Elder Holland Counsels BYU Students to ‘Cling to the Book of Mormon’

“Cling to the Book of Mormon.”

That was the counsel of Elder Matthew S. Holland, a General Authority Seventy, to the thousands of Brigham Young University students who filled the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, January 20.

In his address titled, “The Path and Power for Your Promised Land,” Elder Holland testified of the power of the Book of Mormon in drawing souls closer to Jesus Christ.

“I know. I know it is the very word of God and reflects His pure love and righteousness,” he said. “Cherish it in good times and bad and you will remain unshakeable in difficulty and conquer in your aim to achieve your fullest potential and divine destiny,” promised Elder Holland, later adding, “We cling to this book — His book — to cling to Him.”

Wandering Through the Wilderness

While serving as a full-time missionary in Scotland, Elder Holland said he was riveted to the words of the new prophet at the time, President Ezra Taft Benson.

In a sermon “that changed me and the entire Church,” Elder Holland said, President Benson explained that “we must make the Book of Mormon a center focus of study [because] it was written for our day. The Nephites never had the book. … It was meant for us” (“The Book of Mormon: Keystone of our Religion,” October 1986 general conference).

Many times throughout the Book of Mormon narrative, individuals are commanded to depart into the wilderness, Elder Holland noted.

Latter-day Saint scholar Hugh Nibley counted at least 336 references to the wilderness in the Book of Mormon (more than one every other page), Elder Holland shared.

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So why would the editors of the Book of Mormon make the wilderness such a focal point? How does this apply today? he asked.

“My own impression about all this is that we have so many episodes of righteous people wandering through a literal wilderness in the Book of Mormon because God knew that in these latter days so many of us would so often wander through a metaphorical wilderness,” said Elder Holland.

Some may feel lost in an academic performance wilderness, a friends or dating wilderness, a marriage fulfillment wilderness, a career choice wilderness, a faith crisis wilderness, a health challenge wilderness, or a moral transgression wilderness.

“If this is the case for anyone today, in any degree, I offer you this piece of counsel: Cling to the Book of Mormon,” said Elder Holland.

Those who do so will see that they are not alone and that there is purpose in the journey — God is leading them to “a magnificent promised land.”

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Elder Holland Recollects His Father’s Death

In a tender and personal illustration of his message, Elder Holland shared of the recent death of his father, the late President Jeffrey R. Holland, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Calling his father his “best friend on earth” and “greatest hero,” Elder Holland said that “losing him leaves an enormous hole for me. As long as I can remember, he brought laughter, confidence and wisdom to my life like no other.”

The reality of that loss recently hit him, Elder Holland said, as he turned on his phone and realized he needed to remove his father from his favorites list.

“Never again would I get a call and hear that cheery, upbeat voice. Never again would I get a little text-based love note, or inside joke, or gentle correction about how to be a better man. Never again could I pick up the phone to get a nugget of needed counsel. Raw emotions tumbled out. I was grief-stricken,” Elder Holland related.

Later that night he obeyed a repeated impulse to read his copy of the Book of Mormon and picked up where he had left off in Alma 58 — “we were grieved and also filled with fear … therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us … Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did … speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him” (verses 9-11).

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Said Elder Holland, “Every word was seared into my soul. I dropped to my knees and called upon the Lord. And, in Him I found — and continue to find — the strength, peace and deliverance I was missing that bewildering afternoon. The Book of Mormon was the conduit, but the power was in Christ.”

In conclusion, Elder Holland testified: “I know this, whatever you are facing, Jesus Christ is the Way. And, the Book of Mormon reveals this better than any book on earth.”

He assured listeners “your wildernesses are way stations, not destinations. ... Over and beyond every single wilderness lies a promised land, your promised land. Move toward it with optimism and faith, each day, one step at a time.”

To those undergoing wilderness-like detours and difficulty, Elder Holland quoted Isaiah 51:3 — “For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein.”

Said Elder Holland: “That, my bright, young, beautiful friends is your foreordained destination. Settle for no other.”