Transcription
Today we're headed down to St. George, Utah, to chat with Monty Holm.
How are you, Monty?
I'm doing great. How are you, Kurt?
Very good. This has been a long time coming. I'm excited to finally get this recorded and learn more about your experience.
You mentioned before we hit record that you actually joined the church at 17 in St. George, Utah. That's not a typical story, right?
Well, it's probably not so typical, but one of the great blessings, the greatest blessing in my life, was joining the church. I was raised in a fundamentalist group, believe it or not.
Oh really? Wow.
I had run away from there a few times and ended up in St. George. I was working at a couple of part-time jobs and was introduced a year or so later by a girl that I was dating, actually, that I liked a lot.
She recommended that I take the lessons, and I just did. I fell head over heels in love with what I'd heard and felt, and joined the church at age 17 and a half. I went on a mission at age 19, came home, and later attended Dixie College, met my sweetheart, entered my industry, and off I was to the races. I loved every second of it.
Wow. So joining the church from a fundamentalist background, was that a different conversion process, do you feel like? Or how would you explain it?
I would say to a large degree. In those days, the missionaries had the old flip charts that they held in their arm and the Mr. Browning lessons that I loved so much. They taught me those lessons, and believe it or not, I didn't know much about the church at all.
All I felt was fear and condemnation in my youth. I had never in my life felt a sense of belonging, which is any human's most basic need. But when I joined the church, I just felt for the first time in my life this incredible sense of belonging and love from these precious people.
But yeah, the conversion process was through lots of prayer. Probably the biggest thing I struggled with was whether or not there was really a prophet. Does God love His people? Is there a prophet on the earth to guide and meet the people?
I had a chance to run across President Kimball at the time in a chance encounter with him that touched me so deeply. I just had this overwhelming sense of belief, and I've just never questioned it since. Again, it's been the greatest blessing in my life.
So under what context were you when you came across Spencer W. Kimball?
I was driving through St. George, and a Cadillac at the time passed me. I had seen enough pictures and had been taught by those missionaries enough to know what he looked like. I realized that was him in the back seat of his car.
I quickly turned my car around, followed him on the boulevard, and followed that car down to the temple. I parked back a ways. I've not told this story hardly ever other than my family, but I parked back a ways and watched very closely.
I watched all three of them get out of the car. Two of them got out on one side, and President Kimball got out on the side opposite of the temple and began to walk away from the temple, across the street. The other two stood there like they almost didn't know what he was doing.
He walked across the street, down the street, and there was an older lady hobbling with a walker. President Kimball walked up to this sweet lady, put his arm around her, actually hugged her, and helped her walk up to the temple.
When I watched his kindness and his love toward that, I just had tears down my face. I felt his love, and I felt Heavenly Father's love. I knew then that this is His church. It just touched me more deeply than I can even express here. It was a special experience for me.
Yeah, what a great experience. You know, I've had the privilege of reading a couple of biographies of his, and it's full of those types of stories, right? Where he just helped so many in such simple ways and served and loved people in a remarkable way. He's a great example for sure.
So it sounds like a pretty significant conversion right off the bat. Was going on a mission a tough decision for you?
Well, I lived by myself for the time from the time I joined the church and about eight months before I joined the church, actually. I was finishing up my high school in St. George by myself, living alone.
I was able to actually help teach and baptize an older brother, and he and I both went on missions at the same time. He went, actually, he's older than me, so he went just a few months before I did.
Going on a mission was fairly easy for me. My bishop at the time was incredibly influential. He became the most influential man in my life ever.
Wow.
So it was easy. When he asked me to do something, I did. I wanted to do it.
Yeah, that's amazing. The power of those relationships, right? If that relationship gets established, then obedience is really easy when you love somebody, right?
Well, so where were you called to on your first mission?
I went to North Carolina on my first mission and then South Carolina on my second mission.
Oh wow, you got the Carolinas covered, huh?
I always tell people nothing could be finer than to serve in the Carolinas. So great experience, love it.
Yeah, so you come back from your mission, and what direction did your career take?
Well, it was the last few days of my mission that I was teaching a man who said, "Hey, when are you done with this little thing you're doing?" I said, "Well, this is not a little thing. This is my life."
He said, "Well, I think you would be great in my industry, and I want you to, wherever you live, I want you to stay here." I said, "No, I'm not going to stay here. I'm going to go back." My quote to him was, "I'm going to go find a wife and build a life back home."
He said, "Well, you'd be good in the financial services industry." I said, "Well, give me your number." He gave me a card, and I called him every week or so for a year after I came home. He mentored me and helped me transition into the financial services industry, and that's been a great choice too. It's been very good to me over my lifetime.
Nice. And is that pretty much where you stayed for your entire career then?
That's where I stayed. I worked with a company for 12 years, and a few others and I founded a new company after 12 years, and that's where I've been for 30, 31 years now. I'll grant them, it's been incredible for me.
Nice, nice. What do you feel like was your first taste of some heavy leadership roles, whether in your professional life or in your religious life?
My bishop was a young man. He was 29 years old at the time when I joined the church, and he called me to be his first assistant in the priest quorum.
That was just a heavy responsibility at the time, but I had no idea. I was just living alone in a little tiny apartment. He mentored me and helped me understand leadership. He wanted me to be the example.
I had long hair. I actually had hair back then, and it was kind of over my shoulders. I probably wasn't the best example of what a young man in a priest quorum would look like, but I had lots of mentoring from him about being the example and about helping lead that quorum.
He asked me to call him. He asked me to conduct meetings. He asked me to do things that helped me stretch my vision and helped me see a different person that I could become. Again, I mentioned that he became the most influential person in my life today.
Wow. So there's almost this reframing of your identity that really helped you lay a foundation for you to grow from.
Well, I think that's what happens in leadership. When we understand our duty and when we understand who and what we're supposed to become, I think our identity does change.
We put ourselves on a trajectory that, you know, at any given time, it's one of the great challenges in life for people to see their possibilities and to see what Heavenly Father even wants us to be and who He wants us to become.
But so many people, maybe so many of us, don't realize the possibilities we have and who we should desire to become. Heavenly Father, I'm convinced that Elder Bednar sometimes speaks of that we're not really human beings; we're human becomings.
As human becomings, it just means that we're on a trajectory to become something, and we can control that. There's never a moment, never a second that we don't have the power to change our trajectory.
In leadership, when we see ourselves as leaders and when we accept the mantle of leadership, we have the responsibility, in my view, to become what we hope we can lead others to become.
Yeah, that's powerful. Anything, I know you've been an elders quorum president, a bishop, a stake president. Anything, as you reflect on those callings, any principles come to the surface that really blessed you in your leadership and helped you lead better?
Well, I mean lots of principles. The principle of love is the one that comes to mind most strongly. When we love other people, when it's about them, not about us, then I think it's easier to lead.
When we honestly just do, and it's all about them and their salvation, losing ourselves in their lives and helping lift and bless them—not for any grand self-aggrandizement or anything that comes to us, but because it's our duty and because we truly, literally fall in love with these people.
When I was getting ready to go on my mission, I had a brother tell me one day, "Let me tell you the secret to a great mission." He said, "Work hard." He said, "It's only three things: work really, really hard, lose yourself in the work, and number one, number two, be obedient—literally just be obedient in every way. Obedience is everything.
Then the third thing is love for people. Fall in love with those precious people." He said, "If you'll do those three things, you'll have an incredible mission and eventually an incredible life."
That touched me, and I think that's the key to any leadership role.
Yeah. Does anything come to mind in the context of maybe being the bishop or the stake president where you strived to show that love, and what did that look like?
Well, yeah. I mean, it shows up. How much you love someone shows up in what you do. Our belief system manifests itself in what we do, always.
The manifestation of our love shows up in the examples of it. For me to see it, I mean, I could tell lots of stories about things that I personally have done, but to see others, I mean, the most inspirational experiences I've had is watching others do that.
A Relief Society president who literally just showed up in any circumstances within the stake, especially with—this was a stake Relief Society president. She's now on a mission. She's a mission president's wife down in Costa Rica right now. Two of the most incredible people that I know and love.
My wife happened to be one of her counselors, and we watched her, this sweet woman, serve that stake unlike any other leader that I've ever seen in that type of a calling.
It just meant that she was there upon. I just watched her drop everything she was doing so many times to go lift and serve and bless others.
We had an example of, just for example, we had a flood—a major flood come down through. We had nine separate communities in our stake, and one of those communities, one of those nine, had a big flood come through there. It damaged lots of homes and just flooded complete basements.
We watched her and so many other people just lose themselves in serving other people. Lots and lots of stories and examples of that.
Wow, that's inspiring. Is there a story to when you were called to be the stake president? Does anything come to mind?
Well, nobody aspires to those callings. I think the Lord sometimes calls us for the need we have. My wife and I have said so many times that that calling specifically was more for us than for the stake.
We'd have precious members that have thanked us, and we love them. We've fallen in love with those people and miss them greatly. We were released and moved away from there. Periodically, we still run into those precious people, and we just love them.
When I was called to be a stake president, of those nine communities I mentioned, I hadn't spent much time in all but one of them. We had a ranch, a really nice ranch up on a hill, and we would come and go from St. George up to that ranch.
But passing through those communities, I had never literally turned off that road to go to those other wards or those neighborhoods. I just never had.
The morning after I was called, I went and spent—I was driving, and I had appointments and things to do, but I just turned that car and blew off a bunch of appointments. I went and drove through that entire stake, through all those neighborhoods, and looked at those homes.
I literally imagined behind those doors those precious families—their husbands and wives and the children—and thought about, you know, who's teaching those kids and what are we teaching those kids and what are my responsibilities?
I just had this overwhelming feeling of love for people that I've never even met and didn't know, but knew that I was called to serve them. Heavenly Father blessed me with just feelings that touched me deeply then.
Of course, later those feelings manifest themselves in meeting those people and all the things you do as a stake president. You're not really on the front lines as much as a stake president as you are as a bishop, as you know.
I think you served as a bishop, yes?
It's just a precious thing to fall in love with these people, and I feel like that's what happened there. So that was one of the great privileges of our lives—to serve them and serve with them.
So were you serving as a bishop at the time of your call as the stake president?
Yes, I was serving as a bishop at the time—about three and a half years as a bishop when I was called to be the stake president.
Oh, okay. Was there anything worth mentioning as far as that transition? I think you alluded to it a little bit—that you suddenly realized you're not on the ground as much, you know, as close to the people as you are when you're a bishop.
But anything else worth noting in that transition?
You know, it's a calling of right called to serve and lift other people, and it's a humbling experience. It was for me. My family helped confirm for me that, you know, they attended both the call, and they were there when we were set apart.
The general authorities who did both of those callings, along with this stake presidency, confirmed to our family through the blessings and through the ordination process that we were there to serve and that we were there to lose ourselves in.
Not just us. I mean, even a stake president's family and a bishop's family have duties too and a responsibility too. Some of the things that were said helped me understand that duty flows when someone's in a leadership role.
Duty flows not just to and through those leaders, but their family has a responsibility. I remember many years ago, I was in an elders quorum lesson when we went through, I think it was Joseph F. Smith. It might have been Joseph Fielding—one of those prophets.
Their father was speaking about their son, and I think it was Joseph F. Smith. He was speaking about his son, and he said, "My son loves duty more than pleasure."
I just remember sitting in that quorum class thinking about leadership and that son's responsibility along with his dad's calling of duty versus pleasure. That made me have that desire to want to be responsible and not just seek pleasure all the time.
Our world is so filled with pleasure-seeking—from movies, recreation, to travel. I've had my share of travel. I've been blessed that way and enjoyed the world, but we have a duty in our family.
When we're serving as a bishop or when we become a stake president, our families have a duty to help us fulfill our responsibilities. Like Alma said to his son, the people see your actions, and they won't believe in my words.
I just remember feeling that during that transition—from bishop to stake president—that something one of those leaders said to my family during that ordination process or the setting apart process helped me understand that. It gave me some talking points with my family since then too.
Yeah, sort of that general concept of duty, right? That's interesting because I think, I didn't even—I may be wrong, but there seems to be more of an emphasis generally speaking in our culture in the 80s and 90s as far as this concept of duty, right?
I think sometimes we've lost some of that benefit of seeing our participation in the church and in callings in that way.
I think we may have, but I feel like it's a good thing for all of us to understand our duty. I mean, when we've taken upon ourselves the name of Christ and we carry His name with us, then we have a duty to strive to be like Him and to be His arms and legs in fulfilling His work.
We grow through it. We benefit from it, and others do too.
Yeah, that's great. Anything, you know, did you think back? Was it a good solid nine years or so that you served as a stake president?
I actually served for about—between the two, I served for seven years. But our family moved. We sold and ended up selling our ranch and moving.
So we didn't, you know, then—and I did have a call from a general authority, one of the Twelve at the time, because I was going to—that was an interesting process too.
Let me say this for anybody that's in leadership, and I won't get real specific in this, but it was one of the most instructional times of my life when I was thinking about—we'd sold our ranch, and we were thinking about moving.
Our family had wanted us to let Saul live closer together, and I decided we were going to buy a home in the stake. We had already purchased another farm, actually, where we live now, but we'd already purchased this property, and we were going to do something over time with that.
But we were going to go ahead and buy another home, a temporary home, and live there until we'd completed our assignment. That's how I looked at it—completed our duty. I'll use that word again.
I felt like that was a nine-year calling, generally, even though we've all known stake presidents that served more. We had, on our mission, stake presidents that served for 11 years, and we all hear back in the history of leaders that served for 20 years.
These sweet general authorities of ours, they served to age 70 or their lifetime if they're in the Twelve. But I got a phone call. Our area president had said, "I think I'll ask one of the Brethren to call you."
I got a call from a member of the Twelve that I love and know well, and it was so touching to me. He said, "So I understand that you've sold your place. So what are your plans?"
I said, "Well, my plans are to go ahead and maybe keep the new place we've purchased, but we'll buy another home to fulfill our nine-year assignment."
He said, "Now hold on. Do you feel like your calling was a nine-year calling?"
I said, "Well, that's how I viewed it." He asked me, and he's just wonderful at asking questions. He says, "So do you think that's how the Lord looks at it?"
I said, "Well, I'm not sure." He said, "Well, here's what I think you're saying. I think what you're saying is that you think that the Lord hasn't prepared other people to step in, and you think you're the only one that can do it. Is that what you think?"
It was sort of a very polite little slap across the face. He said, "I want you to pray about it and pray as to whether or not you and your family should go ahead and make the decision to move and do what you need to do and accept whatever other callings come."
But he said, "That's how this deal should work." Then he told an example of what happened in his life where he had accepted a job offer and moved back in his youth during a heavy calling that he had.
Anyway, that was a special experience for me. We went ahead and decided not to purchase that home, and they called a new leader—called one of my counselors, actually—that became one of the great, you know, he did a much better job than I did anyway and so loved that stake and those people.
That leader, so yeah.
Well, that's such a helpful story because there is this feeling in leadership, you know, like obviously when you're called to serve as a missionary, there's a time frame on there. You know it's expected that you'll serve such and such time.
I think we project that onto many callings. You know, the bishop is generally five, five, six years, right? And the stake president is generally nine years, right? You don't want to disappoint anybody or feel like you're shirking your duties.
I think there's a side of that, whether you felt this or not, or this general authority was alluding to it—just this sometimes you get the feeling of being indispensable, right?
It reminds me of one of my favorite leadership quotes: "The graveyards are full of indispensable men." You know, at the end of the day, you can't stick around forever.
So you step aside and see what the Lord has in mind or who He's prepared to carry the work on, right?
That's right. That's what came to me through that experience. Yes, a missionary is a two-year assignment. You're called as a missionary. You're assigned to your mission. Assignments may change.
Callings sometimes don't if it's a two-year calling or an 18-month calling for the sisters. But other callings have general guidelines. I mean, generally a stake—and I can't speak for the church itself and for the brethren, but I do know that the Lord has prepared people to serve.
When we don't step up, others can and vice versa. We're a team pulling together to build the Lord's kingdom. It's His kingdom. It's His church.
Yet we have the freedom and the opportunity to accept assignments and job offers and move our families, and sometimes things change, and that's okay.
Yeah, that's really helpful. Anything you remember from the transition out of that calling? Especially, I mean, you're moving to a different stake, so maybe that sort of gave you a restart on all things church-related.
But anything worth mentioning from transitioning out of that calling?
Well, yeah. We moved before I was released, and keys are geographic. We all know that a bishop only holds the keys for those in the geography of his ward, and the same with a stake, the same with a mission.
We received permission. It was a few months actually living outside the stake, and that was a simple letter from the First Presidency that was requested to give authorization to live outside of a stake where those keys are held.
I just love the order of the church. I mean, to be honest, I love everything about the church—every principle and doctrine and the covenants and ordinances and these principles of keys and how they work.
I learned much through that process too. Transitioning out was hard. You know, when you love people, you don't like to—you know, it's kind of the same process, I guess, in wards when they split them.
You know, you love people, and all of a sudden your next-door neighbor or your people across the street are in a different ward, and it's hard to not think of not being with them.
But we miss those people terribly, and that's how it's supposed to be. I look forward to the day when we're on the other side and when we all become a big family and we see each other have a little bit of time together. I hope.
Yep. So how much time passed before they called you to serve as a mission president?
I was actually the reverse of that. I don't know what the perception of how I've said this, but I had served in bishoprics and in elders quorums and as an elders quorum president, but I was called as a mission president before I was called as a bishop.
Oh, okay.
So before you were called as a bishop and stake president then?
Yes.
Oh, wow. Interesting.
I was called as a mission president in 2010. We left in 2011. We came back in 2014, and I was home about a year from my mission, and we had this precious ward that we'd moved into where our branch was, and I was called as the bishop of that ward and then from there the stake president of that stake.
I was released just a few short years ago.
Oh, interesting. So take us back to your call as a mission president. Is there a story behind that? Usually, the phone rings, and your life changes.
Well, yeah. Just real quick, I had this special experience. We'd had a meeting at our home, and Elder Holland was at that meeting.
It was a meeting for the college, and Elder Holland at that meeting pulled me aside and put his arm around me. I'd met him prior and loved him.
Yeah, he's from the St. George area, right?
St. George area, yeah. But he put his arm around me and simply asked me out of the blue—this was the shocker of my life—when he said, "Brother Holm, how long would it take you to wind up your business affairs?"
I said, "Well, Elder Holland, I'll do whatever I'm asked to do." He said, "Well, that's the right answer, but how long will it take you?"
I said, "Tomorrow afternoon, and if you know, I'll do it."
So it was actually a year after that, but a few months after that, we were called into his office and had a couple of meetings with him. Then he said, "I'm going to refer you to the First Presidency, but the calling we're considering comes from the First Presidency."
That's when President Dwarf at the time called us into his office and issued the call, and that was a precious experience for us—very precious.
Yeah, that's awesome. I'm going to ask you, since we spent some time talking about your time as a stake president, how did being a mission president before being a stake president impact how you did things as a stake president? Does anything come to mind?
Yes, I will tell you that being, you know, being on a mission, I just love missionaries and love everything about spreading the gospel.
Being there as a mission president, there are a lot of things you wish stake presidents and bishops would do to welcome their missionaries and to allow the missionaries to be their arms and legs and to be involved.
I hope I did a better job having been a mission president. I hope I did a better job than I would have having not served as a mission president first.
Certainly, that dominated my thinking, and what dominates our thinking determines the outcome of our lives. The missionary work, and I don't know that we did the job we could have done.
You know, in every leadership role, when you're finished or released, you look back and say, "Well, I wish I'd have done this a little bit. I wish I'd have done that."
I've experienced that. I still experience that. I mean, when I see these precious people, I hope they felt of my love. I hope our stake was as missionary-oriented as I think they were, as I hoped they were.
But as a mission president, all you think about 24/7 is missionary work. I mean, we had 700 missionaries over those three years. Our high was 280 missionaries at one time, and it was during the age change and so much happening in our mission.
It was just a busy, busy time, and of course, you're full-time as a mission president. You're not full-time as a stake president, right?
If you want to be full-time, and it's like a bishop, as you know, when you're a bishop, as I can, elders quorum presidency or Relief Society presidency, any presidency—even though you're not full-time necessarily, you're full-time in your thoughts.
What's a bishop thinking about when he's going to bed at night? He's thinking about these precious members, and that's what's dominating his thinking at that time.
I think I came home from my mission, and in these callings, both as a bishop and as a stake president, it dominated my thinking. The things that I had learned, the things that I had experienced on my mission affected me in a big, big way.
I hope we were more effective as a result.
Yeah, sure. So I'm curious, was there any particular way you handled the meetings with young men and women who are preparing to serve missions? Do you feel like you did that in a different way or a unique way, or how did you go about that?
Well, yes. I mean, for—and that was one of the joys of my life was to help call and set apart all those missionaries as a stake president, especially as you know, a stake president sets apart those missionaries or his counselors when assigned.
But I told every one of them, there's not a single one that I didn't share with them the things that I heard when I got ready to go on my first mission about work hard, be obedient, and love those people. Fall in love with those people.
I would give them, you know, I mean, all those missionaries that I interviewed when they arrived in our mission in South Carolina, one of the things I would do is I had this little sheet that I would note down lots of things about them.
I'd ask them how many times they've read the Book of Mormon and about their testimony day one. Working with missionaries to help them, it was just surprising to me how few had read the Book of Mormon even fully or more than once.
The difference in a missionary's life that had read the Book of Mormon maybe three times or five times before they went on their mission or someone who's truly converted, and those missionaries that were coming through our stewardship as a stake, as a ward or stake president, to hand them off to a mission president converted and to hand them off having read the Book of Mormon, having a deep and abiding testimony of the gospel became the goal.
You see the big difference in missionaries and their conversion level. It does make a difference. The wonderful thing about a mission, of course, is that it's never too late to be converted.
The missionary that finally becomes what we would call a fourth missionary from that great talk that I'm sure you're familiar with, but a missionary that really becomes converted to the fullest, if it's in their 24th month or their 18th month as a sister missionary, still okay.
But to help them become converted and to have a lifelong devoted testimony of the gospel is the goal.
Yeah, that's powerful. Love it. Any, thinking back, just walking into that experience as a mission president, you know, we generally understand the process. You're set apart, and then you hit the ground of, what was it, South Carolina, right?
You preside over?
Right.
So you get there, and you know, a bunch of missionaries look to you for leadership. I mean, what was that like? Where did you even begin to lead in that context?
Well, again, I love this church. I love the fact that they have good training for mission presidents. They have close to a week of mission presidents.
In fact, they just finished that, and on the church website, you can see the talks of the Twelve and the First Presidency to the mission presidents that are going out now that just went out in the last couple of weeks.
We had a week of drinking from a fire hose, if you will, prior to going out, and then you meet with the outgoing mission president for a short time.
It's you, and the six months prior from the time you're called until the time you go to the mission president's seminar, the mission leader seminar they call them now, and then go out into the field.
There's also mentoring through the MTC, and the church has got these incredible leaders that have served missions that help mentor the new outgoing mission presidents.
You feel like you have at least somewhat of an understanding of what you're going to do, but when you get there, it's 24/7.
Our very first night, we had cars impounded, and I'm up. I took off my tie and went to bed, and at 11:30 or so, and at one o'clock in the morning, I'm back up, putting on my tie and mic, and I'm heading out to pick up some missionaries that their car had been impounded.
You're leading lots of incredible young men and young women. They're someone else's children, and you're responsible for them.
You never underestimate their strength. We were told that don't underestimate their power and their strength, but don't overestimate their judgments sometimes.
Anyway, stuff happens, but when you get there, you're pretty well prepared, I think, and excited and just in love with what you're about to do and converted to the goal, which is to gather scattered Israel. It's a great experience.
Yeah. Was there anything coming to mind as far as casting a vision for your mission, as far as the process you went through, the zone conferences, or how you kept them motivated or encouraged them?
Anything come to mind?
I'm sure everybody with their background probably affects them. I was told because I've been blessed in business, I was able to build a fairly successful business and was extremely blessed far beyond what I deserve.
These business success principles that you try to master in your life, you get out there, and you start thinking, "Well, I'm going to use those on our missionaries."
You realize that business success principles aren't necessarily the Lord's spiritual success principles. But to turn them to Him, to cast a vision of whose work this is, of whose name we bear, to convert them, to turn their hearts to Him and to put their trust in Him.
Yes, still use planning principles. I mean, you know, to have dreams and goals and plans and to be well-prepared and all those, you know, there's lots of little success principles that blessed my life on my first mission and that blessed my life throughout my life and my business life and my family life.
You certainly teach some of those things, but the vision of it is, I think we make a mistake. I don't want to speak for in any way to talk down to any leaders anywhere, but I think we make a mistake when we cast our vision and try to put our vision above the vision of the First Presidency or above the vision of the Savior and whose church this is.
If our vision is aligned with His and theirs, meaning the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve, then we're in alignment. Alignment creates velocity, and lack of alignment creates drag.
I think the Lord doesn't want us to have drag in His work. We need to align ourselves with Him and His leaders that He's placed in charge.
So, yeah, zone conferences and one-on-one interviews and all the things you do as a mission president and all the things we do as stake and ward leaders are to turn the hearts of the people to Him and to connect them eternally with Him because we're temporary cogs in this big wheelhouse.
I mean, we're not, you know, bishops in there for a little while, stake presidents in there for a little while, mission presidents in there for a little while.
But if we're connected into connecting them to Him and to His vision and His purpose, then I think we're doing the work we're sent to do.
Yeah, that's really helpful because it is tempting, and I think a lot of—maybe it's easier to see in a context of a mission president just because it's a full-time calling.
But I think in any calling we serve in, there's sort of this temptation to do what you do in your other, you know, forums in your life, whether it's your career or whatnot, just sort of apply those principles that work there and figure, "Hey, maybe they'll work here too."
I'm sure there's some that do, but others you sort of have to check yourself, right? And just make sure you're not relying too much on those experiences and still relying on the Spirit and seeing where the Lord wants to take you, right?
Well, I think, I mean, just this is just my opinion. This isn't doctrinal, but you know, we try often to distinguish ourselves.
In business, I've always told my business people that we either become distinct or we become extinct. We're trying to distinguish ourselves and to do things most people won't do and to become successful and to dream the big dreams and to set the big goals and to make the specific plans and to execute those plans with precision and become excellent at what we do.
We're blessed, and those things are true in business, and I think they're to a large degree true in life. If we're committed to success principles, then those principles distinguish us and help us. They bless us if we do them properly, especially if we're properly motivated.
If our intentions are pure and we strive to keep our intentions in alignment, then we can be successful in life. Some of that stuff, you know, I just fell in love with my missionaries. My wife and I both just love them.
This last Sunday, we had one of them show up in our ward unexpectedly, and just the reunion, the hugs, and the love for this incredible missionary and our memories of him are so profound and powerful, even though it's been probably seven or eight years since we've even seen him last.
He didn't come to one of our last reunions. You just fall in love with these people.
So I want them to be successful in their faith, meaning in the gospel. I want them to be successful in their families financially. I want them to be successful, and we wanted to be as well.
You just want them to be well-rounded and happy and successful, so you tend to want to teach them some of those things on their mission.
On your mission, if you're a mission leader, you want to help them with all those things because you look beyond just their mission. Their mission is going to prepare them for life.
Generally, if they do good on their mission and you get them on the right trajectory, that will help bless their lives.
So if you can help them in some other areas too, but generally, it's connecting them with Heaven that I think blesses them the most.
Fantastic. Anything else worth mentioning as you reflect on those three years in South Carolina as you presided over that mission?
Yeah, I mean, I could spend hours talking about things that have touched us and helped us be even more converted.
We had some mottos that we asked our missionaries to think about, and that is to be finishers, to learn to love tough things because missions are hard sometimes.
The hardest things we do are what benefit us the most and what we learn the most from. But to love tough things and to be finishers. If you're going to start something, finish it.
Do the good due diligence to make sure it's something you should do, and then if you start doing it, finish it. Be a finisher.
I remember this one young missionary. In fact, I talked to him a couple of days ago, this sweet missionary from Rexburg, Idaho. Just as we were about to finish our mission, he and his companion had been over helping a family.
There had been a heavy storm come through, and a big tree had fallen. They were over. This man had a chainsaw, and he was cutting logs, cutting up this tree. The missionaries were helping stack the cut branches.
Well, this young missionary had bent down just to pick up something just as this man had cut a limb off the tree, and the tree swung and smacked him in the face. It literally crushed his skull.
Oh my goodness.
He was life-flighted into a hospital. I give this phone call. My wife and I do that he's in the hospital and that we need to get there, actually, as he was being life-flighted.
So we rushed me in this sweet brother, General Authority Elder Swake, who it was, and I love that man. We rushed over to the hospital, and I come walking in.
All the way there, I'm talking to his parents, this young missionary's parents, and I'm talking. It was an hour and a half drive, and I'm talking to his parents and talking to the doctor.
Mission presidents have the authority to even the legal authority with their missionaries, so I was able to get the neurosurgeon to tell me what was happening.
This neurosurgeon was saying, "President Holm, this young man's not going to live. He's not going to make it. This is really tough." He went through all this with me.
By the time we get there, we rush into this hospital room, and I'm just so emotional with this young man that I love and his mother. We had gotten his mother on an airplane, and she was in route from Rexburg to South Carolina by the time—or at least we had the tickets all lined up and had her on her way.
We'd called a couple to be in charge of helping shepherd her and get her there and get her from the airport over to the hospital. You know, all this was happening.
I walk into the hospital room, and his face was so swollen. He had these tubes down his throat, and his eyes were swollen shut, it looked like.
I got down in his face, and I said, "Elder," and called him by name. I said, "Elder, I love you, and Heavenly Father loves you." I just started talking to him.
I didn't know that he was conscious, and all of a sudden, tears—even though his eyes were swollen shut—tears just flowed.
He begins, oh well, and he starts talking to me through these tubes down his throat. He says, "President Holm, I'm not going home. I'm not going home."
I said, "Elder, we'll see how we're just going to get you healed up. We love you, and we'll get you healed up."
He said again, just gurgling through those tubes, "I'm not going home. I'm a finisher. I'm a finisher. I'm a finisher."
I said, "Well, we love you, and we're going to get you healed up." Elders would give him a blessing, a priesthood blessing that he would live and that he would get through that and that was a tender, tender experience.
His sweet mom arrives. She stayed there for nine days. He was in intensive care for most of that time. We got him on an airplane with a helmet on and got him home to the neurologists and others that would help him out in Rexburg.
Shortly after, I went home before we'd finished our mission. Six weeks later, he returned. He only had like three or four weeks, but this young man was not going to not finish his mission.
It was so important to him that he was able to come back. That sweet new mission president and the missionary department allowed him to come back to South Carolina to finish his time because it was that critical feeling.
That young man is one of my favorite people in the world. He's a "I'm a finisher. I'm a finisher. I'm a finisher."
Yeah, so inspiring. I just love those glimpses of strong leadership that come through stories like that. You know, you set a culture through these mottos and efforts that you did, and you can see the power in those things.
You know, giving people hope and encouragement when all that seems lost, you know? So that's—I love that. I appreciate you telling me that story.
Any, as I guess as we wrap up here, any other point, principle, story, concept that you want to make sure we squeeze in here? Do we cover what we need to today?
Well, I mean, you know, I'm no expert on anything. I'm just—I have a sense of duty, and I want to do my duty. I'm privileged that you would invite me to come and be on this.
I know you're doing—I haven't listened to you as much as my wife has, but I'm now signed up to where I'm going to listen to you regularly.
All right.
But I appreciate that there's people like you, Kurt. There's some programs like this that help bless people's lives.
I do know that as we become converted, as we align our lives with leadership principles and with the principles of heaven, then we're going to be blessed, and we will.
So you're blessing a lot of people, and I'm grateful to have been a part of this, honestly. You inspire others, and you know, I'll just say this probably the last thing I'll say in closing up my brief time here is that the thing that inspires human beings the most, in my opinion, there's really only two things that inspire people: it's what they see and what they hear.
You know, what they see in their leaders, what they see in their body language, what they see them do in their examples. I mean, we're all inspired by what we see, what we see other people do.
Then we're inspired by what we hear, and sometimes those are the same things. Sometimes there's consistency between what we hear and what we see, and sometimes there's not.
Of course, it's confusing to people when they see one thing and hear something different. But, you know, in all of our lives, all of us that are listening to you regularly, we need to make sure that we be the example of what people see and what they hear from us.
That will inspire them—not that we're trying to be inspirational, but that we're just living and doing what we should, and that will inspire others to do what they should.
You're a big part of that, and so I hope all of us can constantly try to live and project what we're supposed to do to be examples of the Savior, examples of saints, examples of leaders, and that we can inspire our families and others around us to do and be what we should.
So thank you for all you're doing.
Awesome. Well, I do have to sneak in one last question because it's traditional here on the Leading Saints podcast.
The last question I have for you, Monty, is as you reflect back on your time as a leader, how has being a leader helped you become a better follower of Jesus Christ?
Boy, that's a good question. I will just tell you that my desire to follow Him, I think, has helped me be a better leader.
So I don't know how being a leader has helped me follow. I know the things I've learned as a leader. The things I've learned about love, the things I've learned about service really come from Him.
The best things I've ever learned come from studying Him. I will say that I know Him because of my studies of Him and my desires to be more like Him.
I've got a long way to go, but I want to be more like Him. Serving others has helped me feel like I'm being like Him.
If I'm asking myself regularly, "What would He do right here? What would He do right now? How would He treat this situation?" I think that's helped me be more like Him.
Again, I'm not there yet. I've got a long way to go. That's what I'd like to do.