Loving the Blessings of Senior Missionary Service

By Elder Michael L. Smith

As we ponder upon the blessing it was to serve 23 months as a senior missionary couple in the Caribbean Area, I am touched by the many times I felt the hand of the Lord in our lives. My assignment as executive secretary to the Area Presidency allowed me to observe firsthand many times the revelatory process that occurs at the highest levels of the kingdom. I witness with greater personal assurance that God, our Heavenly Father, and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ stand at the head of this Church. I have been strengthened by personal observation and numerous spiritual confirmations wrought upon by the Holy Ghost, that the three brethren comprising the Area Presidency are men of God, called by prophecy and by the laying on of hands. Jesus Christ called them and continues to support them. I love them.

Many of the blessings and lessons learned were personal consecrating experiences that cannot be shared, however, there are three celestially refining gifts that I would like to acknowledge and share for all to hear. In brief, the heavenly blessings of serving a full-time senior mission are love, love, and love. Please allow me to explain the three types of love of which I speak:

The love of God. Jesus taught “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

“This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37–38).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland once added that “the first great truth of eternity is that God loves us with all His heart, might, mind, and strength.”¹

When one spends all his time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, serving the Lord and being an active part of the gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil², one will find increased awareness of the Lord´s love for all of His children. With that observation so repeatedly apparent, one will find that the depth of his own love towards God will naturally grow as well.

The second type of love that I mention pertains to the second great commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:39). My assignment of working closely with the Area Presidency and many others opened my vision to how much the Lord loves all His children. The natural result was an increased love towards the leaders and employees of the Church, to the local members and nonmembers. Personally, seeing the great efforts of the employees working to serve as Christ would, made it normal and natural to love them as well. We were blessed with some small roles in the wards and branches we attended, and that filled our hearts with greater love and admiration for the great people of the Caribbean Area. We love you all.
The third type of love I want to share is a bit personal and yet needs to be shared. Prior to serving a senior mission, I had not heard much about a unique and wonderful blessing of strengthening that occurs within one’s marriage. In our case, we have been happily married for 42 years, and they have been wonderful and joyful years. However, with children, grandchildren, Church callings, a demanding professional career, and a variety of exciting extracurricular activities, we found that our time together had become limited to a few hours here and there, large family and church gatherings, and not terribly regular date nights. However, as we began serving as full-time senior missionaries, we found ourselves together all the time. Naturally, this required some companionship interviews. The result has been an unexpected and unimaginable blessing, even a rediscovery of why we got married so many years ago. I am reminded of how twitterpated I felt when I first set eyes on the blonde hair, blue eyes, and brilliant smile of Sue Maughan. She has the same spell over me as she did many years ago.

We testify that loving God and loving all of His children is not just a commandment, it is the key to a happy and joy-filled life. When life gets hard, the answer will always be found in loving God and loving all of His children. President Thomas S. Monson (1927–2018) summarized this principle when he counseled “Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.³

We love the people of the Caribbean Area. Regarding the third love shared above, we invite you to set a goal, make your plans with faith, and then discover for yourselves the blessing of serving as a senior missionary, whether as a couple or as an individual. Just love and go serve!

Elder Smith is a member of the Pine Tree Ward, Kent Washington Stake. He served as the executive secretary in the Caribbean Area from December 2020 to November 2022.