During his recent 10-day ministry in Brazil, Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles presided over five missionary devotionals, a multistake conference, a review of the Brazil Area with the area presidency and a devotional with area staff.
All of those meetings came in between what Elder Rasband labeled as “the two weekend bookends” and the primary assignment for his March 13-22 ministry — two days of annual area instruction meetings with Brazil’s area, mission, temple and stake leaders.
And the extensive, four-hour training sessions were made even longer — and certainly much more meaningful — as the Apostle invited participants to start both days in worship and ordinance work in the house of the Lord.
The morning temple sessions created “an interesting and wonderful dimension,” he said.
Instruction meetings and leaders
Instruction meetings were held Saturday, March 14, in Recife and Saturday, March 21, in Curitiba — the former for those leaders residing in northern Brazil and the latter for those in the country’s southern regions. The area review, the staff devotional and three of the five missionary devotionals were done in São Paulo, where area offices are located.
Combining both sets of area instruction meetings, six general authorities of the Church — led by Elder Rasband — trained a total of 23 Area Seventies, 37 mission presidents, 11 temple presidents and nearly 290 stake presidents.
Elder Rasband was accompanied by his wife, Sister Melanie Rasband, along with Elder Arnulfo Valenzuela of the Presidency of the Seventy and his wife, Sister Pilar Valenzuela. Presiding Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, who was joined by his wife, Sister Carol Waddell, and the Brazil Area presidency and their wives — Elder Joni L. Koch, area president, and Sister Michele Koch; Elder Ciro Schmeil, first counselor, and Sister Alessandra Schmeil; and Elder Mark D. Eddy and Sister Annette Eddy — also participated in various events.
The area presidency members are General Authority Seventies.
‘With the end in mind’
Elder Rasband likened starting at the temple prior to area trainings to a focus made by the late President Russell M. Nelson. He held his January 2018 introductory news conference as the Church’s newly set-apart leader in the Salt Lake Temple Annex. The tie to the temple, President Nelson said, was a call to “begin with the end in mind.”
Likewise, the two mornings in the Recife Brazil Temple and Curitiba Brazil Temple made for “a beautiful connection” between the temple and the trainings, Elder Rasband said. “If we wanted to make the temple the focus for these leaders, that was the way to do it.”
Elder and Sister Rasband’s son and his entire family were in Recife at the same time and joined them at the temple. Said Elder Rasband, “One of the things I did was go to the baptistry and do all the confirmations for my own grandchildren there in the temple.”
‘Immerse myself in missionary activity’
Elder Rasband — who chairs the Church’s Missionary Executive Council and says he wants to “immerse myself in missionary activity” — conducted five devotionals that drew in excess of 1,000 elders and sisters:
- Sunday, March 15, with the Brazil Recife North and Brazil Recife South missions.
- Tuesday, March 17, with the Brazil São Paulo East and Brazil São Paulo West missions, along with 141 soon-to-depart missionaries training at the Brazil Missionary Training Center.
- Wednesday, March 18, with the Brazil São Paulo North, Brazil São Paulo South and Brazil São Paulo Interlagos missions.
- Thursday, March 19, with missionaries training at the Brazil MTC.
- Friday, March 20, with the Brazil Curitiba and Brazil Curitiba South missions.
A highlight for Elder Rasband while at the Brazil MTC was meeting with 13 Venezuelan missionaries receiving training before returning to serve in Venezuela.
Acknowledging the difficulties in the country and with Church operations there, he said: “Just that little opening where the Church is now seeing some movement in getting missionaries in and out of Venezuela, it was a thrill for me to meet those Venezuelan missionaries.”
Stake conference and social-media video
Elder Rasband also presided at a multistake conference Sunday, March 15, for the Jaboatão dos Guararapes Brazil and Jaboatão Brazil Litoral stakes, both located in southern metro Recife.
He also invited Elder Koch to join him in a social-media video filmed at the São Paulo Brazil Temple Visitors’ Center. The two-and-a-half-minute reel emphasizes the Church’s political neutrality worldwide and its teaching that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace.
