Mission Tour with Elder Nattress

On June 10th through the 13th, we had Elder K. Brett Nattress and his wife Shawna in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission for a “mission tour”.

Mission tours are conducted by a General Authority Seventy, in this case Elder Nattress, as assigned by the President of the Quorum of the Twelve, President Jeffrey R. Holland. Rather than a short, single meeting, mission tours are several-day assignments where Elder Nattress is assigned to come to really get to know the mission, our culture, our mission leadership and, collectively, the missionaries through a series of meetings held in different locations throughout the mission.

These tours are thoughtfully planned out with planning meetings that happen in advance, and then several daylong series of multiple days filled with meetings across the mission area with the missionaries. We were blessed to spend plenty of time with Elder and Sister Nattress as we traveled from one set of meetings to another. At the end of each day, we would go to dinner and review the things learned, receive direction, and discuss needs.

Prior to the mission tour, Elder Nattress presided over the Cookeville Stake Conference where a new stake presidency was organized. We love President Day and he has been an incredible stake president. We are so grateful for the way he united with the missionaries. When we first arrived at the mission home, there were two vases of flowers, one for Kimberly and one for Samantha, welcoming us to Tennessee from President and Sister Day. We love them!

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We drove the Nattress’ from Cookeville to Knoxville, had dinner with them Sunday evening, and enjoyed getting to know them better. Our mission tour started officially on Monday with meetings with the mission office staff, our Mission Leadership Council, and a devotional with our senior missionaries.

Here are a few key things taught during Day 1:

• Elder Nattress taught the MLC about a leadership model: “Inspired-Motivated-Loved”. He said, “Every time I’m with President Nelson, I feel inspired, motivated, and loved!”
• How do you do you help people feel inspired, motivated, and loved? Pray for the people you lead. Be an example. Ask them questions and really listen. Recognize growth. Look for the good things they are doing and acknowledge them. Do all you can to keep them on the covenant path. Teach them and help them grow.
• A good question to ask: “What are you trying to do better?” Asking this question first can help you to understand a lot about someone’s experience and where they’ve already felt impressions to improve.
• Elder Nattress taught about how the decisions of leaders – leaders of organizations, or leaders of families – can have a big impact on the people they lead. “If you take one step off the ‘Line of Obedience’, followers will take five steps off. Strive to be exact in your obedience.”
• At the senior missionary devotional, Elder Nattress asked each couple to share the miracles they are seeing in their missionary service. We love these couples! They are seeing the hand of God in their lives every day.
• He asked the couples to report back on two questions: What will you do to find your replacement? And what can we do to retain our returned missionaries?

If you are thinking about serving a senior mission, Tennessee is an incredible place to serve! We would love to talk to you about it!

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On Day 2, we drove out to Greeneville, Tennessee, where we had zone conference with the Asheville, Cumberland, and Kingsport Zones. Day 3 was in Knoxville with the Chattanooga, Cleveland, Cookeville, and Knoxville Zones.

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Elder and Sister Nattress taught some really powerful principles in both zone conferences:

• Focusing on your purpose and the “why” of your service is important to having power as you serve. As missionaries, we have a purpose statement: “Our purpose is to 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.” We spend a lot of time talking about our purpose and how we can link all we do back to that purpose.
• Elder Nattress asked the question, “What think ye of Christ?” Missionaries shared some powerful feelings about the Savior and what it means to them to represent Him.
• “A testifying missionary is a happy missionary!” Share your testimony of Christ with everyone. Everyone should know how you feel about Jesus Christ.
• You always have something to say. When you don’t know what to say, share the First Vision. He shared an amazing video of his grandson reciting the First Vision.
• The Lord loves effort! Do your best today, and then get up tomorrow and do it again.
• We talked about different ways to find people to teach, the opportunities we have to work more closely with part-member families and the great blessing missionaries can be to these families.
• People care deeply about their families. ~700,000 people in Tennessee have visited FamilySearch.org in the last year. How can we use the spirit of Elijah and the love people have for their family and ancestors more in our missionary work? Connect the love of family to Heavenly Father’s Plan of Happiness, and the Savior’s role in that plan.
• The need to teach shorter more frequent lessons. He shared that his favorite dessert is a brownie sundae. But if you brought him a pan of brownies with a gallon of ice cream on top, and told him he had to eat the entire thing right now, he wouldn’t enjoy it. At times, we can try to give friends an entire pan of brownies and a gallon of ice cream.
• He shared a powerful example of his decision to serve a mission, challenges he experienced at the beginning of his mission and how he dealt with them, and how his mission has blessed his life.
• He had us watch a story shared by President Jeffrey R. Holland about two brothers rock climbing. He asked us to think about times we’ve felt like each of these two brothers, one desperate to be saved, and the other desperate to save, and how the Savior has helped us in both cases.

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As we arrived at each zone conference, the missionaries had already gathered and were ready to take pictures with Elder and Sister Nattress. While they were waiting for us, they sang favorite hymns together. Many missionaries shared with us that singing together while waiting was one of the most powerful parts of the zone conference.

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After each zone conference, Elder Nattress held interviews with a number of missionaries. The purpose of this time is to understand more about their experience and to inspire, motivate, and strengthen them. Sister Nattress joined the interviews with Sisters.

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We also had opportunities to go out teaching with the missionaries, as well as joining some for companionship study.

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Mixed in with all of our meetings was lots of conversation in the car while traveling. It was a special experience to get to know Elder and Sister Nattress better as well as to have that additional time to be taught by them. We had dinner with them each night, and we tried to mix in some opportunities to see different things in Tennessee. The weather was beautiful while they were here…sunny skies and low humidity.

We did take them by Buccee’s. If you haven’t been to Buccee’s before, look it up. There isn’t anything like it in Utah or Idaho where the Nattress’ are from, and they loved it. In fact, we scratched our dinner plans for that night and decided to just do a Buccee’s buffet of brisket sandwiches, Philly cheesesteak burritos, and banana pudding. Unplanned…but a lot of fun together.

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We feel so grateful for couples like Elder and Sister Nattress who take time out of their busy schedule to come and teach and support us. They were incredibly kind and encouraging. Elder Nattress was a great example of his advice to look for things people are doing right and acknowledge and celebrate it. We are grateful for their example and the way they have consecrated their life in serving God and serving His children. We especially saw and appreciated their efforts to inspire and serve individual missionaries, one by one. It was a great week!

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Meanwhile, Samantha was out of town during another mission tour. She was out of town last October when Elder and Sister Bowen and Elder and Sister Corbitt visited us for a mission tour. Samantha traveled to Argentina for 2 1/2 weeks to help with a humanitarian project.

Samantha has been in dual-immersion Spanish classes since 1st grade and is fluent in Spanish, so this was a great experience for her. She said she was very humbled by the people she met. She noted that they have little of the things we think we need in our family to be happy, yet in many cases they are happier than us. They have their family and their faith, and that is their focus. We can learn a lot from that. Plus, she learned her Spanish is pretty good and she felt comfortable talking with everyone.

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