Most people assume that the mission presidents and their wives sit around and hear addresses by the general authorities but they do many other things like learn the discussions and practice role playing similar to their missionaries besides hobnobing with the General Authorities. Below is a description of a couple of missionaries in how they were involved this year with the general authorities.
This year they closed the general building to the missionaries except for the Friday devotional. Elder Dillon Carter said:
This week we have the awesome opportunity of having the new mission president seminar take place at the MTC. The First Presidency and many of the Twelve will be here at some point during the week, though the MTC is unfortunately closing the building to missionaries so we don't go a-hunting for Thomas S. Monson. However, on Friday night they're having a special devotional for the missionaries and new mission presidents.
Elder Tyler Porter, a missionary called to the Portugal Lisbon Mission actually got to meet a General Authority and a few mission presidents in his role in helping out the Portuguese going mission presidents learn the discussions when he participated as an investigator:
So yesterday we were able to experience one of the coolest things ever. Right now, all the new mission presidents are here at the MTC. They are training to get ready to go out into the field. It makes the MTC a little crazy, but it is awesome. A lot of buildings are closed down because of the training. Pretty much every Apostle will be coming here through out the week until Wednesday. So back to yesterday (thought I’d give a little background). One of the teachers in our zone came running into our classroom out of breath, and pointed to Elder Graves and I, and also another companionship in our district (Elder Peck, Kofford, and Ashby) and told us to come outside. She then told us they needed some of the best Portuguese speakers (I was honored to say the least), to come help the Mission Presidents going to Portuguese speaking missions for a little bit. The Mission Presidents knew no English, so we could only communicate with them by Portuguese. This was a bit nerve-racking, but I was super stoked. So we walk into the building, and start walking down the hall…. and we look to our left, and boom, there is Jeffrey R. Holland standing right by us. I could’ve reached out and touched him we were so close. We promised to be completely professional though, so we just smiled and walked by. So we get to the room with all the Mission Presidents, and sitting in the room with the Presidents and their wives is Russel M. Nelson. He was just sitting there with his wife observing all that was going on. AMAZING. So we start talking to the president and his wife, and he tells us he will be a president in Brazil (can’t remember where). We tell him where we are going, and he gets super excited and told us he served in Lisbon as well! He served from 76-78 I believe. So we were there so he could practice teaching to us. He taught us a lesson, and Elder Graves and I pretty much understood every word he said. We communicated back with no problem as well. He told us he was super impressed with our Portuguese, and he understood us completely. That made me so excited to know I could communicate to a native Portuguese speaker, who knows absolutely no English, and be able to communicate effectively.. That really gave me a boost before heading to Portugal. There is such a great spirit when you are around those types of people, especially with an Apostle sitting 10 feet away from you in a room. So we were really really lucky to be able to participate in that.. Only 8 of us (out of a zone of 117 missionaries) were able to do so!I think it is a great thing to prepare the mission presidents for their assignments and that missionaries can help out.
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