Build mission spirit, Pres. Monson urges
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The 2009 New Mission Presidents Seminar offered scores of new mission presidents and their wives a priceless opportunity to come together and receive four days of training prior to embarking on their three-year assignments.
The days were filled with instruction at the feet of apostles and other Church leaders. (See accompanying stories.) The seminar concluded with words of encouragement and counsel from President Thomas S. Monson, himself a former mission president.
The Church leader spoke for almost an hour in a special June 28 sacrament meeting. There he offered the mission presidents and their wives practical direction on how to love and motivate their sacred charges — the full-time missionaries.
"The tears come easily to me when I realize the calls that you have, the experiences that you will have and the influence that you will have," said President Monson, looking out upon a congregation of mission leaders hailing from all corners of the globe.
"I know that you are dedicated to the work of the Lord and to the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ," he said. "I also know that the missionaries who will serve under your direction will be loved and guided by you."
The missionaries, he added, represent "the flower of the Church." They represent the hopes, prayers and dreams of their parents. They represent sacrifice, he said.
President Monson enlisted equal measures of common sense and personal experience in offering counsel about motivating missionaries.
"First, your missionaries can be motivated through your personal interviews with them," he said.
That first contact that a missionary has with his or her president is all-important. President Monson counseled the presidents to greet new missionaries at the airport or train depot. Welcome them "to the greatest mission in the world."
Interview each of the new missionaries and learn about their background, their families and their objectives. Take careful notes.
Those interviews that a mission president has with elders and sisters already serving in the field can also inspire and motivate, he said.
"My observation is that a proper interview should take place at about six to eight week intervals," President Monson said. "If you have them more frequently than that, you will find they become too commonplace. If you wait a more lengthy period, you will probably miss some of the things that otherwise could be learned in an interview."
Interviews should be positive, he added. "My suggestion is that we provide help — that we love, not scold."
The missionary transfer period also offers a mission president a special opportunity to motivate. President Monson reminded his audience that only the mission president transfers missionaries within his mission. Beware of the temptation to delegate that sacred duty to zone leaders or assistants to the president, he continued.
"Every missionary has the right to expect his mission president, on bended knee, to seek inspiration concerning where he should be and with whom he should serve," he said.
President Monson promised that mission presidents would witness the hand of God at work as they seek inspiration in transferring missionaries. As a mission president in Canada, he was once inspired to assign a missionary to an area where a large number of Italian immigrants resided. President Monson did not know that this particular elder had learned Italian from his mother — or that his language skills would bless the lives of many immigrant families investigating the Church in his new area.
President Monson encouraged the mission presidents to resist the urge to transfer the missionaries too frequently. Be judicious and allow the missionaries to remain in areas long enough to build essential relationships with members and investigators, he advised.
The Church president also said the work of sharing the gospel is best served in areas where the Church is already established. "Put missionaries in areas where there are established branches where we can move from the centers of strength outward.
"In that way, we have access to proper fellowshipping in an established unit where we will hold the fruits of our labors rather than losing them as fast as we gain them."
The personal letters that missionaries write each week to their president and parents can also help motivate the elders and sisters, he said.
"Every missionary should have the privilege of personally writing a letter to the mission president and knowing that the mission president is reading that letter."
He indicated the weekly mission president letter can provide a mission leader with invaluable information with regard to the well being of missionary companionships and the proselyting work in a particular area.
President Monson also stressed the importance of each missionary writing his or her parents every week. He said lives can be forever changed and blessed when elders and sister missionaries dutifully communicate each week with mothers and fathers about their missionary activities.
President Monson also commented on the proper use of preparation day in motivating missionaries. Make certain "preparation" day does not become a "diversion" day that puts missionaries at physical or spiritual risk, he cautioned. "Do nothing on preparation day that would rob [the missionaries] of their spirituality."
Remember, he added, all evenings should be "proselyting evenings."
He emphasized that preparation day ends at 5 p.m.
The missionary meetings are also ideal forums to motivate missionaries, he said. "Let the missionary meetings be meetings which build and uplift and inspire." He urged the mission presidents to utilize zone conferences and other meetings to demonstrate finding and teaching skills, indicating that "show how" is more effective than "tell how."
He encouraged them to share successes and testimonies.
President Monson also spoke of the value of involving members in missionary work. "The greatest single thing that you as a mission president can do to increase the effectiveness of your missionaries and their productivity is to ensure that the proper relationship is maintained with ecclesiastical leaders in the areas where the missionaries are proselyting," he said.
He admonished the mission presidents to build up the mission spirit. "Presidents and their wives can instill in a missionary the feeling that he or she is serving in the best mission in the Church," he said.
President Monson concluded his remarks by testifying again of the influence mission presidents and their wives will have for good in the lives of their missionaries and the members.
"God bless you," he said. "It's a delight to be with you in the service of the Master."
