The Oslo Opera House (Wikimedia CC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I began my service as the bishop of a large singles ward adjacent to Utah Valley University, a friend with a great deal of ecclesiastical experience gave me some interesting advice.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ll be so busy with counseling and similar things that can\u2019t be delegated,\u201d he effectively told me, \u201cthat you should just divide everything else 50\/50 and have your two counselors take care of those matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was right.\u00a0 Interviews of various kinds and counseling of all sorts kept me pretty much pinned in my office.\u00a0 Sometimes, looking out into the hallway and seeing twenty people waiting for interviews, I would keep a mental tally of the people with whom I spoke.\u00a0 After twenty or so, I would look outside my door again . . . and see twenty more people.\u00a0 I was lucky to be able to attend sacrament meeting.\u00a0 Even when I was conducting, I was typically almost late.\u00a0 And, although I had really intended to try, I rarely if ever managed to sit in on Relief Society or priesthood meetings, or to attend Sunday school.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fortunately, I was blessed with superb counselors.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m also blessed with a superb wife.\u00a0 And she, too, was of great help.\u00a0 We hosted regular gatherings at our home, of course, and things of that sort.\u00a0 She was always willing and ready to be supportive.\u00a0 But one of the things that I most valued about her during that time was her ability to sit in Sunday school and in Relief Society, and to mingle with ward members with whom I scarcely ever met, and to give me feedback and even, yes!, advice on matters that I was unable to track myself.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When a man is called to serve as a bishop, his wife, too, receives something of a call.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes, of course, that wife is a mother with young children.\u00a0 It would be very difficult for her, in such a case, to take on many additional duties.\u00a0 Sometimes, though \u2013 this was so in our case \u2013 the children are grown.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I think it would not be inappropriate to extend a formal calling to such a wife.\u00a0 Mine still had callings in our home ward, so there were times when she couldn\u2019t attend the ward over which I presided.\u00a0 I would love, though, to have had her there every week.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t know what name to give to the \u201coffice\u201d held by a bishop\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the problem is especially acute, or so it seems to me, with the wives of mission presidents.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
We have a name \u2013 I\u2019m not overly fond of it (in fact, I rather dislike it), but it works \u2013 for the wife of a temple president.\u00a0 She\u2019s the \u201ctemple matron.\u201d\u00a0 And the wives of the counselors of temple presidents are \u201cassistant temple matrons.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve sometimes heard an analogous title informally given to the wives of mission presidents:\u00a0 \u201cmission mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
What do you think?\u00a0 I don\u2019t like it much, but, again, it works and would work.\u00a0 Do you have any alternative \u2013 better \u2014 suggestions?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mission president\u2019s wives, especially when they\u2019re not having to attend to a young family, perform a wide variety of functions.\u00a0 They can be, and often are, extraordinarily able and quite valuable \u2013 mine (Janath Russell Cannon) certainly was.\u00a0 And not merely with sister missionaries (who, by the way, represent a larger proposition of the overall missionary force than was true in my day, back in the Early Pleistocene).<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyhow, I\u2019m seriously soliciting proposals.\u00a0 Do you have a good title for the \u201coffice\u201d of mission president\u2019s wife?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The question has been on my mind of late.\u00a0 For one thing, we were picked up at the airport by good friends \u2013 neighbors for thirty years \u2013 who are currently serving as president and \u201cmission mother\u201d (?) of the Norway Oslo Mission and, before my fireside this evening, had dinner with them at their residence.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve recently heard the half-serious suggestion \u2014 from a speaker at FairMormon, I think, but also from a friend who presided over a mission in the South Pacific and who feels fairly passionate about the question \u2014 of presidentess<\/em>.\u00a0 Only half serious.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suggestions welcome.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And again, while we\u2019re at it, what about a bishop\u2019s wife?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Oslo, Norway<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 When I began my service as the bishop of a large singles ward adjacent to Utah Valley University, a friend with a great deal of ecclesiastical experience gave me some interesting advice.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ll be so busy with counseling and similar things that can\u2019t be delegated,\u201d he effectively told me, \u201cthat you should just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Oslo's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/08\/800px-1_of_10_-_Opera_House_Oslo_-_NORWAY-1.jpg\")
<\/a>