Our Arizona Mesa Mission Experience

by Tracy Watson

My wife and I had the amazing opportunity of serving as mission leaders in the Arizona Mesa Mission. During our three year assignment we were privileged to serve with 504 full-time missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

While many of our missionaries were from the United States, a goodly number came from international areas such as Mexico, Guatemala, Boliva, Argentina, Columbia, Chile, Brazil, Tonga, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Spain, Ukraine, Japan, Chuuk, and Thailand.

As our missionaries reached the end of their service, I would interview them. In the interview I would ask about their plans upon returning home. For a few missionaries returning to international areas, I could sense a measure of fear in their responses. For them returning home meant going from three meals a day to one or two, from an apartment with two people to a home with many, from having a set living allowance to … no allowance and no clear way to provide for their basic needs.

It was sobering to feel their anxiety. I felt helpless.

I would offer words of advice, feed them a final “mission” meal, put them on an airplane, then pray with all my heart that they would have doors open to them.

As these missionaries would step back into an unknown future, I remember reflecting on the scripture where the Lord says “the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare.” (D&C 104:17) I would wonder why we, as a people, can’t figure out how to better share all that the Lord has given us? Perhaps that is still my cry today and my hope that Open Door International, in some small way can contribute to this ideal.