Here’s Who Really Runs the Mission Office!

Three senior couples in the West Indies Mission office put on a good show of running the business of the mission, but the real "go to" guys in the mission office are Elders Johnson and George who generally have the answers to mission-related questions and can solve almost any computer problems and Elders Ipson and Hicken, who travel with and provide support to President Gamiette.

Elder Johnson (left), at somewhere between 6’3” and 6’4” is a whiz at keeping everyone’s technology working as it should. The 7th missionary in his Green River, Utah family of 8 boys and 2 girls, loves sports and being outdoors so Elder Johnson never imagined himself as a “computer geek” in the mission office. However, he has great faith in the Lord’s plan for him and has happily served more than six months in this assignment.

Elder George has only been in the mission office for about a month, but has already risen to his full stature in service to the Lord. This avid soccer player and Eagle Scout, who is about ½” taller than his companion in his stocking feet , is one of four siblings in his Yuba City, California family. Elders Johnson and George spend their days in the office tracking investigators’ progress toward baptism and other mission goals, collecting data from call-in-summary reports and creating key indicator reports for the president and for church headquarters in Salt Lake City.

Elder Hicken (on the right), who is the newly called Assistant to the President, is a distance runner which sport has prepared him to work in the mission office where he works alongside Elder Ipson on Zone Leader reports, companion evaluations, relays information to Zone Leaders, helps to plan councils and conferences and travels with the president. His only complaint about this new calling is a loss of sleep due to the President’s preference for early morning flights around the mission!