Mission Leader Seminar - Elder Anderson, I am His Witness

I always come home from mission leader seminars feeling full. Full of ideas, energy, and a renewed perspective. This past week, President Quinn and I attended our semi-annual mission leader seminar. We began in the Portland Oregon Temple, which set a lovely, reverent tone. From there, we traveled by bus along the beautiful Columbia River Gorge to the Skamania Lodge. For the next three days, we were immersed in instruction and discussion. The Doctrine of Christ and our missionary purpose were central themes.

*Sister and President Quinn at the Portland Oregon Temple on a cool rainy day in April*

We gathered with 29 mission leader couples from across the United States West Area, under the direction of Elder Wada our area president. On the final day, we were joined by the Area Seventies. We were honored to have Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife join us for two of the days.

I am very excited about all we were taught and can’t wait to share with our missionaries what we learned. I especially enjoyed Elder Anderson’s presentation on “Accountability and the Atonement” The area presidency and Elder Anderson kindly sent us their presentation materials so we could stay focused on learning rather than note-taking. Sister Andersen also taught and she was just as amazing!

It is exciting to see the Lord hastening his work! Elder Anderson told us over 2000 missionaries are being assigned mission callings each week. One week 3000 missionaries were assigned. This July 55 new missions are being made with a total of I think around 465 missions world wide.

*Elder Andersen teaching at the seminar*

Elder Andersen shared the story of his call as an Apostle of Jesus Christ. He recounted some advice given to him at that time by Elder Boyd K. Packer, who said with a smile, “Being an apostle is simple, you must always be right, and you must always be kind.” He passed on that instruction to us as mission leaders.

One of the most sacred moments came as Elder Andersen bore witness of the Savior and declared, “I am His witness.” This felt powerful and true.

A wonderful part of the week was spending time with a smaller group of twelve mission leader couples who, like us, will be returning home in July. Over the past three years, these dear friends have become like family. We met together to talk about what release will look like, how best to support incoming leaders, and even ways to stay connected in the future. I was grateful for the chance to make them a small gift from our mission, a simple expression of love and shared experience.

*The mission leaders who will be finishing their 3rd year in July - such great friends!*

*Sea glass art - a symbol of polishing and uplifting things that are in need of the love of Christ. - everyone!*

The leaders that are being released in July had the opportunity to bear our testimonies. It was a sweet and meaningful way to reflect on what the Lord has done and continues to do in this sacred work.
There is something powerful about stepping away for a few days to learn, reflect, and then bring that energy back to our missionaries.

We arrived in San Fransisco late last night, drove home, spoke in the Bennet Valley sacrament meeting this morning and drove up to Eureka today to begin a week of zone conferences tomorrow. We’ll review our presentation tonight. The work never ends. I’m excited to share our presentation this week!