The mission goes through quite a two-day process every six weeks when we have transfers. On a Monday the departing missionaries arrive at the mission home for a special lunch that I prepare with the help of our housekeeper, Leonora. We try to make it particularly nice for these missionaries who have given such great service. Mom Tanner’s best-in-the-whole-world Hot Fudge Sauce over vanilla ice cream has become a traditional dessert that they seem to look forward to. While the missionaries eat, Marsh gives them their exit interviews. Then we hand out the de-worming and parasite medicine, take pictures, give heartfelt hugs and handshakes, and load the Americans into taxis for the trip to the airport. The Brazilians go home early Tuesday morning. Sometimes there are tears. I wouldn’t have thought it possible to love them so much after only a few months of knowing them, but we do. It’s hard to send them home. Our wonderful Assistant Elder Castleton went home this past transfer. This good elder, along with the other assistant, Elder Gabriel, worked tirelessly to help us through our first few intense months of transition. Pres. Tanner relied on him for so much. I’m sure at times the switch from one president to another was very difficult but he never complained or gave any sign of questioning Marsh’s decisions. He just worked hard right up to the last moment. Marsh drove him to the mission office one last time before taking him to the bus station for his trip to the airport. So much of his life was in that office with those other elders who were remaining behind. As Marsh and Elder Castleton began to back out of the driveway, the two new assistants raised their arms and shouted, ‘Hurrah for Israel’. Neither Marsh or the elder could speak for awhile. It's hard to leave what you've put your heart and soul into.
This is Marsh and me with our three assitants, Elder Castleton, Elder Gabriel and Elder Olsen in the Mission home on a transfer day.
Our arriving missionaries come on Tuesdays fresh from the CTM (MTC) in Sao Paulo. They arrive pulling luggage, wide-eyed and very anxious to meet their new companions and see what their life will be like in the mission field. We serve them a good lunch while President Tanner interviews them one at a time, but this time their plates are barely filled. They are too nervous to eat much. Their whole future is about to be unfolded. While the interviews continue the assistants orient and train them and I talk about health and grooming. I can do a lot of the training now in Portuguese with the occasional help of a translator.
When the final interview is done we take a photo with each of the missionaries to send home to their parents, give them a brand new pillow, pack them into the waiting CTM van and drive them off to the Mission Office where they will finally meet their Trainer. These ‘trainers’ are carefully chosen, prayed over, and admonished to teach and to care for their new missionaries the best they can. A good first companion can make all the difference in a missionary’s mission. So can a bad one. They set habits and shape expectations, they teach and prepare the new missionary to be successful and therefore happier. They are crucial to a mission. They feel the weight of the responsibility and they are often as nervous as the trainee.
At the office, while the new elders and sisters are getting more instructions, the trainers gather outside in a half circle. As they sing ‘Called to Serve’ with gusto the new missionaries are led outside to meet their new companion. The new missionary is called forward and the name of his or her trainer is read. They meet for the first time amid lots of cheers, hardy bear hugs and back poundings, and kisses for the sisters. Then it’s time to go. They are finally real missionaries on a real mission.
Our American missionaries usually lug several large new suitcases behind them bulging with new clothes and things their mothers packed for them. The Brazilians often have a single small bag, sometimes a paper bag with a shirt or two and a pair of socks and garments. I watched one very heavy young American with his huge bags and I thought he was going to die hauling them around on crowded buses and pulling them down cracked and broken sidewalks. I was worried for him. As he and his new companion began to walk down the driveway and as he passed me he asked, ‘Are you coming with us to tuck us in tonight, Mom? I laughed outright. Marsh asked him if he was going to survive. He answered, ‘I will, or die trying.’ I liked him immediately and I knew he would be okay. I love these missionaries.
