Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Quotes By Elder Jeffery R. Holland

Called in 1994, Elder Jeffery R. Holland currently serves as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder Holland has authored many books including, Broken Things to Mend and To Mothers: Carrying the Torch of Faith and Family. Elder Holland is known for his quick wit, his tender approach toward gospel topics, and his extensive knowledge of English literature.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the LDS church

“Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

“You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | Missionary Work and the Atonement

Topics: Missionary Work & Preparation

“I am not asking you to pretend to faith you do not have. I am asking you to be true to the faith you do have.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | "Lord, I Believe"

Topics: Doubt, Faith, Testimony

“Let us educate ourselves. Light is not the absence of darkness; rather, darkness is the absence of light. Light and truth exist independently. This being the case, the more light we have, the more independent we are, and the freer we are to choose. With truth lighting the way, we are able to see and make choices we otherwise couldn’t make.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | "Broken Things to Mend"

Topics: Agency, Education, Truth

“The Lord has probably spoken enough comforting words to supply the whole universe, and yet all we see around us are unhappy Latter-day Saints, worried Latter-day Saints, and gloomy Latter-day Saints into whose troubled hearts not one of these innumerable consoling words seems to be allowed to enter . . . on the night of Gethsemane, the night of the greatest suffering ever to take place on this world, the Savior said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you . . . let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). I submit to you, that may be one of the Savior’s commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-Day Saints, almost universally disobeyed.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | CES Young Adult Fireside, BYU, March 2, 1997

Topics: Atonement, Attitude, Happiness, Obedience

To any who may be struggling to see that light and find that hope, I say: Hold on. Keep trying. God loves you. Things will improve.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | "An High Priest of Good Things to Come"

Topics: Hope, Inspirational Quotes

Although I may not be my brother’s keeper, I am my brother’s brother…

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | Are We Not All Beggars?

Topics: Charity, Integrity, Short Quotes

“Like thieves in the night, unwelcome thought can and do seek entrance to our minds. But we don’t have to throw open the door, serve them tea and crumpets, and tell them where the silverware is kept! Throw the rascals out! Replace lewd thoughts with hopeful messages an joyful memories; picture the faces of those who love you and would be shattered if you let them down.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | Place No More for the Enemy of My Soul, Conference April 2009

Topics: Pornography, Thoughts

“Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times—including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.”6 That phrase—taken from Moroni’s final lines of testimony, written 1,000 years after Lehi’s vision—is a dying man’s testimony of the only true way.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | "Safety for the Soul," Conference October 2009

Topics: Book of Mormon, Last Days

“The crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | (2012, November). The first great commandment. Ensign, 42(11), 83–85.

Topics: Divorce, Love

“If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.”

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland | Missionary Work and the Atonement

Topics: Plan of Salvation, Salvation