As “Jesus went about all the cities and villages” teaching, preaching, and healing, He noticed the “multitudes” that still needed His touch and message (Matt 9:35-36). Though He called the Seventy to assist the Twelve in the work by going where “he himself would come,” He lamented that “[t]he harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few” (v. 37, see also Luke 9:1-2, Luke 10:1-2). He then asked His disciples to “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest” (v. 38). Later, after His resurrection, He pled with Peter, His Chief Apostle, to “feed [His] sheep” and “feed [His] lambs” while the other ten listened and learned (John 21:15-17).

In this dispensation, before sending Oliver Cowdery to help the Prophet Joseph Smith with translating the Book of Mormon and establishing His church, the Lord gave the Prophet a revelation on behalf of his father, Joseph Sr. The Prophet’s father asked his son to ask the Lord about what he could do to assist with the work. Section 4 of the Doctrine & Covenants, which is known today as our missionaries’ mantra, was the Lord’s response to that request.

The Lord revealed that He requires His laborers to “serve him with all their heart, might, mind and strength” (v. 2). He reminds us that His “marvelous work” is found in a field that is “white already to harvest” (v. 4). The Lord then concluded the revelation by listing the qualities that qualify His servants to do His work.

And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.

Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence. (v.5-6)

The development of these attributes within us are a witness that we are, as the Apostle Peter preached, “partakers of [our Heavenly Father and Savior’s] divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). As we become like Them, we will surely walk with Them now and live with Them later eternally. (v. 8-10)

Why then does the Lord detail to us the elements of His divine nature in reference to our service in the field? I believe He is telling us that the only way we can become like Him and His Father is by serving each other as He and His Father serve us. It is by deliberately doing what the Father and the Son want for those around us that we become like Them. We can only serve like Them when we come to Them. For this reason, the Master asks us in the same revelation to “Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (D&C 4:7).

When we turn to the Father in His name, we will receive power, strength, and guidance through the Holy Ghost to minister to others as They do. The more completely we commit or consecrate ourselves to Their work, the more we allow Them to refine, purify, and shape us in Their image. We will then have Their image engraved in our countenances and Their joy infused in our hearts (see Alma 5:19, D&C 18:13-16). Their light that shines through us allows us to lead others out of darkness (see 3 Nephi 18:16, 24).

Can you see why serving a full-time mission is one of the greatest gifts God has given us? By choosing to receive this call to serve our Father’s children, you are giving one of the greatest gifts to Him and His Son that you will ever be able to give in this life. By doing so, you’re testifying to Them that you want to be like Them. You’re testifying to Them that you want to serve like Them. You’re testifying to Them that you want to love like Them. You’re testifying to Them that you want to live with Them.

Think about this. Out of the nearly eight billion people that live in this world today, as a full-time missionary, you are part of the 0.001% who have chosen to leave behind for a period of time family, friends, work, school, music, games, romance, and money for the sole purpose of bringing others the hope of salvation and exaltation through our Father’s fabulous plan of happiness (Russell M Nelson “Think Celestial”, October 2023 General Conference, Sunday Afternoon). If the roles were reversed with you and the Father, how would you feel about that choice that He made for you and for your children? He has made that choice when He sent us His Only Begotten Son as our Savior and Redeemer to serve and suffer so that we may find rest to our souls now and forever.

If you’re discouraged and depressed about the difficult things you experience trying to love your companions, your fellow missionaries, your mission leaders, your fellow church members, or those you meet and teach, please remember that your Father in Heaven and Savior understand that you’re doing hard things that feel hard.

The work of bringing salvation to others as a missionary or in any other capacity is work. It’s not easy. Though it’s amazingly rewarding, it can sometimes be awfully painful. Our Heavenly Father and Savior completely get it. Please remember that not only did God command “Let there be light” on the first day of creation, but that it also took a full day for that to completely take effect (see Gen 1:1-5). As dark as some moments appear to be, the Father sent His Son to be the Light and Life of the world to ensure that the night eventually gives way to the day, despair to hope, and death to life eternal.

When you ask your Heavenly Father for help in doing His work in the name of His Beloved and Only Begotten Son, you will always receive it. God’s word is sure, steadfast, and never fails. It never fails because His love for you never fails. He will always be there for you (Matt 28:20). He has given you the gift of the Holy Ghost and the gifts of the Spirit so you can experience His power and His presence in your life and ministry. You will always find Him as you seek Him through His Son (3 Nephi 18:20). He also completely understands the circumstances that brought you here.

Some of you have always been faithful in keeping the commandments. Accepting the call to serve for you was one more drop in your committed discipleship. You know why you are here and what you want to do with the Lord’s help. Your Heavenly Father and Savior appreciate your sacrifice and love you for your faithfulness. Thank you!

Some of you had moments maybe not too different than Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah who found themselves, for a time, far away from the life the Father and the Son wanted for them. Despite that temporary detour, you fought your way back, as Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah did, to repent and to be pure through the Savior’s Atonement so you can be here today. Your Heavenly Father and Savior appreciate your sacrifice and love you for your faithfulness. Thank you!

Some of you are here despite the struggles you’ve had with depression, anxiety, or other struggles. You may wonder how you’re going to get through this. You know you want to serve the Lord, but you also find each day to be terribly difficult. You press forward trusting in the promises found in the covenants you made with the Father in the name of His Beloved Son. Your Heavenly Father and Savior appreciate your sacrifice and love you for your faithfulness. Thank you!

Some of you are still not sure why you’re here. You may have had family, friends and Church leaders who encouraged you to go. You know in your heart that you should be here serving the Lord, but you also feel that you’re not sure that you have a strong testimony of God, His Son, His prophets, and His scriptures. Despite all this, when you’re alone in your thoughts, you want to know for yourself that these things you’re expected to testify about are true. Your Heavenly Father and Savior appreciate your sacrifice and love you for your faithfulness. Thank you!

You are all beloved by the Father and the Son. They know and love you for who you are and for what you are trying to do. You can do anything and everything with Their help if you continue seeking Their help in all things. They are with you. They and their angels in heaven cheer for you, weep with you, and strengthen you. As you continue in your ministry to draw others to your Heavenly Father through His Holy Son, you will come to know that these things are true.

President Boyd K Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once shared the story about, as he put it, “a little-known missionary of an earlier time” named Joseph Millett. Brother Millett accepted a call to serve a mission in Nova Scotia Canada from the Lord through His prophet, President Brigham Young. Without two pennies to rub together and no one to join him, he made his way on foot to the mission field. While he served during the dark and cold winter days, he wrote in his journal the following-

“I felt my weakness. A poor, ill-clothed, ignorant boy in my teens, thousands of miles from home among strangers.

“The promise in my blessing and the encouraging words of President Young to me, with the faith I had in the gospel, kept me up.

“Many times I would turn into the woods … in some desolate place with a heart full, wet eyes, to call on my master for strength or aid.

“I believed the Gospel of Christ. I had never preached it. I knew not where to find it in the scriptures.”

“I had to give my Bible to the boatman at Digby for passage across the sound.”

After his mission, he married and had nine children. He and his family accepted a call from the Lord through President Young to settle Spring Valley, Nevada. The conditions there were harsh and hard for them. Typhoid took the life of his oldest daughter and others who also moved there. On top of that, hunger haunted them and those around them. With all of this happening to him, his family, and his neighbors, he wrote the following in his journal—

“One of my children came in and said that Brother Newton Hall’s folks was out of bread, had none that day.

“I divided our flour in a sack to send up to Brother Hall. Just then Brother Hall came.

“Says I, ‘Brother Hall, are you out of flour?’

“‘Brother Millett, we have none.’

“‘Well, Brother Hall, there is some in that sack. I have divided and was going to send it to you. Your children told mine that you was out.’

“Brother Hall began to cry. He said he had tried others, but could not get any. He went to the cedars and prayed to the Lord, and the Lord told him to go to Joseph Millett.

“‘Well Brother Hall, you needn’t bring this back. If the Lord sent you for it you don’t owe me for it.’”

President Packer went on to say, “[t]hat night Joseph Millett recorded a remarkable sentence in his journal”—

“You can’t tell me how good it made me feel to know that the Lord knew there was such a person as Joseph Millett” (Boyd K Packer, “A Tribute to the Rank and File of the Church”, April 1980 General Conference, Sunday Morning; see also Eugene England, “Without Purse or Scrip: A 19-Year-Old Missionary in 1853”, New Era, July 1975)

In Lehi’s dream, he sees a tree with “beauty thereof [that] was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty; and the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow” and “precious above all.” (1 Ne. 11:8-9) We learn through Nephi that the tree represents “the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men,” “the most desirable above all things” “and the most joyous to the soul.” (v. 22-23)

To reach this beautiful tree with fruit that is “most sweet, above all that [one will] ever before taste” and that fills one’s soul with “exceedingly great joy” (1 Nephi 8:11), our Savior and Redeemer built a path and installed an iron rod on it. He knows that the devil’s mists of darkness will try to blind us from experiencing His love for us.

Because He is the Way, His covenant path will take us to His love (John 14:6). Because He is the Word, He will guide us with an iron rod to His love through His Spirit, His prophets and Apostles, His Scriptures, and His angels on both sides of the veil (John 1:1-2, 14). Because He is the personification of the love of God, He not only waits for us at the end of the path, but He also walks with us on it (John 3:16).

Our Savior’s love for us, which is “charity,” “never faileth” (Moro 7:46). He will be there with us all the way every day. We just need to turn to our Heavenly Father in His name during good times and bad. Because of our covenants with Them, They assure us through the Holy Ghost that They will always be with us through sunshine or storm. As we walk and work with Them, we will one day be like Them and live with Them.

President Russell M Nelson taught—

[Y]ou are each vital to the Lord. He has held you in reserve until now to help gather Israel. Your decision to serve a mission, whether a proselyting or a service mission, will bless you and many others… All missionaries teach and testify of the Savior. The spiritual darkness in the world makes the light of Jesus Christ needed more than ever. Everyone deserves the chance to know about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Every person deserves to know where they can find the hope and peace that “[pass] all understanding.” (Russell M Nelson “Preaching the Gospel of Peace”, April 2022 General Conference, Saturday Morning)

In your service as a missionary and later in relationships and other church callings throughout your life, you will find the joy, peace, and belonging that the Savior promised to all those who lose their lives in His service. Your mission will become a bedrock to your faith in and love for Him and His Father. What the parting of the Red Sea meant to the children of Israel, your missionary experiences in serving your brothers and sisters through the help of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost can be that for you for the rest of your life (Jeremiah 16:14-16). May God bless you to know that He and His Son are aware of you, that They love you, and that They will be there with you in Their service now and forever (Moses 1:4, 6, 25-26).

Art: Send Forth Labourers, by Greg Collins