A Mission Mother’s Influence

My wife and I just returned from [a major U.S. city] where we presided over the mission. Right from the beginning I determined that it would be our mission and that my wife would be included in as many ways as possible. She’s a very capable person who’s been an early morning seminary teacher, YW leader, etc and mother of six. She’s also a convert with a different perspective than me. In nearly every training session with missionaries she was a teacher, not stuff like recipes and mending socks, but doctrinal or whatever she felt they needed to hear. She regularly counseled with missionaries on emotional and motivational issues – both sisters and elders. When we had our meeting to decide on transfers and leadership callings she was there to give her counsel. She many times knew things or had impressions that hadn’t occurred to me. We didn’t have zone leader councils but changed them to mission councils and always invited four sisters to attend along with the zone leaders. We made sure the sisters knew we wanted them to participate and give their counsel. We found that there were many ways to include the sisters more and hold them up as examples of faithful, diligent missionaries (which they were). We had more sisters than most missions. I felt like we were blessed to have that many.