On the Road for Interviews

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.

#WhatsUpInTKM