for the issue is simple but profound: “cling to the Book of Mormon.” Through its pages, we learn that God has guided His people through wildernesses again and again, often using those experiences to prepare them for “a magnificent promised land that could be enjoyed in no other way.”
Elder Holland’s Personal Wilderness
Tenderly, Elder Holland reflected on the recent passing of his father, President Jeffrey R. Holland, in 2025 and of his mother, Patricia T. Holland, in 2023.
He invited listeners to revisit President Holland’s most recent conference talk on the Book of Mormon, and also honored the quieter force of his mother’s testimony. During a near‑death health crisis, she held fiercely to the Book of Mormon. Elder Holland shared a portion of a video in which she bore her testimony of the book’s power.
His mother said, “With doctors telling us that I wasn’t going to make it… I knew if I did live, it would be because of the blessings and the truths that I’ve studied so many times in this gospel that the Book of Mormon teaches.” She continued, “This book has given me life, over and over again.”
A couple weeks after his father passed away, Elder Holland said he reached for his phone and realized he needed to remove his father from his favorites list in his contacts. “Never again would I get a call and hear that cheery, upbeat voice,” he said, sharing that the realization “broke” him.
As this personal wilderness overwhelmed him, he felt prompted to pick up his Book of Mormon. He opened to Alma 58 and read:
“We were grieved and also filled with fear.... Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God… Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God … did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him.”
“Every word was seared into my soul,” Elder Holland remembered. He decided to pray, and peace finally came. “The Book of Mormon was the conduit, but the power was in Christ.”
Elder Holland’s testimony is that “Jesus Christ is the way, and the Book of Mormon reveals this better than any book on earth.” He encouraged listeners, no matter what wilderness they are facing, to move toward their promised lands with optimism, Book of Mormon in hand, saying that “We cling to His book to cling to Him!”
Visit BYU Speeches to hear Elder Holland’s full devotional.
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