The 2025 New Mission Leader Seminar

On Wednesday, June 18, 2025 we drove from our home in Draper to Provo to attend the 2025 New Mission Leader Seminar at the Missionary Training Center (MTC). The MTC is located by the campus of Brigham Young University and thousands of missionaries are trained there each year prior to going out to their assigned mission location. For missionaries assigned to serve in a country speaking their native language, or with a demonstrated high proficiency in the language of their mission, they are trained for a period of 3 weeks at the MTC. For missionaries needing to learn their mission language, they are trained for 6 or 9 weeks, depending on the level of difficulty of the given language. As mission leaders, we have had the opportunity to get one-on-one language training from MTC tutors via zoom over the past 6 months, so they decided we only needed 4.5 days at the MTC 😉. 

Got our name tags - it's finally starting to feel real!

Each June each year, all the newly called mission leaders gather for a New Mission Leader Seminar where we are taught and trained by various leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was an incredible, spiritual, and enlightening experience to hear from the most senior leaders of our church, including our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, and the rest of the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Several other general authorities and leaders of the church, specifically those that have responsibilities and assignments over missionary work were also in attendance and participated in training us. 

Elder Renlund (of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostoles) & Sister Renlund.

Elder Bednar (of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostoles) & Sister Bednar. 

Each day during the seminar we had the chance to listen to messages from church leaders in both large group meetings and small group breakouts with other mission leaders serving in South America with us. We also had the chance to meet with and teach several small groups of missionaries (known as districts), to practice how we might teach and lead the missionaries in Chile. One special highlight was getting to meet with the one sister missionary, Sister Pratt, who is going to be coming to our mission who was currently being trained herself at the Provo MTC. We are excited to see her again soon in Chile!

Meeting Sister Pratt - she'll be heading to Chile on July 16th.

Throughout our time at the MTC, we made countless connections to other mission leaders, young missionaries and employees that made our experience even more special. The first occurred on our first evening at the seminar, before we even had begun our meetings. After arriving at the MTC we had time to mingle with the other new mission leaders and quickly one couple caught my eye and approached me with the husband asking, "Do you remember me?" I felt bad at first not recognizing his face, but after glancing at his name tag and seeing his last name, it all clicked. Standing in front of me was my own MTC teacher from 36 years ago, Brother Gregory Neher. Back then, Brother Neher had recently returned from serving his mission in Argentina and he worked as a teacher for new missionaries at the MTC. One of my other teachers was Sister Isabel Lindheimer, and funny enough, these 2 teachers of mine ended up getting married (after my MTC district and I suggested to them that they should meet and go on a date I might add) and there she was standing next to him as well. It was such an incredible reunion for us all, filled with reminiscing and joy! The Nehers will be serving as mission leaders in the Peru Lima West mission. This was just the first of many "coincidences" we had seeing and interacting with people that were clear indications of God being aware of us and placing people in our path to help us feel of His love and awareness of us. I imagine that the type of reunion that I had with these dear friends of mine will be similar to the types of reunions we'll get to have in heaven one day with loved ones who have passed on.

Reunion with Brent's MTC teachers from 1989 - President & Sister Neher. 

Young Elder Bartholomew (left) and Brother Neher (right) at the MTC in 1989.

Brent (far right) and his MTC district in 1989 - Sister Lindheimer (now Neher) is in the middle in the blue dress. 

A couple last highlights we'll mention were on Saturday & Sunday. First, on Saturday night we got to gather together with all the missionaries at the MTC - both the new mission leaders, and the young missionaries (1,400 of us in total) - for a devotional given by Elder Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We enjoyed feeling the power and spirit of missionary as we gathered all together with one purpose. The culmination of our time at the MTC occured on Sunday, when we had the chance to gather for a special sacrament meeting with President Oaks (first counselor in the First Presidency) and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in person. Due to the age and health of President Nelson, he didn't join us in person, but he recorded a special message for us to watch specifically about the power of the Book of Mormon and how it can help us grow closer to Jesus Christ. We are so grateful for the amazing instruction we received this week to help us prepare to help the missionaries we are assigned to work with in the Chile Santiago South mission. We can't wait to get started! 

In addition to all the exciting experiences we had at the seminar, our family was extremely blessed this week with the exciting (and early) arrival of our third granddaughter, Ava Rae, who was born to our oldest daughter, Jessica and her husband Chance on Thursday, June 19th. Monica was excused from the seminar that day to be able to join them at the hospital for the birth. While it was hard for her to leave the seminar, we knew it was being recorded and it was more important for her to go be with Jessica's family. Everything went well with the delivery and Monica was grateful to spend the rest of the day with with them. That evening after dinner, I was able to go and join her and the rest of our kids as we all met at the hospital and welcomed sweet little Ava to our family. We felt so fortunate to have her come a few days early so we could spend some extra time with her before heading off to Chile. 

Jessica & Chance Blackman with their two daughters, Lily & Ava.

Proud abuelos ♡

A Day Never to be Forgotten

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Today was the day we were set apart as full-time missionaries and as mission president & companion to preside over the Chile Santiago South Mission.  For our family, it was a day never to be forgotten.

First, let me pause and explain what it means to be "set apart".  

To be “set apart” for a calling in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints means to be formally given that assignment through priesthood authority, accompanied by a special blessing of guidance and spiritual power.  Through the setting apart, the individual is not only authorized to act in their specific calling but is also given divine help and inspiration to fulfill it according to the Lord’s will.  It marks a spiritual beginning point and is usually accompanied by words of counsel, encouragement, and promise - personalized to the individual and the calling.

This practice follows the New Testament pattern of laying on of hands (see Acts 13:2-3) and serves as a spiritual confirmation of both the calling and the support God promises to those who serve Him. It is often a deeply sacred moment—one filled with love, peace, and clarity.

Our setting apart took place in the Church Administration Building located in downtown Salt Lake City where we met with President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the Church's First Presidency and Elder Edward Dube, a General Authority Seventy who serves in the Presidency of the Seventy.

We had the opportunity to bring our immediate family (children and spouses) for this special occasion.

Chance & Jessica Blackman, Brandon, Monica, Brent, Hailey & Brigham Schellenberg, Megan & Austin Baker

 

President Eyring was very personal, engaging, and even quite witty in interacting and getting to know us.  Prior to the actual setting apart, he gave us some counsel. The most impactful was that he believes that God has called us specifically to serve as mission leaders in Santiago because of the missionaries who will serve with us there.  He said, "Missionaries are called and assigned to their mission leaders as much as they are called to a location in the world." 

He encouraged us to treat each missionary who comes to our mission as a sacred trust for whom we were personally prepared.  They come to us with unique backgrounds and degrees of spiritual development. Yet we can appropriately pray to be given the inspiration to know what we can do to help each one, whatever the conditions they will face in our mission. 

When it came time for the setting apart, President Eyring told us that he was acting under the direction/authority of President Russell M. Nelson, who holds all priesthood keys.  He acted as voice in setting both of us apart, assisted by Elder Dube. 

Words can’t adequately describe how joyous the experience was for us, and due to the sacred nature of some of the things said, I won't detail them all here.

Suffice it to say that President Eyring bestowed upon both of us (and upon our family) beautiful blessings that provided another powerful reassurance that God is aware of us, and that this calling came from Him.  In fact, several things President Eyring said in my blessing was so close to what I shared in my talk on Sunday that we were in awe.  It was as if he’d been at our farewell and knew of my worries and concerns.  I had yet another strong spiritual confirmation that we are really supposed to be going to Chile right now.  We have been called and assigned to Santiago South for a reason!

Truly, this was a day that will never be forgotten!

Our Mission Call

Dear family and friends, 

Welcome to our mission blog! We have been called to serve as mission leaders in the Chile Santiago South mission. We will serve from July 2025 - June 2028. 

Before we leave, we wanted to share a little bit about our experience getting this call. In December of 2023, I (Brent) started having some thoughts and feelings about the future. I was coming to the end of my time serving as a counselor in the stake presidency, and we knew we'd be released around May of 2024, so I started thinking about what the Lord had in store for us.  I could feel something was coming, but not necessarily the call to serve as mission leaders.

At the time our stake presidency was released, I met with Elder Erich Kopischke, a general authority seventy, and he interviewed me and asked some questions about whether Monica and I would be in a position to leave our home, family, job, etc. behind for a while if a call to serve were to come. I didn't think too much about it since that seemed to be a customary question to ask upon releasing stake presidency members. 

On September 16, 2024, we were contacted by Elder Jörg Klebingat, another general authority seventy, who was an assistant executive director of the missionary department, and we had an interview with him via zoom the following week. He asked about our family, finances, health, and our ability and willingness to serve. We had gone to the temple the day before that interview, and we both received the impression and confirmation that we would be willing to serve as soon as the Lord needed us. At the end of the meeting, he told us we may or may not be contacted moving forward. 

October 14, 2024, we received a phone call from Elder Uchtdorf's secretary asking if we could meet with him that week. We quickly arranged our schedules to make it work, and went to meet with him on October 16 at the Church Office Building. We sat down and went through some of the same questions that Elder Klebingat had asked us, so we got a little comfortable and thought we might not get the call at that time. We talked about our parents, children and grandchildren and he asked if they would be supportive of us. He then asked us each to bear our testimonies. It was such a powerful moment to share our humble testimonies of the Savior to someone who is a special witness of Him. It was especially meaningful sharing our thoughts about the Savior and His Atonement and resurrection with the passing of Monica's mother, LaVern just 11 days before that meeting. It was a sweet experience. 

As soon as we both finished our testimonies, Elder Uchtdorf said, "Under authorization of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles I want to extend a call to you, Brother Bartholomew to serve as a mission president, and to you Sister Bartholomew as a full-time missionary and companion to your husband. We of course said yes when he asked if we would accept that calling. Afterwards, he gave us a some counsel and advice, and we were both so impressed with the kind and caring way he interacted with us and made us feel like we were the only people that mattered at that time. He told us to keep our call confidential and only share it with immediate family until we received our assignment and the Church was able to announce it in January.  Before we left, he asked his secretary to take our picture with him because he said our kids wouldn't believe us if we didn't have a picture. :) 

The next day, we were able to share the experience with our four children and their spouses.  They were all very excited, but also shocked by the call to serve.  And then the speculation began. Where would we be assigned to serve?  Our children found the list of missions from 2022 that would receive new mission leaders in 2025, and we all started studying the list and thinking about the possibiilties.

In the weeks that followed, amid our excitement and anticipation, I found myself wondering and eventually worrying about where we’d be sent. Given my background, I knew a Spanish-speaking country was possible. But I had some concerns. My Spanish is quite rusty, and Monica doesn’t speak the language. For those, and a multitude of other reasons, I logically thought we might be more effective serving somewhere speaking English, and closer to home.

As those thoughts—rooted in relying on my own strength and abilities—began to grow, so did my anxiety. What if we were assigned to a foreign country? Could we really lead effectively without stronger language skills? I found myself praying not just for comfort, but pleading with the Lord to help me know that wherever we were assigned, it would be His will.

On Saturday, December 14, while serving as an ordinance worker in the Draper temple, I was assigned to be the guide for a young man receiving his own endowment. His escort looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. When I asked his last name, he said “Zwick.” I then asked if he knew Craig Zwick, who had been the mission president in the Chile Santiago South mission when I served in the Santiago North mission. He smiled and said, “Yes! Craig is my father.”

And then it all clicked. During my mission, I had spent seven months in a neighborhood called Los Condes — one of the safest areas in Santiago. Because of that, the Santiago South mission home was located there, in the north mission and it’s where the Zwick family lived. At President Zwick’s request, my companion and I would often take his sons, Darrin and Spencer, with us to teach. And now, standing there with me in the Draper temple, was Darrin Zwick.

After my temple shift finished, I told Monica the story. She listened and then said thoughtfully, “Maybe that’s a sign. Perhaps we are going to Chile.”

Later that same morning, a FedEx envelope arrived from the Church. And the next day, surrounded by our children, we opened the letter and excitedly read:

“Dear Brother and Sister Bartholomew... You are assigned to labor in the Chile Santiago South Mission.”

In that moment, we were overcome with joy and emotion.  I felt a powerful reassurance from heaven as these thoughts came into my mind:

“Brent, I know you and I love you. Your reunion with Darrin Zwick in the temple yesterday was no coincidence. Chile Santiago South is where I am calling you and Monica to serve.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

We're so excited and humbled for the opportunity to serve the Lord, His missionaries and the Chilean people at this time. Thank you all for your love and support for us and our family. We're excited to share our experiences with each of you over the next 3 years!

Con amor, 

Presidente y Hermana Bartholomew