Ministering One-to-One
Ministering One-to-One
President Quinn’s Weekly Message
California Santa Rosa Mission
April 13th, 2026
On Wednesday we will welcome 13 new missionaries to CASRM. I am confident you will each extend a loving and warm welcome to them.
With the arrival of new missionaries, we bid farewell to missionaries who have honorably completed their time in CASRM. We are grateful to you for your dedicated and loving service. We are excited to see the blessings and opportunities the next chapters of your lives present. You return home with our love. We celebrate the joyous reunion you are soon to enjoy with your family and friends.
Clayton M. Christensen, a faithful member of the Church and noted business author – also one of my heroes and my brother-in-law, taught that, unlike the world, the Lord will not judge our lives by the number of people we oversee in our Church positions. Instead, the Lord will be interested in the individual lives we were able to touch and influence. Clayton shared the following:
“I once felt passed over when another man was called to a leadership position I had felt I might receive. In the crisis of self-confidence that ensued, I realized that because our minds are finite, we create hierarchies and statistically aggregate people. We perceive stake presidents to be higher than bishops and Primary presidents higher than Primary teachers because they preside over more people. But God has an infinite mind. He needs no statistics above the level of the individual in order to have a perfect understanding of what is happening. This means, I realized, that the way God will measure my life is not by the numbers of people over whom I have presided but by the individual people whose lives I have touched with His love and with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” (Ensign Magazine 1997, “My Ways Are Not Your Ways”)
As Clayton teaches us above, the Lord’s focus is on how His disciples bless the individual. The Savior exemplified this repeatedly during His ministry. The Gospels are full of examples where the Savior ministered to the needs of individuals – building, lifting, and healing others. During His visit to the America’s He continued ministering one-to-one:
“Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.” (3 Nephi 17:7)
I am grateful to the Savior for His example of serving the needs of individuals one-to-one. As we discussed in our most recent zone conferences, I believe His Atonement was both infinite and intimate. We honor Him by serving others as He would – with compassion and love. My personal relationship with the Savior has deepened as I have ministered one-to-one on His behalf.
The broader impact of ministering to the one was succinctly taught in our most recent General Conference by Sister Yee, “…when we bless the one, we bless the whole.”
As you begin this transfer with a new companion or new missionaries serving in your district, zone and mission, I invite you to look for opportunities to lift each other. High love in our mission begins in your companionships, districts, and zones as you look for opportunities to lovingly encourage, support, and build-up one another. Please extend yourself to a fellow missionary you sense might be struggling with their health, testimony, or finding their missionary purpose. I promise the kindness and love you extend to a fellow missionary will multiply the spirit of love felt across CASRM.
To provide further instruction on ministering to the individual and in preparation for our time with Elder Gong this Saturday, I invite you all to read Elder Gong’s most recent General Conference talk, ’Tis Eastertide: No One Walks Alone.
We look forward to being with you this Saturday when Elder Gong visits our mission. What a blessing to meet with an Apostle of Jesus Christ! We are confident this will be a spiritual feast.
Love,
President Quinn
(630) 881-4030
