President Hinckley Addresses Missionaries via Satellite

Despite the normal challenges of their work, missionaries affect generations with their service, President Gordon B. Hinckley said as he spoke to 18,000 missionaries via satellite from his office in Salt Lake City.

The 26 April address was broadcast to missionaries in the 101 missions of the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean.

“This is one grand, many-zone conference,” President Hinckley observed. “I wish I could see all of you out there. I can picture you in imagination. Missionaries look very much the same wherever they serve. You have a clean and crisp and bright and happy look.”

In his address, President Hinckley bore testimony of the gospel and missionary work and encouraged missionaries to forget themselves in the service of others.

“I love my Father in Heaven,” he said, “the greatest of all, the Everlasting Father, the God of the universe. Though He be the great Almighty, He is my Father and your Father, and I am thankful that He loves each of us and that we can speak with Him in prayer with the assurance that He will hear and understand and bless us. …

“I love you who are my companions in this work, my friends, my brethren and sisters, who day after day, in a magnificent spirit of consecration, regardless of weather and circumstances, go out and teach and bless and bring knowledge and testimony to all who will open their doors and hearts. …

“As you work to save others, you save yourselves,” he continued. “You become less selfish; egotism and arrogance disappear. A feeling of humility comes into your heart as you think of the everlasting good that you do.” The Church leader counseled missionaries to plead with the Lord for His Spirit, and he reminded them that in order to obtain the Spirit, they must be worthy.

Also participating in the broadcast but speaking from the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, were Elders David B. Haight, Robert D. Hales, and Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Lynn A. Mickelsen of the Seventy.