We were deeply immersed in all that goes on in a mission while adjusting
to Mexico. We had enrolled our children in school, and one afternoon we had
been out purchasing school supplies. Upon return to the mission home, I was
told that President Harold B. Lee had called and wanted me to return his call.
It was our wedding anniversary, September 2. I did not know that the First
Presidency made a practice of calling mission presidents to wish them well on
their anniversary! I discovered that they do not.
“President Lee’s first words were, “Joe, are you sitting down?” I
assured him I was. He then shared the purpose of his call with this message:
“Today, in the Board of Education meeting, it was determined that we would like
you to serve as associate commissioner of education to serve with Brother Neal
A. Maxwell, the commissioner. Your assignment will be to administer the
seminaries and institutes of religion and, in effect, to succeed Brother
William E. Berrett, who is retiring. We would like you to return home as soon
as we can find a replacement for you. You may call Brother Maxwell for more
details.”
I do not remember ever being more surprised—even shocked. We had settled
into the mission. The children had adjusted, we were enjoying the challenge of
the work, and things seemed to be going well. I had anticipated returning to
the Church Education System (CES) for employment in some capacity after
finishing the mission.
Within three weeks, President Eran Call and family had been called, and
we were home by the end of September 1970 to begin serving in the new
assignment. What an experience lay ahead!
We received the shipment of our things from Salt Lake the day after
learning that we would be returning to Salt Lake City. I had made many calls to the moving company
asking when the shipment would arrive since it contained the girls starting to
school dresses, etc. When the boxes
arrived, the delivery men were surprised when we told them that we were leaving
and all they had to do was merely reverse the labels and ship the wooden
containers back home. In effect, we were
living out of our suitcases from July to November of that year, 1970. We had leased our home for three years and
had given some furniture, cars, etc. to others we thought could use them since
we planned to be gone for so long.
Since the man who leased our home was employed by the Church,
fortunately, President Harold B. Lee assured us that we could get back into our
home, as he said, “Even if we have to use a little dynamite.” The Church moved the family to another home in
the neighborhood and we moved back into 1860 Yalecrest Avenue in November.
The Board of Education, at that time, consisted of the entire First
Presidency, all of the Quorum of the Twelve, the Presiding Bishop, and Sister
Belle Spafford, who was serving as the Relief Society general president.
Commissioner Maxwell and the rest of us as his associates were asked to study
the direction of Church education in all of its facets and make recommendations
to the Board of Education and the Board of Trustees for any developments or
adjustments.
It seems significant to note that in the November 1970 meeting of the
Board of Education, it was determined that the seminaries and institutes of
religion, in one form or another, should follow the membership of the Church
throughout the world—as soon as was practical. Through the efforts of assistant
administrators Frank D. Day, Dan J. Workman, Frank M. Bradshaw, and, a little
later, Bruce M. Lake, and other competent and dedicated staff, we tackled the
assignment.
At that time, as many of you would know, the weekday religious
educational program at the secondary and college levels was located only in
English-speaking areas of the world, such as England, Australia, and New Zealand.
The high school seminary program was primarily taught in the released—time
format in Church-owned buildings adjacent to high schools throughout the
Intermountain West and in some early morning settings—particularly in
California. In a few less-populated areas, early experimentation had begun with
a home-study seminary format that seemed to be well received by those who would
not have any other form of weekday religious educational opportunity.
It was the home-study seminary format that was developed in the late
1960s that made the international movement feasible. The home-study program
consisted of a class meeting once a week in a ward or branch, and the students
were expected to study their course materials daily in their homes. Efforts
were made through content and layout to make the course interesting and student
friendly.
Once a month, students would be brought together for a meeting on a
district or stake basis. For a time, this meeting came to be known as Super
Saturday. This gathering was usually conducted by the individual CES employee
assigned to the area. This system proved to be successful from a cognitive
learning standpoint. Many of the students became remarkably proficient in
learning and rapidly finding key scriptures, and their skills were tested in
what then came to be known as “scripture chase” activities that generated a lot
of enthusiasm.
One of the significant side benefits of bringing the young people
together on this monthly basis was that many came from widely scattered areas
where there were very few youth who were members. This social contact gave them
reinforcement, and many long-standing friendships were established that
undoubtedly led to more marriages within the Church than would otherwise have
occurred.
At the time the charge was given to have the program follow the
membership of the Church throughout the world, there was not one seminary or
institute course that existed in any language other than English. The
translation, publication, and distribution of home-study course materials
presented challenges. There was no international non-English faculty or staff
in place or anyone trained in the non-English international areas who was
acquainted with the program.
The next nine years proved to be very interesting, challenging, and
stimulating. Our early decisions had to deal with where to start first—which
languages and in which countries. After studying the international membership
populations, we decided that we should begin with the Spanish, Portuguese, and
German languages. Brother Robert Arnold was sent to Guatemala, Brother David A.
Christensen to Brazil, and Brother Richard Smith to Argentina and Uruguay, with
Brother James Christiansen soon to follow in Germany. They were the first CES
personnel to be sent to non-English speaking countries.
From the standpoint of moving these educational programs throughout the
world within a three-year period, three very important guidelines or objectives
were given to these first brethren assigned as CES pioneers in
non-English-speaking areas. They were to: (1) Develop a positive working
relationship with priesthood leaders. (2) Start the home-study seminary
program, enrolling interested secondary and college-age students. (3) Find and
train a person who could provide local native leadership, thus removing the
necessity of exporting others from the United States. We took seriously Alma’s
message from the Book of Mormon: “For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all
nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all
that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth
counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true” (Alma 29:8;
emphasis added).
Work in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and several other
locations was soon to follow. In short, the goal was to start the program and
have it nationalized within three years. Some remarkable local brethren were
found and trained. I know of no other Church program that moved toward
globalization and nationalization so quickly.
Student Response to Seminaries and
Institutes
The response of the students to seminary and institute was
overwhelmingly positive and went far beyond what we expected. We had thought
that the efforts would be successful if even one or two hundred students were
registered in the first year. What a surprise it was during on-site visits in
July of 1971 to find that more than seven hundred students were enrolled in
Guatemala, a comparable number in Argentina and Uruguay, and more than nine
hundred in Brazil.
At that same time, we made a feasibility study for starting the seminary
and institute program in Chile. We held meetings with priesthood and mission
leaders and determined that we would recommend to the Board of Education to
begin the program at the start of the next school year. Upon return, the report
and recommendation were made to President Harold B. Lee. In this case, the
proposal to initiate the program was approved, but, surprisingly, his instruction
to us was not to wait but to “start the program now.” That counsel proved to be
inspired because many political changes were to come in Chile before the
beginning of the next school year. President Salvador Allende became the first
communist leader to come to power in a democratic election. Starting the
program the next school year would have been more difficult.
The students who enrolled around the world seemed especially hungry and
thirsty to learn more about the scriptures and the gospel. Among so many, there
was a genuine feeling of excitement. Brother Frank D. Day reported that on one
of his supervisory visits to Asia, he observed a Book of Mormon class being
taught in a rented classroom in a commercial building in downtown Seoul, Korea.
He wondered if any students would come to that location, but at the appointed
hour the students poured into the classroom. The teacher mentioned that he had
a one-page handout describing the various groups of plates from which the Book
of Mormon was translated and that he would distribute it at the end of the
class period. A young girl picked up one of the sheets and asked, “Is this for
me?” “Yes, it is for you to keep.” She literally started to dance for joy at
the thought of having something she could keep and study on her own. The
teacher, Brother Seo Hee Chul, said, “You can be sure that when she comes to
class next week, she will have memorized the detail on the whole page.”
We felt confident that if we could get the students into the scriptures,
there was a good chance of getting the scriptures and what they teach into the
students. Using the students’ later willingness to respond to missionary calls
as a measuring tool, in many cases that proved to be true.
A Prophetic Clarion Call for Missionaries
from International Areas
Within the next few years, what was once a monolingual seminary and
institute program, operating mainly in the western United States, was
established in sixty-six countries and in seventeen languages around the world.
Obviously, those numbers have continued to expand during the last several
years. The teenage and college-age students were studying the scriptures and
doctrines of the Restoration just in time to receive the prophetic missionary
clarion call which President Kimball made with his characteristic candor and
clarity in 1974, in which he called on all of us to lengthen our stride and
raise our sights. He emphasized that each country should break with prior
tradition and be providing its own missionaries. Here are a few selected
quotations from that monumental address:
When I read Church history, I am amazed at the boldness of the early
brethren as they went out into the world… As nearly as 1837 the Twelve were in
England fighting Satan, in Tahiti in 1844, Australia in 1851, Iceland 1853,
Italy 1850, and also in Switzerland, Germany, Tonga, Turkey, Mexico, Japan,
Czechoslovakia, China, Samoa, New Zealand, South America, France, and Hawaii in
1850… Much of this early proselyting was done while the leaders were climbing
the Rockies and planting the sod and starting their homes. It is faith and
super faith… Today we have 18,600 missionaries. We can send more. Many more! .
. . When I ask for more missionaries, I am not asking for more testimony-barren
or unworthy missionaries… I am asking for missionaries who have been carefully
indoctrinated and trained through the family and the organizations of the
Church… I am asking … that we train prospective missionaries much better, much
earlier, much longer.
The question is frequently asked: Should every young man fill a mission?
And the answer has been given by the Lord. It is “Yes.” Every young man should
fill a mission… There is ample argument that Mexico, with its nine stakes and
five missions, should furnish its own missionaries, or the equivalent.
Suppose that South Korea with its 37,000,000 people and its 7,500
members were to take care of its own proselyting needs and thus release to go
into North Korea and possibly to Russia the hundreds who now go from the states
to Korea.
If Japan could furnish its own 1,000 missionaries and then eventually
10,000 more for Mongolia and China, if Taiwan could furnish its own needed
missionaries plus 500 for China and Vietnam and Cambodia, then we would begin
to fulfill the vision. Suppose that Hong Kong could furnish its needed
missionaries and another 1,000 to go to both of the Chinas; suppose the
Philippines could fill its own needs and then provide an additional 1,000 for
the limitless islands of southeast Asia; suppose the South Seas and the islands
therein and the New Zealanders and the Australians could furnish their own and
another several thousand for the numerous islands of south Asia and for
Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, and India… Suppose that Mexico
and Central America provided far more missionaries than they needed themselves
and the people of South America had reached the point where they could export
numerous fine missionaries and then suppose that the United States and Canada
awakened to their real responsibility, sending thousands of missionaries to
join them.
President Kimball later quoted President Brigham Young: “This kingdom
will continue to increase and to grow, to spread and to prosper more and more.
Every time its enemies undertake to overthrow it, it will become more extensive
and powerful; instead of decreasing it will continue to increase; it will
spread the more, become more wonderful and conspicuous to the nations, until it
fills the whole earth.”
And finally, President Kimball said that he envisioned “great numbers
qualifying themselves for missionary service within their own country and then
finally in other lands until the army of the Lord’s missionaries would cover
the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep.”[i][5]
That powerful prophetic message came in such a timely way because it was
just a few years after the young people in these non-English-speaking areas of
the Church had begun to study scriptures and doctrines of the gospel in the
weekday seminary and institute classes. Their knowledge and increased
testimonies helped prepare them to respond positively to the mission calls that
would come.
One concrete example of the response of young people to this clarion
call came forcibly to my mind in the country of Brazil. When Brother Frank
Bradshaw and I made that first on-site visit to Brazil in 1971 to see how the
seminaries and institutes were progressing, we were informed that the number of
full-time native Brazilians serving missions could be counted on one hand, or
at the most, on two. When I returned to Brazil as a Seventy to serve in an Area
Presidency in 1989, more than one thousand Brazilians were serving full-time
missions. According to information received from the Missionary Department in
August 2001, that number increased to over twenty-six hundred, of whom 180 have
been exported to other countries. Interestingly, thirty native Brazilian
missionaries are serving in Japan. Not only will they accomplish much good
there among Portuguese-speaking members, but when they return to Brazil, they
will have a much greater entrée into the Japanese population there. Some of you
may know that there are more Japanese living in São Paulo than in any other
city of the world outside of Japan itself—over one million.
Almost without exception, the young missionaries called in these
countries have had prior seminary or institute of religion experience, and the
personal growth and development during the mission provides a powerful
contribution to leadership in this Church in which the leadership comes from
among the members—people like you and me. To illustrate, any elder who follows
the prescribed missionary schedule for his two years of service receives more
than seven thousand hours of specialized instruction in the following areas:
scriptures; basic doctrines of the Church contained in the discussions; how to
teach those doctrines; how to relate with leaders, members, and nonmembers; and
how to get along with companions. If a person were to attend the three-hour
block of meetings every Sunday without fail, it would take him more than
forty-six years to accumulate that much specialized instruction.
The whole procedure of having more returned missionaries who are native
to their countries makes for a relatively young corps of competent priesthood and
sister leaders, who are more committed and better prepared than ever before.
In a personal conversation I had with Elder Bruce R. McConkie, he shared
an interesting experience he had after being in Mexico and calling a
twenty-five-year-old returned missionary to be a stake president. He wondered
how he was going to explain this action to the other General Authorities when
he returned to Salt Lake City. Finally, he decided that the best approach would
be to mention that he thought it best to call a stake president who was older
than the bishops.
Growth Exceeds Expectations
The globalization of the Church’s weekday religious educational programs
has not only been amazing to those of us who were directly involved in their
implementation in their early years, but apparently, it is also of even greater
surprise to Church members generally. In the Sydney B. Sperry Symposium in
2000, Dr. Victor Ludlow presented a paper entitled “The Internationalization of
the Church,” in which he reported members’ estimates in several indicators as
to whether they thought that more was occurring outside the United States and
Canada than inside. The perception of the members was reasonably accurate with
regard to general Church membership, Book of Mormon sales, and number of missions.
But there was a wide divergence with regard to seminaries and institutes of
religion. Generally, members estimated that perhaps 25 percent of the students
would be enrolled outside of the United States and Canada.
Brother Ludlow noted that the international growth of seminaries and
institutes “is the biggest surprise to most Latter-day Saints. They assume that
the seminary and institute program is primarily a USA-Canada phenomenon. They
are aware of the elementary school programs for LDS children in the South
Pacific and some other underdeveloped areas, but they have no idea how rapidly
the CES seminary and institute enrollment has exploded throughout the
world.”[ii][6]
To place the growth more fully into perspective, when I was first
appointed as a seminary teacher adjacent to Granite High School in 1955, the
international enrollment in seminaries and institutes was listed at zero. In
the report given in 2001, the total outside the United States and Canada is
listed at 340,026—almost 50 percent of the total worldwide enrollment. The
seminary and institute program now functions in eighty-two countries, and
course materials have been translated into fifty-eight languages! All of this
has occurred thanks to the efforts of hundreds of dedicated full-time staff and
thousands of faithful and effective volunteers.
Although the numbers of young people enrolled are impressive, I do not
wish to convey an impression that there is not much more that needs to be done.
Activity ratios need to be increased in every country, and the percentage of
eligible young men serving full-time missions should be greatly enlarged.
[i][5] Spencer W. Kimball, “When the World
Will Be Converted,” Ensign, October 1974, 6–8, 12–14; see also Deseret News,
January 5, 1854, 2.
[ii][6] Victor L. Ludlow, “The
Internationalization of the Church,” in Out of Obscurity: The Church in the Twentieth
Century (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 213.
As a side note, one of the greatest blessings of this particular
assignment was being able to be closely associated with Neal A. Maxwell, one of
the best men of my acquaintance. We drove together downtown almost every single
day, alternating who picked up who. At least once and often several times a
week during the noon hour he and I would walk over to the Deseret Gym that was
located where the current Conference Center is. We would play racquetball and
eat an apple and granola bar for our lunch before heading back over to work.
The time with him was priceless to me. He was a close to me as a brother.
