When I served my mission I can't ever remember my three different mission president attending any of my baptisms or that of any missionary I knew. I never once heard of them going out in to the field to teach or tract with any missionaries. I did hear one of them M. Russell Ballard talk about having a few investigators over to his house for discussions that he said his assistants taught. Maybe he went out with his office staff but I can't remember that since I never saw him do that even though I served quite close in an adjoining area once. I have read recently of a couple mission presidents Mike Murray of the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission and Reid Robison of the West Indies Mission doing that on many occasions. I wonder if others out there had experiences with their mission presidents being active in the missionary process. I am sure it would be difficult for some to do so out of fear of failure. You can't really control those on the other side of the door whether they will even open it. Also many mission presidents are probably overwhelmed with all the administrative duties they have. Some are more efficient than others in directing the mission affairs and keeping up with the interviews and conference schedules. My mission president did a lot of outreach where he did speak to civic and religious leaders about the church. I wonder what the experience of the thousands of returned and active missionaries is with the concept of their mission president actually modeling the process by active participation.
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