(Source: LDS Church News) 

With the hastening of the work of salvation and changes in some of the tools used by missionaries to assist in it, “God’s goals have not changed” when it comes to missionary work.

So declared Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Chairman of the Missionary Executive Council as he addressed the opening session of the 2015 Seminar for New Mission Presidents on June 25.

“[God’s] work and His glory is always ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His children,’ ” he said. “In other words, as a beneficent and loving Father, He yearns for the safe and successful return of His children.”

New mission presidents and their wives — 126 couples from 23 countries — met in the Provo Missionary Training Center June 24-28 to receive direction from Church leaders prior to their departure to 51 nations.

“We, as agents of the Lord, are privileged to preach His gospel,” Elder Nelson said. “The Apostle Paul taught an amazing concept. He declared that each agent, each disciple, yes, each missionary, can become a living ‘epistle of Christ, … written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God … [embedded] in the fleshy tables of the heart’ (2 Corinthians 3:3). With that unique designation, we can help to achieve Their three great overarching objectives for us.”

First, he said, missionaries are helping to gather scattered Israel; second, missionaries are helping the families of gathered Israel to be sealed in a holy temple; and third, missionaries are helping prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord.

Read the rest at LDS Church News