Mission Presidents Seminar

The Interim Mission Presidents Seminar was held from May 15th - 18th at the Shangri-La Hotel. the theme for the Seminar was "Teach Ye Diligently"

What I love about being married to Daniel who is a DTA (Director for Temporal Affairs) is that we get invited to attend this type of Seminars even though we are not presiding over any mission but indirectly we are very much involved in many aspects of each mission when it comes to temporal needs. All missions need an office, and a mission home and supplies to operate. Not to mention the logistics of visas, finances, etc. Any problems that should ever come up regarding temporal affairs, Daniel is the one responsible to solve them.  Other missionary couples serving and who also work directly with the missions were also invited; such as the medical and mental doctors etc. and the executive Secretary couple who work closely with the Area Presidency.

We started at 9:00 am each morning and ended around 5:00 p.m. with two breaks. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. Elder Bowen, Elder Haynie and Elder Schmutz did the training. In the past, we had a General Authority visit us for this type of trainings but that is becoming more the exception that the rule.

The training included teaching missionaries to use time wisely, teaching the doctrine of Christ, key indicators, teach repentance and baptize converts, the role of the Book of Mormon in conversion, having a testimony is not enough, finding those who are seeking, family history as a tool to teach, training missionaries to prepare, interact, invite, preparation for baptism and retention, the law of the fast, use of social media, 72 hour kits for every missionary, etc. Toward the end of the Seminar every departing Mission President and his wife bore their testimony.

During the training, on Tuesday evening to be exact, we were invited to attend the BYU Orchestra who were performing at the Meralco Theatre, a very beautiful theater close to where we were staying. We spoke with Sandra Rodgers who is the Vice President at BYU and advised her of the danger into going to one particular area in the Philippines so they would assess the situation and find another venue.

That is what we were involved for the past four days and it was truly an amazing one of a kind memorable experience, one I should write about on my journal: To my children and grandchildren and their children. To be in a room full of committed, converted, covenants couples was incredible!

Con amor,

Vero