the work was :1) to bring Glory and Knowledge of the Almighty, this was through the MIRACLES 2) was to TEACH and SHOW us the RIGHT WAY...now it was time to Fulfill the Savior Plan, Die for us.... and the last part of ur question, does not make sense....God is the Authority ..but as HE was Jesus..and in human flesh..HE always told ," HIS AUTHORITY was from GOD...and all GLORY belongs to God..:)

Good question.

I'm not LDS but I'll give the typical Mormon spin on this for a frame of reference and to get the discussion going: Christ HAD finished His work to the Middle East Jews, however He hadn't brought the good news to the American Jews (aka "the OTHER sheep") so He was given His NEXT mission upon returning to The Father. This is reflected in Doctrine & Covenants 19:2: "I, having accomplished and afinished the will of him whose I am, even the Father, concerning me—having done this that I might subdue all things unto myself..." So Christ's mission to America was merely his first step in subduing all things to Himself. LDS how did this dumb "Gentile" do in articulating the LDS "take" on this passage?

I was not aware that he had been to America. Had America been invented when jesus was alive?

Well, first of all, since we’re in the “Mormon beliefs” section, let’s get the terminology right: Jesus wasn’t praying to Jehovah; Jesus *is* Jehovah. He was praying to His Father, whom we traditionally refer to as Elohim. However, I suspect this to be peripheral to your question. Mister_IT has done a very good job of explaining this—thanks, MIT!—but I would present it just a bit differently by pointing out when the Lord said this. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane, in the midst of His great intercessory prayer. If we assume that Christ had actually finished His work at the time of the prayer, then we must also assume that the Atonement—which was yet to come—was not part of His work. I’m guessing you won’t find many takers on that theory. So now let’s take this to its logical extreme: if we assume that Christ’s prayer really meant that He would never again be given any work to do, we must assume that His Resurrection was not part of His work, nor the Millennium, nor the resurrection of the just, nor the resurrection of the unjust, nor even the Final Judgment, nor anything that anyone might do on His behalf (e.g. the Apostles’ continuing missionary efforts in His name). In short, if Christ would never again be given anything to do after that point, the Bible is a lie and Satan has won. (Oops… I originally typed “Stan has one.” LOL!) So this brings us back to Mister_IT’s argument: that He had finished some specific work (or perhaps was just about to, like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7) but that the completion of said work did not preclude any other, future work that He might have to do. And what was this work that was finished? Let’s turn to the context of the chapter:    “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I     had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men     which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them     me; and they have kept thy word.” (John 17:5-6). So if Christ is now requesting that Father glorify Him “with the glory which [He] had… before the world was,” it would seem that He is drawing a line in the sand: before, He was doing the work of a mortal— a work that, as He rightly states in v.4, is now “finished.” After this point, there’s no more preaching, no more parables, no more ordinances, no more nothing that anybody else can do, on His behalf. All that’s left now is His work as a God, which would of course include all of the examples cited above. His teachings after this point take on a new life: they come not from One that can be mistaken as just another prophet, but from one that passes through walls, that descends from Heaven, that has overcome death itself. They are the words of our Lord and our God. HTH!

this is a mormon teaching. the bible contradicts this idea. the bible being the inspired of God does not lie. this idea the mormons teach of jesus being in the americas is totally false.