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Elder Cook: Teaching Doctrine of Christ Central to Missionary Objectives, Emphasis

Elder Cook offers a historical look at ‘Preach My Gospel’ at 2025 Seminar for New MTC Leaders

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Cook-MTC-seminar-2025
Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaks to new missionary training center leaders during the 2025 Seminar for New MTC Leaders at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Friday, January 24, 2025. Photo by Laura Seitz, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

By Scott Taylor, Church News

In his concluding message of the 2025 Seminar for New MTC Leaders, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shared the key objectives of the Missionary Executive Council and its four areas of emphasis for the new year with the soon-to-be-serving missionary training center leadership couples.

The new MTC leaders are to turn training missionaries toward the Savior “in that they need to gain that deep and abiding testimony for all of their lives,” Elder Cook said. “If they have that, they will remain strong and faithful. Help them to understand His doctrine, the love He has, and that their faith in Him can bring about miracles and help them accomplish everything that they need to accomplish.

Elder Cook, who chairs the council, spoke Friday, January 24, to the new leaders and the managers of operations for the Church’s 11 MTCs worldwide as they gathered for four days of training at the Provo Missionary Training Center before starting their two-year service.

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Cook-MTC-seminar-2025
President Myles Proudfoot and Sister Julie Proudfoot, center, the new leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Missionary Training Center, walk between sessions of the 2025 Seminar for New MTC Leaders at the Provo MTC in Provo, Utah, on Friday, January 24, 2025. They are joined by Faith Dimartino, left, manager of operations at the England MTC, and Solomon Amoah, right, manager of operations at the DR Congo MTC.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

Three Key Objectives

He listed the Missionary Executive Council’s three key objectives in emphasizing the importance of missionary work:

  1. To get as many young adults and senior Church members to serve missions as possible, particularly the younger people, where mission service sets a tone and direction for their lives.
  2. To ensure missionaries have powerful spiritual experiences as they serve,
  3. And to have missionaries fulfill their Missionary Purpose and their charge in the gathering of Israel.

Elder Cook called attention to the fact that convert baptisms isn’t the council’s first or second priority. “We don’t jump immediately to baptisms,” he said. “We go to a great, powerful, spiritual experience.”

The second and third objectives “go together,” he added. “Those missionaries who know the doctrine and who know their purpose have a better experience that prepares them for life. Having convert baptisms and teaching regularly blesses them and prepares them to be who they need to be.”

A Historical Look at ‘Preach My Gospel’

Underscoring the importance of “Preach My Gospel” in the training of new missionaries, Elder Cook offered a little history on how the Church’s missionary guide got its start more than two decades ago as well as its second-edition update last year.

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The second edition of “Preach My Gospel,” an updated guidebook for missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is pictured at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Thursday, June 22, 2023. Photo by Kristin Murphy, courtesy of Church News Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

He recounted being invited with then-Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles by President Gordon B. Hinckley in 2002 to begin considering a new missionary guide that moved away from missionaries memorizing lessons to instead internalizing principles and doctrine.

“I want those lessons to be written in such a way that they can’t be memorized,” recalled Elder Cook of President Hinckley’s direction. “I want the missionaries to get the doctrine — I want it to be very doctrinal. I want them to understand the doctrine so that they will be great parents and bishops and Relief Society presidents. I want them to feel like they know the doctrine of the kingdom and know what Joseph Smith taught.”

The result can be found in chapter 3 of “Preach My Gospel,” titled “Study and Teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ” — a chapter of emphasis for MTC leaders training new missionaries, Elder Cook said.

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Cook-MTC-seminar-2025
Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaks to new missionary training center leaders during the 2025 Seminar for New MTC Leaders at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Friday, January 24, 2025. Photo by Laura Seitz, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.

Originally published and released in 2004, “Preach My Gospel” was updated, revised and re-released as a second edition in 2023, under the direction of President Russell M. Nelson, just one evidence of the Prophet’s emphasis of the Lord “indeed hastening His work” (October 2024 general conference).

Said Elder Cook: “I want you to know every member of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles went through the revisions in detail, with their direction on the changes and those things that should be there. So we just feel very comfortable with where we are on ‘Preach My Gospel,’ second edition.”

Four Areas of Emphasis

Elder Cook also detailed for the new MTC leaders and their accompanying operational managers the four areas of emphasis that the Missionary Executive Council is highlighting for the first half of 2025:

  1. Focus on the Missionary Purpose.
  2. Set goals, make plans and live the principle of accountability.
  3. Effectively find people to teach.
  4. Help friends attend sacrament meeting.

Showing brief, new videos created for each of the four areas of emphasis, Elder Cook encouraged the new MTC leaders to underscore the Missionary Purpose in all their interactions with missionaries.

“Teach them the doctrine of Christ and help them. Let the Missionary Purpose guide everything they do,” he said. “The doctrine of Christ and the Missionary Purpose are interwoven throughout ‘Preach My Gospel’ — they are the major chord in each chapter.”

He continued, “Every one of our MTCs needs to be focused on the Savior and have missionaries feel that it is a place that is Christlike, that the missionaries are being blessed to have the opportunity to be there before going out and serving.”

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Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shakes hands with President Manuel M. Agustin of the Philippines Missionary Training Center following a session of the 2025 Seminar for New MTC Leaders at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on Friday, January 24, 2025. Photo by Laura Seitz, courtesy of Church News.Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.
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