PROVO, Utah — The new leaders of the Argentina Buenos Aires North and Ukraine Kyiv/Moldova missions met in person for the first time this month as they participated in the 2025 Seminar for New Mission Leaders at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.
Yet, President David and Sister Rebecca Jackson of Phoenix, Arizona, and President Aaron and Sister Katie Shepherd of Brigham City, Utah, are not only connected by missionary work — they are also part of a divinely orchestrated missionary exchange.
The couples are literally swapping sons.
Elder Quinn Jackson — one of President and Sister Jackson’s five children — has been serving for the past year in the Ukraine Kyiv/Moldova Mission.
So when the Church announced the assignments for new mission leaders in January, the Jacksons immediately reached out to the Shepherds — who would become Elder Jackson’s new mission leaders in Moldova. “Our son is in your mission,” they said.
Then in May, the Jacksons, called to Buenos Aires, received an email from the Shepherds.
The Shepherds’ son, Elder Kimball Shepherd, had just opened his mission call and would be serving in Argentina in the Jacksons’ mission.
“We were overcome with emotion and love that we already felt for them and love for our Heavenly Father for this beautiful, tender mercy,” President Jackson said.
“You feel extremely small in a very large universe with God orchestrating very big things to very small people,” said President Shepherd. “It makes you feel extremely loved, extremely seen, extremely known — despite the smallness in the vast universe. It’s a beautiful experience.”
The Jacksons and the Shepherds are also thrilled that because of the timing of their sons’ calls, they will meet. Elder Shepherd, who begins missionary service in September, will accompany his parents and two siblings to Moldova this summer and will invariably spend time with Elder Jackson. Then when Elder Jackson is released next year, he will spend time with his parents in Argentina — where Elder Shepherd will still be serving.
Sister Shepherd said the calls were divinely orchestrated. “No one knows, except for God, how this happened and why it happened,” she said.
President Shepherd said in a decade or so — with the power of hindsight — they may have refined understanding of their missionary service and of the service of their sons. “It seems like, for some reason, this is not just a cute coincidence. There is some purpose here that we will see later.”
The Shepherds, who will direct missionary work in Moldova and remotely to Ukraine — where conflict continues — are ready to jump full time into missionary work.
“Game on,” President Shepherd said. “We have been so excited for the opportunity to serve, especially in an area of the region that needs peace, that needs the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said. “We are so humbled … to bring the gospel of peace to a place that needs it.”
Sister Shepherd added, “I’m super excited just to go love our missionaries and love the people and bring hope in Christ again to a place that is suffering and to a people that are suffering.”
Sister Jackson said she is filled with “pure excitement” to serve in Argentina.
“Our hearts are just full,” said President Jackson. “We are full of gratitude for the awareness we have felt Heavenly Father has for us, full of love for these missionaries. … Our hearts are full for them and full of love for the Lord’s work. We know this is His work. And we could not be more excited to do missionary work in the world, especially in Buenos Aires.”
