Video Series Explores President Ballard’s Experiences as Young Missionary in England

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By Sarah Jane Weaver, Church News

In October 2021, President M. Russell Ballard — a former missionary in the British Isles — returned to England with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Elder Quentin L. Cook, fellow members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who had also served as young missionaries in England.

From recorded interviews during that ministry assignment, the Church News created a series of videos, which are summarized and presented below.

As a young missionary, President Ballard came to receive a sure witness of the reality of Jesus Christ and of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he stood in Nottingham Square and recalled his service as Nottingham District president, of street meetings in the marketplace and the hecklers who interrupted them.

“I was 18, 19 when I arrived here, and I thought I knew the gospel,” he said. “But I didn’t.”

In a Church News video titled “My Preparation,” President Ballard shares his memories of missionary work and the testimony he gained.  

“I think in the process of sharing the gospel message here in this market place is where my own personal testimony started to become solidified in my heart and in my mind,” he said.

 
As President Ballard walked along the Trent River in Nottingham, England, he remembered a discouraging day he had as a young missionary in 1948.

“I knew that the Lord knew that I was there. ‘Did you see anything?’ No. ‘Did you hear any voices?’ No. But I had a witness — an experience,” recalled President Ballard.

In the Church News video “Walking Along the Trent River,” President Ballard recounts the experience and how it influenced his life. 

“I had a spiritual, inner assurance that Heavenly Father was aware of me, and the Lord was aware of me, and that I was on Their errand and that what I was doing was important,” he said.

 
President Ballard also visited Liverpool during the ministry assignment to England, viewing the site where early Latter-day Saints missionaries arrived in the British Isles in the mid-1800s.

In the Church News video “Faithful Sisters,” President Ballard reflects on his mission and the strength of Latter-day Saint women who held the Church together after World War II.

“I have an absolutely unbelievable spiritual foundation that was anchored in the British Isles as a full-time missionary,” said President Ballard. 

Elder Cook, who accompanied him to Liverpool, turned his thoughts to missionary work a century earlier — speaking of the Church’s first missionaries to the British Isles who served in the area in the early 1840s.

 
At the conclusion of their ministry, the three Apostles took a few minutes to speak with current missionaries serving in the area decades after they each served their own missions in the same country.

“Well, elders and sisters, we’re proud of you. You have the truth,” President Ballard said. “... And you have a message that every single person in this world should hear.”

In a Church News video titled “Let the World Know,” President Ballard thanks the missionaries and their families for their service.

“You’ve devoted this time because you love the Lord, and we commend you for that,” he said. “We thank you for that. Thank you for your faith and your courage and willingness to come.”

Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.

Learn more in the Church News Three apostles discuss significance, legacy of missionary work in British Isles

Learn more in this Church News podcast Episode 56: President Ballard, Elder Holland and Elder Cook reflect on how they first came to know the Savior