Mission Leaders Seminar

In addition to the voluminous pre-field on-line training new mission leaders experience, part of the preparation includes a Mission Leaders Seminar. All of the newly called mission presidents and their wives gather in Provo, UT at the Missionary Training Center to be taught and inspired before leavning for their assignments.  We spent four wonderful days with 147 other couples and learned from all of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the First Presidency, and several other general authorities and general Church officers. President Nelson was scheduled to come for our Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, but he was too weak so delivered his message via technology. The presentations were all really powerful and targeted specifically toward leading a mission. It was almost like a General Conference for mission leaders.  The Church News recap of the event can be found at https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2024/06/20/2024-seminar-for-new-mission-leaders-summaries-photos/ Several people reached out telling us they saw our photo in the Church News. One has to search diligently to see us but we are there.

The first day after checking in we were invited with the other Japan mission leaders to a meeting with the Missionary Department leadership to discuss the changing role of social media in Japan. We learned a lot about what they are trying to accomplish and why as well as what our role could be in it. Laurie and I both have a lot to learn about social media but this meeting was a helpful start. 

Later that evening we spent about an hour meeting eight missionaries that will be joining our mission in July. It was delightful and I believe we are going to be able to connect with most of them in a meaningful way. Meeting our missionaries was really a highlight for us. We continued to see them over the next few days in chance meetings in between sessions.

The second day, we had a breakout session where we were taught about role playing and methods for inviting people to be baptized. Each couple was then assigned to teach a group of missionaries the doctrine and principles and then to demonstrate for them. The missionaries then try it themselves. We walked into the room to find it completely occupied by native Japanese speakers heading to Japan (but none to our mission.) We were shocked as we had not been warned that these practice sessions would be done in Japanese. 

As there was no language training as part of this seminar, we were unprepared for this. It was hard enough to do it in English. We did our best for a while but we kept feeling like this session was not designed for us to practice our Japanese, but instead to teach the missionaries a skill. Once we realized  that at least one of them could speak enough English that he could translate for us. We also discovered that another one of the sisters could do the same. The last portion of the session went a lot more smoothly. It was a humbling experience but caused me to realize how much more work we have to do to become more serviceable linguistically. None of the other Japanese mission leaders had Japanese speakers. Fortunately, our next opportunity to do this on the following day was to a group of native English speakers trying to learn Spanish. That went much more smoothly.  It is going to be a rough few months until we get more comfortable with Japanese. 

One evening, all of the couples were assigned to have dinner with the Apostle who set them apart. In our case, that was Elder Neil L. Andersen. It was a fairly small setting. There were about eight tables in a room with eight people at each. In addition to mission presidents, there were other general authorities and church leaders. We were assigned to sit next to Bishop L. Todd Budge and his wife. He lived in Tokyo for most of his career and they gave us some great encouragement about how great it is to live there. Elder Andersen spoke to us after dinner and it is always enjoyable to hear from the brethren when they are “unscripted.” He reminisced about his time as a mission president, some experiences he had, insights into the Church and where it is going, etc. But what struck us the most was a comment he made regarding how the Savior is leading His Church. We all ackhowledge this is happening but Elder Andersen said that he is surprised by the “frequency and intensity” of the Lord’s direction in that quorum. For a member of the Quorum of the Twelve to be surprised by that surprises us! But it also gives some insight into just how much direction is occurring.

Bishop Budge gave us some interesting information about the Osaka Temple and how they were able to acquire the site for it. Typically, a half-acre in downtown Osaka would cost around $40 million dollars. But there was a university sitting on 17 acres that had to close due to the shrinking demographics of Japan. The land was zoned for education or religious purposes. No one needed another school and most religious organizations do not have the financial means to purchase 17 acres. The Church was able to get it for a very reasonable price. It is more land than they need so they intend to build a temple, a stake center, and use some of the existing fields and buildings as an FSY facility. It is miraculous to see how the Lord is accomplishing His work.

While the talks were so inspiring and helpful, it was also very enjoyable to meet so many new people. We went into the MTC with a list of 10-12 couples that have a connection to someone we know. We found most of them and introduced ourselves. We were able to make some great Hawaii connections. For example, Adney Reid and his wife will serve in Samoa. He is George Reid’s brother. His wife is David Fonoimoana’s sister. We also met the Andersons who are serving in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. They began their service early for some unconventional reasons but still came to the seminar. 

We also had several interactions with Elder Vai Sikahema and his wife. He sought us out because his son LJ is friends with Erin and Kimball. Their son Josh is friends with Erin’s daughter Evie. Elder Sikahema told me that he has instructed LJ and his wife Kailee to maintain the relationship with the Palmers because “we Tongans still believe in arranged marriages.” He was joking of course, but also he made it clear he thinks a lot of the Palmers. 

We also found connections we did not know we had until we randomly sat by others and conversed during mealtimes. For example, while eating with the Andersons and Sikahemas, we learned that Nathan Hale is currently serving as President Anderson’s counselor in the mission presidency. He also happens to have served as our daughter Erin’s mission president several years ago. It turns out that he and Vai Sikahema were also high school classmates. 

It seemed that there were many such connections.  President and Sister Fredrick are serving in Bogota South and will be Deanne (Laurie’s sister) and Alan’s Mission Leaders. We sat by another couple, the Sorenson’s (serving in Montreal Canada) who were from Houston Texas. They knew our nephew Nathan Pieper well (and of course Laurie’s brother Paul since he was the Area President in that area recently.) But President Sorenson is also the person who gave our friend Max (from Kazakhstan) his job in Houston and sponsored him to be able to work in the US. Max knew Paul and his family from Kazakhstan and he married a girl who was in the ward in which served as a YSA bishop. The world is very small in the Church.

We really loved the Mission President’s Seminar. It was so enjoyable, spiritually uplifting, and simultaneously energizing and exhausting. Each night when we left the MTC grounds we felt a tangible change in how the outside world felt. The MTC truly feels like sacred ground.

Finally, we will mention that no fewer than three of the apostles promised us that our families would be greatly blessed while we serve. This was not a casual comment that they would be blessed in an obscure way. Both Laurie and I felt that this was a specific, powerful promise being made to the mission leaders. When we considered how our family needs blessings – Kimball launching a new career, Erin with a new baby, Mattie and his business, Kris waiting on his green card, Adrian expecting a new baby a month after we leave, Casey relocating to Arizona and also trying to launch a new career as an airline pilot,  Cody and his pending divorce from Charity, and Tanner and Mariah and their new little daughter due in December – it feels to us like a very important blessing to hear and we are very grateful for it. They also told us not to worry because everything will work out. Even in private conversations with them, if we mentioned anything about our lack of language capability, they always responded with statements that we should not worry about that and that the Lord would help us to accomplish what we are being sent there to do. It is hard not to have optimism with so many spiritually powerful and experienced men giving us the same message.