The concept of “Flow” was developed by a man named Mihály Csíkszentmihály who died in 2021, at age 87. With his passing, “the world lost a great researcher, thinker, and early proponent of positive psychology (Risen, 2021”). Mihály was an Hungarian American psychologist widely regarded as someone who profoundly impacted our understanding of creativity and focus and is often referred to as the father of flow (Risen, 2021). Csíkszentmihályi’s early research led him to the conclusion that “happiness is not something that happens,” nor is it simply the result of “good fortune or random chance.” Instead, we can prepare for and cultivate it by taking control of our inner experiences, shaping the quality of our lives (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009). Csíkszentmihályi argued that when people enjoy what they are doing — feeling fully engaged and immersed in their activity — they experience states of existence beyond the ordinary. Happiness then is closely linked to “taking control over the contents of our consciousness” and a complete absorption in the task at hand (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009, p. 2). To explore and explain such optimal experiences arising from how we perceive situations and events in our lives, Mihály Csíkszentmihályi introduced the term “flow.” It describes moments when our consciousness intensifies, our self-consciousness disappears, and we perform at our best (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009, 2016). [Italized portion taken from an article at postivepsychology.com titled “Mihály Csíkszentmihályi: The Father of Flow“]

While the definition may not fit exactly, there is much truth in Csíkszentmihály’s description of flow and what we are beginning to experience in Johannesburg. LaDawn is now working daily with the incoming missionary applications. She is learning from Sister Lisa Johnson and they are responsible for reviewing the applications on a rotating basis every other day. It has been good for her to get some predictable consistent work. No one likes to just sit around, especially when the needs are so great. And this work of reviewing these applications is very well suited to her skillset of attention to detail and organization.

For me, the sentence from the above description that fits best is this, “Csíkszentmihályi argued that when people enjoy what they are doing — feeling fully engaged and immersed in their activity — they experience states of existence beyond the ordinary. Happiness then is closely linked to “taking control over the contents of our consciousness” and a complete absorption in the task at hand“. I definitely feel absorbed …. and immersed in my role. For example, Monday and Tuesday (June 9th and 10th) were pretty quiet. Beginning Wednesday it began to pick up and by Thursday it began to pour and it didn’t let up until Saturday. Which by then, I had a backlog of activity to catch up on. Finally by the close of Sunday, I was caught back up. Lots of loose ends to tie up, but all of them are now waiting on others to get back to me.

Over the last 20 days, I have dealt with five predominant issues. The first has to do with missionaries being approved for an early release and traveling home due to illness. Sometimes physical, sometimes emotional. The second has to do with reinstatements. These are missionaries who went home for treatment (or repentance) and have now been approved by a member of the Quorum of Twelve apostles to return. Sometimes when a missionary returns they are reassigned to a new mission. The reinstatements and reassignments require communication with the stake presidents, the mission presidents, and the travel team. This is my responsibility. There is a series of communications that have to take place. Keeping track of who has responded and where we are in the process takes some effort. The third category is associated with visa issues and temporary assignments. We have much churn in these two Africa Areas (Central and South) due to the significant number of temporary assignments. In our last post, I mentioned that we have 9 missionaries who are coming out of one of our missions because their visas have expired and they have to wait up to a year to reapply. This means they were reassigned to different missions, which again involves communication and visa work and timely travel bookings. While I am usually not officially involved in that process, I often get pulled in to make sure missionaries move in the system when they move to a new mission – and it is often after the fact. In this particular case, I was asked to update the 9 missionaries in our system (called Missionary Inquiry or INQ) so that they would move from the roster of their current mission to the roster of their new mission. This can be time consuming and sometimes confusing. In one particular case involving these 9, I arranged for the flight of a missionary to the correct mission (in Brazil), but then sent the notification to the wrong mission president. That created more confusion because one mission president had a missionary on his roster, but no travel itinerary and the other had an itinerary to an airport 5 hours from the mission. I am happy to say, that one was easy to solve. The fourth area has to do with missionaries who have made bad choices regarding keeping mission rules. Depending on the severity of the disobedience, they may or may not have to go home to repent. That is a decision taken by a General Authority in the Missionary Department. The fifth and final thing I will mention is what we call belated confessions. A missionary does something prior to his or her mission that for whatever reason, they think they have done enough to repent. And then they come on a mission and the Spirit of the Lord will not let them rest, confirming to them over and over that they need to confess to the mission president. This is the least of the issues that I deal with, but it does occur. Since arriving on May 2, I have dealt with over 85 different cases. This does not include the simple changes required in INQ to get a missionary on the right roster. There are a lot of reasons why that continues to be a problem, but it is mostly associated with good old fashioned human error.

I have prepared a worksheet that I use to mark off each part of the process once it is done. Because I am often waiting on replies or approvals from various sources, I open cases that I have to constantly look back on and verify where we are in the process. For example, right now, I have 21 cases that are open. I find that sometimes I will complete a case while I am in the middle of another, and then fail to mark my worksheet. A regular review of emails (that I have marked for follow-up) and reviewing my list of open cases is critical to staying on top of all that is going on.

One thing is for sure, it is almost every day that I come across a new issue or problem to be solved. For example, in the last couple of weeks, I received an email from a senior couple who lost access to their missionary emails who asked me to fix that for them. I had to chuckle just a bit. I did manage to get them pointed in the right direction. In another situation, a mission secretary asked me to change the birthdate of one of their missionaries (based on her birth certificate and passport). That is something I cannot do as the dates are pulled from the membership record. So I pointed the secretary back to the missionaries home branch to get it fixed.

One of the cases I am working on has to do with a sister in one of the missions who has a serious medical condition. She has been released, but Aetna has extended her medical benefits for 90 days since this condition occurred while she was serving. She is in need of surgery (and a second opinion) and we are trying to move her from where she is to a more developed city with better medical care. The problem is, she doesn’t have a passport. That means we are making a plea to the countries immigration director to grant an emergency medical travel waiver for her and her sister who will come with her. We need to do this from both the sending country and the receiving country. Fortunately, we have a lot of help from the travel group supervisor in the Area, a very good Latter-day Saint doctor, good legal counsel, and priesthood leaders who are doing all they can to get her to the new hospital. Ordinarily we would just go get them both a passport, but the country recently changed their system and the process for issuing passports, and nothing is coming out right now until they get it fully up and functional. We can’t wait 12 weeks for that to happen.

A good news story is a young man who completed his mission, but injured his knee while serving (sports on preparation day). He is from Malawi and the medical care is not sufficient there o do an ACL repair on a knee. So we needed to bring him to Nairobi for the surgery. His father came with him, the surgery was successfully performed, and they returned to Malawi.

One of the struggles we have is that citizens of some countries have a very difficult time getting a visa to come to South Africa. This is especially true for those from Lesotho. We are currently working on a way to get visas for three missionaries who have been called to serve in South African missions from Lesotho. It apparently has either never been done, or not for a very long time. We have one missionary who was born in raised in a town just outside of Lesotho in South Africa, but his parents are from Lesotho so he is a Lesotho citizen. Every 90 days he has had to go back to Lesotho to have his passport stamped so that he is legally in South Africa. For him to serve in the Durban mission, for example, he would need a visa as he cannot go back every 90 days. I met this missionary in the temple yesterday quite by chance as I saw his name on a locker. We didn’t get to talk much, but I will say I was very impressed with his countenance and joy of being a missionary. We are praying our efforts will be rewarded with a South African visa.

Another similar issue we have are people who live in one country, have a passport from another country, and then submit their paperwork from the country where they live, but are not citizens. This just doesn’t work here. So we have to find a way for them to leave from and return to their home country. This creates issues for some of these missionaries who desire to go back to the country where they were living after their mission, but have no legal status there.

This post wouldn’t be any good without some pictures, so here are a few highlights. On Monday, June 16th we went out to a free nature reserve called Moreleta Kloof Nature Area and went for a 2-3 mile hike. It was a holiday in South Africa (youth day) and so the park was pretty full with people. It is hard to tell, but there are houses all around this huge preserve. We didn’t leave until 8 am, and so the animals were nowhere to be found (except one little deer and a small antelope that I didn’t get a picture of). But it was wonderful to be out of doors and hiking in nature.

Now, the most interesting part about all of this is that I am really enjoying this calling and LaDawn is enjoying what she is doing. It gives us both an opportunity to help identify and solve problems, and help to bless the lives of these 60 amazing mission leaders spread across the 30 missions in the Africa Central and Africa South Areas. Never a dull moment! For LaDawn, she is really helping to get missionaries prepared to serve with the right photos, paperwork, and medical clearances.

There is nothing quite like being a full-time missionary, representing Jesus Christ in the work of establishing the Church and gathering Israel. Especially when we can do it together, Serving in South Africa!