April 1, 1989, bringing an end to his term as president of BYU. As a member of the Seventy, Holland was a counselor in the general presidency of the church's Young Men organization from 1989 to 1990. Prior to his call as a general authority, Holland served as bishop of a single adult ward in Seattle, as a counselor in the presidency of the Hartford Connecticut Stake, and as a regional representative. He also served in the presidency of two other stakes and as a stake high councilor. From 1990 to 1993, Holland and his wife lived in Solihull, England where he served as president of the church's Europe North Area. On June 23, 1994, Holland was selected and ordained as an apostle by new church president Howard W. Hunter. The vacancy was created by the death of Ezra Taft Benson and subsequent reorganization of the First Presidency. This timing differed from the typical sustaining of new apostles in a general conference and ordaining them afterward. Holland also met with the media on the day of his ordination. His call to the apostleship was subsequently ratified by the church during the October 1994 General Conference. In 2000, Holland became the chair of the Missionary Curriculum Task Force which worked to develop Preach My Gospel. Holland lived in Santiago and served as president of the church's Chile Area from 2002 to 2004. In church general conferences in the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008, Holland gave sermons that directly answered accusations that Latter-day Saints are not Christians. At the April 2009 general conference, Holland gave a sermon about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the importance of Christ's statement, "my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me". This talk was later reformatted with music and put on a church website where it had been viewed over 500,000 times by August 2009. In 2012, Holland was the member of the Quorum of the Twelve with responsibility for the affairs of the LDS Church in Africa. Early in that year, he went to Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ghana to meet with members and missionaries. He also met with the Vice President of Sierra Leone, Samuel Sam-Sumana. In December 2012, Holland organized the 3,000th stake of the LDS Church, which was located in Freetown, Sierra Leone. On March 12, 2012, the Harvard Law School hosted Holland for a Mormonism 101 series. On