Be a Missionary All Your Life | Quentin L. Cook | 2007

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Quentin L. Cook teaches that the call to be a missionary is not just extended to some, nor only for a certain amount of time.

This speech was given on March 13, 2007.

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"I consider it a great privilege and responsibility to be given this opportunity to speak to you. After I received this assignment from the First Presidency, I asked President Samuelson what I should talk about.

He said, “You are the executive director of the Missionary Department. Why don’t you talk about missionary work?”

I have decided to follow his counsel.

You are a magnificent sight! Many of you are recently returned from full-time missions. Many of you will soon be full-time missionaries. I hope all of you are committed to being lifelong missionaries.

Some feel this is a difficult time to do missionary work. A Gallup Poll three weeks ago found 46 percent of Americans view “Mormons” unfavorably, 11 percent don’t know who we are, and 18 percent think of polygamy when our name is mentioned.1

Let’s put this in perspective. In 1842 John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, wrote to Joseph Smith requesting information about the Church. The Church had been organized 12 years earlier and had just over 20,000 members. The Prophet Joseph replied and concluded his response by using the Standard of Truth as a preface to what we know today as the Thirteen Articles of Faith.

As I tour missions, many missionaries memorize the Standard of Truth. It conveys in a concise way what must be accomplished. As I recite it, I invite those of you who know it to say it with me:

No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.2

Who is going to help achieve this? You and your generation!

I believe with all of my heart that we are on the threshold of the most significant missionary success to date. Let me share two accounts of those who have been converted in the recent past.

The conversion of Jordan Vajda, a fine young man who had been a Catholic priest, is instructive. When he was in grade school he had Latter-day Saint friends in his class who shared with him their love of the gospel. At age 13 he found an offer from the Church for a free Book of Mormon. He sent for it, and two sister missionaries responded. They were surprised that he was only 13 and had requested the Book of Mormon. He was impressed with what they taught and what he felt, but after discussions with his family, he decided to become a priest in the Catholic Church. As he prepared to be a priest, he remained interested in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He studied at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He became acquainted with many who take the position we are not Christians, but he also associated with the students at the Latter-day Saint institute of religion at Berkeley. He decided to write a master’s thesis on why certain people maintain that we are not Christians. Two of the issues he addressed in his master’s thesis were:

1. The nature of God and our belief that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are the two separate individuals the Prophet Joseph beheld in the First Vision.

2. Exaltation and our belief in eternal progression—that we can progress to live with and be like God.

He compared these doctrinal issues with Pre–Nicene Creed early Christian writers and determined that there was significant support for the position of the Church of Jesus Christ. He concluded in his master’s thesis, which has since been published by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies:

Ironically, those who would excoriate Mormons for believing in the doctrine of exaltation actually agree with them that the early church experienced a “great apostasy” on fundamental doctrinal questions.3

This was primarily an academic pursuit. He became a priest in the Dominican order and had assignments in Arizona and then at the University of Washington. There he came in contact with our missionaries..."