Without a doubt, one the biggest highlights of this first month as serving as missionaries was this moment:

There is something really special about the opportunity to wear a missionary badge. It is hard to describe. but everyone who has worn one knows what I’m talking about.

We wear this missionary badge all day, every day. On this badge is everything we will represent while serving in Tennessee:

First, the badge first has my name.

It has the name of our family.

It has the name of the church.

And most importantly, it has the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ…right next to our own, and Kimberly and I feel a deep commitment to do all we can to strive to represent Him. 

On the fridge in the mission home here in Knoxville are the missionary tags worn my our family as we’ve served missions.

The top badge is the missionary tag I wore in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission 33 years ago. The second tag is Lincoln’s tag that he wore in the Singapore Mission. The third tag is Rachel’s from the Spain Barcelona Mission. The other two are placeholder for the missionary badges that Kimberly and I wear today.

I’ve kept my missionary badge for all this time because it is a treasured and powerful symbol that reminds me of the experiences I had as a missionary. It reminds me of the people I met and taught and worked with, the missionaries I served side-by-side with, of the crazy experiences that happened, all the funny experiences, the miracles that I witnessed, and most importantly, how all of these things changed my life. That’s a lot wrapped up into this small name tag.

For years I kept my missionary badge on my mirror in my room where I would see it every day. But one day, I noticed it was gone, and I found out my 16-year old son had stolen it and put it up on his mirror. I can’t tell you how happy that made me because to me it meant he was looking forward to the day when he would serve a mission and would get the opportunity to wear his own missionary badge.

The Book of Mormon teaches us that one thing we commit to when we are baptized is “to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God” (Mosiah 18:9). There is a connection between standing as a witness of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places and wearing this missionary badge. It’s a power symbol to me and to everyone I meet each day. I’d forgotten what it’s like to notice people to sneaking glances at my missionary badge trying to understand what it stands for and symbolizes. As a missionary, I get to wear this tangible reminder of who I represent, and it helps shape the way I act.

We wear it all the time…literally everywhere we go. I find it to be a powerful reminder that we are here to represent Him. At times, that can feel daunting, but I’m very grateful for the expectation and standard it sets for who I’m trying to be.

Everything on a mission is driven by the “transfer schedule”. Every six weeks, new missionaries arrive to begin their missionary service, and missionaries who have served their 18 or 24 months return home, referred to as transfers. Six weeks later, the same thing repeats again. The transfer schedule is everything that happens in the six weeks between transfers.

One of the best things during this six-week window is interviews. Each transfer, we will have the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with every missionary to discuss how they are doing. This is really important time as it is a primary way we build our relationship with them. We learn about their background, talk about what they are learning, how they are feeling, teach each other, counsel together, and feel the Spirit together.

It is no small task. The Tennessee Knoxville Mission is organized into seven zones, which are geographical areas that organize the missionaries into groups or teams. Each zone has leaders, both “Zone Leaders:” that are Elders and “Sister Training Leaders” that are Sisters, and range in size from 24 to 32 missionaries.

In addition to my interviews, we decided that it would be important for the missionaries to meet with Kimberly 1:1. With Samantha at home, that required us to come back to the mission home each night. Samantha actually joined us for a few of the days and that was great as it gave her the chance to get to know the missionaries better. Our format was each missionary would meet with Kimberly for 15 minutes and then meet with me for 15 minutes.

With 170 missionaries spread all across East Tennessee, that would require around 22 hours of driving and 90 hours of interview time. Whew!

Our first interviews began on Tuesday, July 4th. We started that day with the missionaries in the Cumberland Zone (28 missionaries and a 3 hour round trip), the Kingsport Zone on Wednesday (24 missionaries and a 4 hour round trip), the Cleveland Zone on Thursday (22 missionaries and a 3 hour round trip), and the Knoxville Zone on Friday (24 missionaries and a 30 minute drive).

Last week we saw the Cookeville Zone on Wednesday (25 missionaries and a 3-hour round trip), and the Asheville Zone on Thursday (24 missionaries and a 4-hour round trip). Today we finished interviews with the Chattanooga Zone (20 missionaries and a 3-hour round trip).

My very first interview was with Elder Lewis from Riverton, Utah, serving in Cumberland Gap. He is a fantastic missionary who has been serving for 22 months. He radiates joy, faith, and love, and He was just the beginning of this incredible opportunity to be introduced to some of the most dedicated, hope-filled people I have ever met.

The missionaries loved their time with Kimberly as she was the star of our tag team approach. It was amazing the things she learned about each one of them meeting with them 1:1. Here are a few examples:

• Many of these missionaries are converts to our Church and have incredible conversion stories. It was amazing to learn how they joined the Church, and once members, then had the courage and determination to sacrifice 18 or 24 months to serving a mission.
• Others were on a completely different path before their mission and seemed to literally have Heavenly Father reach down and redirect their life to bring them here with us.
• One Sister shared that both her grandpas served their missions in England and they were companions there. Amazing that their families are now eternally connected in that way.
• Two elders who are companions have made a goal to catch every species of fish that Tennessee has to offer. So far they’re 3/62. They only have one day off a week to do these kind of activities, so it may take a while.
• One Elder has a talent for carving beautiful, hand-made pens.
• Another Elder who has been serving 21 months said his first companion told him, “Let me teach you a secret that will help you get along with every companion you are assigned with over the next two years. Look for and write down the things you love about them, and that will help you get along with everybody.” This Elder has kept notes in his phone of all the things he has loved about each one of his companions, and he taught us a powerful lesson about the impact of looking for and finding the good in others. 
• One Elder noted he is the only current missionary in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission who has served in all 5 states in the TKM (Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia).
• A Sister was the captain of her high school wrestling team.
• An Elder who has been serving for 21 months has kept a journal every day of his mission where he has noted how he saw the hand of God in his life that day. Think of how powerful and valuable that journal will prove to be.
• One of our Elders is a dual-citizen of the United States and Australia. Another has three adopted brothers from Liberia. One of our Sisters has 8 sisters and no brothers. Another has three sets of twins in her immediate family.
• We have at least four sets of twins in our mission, three whose twin is serving a mission now as well. One has an identical twin sister in the mission right next to ours, the Arkansas Little Rock Mission.
• One Elder has a titanium knee cap and a pretty crazy story to go with it.
• One of our Elder’s parents met on the sky ride at Lagoon (an amusement park in Utah)!
• A sister is a competitive mountain bike racer. She’s been in many wrecks doing that and all of her front teeth have crowns. She had her final one put in the day before she went to the MTC.
• An Elder walked from Guatemala to the United States when he was 13 years old and didn’t speak English or Spanish. It’s amazing what he has accomplished in his life and to consider what lies ahead for him.

While in requires a lot of effort, we can already tell that interviews will be some of the most valuable time and experiences we have as mission leaders. Where we could, after the interviews we went out working with the missionaries in those areas and continue to learn so much from their examples of faith, courage, and desire to share these great messages about the doctrine of Christ and the Restoration.

One other important thing that happened this last week was our Area Seventy, Elder Nathan Craig, set up a dinner with the six stake presidents and their wives that are in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission. Thank you to President and Sister Sexton for hosting us and to these couples who drove long distances to welcome us to the mission at that dinner. We were very humbled and grateful. These leaders are our most important partners in this work, and we look forward to getting to know them better and hope to build life-long relationships with them.

Thank you for all of the questions about how Samantha is doing. She came to Tennessee the week before us and attended the For Strength of Youth Camp with the Knoxville Stake, and then Girls Camp the following week. That has helped her meet people and make a lot of new friends. She’s loved the lightning bugs and exploring the lakes nearby. She misses Utah and her friends there. Everyone here has been so kind and thoughtful about her…many, many acts of kindness…and we are grateful that she is adapting to our new home.

Well, we made it! Week 1 in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission was absolutely incredible. We feel so inspired and strengthened by these amazing missionaries who have left their homes and families and put their lives on hold for 18 or 24 months to serve others and help them come unto Christ. They really are extraordinary.

Our flight to Atlanta was cancelled due to storms so it ended up taking all day to get to Knoxville. We expected to arrive at 3pm and didn’t get in until 11:30pm, so we were very excited when we finally landed.

That meant a really compressed amount of time with President and Sister Graham, which was disappointing. We feel like we are standing on the shoulders of giants! They have done an incredible job over the last three years and we are so grateful for the time they’ve spent with us over the last few months as we’ve been preparing. We were really looking forward to spending time with them and their family, but we ended up with only a little more than an hour to tour the mission office and the mission home, and hand off the keys with a folder of info.

Our first meeting was a zoom call with all of the missionaries. It’s hard to explain the feelings we had as we were able to be with them virtually for the first time. They were all so welcoming and energetic and we can’t wait for all of the amazing things we are about to experience with them.

On Tuesday we spent all day with the senior missionaries working in the office, the assistants, and the lead sister training leaders. The assistants and sister training leaders are incredible and we don’t know what we would do without our office missionaries, the Sawyers and the Jentzschs. That night I went out teaching with the assistants and Kimberly went with the sister training leaders. These missionaries love the Lord and love the people here in Tennessee.

Wednesday was focused on the Missionary Leadership Council. These are missionaries who play a key leadership role throughout the mission. They welcomed us with so much love. Their faith and dedication to serve was evident throughout they day as they taught us all about the mission and the wonderful culture they’ve worked so hard to establish in the TKM.

That night, Kimberly and Rachel worked to get moved into the mission home while I went out with two of our zone leaders, Elder Smith and Elder Hillstead. When we got home, we found the missionaries had “Heart Attacked” our door to welcome us to Knoxville.

Thursday and Friday were dedicated to touring the mission to see all of our missionaries face-to-face, which was the biggest highlight of the week. If we were emotional seeing them all on Zoom, you can imagine how we felt when we could finally hug them, greet them, and express our love for them in person. It’s amazing how we are just meeting these men and women yet we already feel such a deep love for them.

Thursday morning, we went to Oakridge, TN to meet with the Cumberland and Knoxville Zones, and then to Sparta, TN that afternoon with the Cleveland, Chattanooga, and Cookeville Zones.

Friday morning we attended a four stake Youth Conference at Maryville College where we met with ~400 young men and young women to discuss how they can prepare to serve missions. That afternoon we drove to Greeneville, TN to meet with the Asheville and Kingsport Zones. In these meetings, Kimberly introduced our family, the missionaries taught us more about the culture of the mission, and we discussed our vision for the mission which is focused on living and teaching the Doctrine of Christ.

On the way home, Elder Cobos, Elder Spiers, Sister Strong, and Sister Chan said we had to stop at Buc-ee’s in Sevierville. I didn’t understand what Buc-ee’s was all about until we walked in. I’ve never seen anything like it! If you’re not familiar with Buc-ee’s, Google it!

Saturday was 100% focused on getting things unpacked in the mission home. On Sunday, we attended three different congregations and had great experiences at each, and then closed Sunday night with our first “Knit Together Sunday” as a mission with the missionaries and their families.

Even with so many remarkable experiences this first week, the “Knit Together Sunday” was the highlight for us, especially where we had four missionaries who are close to the end of their mission share their feelings about Jesus Christ and the impact their mission has had on them. It was straight fire! I was so proud of these young men and women and feel bad that we won’t have more time with them to get to know them better.

It was an incredible first week! We went full tilt all week long, and frankly, we are exhausted. But we couldn’t be more excited to work with these faith-filled missionaries who have so much love for the Lord, the people of Tennessee, each other, and now us. This shared experience will connect us for the rest of our lives.

Special thanks to Elder Cobos, Elder Spiers, Sister Strong, and Sister Chan for hanging in there with us all week long. They’re essentially our trainers, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their willingness to help us over these first weeks in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission.

Lastly, we couldn’t have done this week without our daughter Rachel. We were so lucky to have her here with us during our Week 1. She did a lot of heavy lifting in helping us move into the mission home and preparing for each of these meetings. I hope all of our missionaries will remember her invitation to talk to the first person you see when you walk out the door of your apartment each morning. She’s the best. Thanks Rachie! We wish we could have had Lincoln and Connor here to share in this first week.

We took pics with every missionary this week. I’ll put those pics here in case parents want to grab them.