Mission Leadership Council and District Leaders: Phenomenal Leaders Doing Incredible Things

January 31, 2020
Mission Leadership Council

We begin each month off with a Mission Leadership Council training. These leaders are dedicated to the work of the Lord. We feel very blessed to work along side them all.

Mission Leadership Council for January 2020

In the January Mission Leadership Council we spent a bit of time in strategic planning. The Council decided on the following vision and priorities:

Vision

Be Disciples and Bearers of Light unto the World

Missionary Purpose

“Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.”

Mission Priorities

To fulfill our vision and missionary purpose, we will 

1. Become disciples of Jesus Christ.
2. Become Preach My Gospel missionaries.
3. Encourage members to help gather Israel.

Each one of the priorities has four goals. We are excited to implement the Mission Plan 2020!

Mission Leadership Council for February 2020

I began differently than I usually do. For the February Mission Leadership Council I felt I needed to talk to them about lifting burdens. We spent about 20 minutes in the scriptures, discussing how the Savior can lift burdens through His Atonement and our obedience to the commandments. Everyone was engaged, and we felt the Spirit in enormous quantities. After I finished, then we began preparations for multi-zone conferences. They all gathered in groups and began preparing their presentations. While they didn’t finish completely, they had a good head start.

Sisters Foster and Reynolds trained on planning for the whole day. Elders Abraham and Chase  trained on “Asking inspired questions and following through with invitations" and "Accountability as a Mission."  Sister Hammon talked about some of the "Missionary Standards for Disciples of Christ.”

January-Sister Training Leaders- Sisters Corder, Foster, Killian, Briggs, Hindman, Thompson, Longshore, Moore, and Durham 

February- Sister Training Leaders- Sisters Reynolds, Sands, White, Briggs, Sisterr Hammon,
 Sisters Killian, Moore, and Foster. Missing are Hermanas Thompson and Longshore

One thing we love to do at Mission Leadership Council is eat. Sister Shirley and Sister Davis make sure we do not leave hungry. Take a look at the desserts below.

Elders Mackay, Greathouse, Bytendorp, Sister and President Hammon, Elders McIntire, Emry and Abraham

One of the traditions that the missionaries do after lunch is sing to the those who prepare the food. Plus, they recite 2 Nephi 25:26: "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Sisters Byrne Cowan, Shirley, and Davis; Elder Shirley

District Leaders
Right after transfers we gather all of the new and continuing District Leaders to train.

District Leaders in January 2020

We introduced eight new district leaders and 20 “seasoned” district leaders.  Elders Abraham and Chase taught “District Leadership 500: An Advance Guide to District Leadership.”

District Leaders working on the new training plan in January 2020 

We spent a bit of time in the morning doing some strategic planning as we aligned the new Mission Plan 2020 with the Mission Training Plan. It was a great exercise in developing a training plan that encompassed the new mission priorities for the entire mission. The district leaders divided up into six groups and created/developed a revised Mission Training Plan. I will be putting all of their suggestions into the Training Plan and then posting it on the portal to be implemented.

Singing after lunch. 

Sisters Davis and Shirley, thank you for a delicious lunch.

We were fed haystacks. Everyone loved them!  Some of these young men had never had them before. 

After a delicious lunch of “haystacks” and cake, we return to the training where Elders Abraham and Chase taught about “Elevated Exchanges.” I have to add that some of the missionaries had never had haystacks. They loved them. Sister Shirley told me she made 33 cups of rice. Now, that’s a lot of rice, and they ate pretty much all of it. I definitely helped do this. 

Delicious cake for dessert!

Time continues to trundle on in our mission! People continue to come and go. New leaders emerge, and we will continue holding trainings to train our new leaders. These Elders may be young, but they are definitely future leaders in the Church. They learn quickly how to learn and be servant-leaders, truly learning how the Savior was simultaneously a servant and a leader.

We love these young men and enjoy watching them grow and develop!

President and Sister Hammon