Who is elder holland

When my granddaughter had been bruttally murdered, and Elder Holland found out, he took the time to call my daughter and son-in-law and told them to call and talk with him anytime they needed to. Soon after I returned home from Dallas, I also received a call from Elder Holland and he told me to call him anytime I needed to talk to someone. This kind and loving man touched my heart and I received comfort from him and from the Savior.

I grew up in St. George and knew Elder Holland most of my life. I've always looked for him at conference time. As busy as he is all the time, he still took the time to call and offer confort to those who were hurting.

I knew his whole family and I loved all of them, but I have enjoyed Elder Holland all the time. His words of comfort have always helped me. His talk in Oct morning session had a profound effect on me.

I sat in the back row inside the main entrance and am so glad I was able to attend that session of conference. He is an inspiration to me. Thank you for this article! No, I couldn't live without his kind and loving presentations of the scriptures. I especially needed the message from the Oct conference address on Saturday morning. We love him, love him, love him! Click here to cancel reply. He attended Dixie High School where he was on the state championship football and basketball teams and lettered in football, basketball, track, and baseball.

Patricia Terry, who later became his wife, was a cheerleader there. They dated for two years before Elder Holland was called on a mission to England. While on his mission, Elder Holland realized that he wanted to pursue a profession in teaching. His parents were called on a mission to England at the same time he was serving there. His mother noted that he claimed to be the only missionary who ever said farewell to his parents at both ends of his mission.

Elder Holland returned home from his mission and married Patricia in the St. George Temple on June 7, In he completed his graduate work in religious education and was hired as an institute teacher by the Church Educational System. In , Elder Holland was accepted to a doctoral degree program at Yale.

He was also called to be in the stake presidency. By this time the Hollands' had two children, Matthew and Mary Alice. David Frank followed soon after in In Jeffrey R. He has been called irresponsible, a hater, and a bigot. His speech has been widely portrayed as an angry tirade against gays. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship on 10 November —a message that had absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality.

He cited a campus speech in which the late Elder Neal A. Today scholars building the temple of learning must also pause on occasion to defend the kingdom. I personally think this is one of the reasons the Lord established and maintains this university.

The dual role of builder and defender is unique and ongoing. I am grateful we have scholars today who can handle, as it were, both trowels and muskets. I was in the audience for those remarks, in which Elder Maxwell expressed his appreciation for scholars at BYU who defended the claims, scriptures, and teachings of the Restoration against attack. The illustration that he used clearly drew upon an account given in Nehemiah 4 especially verses In it, the Jews who have returned from the Babylonian captivity to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple are obliged, because of threats and attacks from their neighbors, to work with one hand while holding a sword in the other—a defensive measure, not an aggressive one, that plainly has nothing to do with homosexuality.

This is easily understandable: Issues of gender, sexuality, and the nature of families loom very large today in our culture, law, and politics, and societal trends related to them clearly and increasingly clash with the standards and teachings of the Church. In other words, the speech was not, as many have claimed, primarily devoted to issues of same-sex attraction.

He simply chose gender issues to represent the other areas in which the teachings of the Church come under attack, areas in which some members of the BYU faculty might be well situated to help. And, I add, the speech was neither hateful nor angry; as anyone can learn by simply watching it online:. There will continue to be those who oppose our teachings and with that will continue the need to define, document, and defend the faith.