We in this Church have a solemn obligation to carry the message of salvation to our Father's other children in the world. To us the Lord has given this command: "Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature"  D&C 68:8

This call to missionary service does not leave us any choice or option as to the course we should pursue. It is not merely a permissive invitation which allows us to spread the gospel message on a voluntary basis, or if we find it convenient to do so. The decree is mandatory. We have no choice about it, if we are to retain the favor of God. The Lord has laid upon our shoulders the obligation to spread the gospel, to raise the warning voice, to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel. If we neglect to do so, we have violated our trust and failed to comply with a divine directive.

When we come into the Church, we covenant in the waters of baptism that we will do missionary work. We enter into a solemn contract with Deity that we will bear testimony of the restoration of the gospel on every appropriate occasion. We agree "to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places" that we "may be in, even until death"  Mosiah 18:9 We are also bound by the command that the Lord has given by revelation in this day, that "it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor"  D&C 88:81 Thus we have an affirmative, positive, definite obligation resting upon us to do missionary work. This matter of carrying the gospel message to the world is not something that we can choose to do or not, if and when we may find it to be convenient. We are under covenant to do it "at all times... and in all places ...even until death"  Mosiah 18:9

We are indebted, each of us individually, to the missionaries who brought the gospel to us or to our ancestors; many of us owe these missionaries more than we owe anyone else. We received from them the pearl of great price. We have an obligation to discharge our debt, and one of the very best ways in which we can do this is to go forth ourselves as missionaries, or otherwise to use our talents and our means to see that others of our Father's children have the opportunity to receive that which has been restored in this day.

The Lord has decreed that this gospel, which has come forth through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith and others, is the very gospel that is going to be preached in all the nations of the earth as a witness before the Second Coming of the Son of Man  D&C 133:36-40 Since we are the ones who have this true gospel, we alone can carry it to the world. To carry out this command to preach this restored gospel in all the world, every one of us should be missionaries every day and hour of our lives, at all times and in all places and under all circumstances. We do not need any particular call or any special setting apart; we have already assumed the obligation in the waters of baptism to take every honorable opportunity to tell other people about the glories and beauties of the gospel. And there is not anything in this world that in any way compares in importance with the gospel.

May I make two specific suggestions which if adhered to and followed will very measurably train and prepare the young people of this Church to go out and discharge their obligations, to bear the missionary burden, to do the thing that they are expected to do by virtue of Church membership.

We do our missionary work, all of us as individuals, by telling other people about the Church and the saving truths which have been revealed to it. But we have also the great organized missionary ventures of the Church. We have stake missions and foreign missions, and we would like to see every worthy and qualified young man in the Church go out in the foreign missionary service. We have some eight thousand of them out now, and this, incidentally, is one of the great evidences of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. There is no other organization of any kind that does or could do what we do in the missionary cause—call thousands and tens of thousands of people to leave their employment, their educational pursuits, their families, loved ones, and friends, and go out at their own expense to carry the gospel message to the world.

However, under the circumstances in which we live, it is not solely a matter of inviting a young man, when he reaches the proper age, to go and serve in the mission field. Our young men are faced with educational problems, military service, employment, and other things; they have the problem of planning and preparing, of getting their personal affairs in order, of being ready, of having the financial requisites to sustain themselves when the time comes for their missionary calls.

So, the first suggestion I make is this: We ought to have in every family in the Church a mission savings account. This could well start for every young man when he is born, when he comes into this world. It takes about $2,000, something in that vicinity, to support a person in the mission cause. It takes about $75 a month. Now those of us of modest means may find it somewhat burdensome suddenly to be obligated in that amount. But if we have a mission savings account for each male child, we can very easily have available the necessary funds when that child arrives at missionary age.

If you would deposit, for instance, Four dollars and a few odd cents to a young man's savings account each month, beginning at his birth, by the time that he is old enough to go on a mission, without counting any interest, you would have about one thousand dollars accumulated. All of our young people as they mature, as they come up into their teens in the economy in which we live, are able to get jobs and make money. Now if our young men would do this thing, if they could have instilled into their hearts a willingness to deposit one-half of all they make into this mission savings account, then without any question, by the time they are of missionary age there would be $2,000 or more available to support them. This would remove the worry and burden of financing the missionary, and the money would have been accumulated without any excessive or inordinate effort, and all, at least financially, would be in readiness.

But in the process of acquiring that money, benefits would accrue which would far exceed the monetary sums that might be saved. If a young man is saving consistently through his teen-age years, and if his family is doing the same, so that he can go out into missionary service, then that young man is having instilled into his heart the desire and the willingness to serve. It becomes part of his planning. He just automatically assumes that he will discharge part of his missionary obligation by spending two or three years in the mission field. He is impelled to live right, to study and gain a knowledge of the gospel, to keep himself morally clean, to be worthy and qualified, so that the inspiration will come to his bishop to recommend him.

Now the second suggestion which I make is this: We are supposed to be holding regular family prayer in every Latter-day Saint home. We do this twice a day, ordinarily before the morning and the evening meals. The parents set the example in family prayer. I think perhaps we overlook the benefit and value of family prayer in teaching the doctrines of salvation to our children. Well, if we as parents would regularly, consistently, frequently (not every time we pray, because we do not get into a ritualistic rote where these things are involved) but if frequently we would plead with the Lord when we are mouth in family prayer, that all of our young men may go on missions when they get to be the proper age, and that all of our children, male and female alike, when they get of the proper age, may be married in the temple—if we would do this we would soon find our young children, just able themselves to speak, petitioning the Lord in the same language; they would be praying that they might go on missions, and that in due course, they might be married in the temple. As a consequence we would instill into their hearts a desire, a willingness, a determination to go out and carry the message and also a determination to be married in that system out of which the greatest blessings grow that it is possible for any mortal individual to inherit.

We have an obligation. This is not optional. We are not just to do it or not if it is convenient. The Lord has commanded us to carry his message to the world and to be witnesses of his name. If it takes some preparation and schooling, if it takes some conditioning and teaching in order to get ourselves in a condition where we can do this effectively, then in wisdom and in judgment and in prudence we ought to undertake the conditioning and make the preparation so that when the time comes we will be financially able, and we will be spiritually prepared to go forth on the Lord's errand.

If I had to choose between the two, I would rather have my sons go on missions than have a college education. It will do more for them temporally and educationally to say nothing of the spiritual benefits that are involved.

The Lord said to some people in early days what I think applies to us: ". . . the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father"  D&C 15:6

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.