23 months later and we are home again.

In the October 2024 general conference, President Nelson affirmed that “now is the time for you and for me to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.” Reflecting on this, in the April 2025 general conference, Elder Steven D. Shumway shared that the Spirit taught him that as we participate in God’s work, we prepare ourselves and others for Christ’s return. Here are a few highlights of our mission experience with respect to preparing ourselves and others for Christ's return.

Following our training at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah (photo above is of our training cohort), we were delayed in Salt Lake City for 7 weeks while we waited for visas to enter Mexico as missionaries. Living in a 12'x12' room at the MTC and then in a small one-bedroom apartment downtown across the street from the Conference Center put my wife and I in closer quarters than we have ever before experienced as a couple for that length of time. And yes, it was a challenge. While we were there, our assignment in Mexico was changed from the Mexico City East Mission to the Mexico City West Mission. In our pre-mission conversations with our first mission president, he was planning on using us to manage the housing for the young missionaries, so we packed our bags accordingly (tape measure, sneakers and clothes to help scrub floors and kitchens with). Our formal training at the MTC was a week of Preach My Gospel: A Guide Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a week on serving in the Church's Humanitarian Aid programming.  

While we waited for our visas, we were temporarily reassigned to the Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission under the direction of President Douglas D. Holmes and Sister Erin T. Holmes pictured below.

The Salt Lake City Headquarters mission focuses on family history and Church history work, including the Salt Lake Temple visitors center, the conference center, the Family History Library, the Church History Library, and other related facilities. We were assigned to work in the Church History Library. Our task was to document the implementation timeline of welfare and self-reliance programming in Mexico. Among the documents I was privileged to review were original minutes from church meetings in the colonies of church members living in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua in the late 1800's, leading to the instruction to these members to leave their homes in Mexico to wait out the Mexican revolution (1910 – 1920) in the United States.

I took my undergraduate degree in Mexico in International Relations, a combination of economics and political science/history. I read with awe, first-hand accounts of the saints interactions with key Mexican leaders during this time period, including Francisco Madero, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa. What impressed me most about the Church History Library and the efforts made to collect and preserve documents was the care with which the Church has obediently taken and preserved historical records, fulfilling the commandment to the Prophet Joseph Smith, “Behold, there shall be a record kept among you” (DC 21:1) and the privilege the world over now has to examine the contents of that record and to draw its own conclusions. I have served in many callings and participated in many Church councils – I have observed that the principles under which the Church operates remain constant then and today. Examining hundreds of records over those 7 weeks further bolstered my faith that this Church is led by prophets under the direction of Jesus Christ.

Living across from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and the Salt Lake City Temple was a delightful, spiritually enriching experience, exceeding my expectations of what serving a senior mission would be like. After our workday was finished we went to events that featured general authorities as speakers, Music and the Spoken Word and were able to attend The October 2023 Semi-annual General Conference in-person for the first time. We listened to Elder Rasband’s invitation to senior members to serve missions, with the watchwords, “the Lord needs you, the Lord needs you” and the prophetic promise, “How great will be your joy!” We arrived in Mexico City on November 15 to a very warm welcome from the humanitarian aid team who accompanied us to our suite where we lived. And the challenges began.

It is an understatement to say the first 8 months in Mexico were extremely difficult. It wasn’t the culture, language or even the food as we had lived is Mexico as a family before. The church employees at the head of our team were super friendly, faithful members of the Church but they really had nothing for us to do and no resources assigned to us if there had been something to do. Borrowing a phrase from my Gramma Reuber, we were like a "fifth wheel".  Had this been a paying job, I would have quit and moved on within the first couple of weeks as the inexperience and organizational red flags I saw were too many to fix in a lifetime – but we had been called to serve by a prophet of God, and we weren’t leaving. Spoiler alert, it works out better than I thought it ever could... by the end!

Conceptually, we eventually came to understand that we were very much pioneers on the trail to Zion (the pure in heart), forging our own tools (project and team management systems, collaboratively defining and documenting policies, identifying roles and responsibilities, implementing due diligence, consolidating our outward facing image etc.), busting sod (in our case busting habits as the modus operandi was a 24/7 state of emergency due to a lack of competent direction, planning and use of counsels), and planting seeds filled with faith and the hope that others would benefit from our efforts when we moved on.

My personal goal that I shared with anyone that would listen, and there were never many, was to help make 1 or 2 degrees of sustainable positive change in bringing organization and structure to the administrative and organizational chaos we found ourselves in. Our work environment in short order broke down resolve of a senior Elder on our team. The vocal manifestations of his spiritual, intellectual and principles trauma negatively impacted all of us, but miraculously his concerns were heard and understood by the Area presidency and were the needed catalyst for meaningful changes to at least be considered. This dear elder and his wife were reassigned to serve in the Mexico City Temple visitors center. It was such a wonderful change for them and they loved it so much they extended their mission.  This elder would have loved to have seen the changes his personal sacrifice eventually produced. 

Looking back, the blessing I witnessed in our humanitarian aid team's work was a glimpse of my 1 or 2 degrees of sustainable change – only time will tell if any of it sticks. I am still in contact with several of the implementing organizations we worked closely with - and key changes we made are already slipping back to the way they were before. We and the Asbell's, another senior couple that served closely with us, led from the bottom, to organize a functional happy team, with clearly defined roles, documented systems and due diligence, to more confidently recommend only the best humanitarian aid projects for the Area's consideration to truly bless the lives of the poor and needy in Mexico in measurable ways. The impacts of a water project in an indigenous community called Santa Ana Nichi and the depth of the relationships we built with them stand out. The photos are from December 2024 after a posada that the Asbell's organized with the mayor of the community outside of the formal humanitarian project cycle. The doughnut shaped "flea" bread around our necks was a symbol of the community's wish for us to never lack food and the hand embroidered vests they gave us kept us warm - I especially appreciated the fuzzy pockets as the community was located in the mountains and temperatures were cold in the winter (They called it flea bread because of the spots on its surface that resembled flea bites - something very few of us in Canada would have any familiarity with). Shortly after we the Asbell's finished our missions, another project donating laboratory equipment to their hospital was confirmed. Yay! 

Miraculously, en route to our son Alex and his fiancé Liz's wedding last week we ran into the Asbell's at self-serve breakfast in a Super 8 motel in Rexburg, Idaho: It is indeed a small world- they live in Utah. They were accompanying a friend and her mother to BYU Idaho where their friend will be starting school. 

About a year into our mission, we were given an additional responsibility by the Area president as the Area Senior Full-time missionary coordinators, with a specific assignment to help make every senior missionary’s experience in Mexico exceptional, including getting to know all 130 senior full-time missionaries serving in the country, which we did.

We soon learned that the initial challenges we faced in our service in Mexico were very common but that by the end of their missions, all were able to confidently attest that it had been a positive experience in their lives. I stopped blogging for quite a while as the daily organizational challenges we faced were all consuming. With only weeks left in our mission, I was still struggling with the challenges and how I would describe our mission experience when we got home – where was Elder Rasband's promised joy? 

In this additional role we met on a monthly basis with a member of the Area presidency in a committee setting – it seemed for a while that we had free license to do what we felt was required to fulfill our assignment as our verbal reports didn’t generate a lot of discussion or attention. One of the events we organized at the request of the Area president, was a national full-time senior missionary devotional.

The photo below is a sampling of full-time senior missionaries living within a three-hour radius of Mexico City, Elder Sean Douglas of the Area presidency and his wife and individuals that performed special musical numbers for the live recording of the devotional that was broadcast on November 24, 2024. It was intended to uplift all full-time senior missionaries. 

However, one day 

One day we were called into Elder Douglas’ office, he was then serving as the first counsellor in the Area presidency with responsibility over senior missionaries – the experience was life-changing for me as he carefully outlined how decisions at the general authority level are made in the Church. 

To my great surprise, I was offside, interpreting the lack of discussion or attention to us in the committee meetings as approval. What at first sounded like a clear rebuke lasted approximately 30 minutes. I carefully listened, and gently to my mind and heart came the experience of the brother of Jared, “And for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord.” (Ether 2:14). 

The Lord has declared, “as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:19). My rebuke was given with such love as I have never before experienced in my life, and I wanted more… upon reflection I realized what I received was much longed for instruction. My faith in Jesus Christ was bolstered and I became spiritually attached to this servant of the Lord – without hesitation I now confidently refer to him as my friend.  

The meeting’s purpose was to inform us of the creation of a new dedicated committee to guide the affairs of senior full-time missionaries where subsequently, many, though not all, of the activities we had set into motion were formally “approved” and implemented. A new full-time employee was hired to replace us. I chatted with him on WhatsApp yesterday.  His said his first committee meeting with Elder Douglas went well. He also told me that his responsibilities as a full-time employee in replacing us had changed, with others taking on some of the tasks we had previously been assigned instead of just him.

Lastly, and most importantly, our mission placed us in a small one-bedroom suite in a hotel called Teca Once with a community of 9-12 other senior full-time missionary couples serving in the Mexico Area offices. Don't let the beautiful pictures on their website fool you - it is a tired, well worn 3 star hotel in a very expensive and relatively safe neighbourhood. While the association with other senior missionaries was pleasant, this wasn't the most notable blessing.

Unlike, the young missionaries, we were not obligated to be within sight and sound of each of other 24/7. Sister Schlachter loves to swim, and I went to my BJJ classes alone. Sister Schlachter often chose to work from home while I went to work in one of our two offices to access more than a laptop screen and to be "present" as much as possible to strive for my one or two degrees.     

In our small living space at Teca Once, Sister Schlachter and I counselled and worked together more than ever before in our lives, to understand each other and what we could do to address and in many cases, resolve the daily challenges we faced. We also travelled together throughout the country to visit projects and participate in protocol events for humanitarian aid projects. Our last event at Hospital San Carlos in Altamirano, Chiapas was magical in many ways. The first photo is of one the five Catholic nuns that are doctors and administrators of the hospital with the parish priest with a portion of the Church's donation of new hospital beds and medical supplies to identify and treat malnutrition. The second photo is of a part of the formal ceremony, respecting local customs and authorities. We arrived the day before the event and they hosted us in their compound. We had an opportunity to get to know them and the challenges of the indigenous communities they so faithfully serve. 

The blessing is that I gained an greater love of and appreciation for my wife as well as her tenacity and talents that would not have been possible in any other setting than serving a full-time mission together. 

Don’t let her tell you that she doesn’t speak Spanish very well. I watched her go from clinging to my arm at the beginning of our stay in Mexico, to taking phone calls and confidently training a new Mexican senior couple in Spanish on organization vetting and other humanitarian aid tasks.

Elder Rasband’s declaration, “The Lord needs you.” was my focal point and we were amply blessed for our service. We were called to three different missions – the one in Salt Lake City was a delight, the Mexico City East Mission was an anticipated delight but we didn't actually serve there and the last one in the area offices in the Mexico City West Mission challenged our faith but bore fruit that we were privileged to taste. Some final thoughts.

The weight of evidence in the Church's history has confirmed and bolstered my faith that this Church is led by prophets under the direction of Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of progression is a reality, even if what we can see is small – my 1-2 degrees of positive change - and this promise is sure, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Isaiah 40:31)

God loves me and each of us unconditionally and I long for his rebuke – at least another 2.5 hours like the brother of Jared. It might very well be that the whole purpose for me to serve a mission in Mexico was to serve the one in our relief efforts, to befriend and support a new convert named Santiago and to help and succour a man named Carlos in his time of need, we miraculously met him on the temple grounds. We knew him as a teenager when we lived in Cholula over 27 years ago. 

My wife is an elect lady with many talents and I love her.  We have been married for 35 years and I am looking forward to what eternity brings. 

I can at last testify, how great is my joy for having served a full-time senior mission! 

We organized a farewell for ourselves and the two other couples that were leaving at about the same time as us - no tears of sadness allowed, only joy, mariachis, marimba and even a piñata. The building we worked in used to be a synagogue and the building behind us in the picture below used to be a private residence that was converted into a chapel where the only English speaking ward in Mexico meets.  

 

We returned to Canada on July 31, 2025, and it was as if the last two years had been a dream of a single night.  

Post Note: On August 16, our mission president was shot in his home in attempted robbery. They began their mission on July 1, 2025. We met them only once before we finished our mission. He and his wife lived just up the hill from us, perhaps a 10 minute walk from us in the same neighbourhood. While the bullet hit his torso, it passed between all of his vital organs and thankfully, he is recovering and able willing to continue to serve. I walked an hour each way to and from BJJ twice a week and our work took us to many much more dangerous places in Mexico, always with the very real possibility of being assaulted or senselessly killed on my mind. However, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God, and all those that endeavour serve Him, including missionaries of all ages and so we gladly take the risks. There is an economic cost (taxes), but we are indeed blessed to live where we do in Canada, I am no longer in a state of constant vigilance, and rarely if ever am prompted to think about being assaulted - we have door knobs, not just deadbolts and no bars on our windows. I no longer feel I have to wear a money belt nor hide money all over my body in the hope of having something left to get me home if I am robbed. Complain as we all are wont to do, we are beneficiaries of a longstanding tradition of the rule of law which many of our brothers and sisters in this marvellous world, including Mexico, have never experienced.