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
