President Jeffrey R. Holland has a message for the youth of the Church: “Being in the temple is one of the most important things you can be doing right now, my young friends.”
In a recent social media video, he shared a direct and personal testimony of young people’s crucial role in supporting temple work in the latter days. “I’m looking right at that camera—youth going to the temple is one of the dramatic and important developments of this day,” he said. “I want you to go, and I’ll go with you. And we’ll meet there, and we’ll have a great time and be fortified in our faith.”
President Holland emphasized that he wouldn’t extend this invitation if he didn’t have a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He said:
“The gospel restored in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God’s very truth. And I’m too old to be playing games with you or telling jokes. I’m too old to walk away from a future meeting with my Savior and be pulling the wool over your eyes or trying to pretend. This is the truth.”
Watch President Holland’s entire message in the player below.
President Holland’s Testimony
The Apostle shared a similar message around his 80th birthday four years ago. In a video for the Church News, President Holland testified:
“My testimony to the Church and to the world is that this is true. This is God’s very truth. This is not a fairy tale. This is not something that I get up every morning and ask myself, ‘How can I go fool another group of people today? How can I go pretend that something’s true? How can I go work a great fiction on the public?’
“I would not do that, and my life is worth more to me than that, and my witness to my children and my children’s children is worth more than that. ... My integrity is more than that.
“I get up every morning saying, not, ‘How can I pretend?’ not, ‘How can I act like this is true?’ My plea every morning of my life is, ‘How can I convey what I know to be more true than anything on the face of this earth? How can I convey to some person, or persons, the reality of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fact that God lives, that the heavens are open?’
“I have a commission to stand by the Savior of the world, to defend Him and defend the rock that He is.”
President Holland also recalled a moment when a missionary asked him, “Would you give your life for the Church?” to which President Holland responded: “Elder, I am giving my life for the Church. Every day, I’m giving my life for the Church. Because I know it’s true.”
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