What is Your Favorite Thing about Being a Mission Leader - & The Walnut

*Sister & President Quinn at the Woodland Stake Conference*

Happy Palm Sunday! 🌿 One of my very favorite Sundays of the year, because it means Holy Week has officially begun and Easter is on the way! It is a somber and joyful week as we can contemplate the agony of gethsemane, the suffering on the cross and the glorious resurrection.

Today I’m going to answer another question I get a lot: “What is your favorite part of being a mission leader?”

And yes—I’m going to break the rules and have three favorites.

ONE: Being able to give my whole heart to the Lord’s work, to help gather Israel and serve a full time mission. It is joyful, refining, and stretching. It has been a fabulous experience observing and helping the church function on an area level.

TWO: Serving side by side with President Quinn.There’s no one else I’d rather be in the trenches with—whether we’re in a meeting, on the road, or trying to help a missionary through a “life crises.”

THREE: Getting to know and love nearly 600 incredible missionaries. Somehow our hearts just keep stretching. We truly adore and admire these missionaries—young and old.

*Using our Chic-fil-A coupons on Pday with the Santa Rosa B Zone*

We truly find ourselves smiling constantly when we’re with missionaries. Yesterday at the Woodland Saturday evening stake conference, a visiting General Authority, Elder Alvarado, invited the missionaries to come up and sit on the stand. As they walked up, I realized my smile could not have been bigger. I felt like a very proud mom… of about 16 children… all at once.

*Elder Alvarado speaking to our Woodland missionaries*

We had just spent the entire day with them on Thursday in interviews, talking, listening, and laughing together. Our greatest desire is simple: for all of our missionaries to help them be healthy, happy, and successful as they grow their testimonies and become lifelong disciples of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I smiled again earlier in the week during interviews. Elder Capell brought his “Coming to Know Him” journal, and I asked him how he answered the most recent prompt about what in Northern California nature testifies of Christ. he said, “I answered, the walnut.”

*Elders Shelton, Hall, Capell, Wayment and Arrington*

I clapped my hands laughed and said, “That’s perfect to have answered that! You must be a missionary in Northern California!” He smiled and said, “Yes! Elder Young can tell you about walnuts too. When we were companions in Lakeport there were walnuts everywhere we walked!”

*The walnut in its shell - Thanks Elder Capell*

He went on to describe how perfectly the walnut fits into its shell, a testimony of divine creation. Then he added something I loved: that as a missionary, he feels like he is coming out of his shell, Just like it can be hard to get a walnut out of its shell and you need a nutcracker, you need the Savior Jesus Christ to help us come out of our shell. A great lesson for a missionary to understand the importance of relying on the Savior. Thanks Elder Capell.

We attended Marina’s baptism this week and smiled once more as Sister Alusa and Sister Cockrell beamed with joy watching their friend make her first covenant. Moments like that feel like little glimpses of heaven.

*Sister Alusa, Marina, friend, and Sister Cockrell*

From watching missionaries teach, to conducting meetings, to seeing them support each other, to learning about them individually, even playing on P-days together and mostly watching their growth over their time here in CASRM. —they are the favorite part of my mission. President Quinn and I are grateful for each one of our missionaries.❤️ Thanks for reading, Elaine

Announcing the “Coming to Know Him” journal prompt #38!