Elder Holland's 10 Best Talks of All Time

One of the first birthday cards I received from my wife following our wedding in 2003 contained a list she thoughtfully made of all my favorite things. It was no surprise to me that "Talks by Elder Holland" made the top of her list. Among modern apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I know of none whose messages are more universally loved than Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's. Regardless of the meeting or setting, Elder Holland's sermons seem to reverberate throughout the worldwide Church audience, and his messages have always had particular meaning for me personally. For years, my daily commute to and from work has consisted of listening to one of Elder Holland's talks, from a compilation I update regularly when he gives new talks. 

Since the time Elder Holland began serving as dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University in 1974, I am aware of approximately 100 talks he has given in public settings including General Conferences, BYU devotionals, and Church Educational System firesides. Selecting Elder Holland's 10 Best Talks of All Time proved to be even more challenging than I anticipated, but what follows is my personal list of the best talks he has ever given. In addition to a brief excerpt from each talk below, I include links to the full text and audio of each talk.

As you'll see below, I believe Elder Holland gave his best talk in October 2009, when he shared his powerful witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. That talk went through my heart like a javelin (borrowing one of his phrases). I will never forget the witness of the Holy Spirit I felt that day as Elder Holland shared his personal testimony of the divine origin of that book. As you read the excerpts from his talks, I am confident you will feel the power of this modern apostle's witness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please comment below and share your thoughts about Elder Holland or your favorite talk of his. Let us know if your favorite talk didn't make the list.

10. "The First Great Commandment" (2012) Listen here.

“My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: 'Did you love me?' I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all.’”

9. "Like a Broken Vessel" (2013) Listen here.

“I bear witness of that day when loved ones whom we knew to have disabilities in mortality will stand before us glorified and grand, breathtakingly perfect in body and mind. What a thrilling moment that will be! I do not know whether we will be happier for ourselves that we have witnessed such a miracle or happier for them that they are fully perfect and finally ‘free at last.’”

8. "The Ministry of Angels" (2008) Listen here.

“My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face...On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then, the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.”

7. "None Were With Him" (2009) Listen here.

“Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path…This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ ‘at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,’ for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone.”

6. "An High Priest of Good Things to Come" (1999) Listen here.

“Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better. Moroni spoke of it in the Book of Mormon as ‘hope for a better world.’ For emotional health and spiritual stamina, everyone needs to be able to look forward to some respite, to something pleasant and renewing and hopeful, whether that blessing be near at hand or still some distance ahead. It is enough just to know we can get there, that however measured or far away, there is the promise of ‘good things to come.’…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. Christ comes to you in His ‘more excellent ministry’ with a future of ‘better promises.’ He is your ‘high priest of good things to come.’

5. "Remember Lot's Wife" (2009) Listen here.

“I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.”

4. "Lord, I Believe" (2013) Listen here.

“What was once a tiny seed of belief for me has grown into the tree of life, so if your faith is a little tested in this or any season, I invite you to lean on mine. I know this work is God’s very truth, and I know that only at our peril would we allow doubt or devils to sway us from its path. Hope on. Journey on. Honestly acknowledge your questions and your concerns, but first and forever fan the flame of your faith, because all things are possible to them that believe.”

3. "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence" (1999) Listen here.

“Along with the illuminating revelation that points us toward a righteous purpose or duty, God will also provide the means and power to achieve that purpose. Trust in that eternal truth. If God has told you something is right, if something is indeed true for you, he will provide the way for you to accomplish it. That is true of joining the Church. It is true of getting an education, of going on a mission or of getting married or of any of a hundred worthy tasks in your young lives.”

2. "Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments" (1988) Listen here.

“You must wait—you must wait until you can give everything, and you cannot give everything until you are at least legally and, for Latter-day Saint purposes, eternally pronounced as one. To give illicitly that which is not yours to give (remember—'you are not your own') and to give only part of that which cannot be followed with the gift of your whole heart and your whole life and your whole self is its own form of emotional Russian roulette. If you persist in sharing part without the whole, in pursuing satisfaction devoid of symbolism, in giving parts and pieces and inflamed fragments only, you run the terrible risk of such spiritual, psychic damage that you may undermine both your physical intimacy and your wholehearted devotion to a truer, later love.”

1. "Safety for the Soul" (2009) Listen here.

"Now, I did not sail with the brother of Jared in crossing an ocean, settling in a new world. I did not hear King Benjamin speak his angelically delivered sermon. I did not proselyte with Alma and Amulek nor witness the fiery death of innocent believers. I was not among the Nephite crowd who touched the wounds of the resurrected Lord, nor did I weep with Mormon and Moroni over the destruction of an entire civilization. But my testimony of this record and the peace it brings to the human heart is as binding and unequivocal as was theirs...I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days."

Nate Sharp is an associate professor in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University and currently serves as bishop of the College Station 3rd ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He grew up in Holladay, Utah, served a full-time mission for the Church in the Korea Seoul West mission, and later graduated from Brigham Young University and the University of Texas at Austin. He married Holly Carroll in 2003, and they are the proud parents of five beautiful children.