45. Creating "Ensign Teams" 

Problem or situation. The mission was now operating smoothly. We had steadily grown from 9 baptisms per month two and a half, years ago to over 500 per month--from 1.4 baptisms per missionary per year to almost 36.0. The problem was we had been doing that for almost six months. We had leveled off. We weren't going anywhere. And we were far from where the vision of President Kimball would have us. For example, President Kimball (Kikuchi. 1981) said: 

            OH, OUR BELOVED FATHER IN HEAVEN, BRING ABOUT THE DAY WHEN WE MAY BE ABLE TO BRING IN LARGE NUMBERS AS AMMON AND HIS BRETHREN DID, THOUSANDS OF CONVERSIONS, NOT DOZENS, NOT TENS OR FIVES OR ONES, THOUSANDS OF CONVERSIONS. THE LORD PROMISED IT; HE FULFILLS HIS PROMISES (p. 63). 

            May we improve the efficiency of our missionaries, each bringing thousands of converts into the Church (p. 63). 

And speaking to Mission Presidents he had asked: 

            IS IT POSSIBLE THAT EACH OF YOU COULD DEVELOP SOME WILFORD WOODRUFFS AND BRIGHAM YOUNGS WHO COULD BAPTIZE HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS? CAN WE RAISE OUR SIGHTS? (p. 96).

            WE ARE THINKING AND HOPING FOR THOUSANDS OF CONVERSIONS BY INDIVIDUAL MISSIONARIES AND MISSIONS (p. 96). '

I wondered if we could achieve thousands of converts. I wondered if there were that many "prepared" people who wanted to hear our message in the bounds of our mission. I read and reread President Kimball's (Kikuchi, 1981) words. He had said: 

            Millions of people are anxious and willing to learn, if only they can hear the 'sound' in their own tongue and in a manner that they can grasp and understand. AND WE MUST FIND A WAY! (p. 233). 

We lived in the midst of millions of people in Tokyo. Thousands of them had come into the Church over the past few months. I wondered where they had been two years ago. Had they just moved to Japan? Of course not. They had been there all along, right in our midst. It was we who had been unprepared to find and teach them. At the time we baptized those 9 people two and a half years ago, the 500 we baptized last month were right there, too. We had just missed them. And the thousands we had baptized since then were there two and a half years ago as well. We had missed them.

We finally asked ourselves this question: since the 500 we baptized this month were right here last month, why couldn't we have found and baptized them last month? Why did it take us two months? If we continued to baptize 500 per month for the next six months--which we expected to do--we would bring 3,000 people into the Church. And we knew those 3,000 people were out there right now. Why couldn't we find, teach, convert, and baptize them this month or next month? Since we knew they were there now, why wait six months? Did we believe that we could and should move beyond what we were now doing? Was it really something that we could just decide to do? President Kimball's (Kikuchi, 1981) words were clear: 

            The basic decisions needed for us to move forward, as a people, must be made by the individual members of the Church (p. 4).

            IF WE REALLY WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WE CAN! BUT SOMETIMES TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, WE MUST DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY AND BETTER! (p. 43). 

I felt that we could and should do more. My missionaries were better prepared now, but their letters and conversations to me indicated they did not feel they were at or even near their potential. As their skills and performance had grown, it was as though their visions had grown even more. The gap between where we were and where we envisioned we could be had broadened, but we were not growing in proselyting skills any more. I wondered why not.

Perhaps one of the reasons was that we began to question whether or not the Church could assimilate those kinds of numbers. Even with our current rate of 500 convert baptisms per month, too many were not being assimilated (between 42% and 54% in the Small Units and 21% and. 22% in the stakes). President Kimball's

(Kikuchi, 1981) response was direct and to the point. Be had said: 

            If your missionaries baptize thousands of converts, it will be a great challenge to the Church leaders to train and organize and indoctrinate the new converts, and we are anxious to assume that responsibility (p. 143).  

            I DON'T KNOW HOW WE WOULD TRAIN THEM, BUT LET'S GET. THEM BAPTIZED FIRST AND THEN MOVE AS WE NEED TO (p. 122) 

            ANOTHER THING WE REMEMBER, THAT UNTIL WE HAVE FOUND THEM AND CONVERTED THEM, THAT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY. AFTER THEY ARE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH, CERTAINLY IT IS AT LEAST PARTLY THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO LIVE THE GOSPEL (p. 131). 

As I read these words of President Kimball, I felt they were meant for us here and now as much as to anyone:

            We have paused on some plateaus long enough. Let us resume our journey forward and upward (Kikuchi, 1981, p. 4).           

            He will not ask us to bear more than we can bear nor thrust upon us that for which we are not yet ready. But likewise, we must not tarry too long when we are ready to move on (p. 4).

            I felt we had tarried long enough at this level We needed to get off our plateau and accomplish what President Kimball, Elder Kikuchi, and the Lord had asked us to accomplish: "... thousands of conversions, not dozens, not tens or fives or ones, thousands of conversions" (Kikuchi, 1981). We needed to make a difference.

In order to do so I felt I needed some missionaries to reach out and show what could be done, to "prove" that this plateau was not our limit. 

Action taken. (1-81) CREATION OF NEW "ENSIGN TEAMS" WITH WHICH THE MISSION PRESIDENT WORKS DIRECTLY TO MAKE BREAKTHROUGHS. (Productivity label: Training/ Motivational.)

This was a repeat of what I had done back in the second three months of the mission, but now I was doing it at a higher level. I called a few sets of the "best" missionaries into the mission home and told them of the vision I felt. I told them we were on a plateau and needed individual missionaries to carry us forward and upward. Lest there were any questions about whether it was okay to "stand out" and make your own mark, I quoted President Kimball (Kikuchi, 1981): 

            You ought to leave a positive mark where you serve; your footprints ought to be in the regions in which you have served, reflecting the lengthening stride of the Kingdom (p. 44). 

            Can you see yourself as the number one man in your mission setting that part of the world on fire? (p. 138). 

            That was their responsibility: to set the mission on fire. Rather than have them work out of the mission office, I asked them to stay at their current locations and come into the mission home one day each week. I worked with them intensely that day. I worked with them on both the vision of what they were called to do and the knowledge and skills needed to carry them out. I had them do role-plays of teaching in various situations. We discussed current barriers and solutions to them. I had them teach each other the things that were working best.

President Kimball (Kikuchi, 1981) had talked about reinforcing missionaries' goals: 

            Let the missionaries set goals for themselves and then the President will praise and give them adulation for succeeding in the goals which they set (p. 96). 

I awarded “Ensign” certificates for breakthroughs in a variety of areas. These certificates were not limited to members of the "Ensign" teams but were awarded to missionaries anywhere for doing what hadn't been done before. 

            Results of the action. This small group of "Ensign" missionaries caught the vision of their calling more than ever before. They honed and refined previously taught skills and developed many new ones-- such as those discussed next--until they were able to make the breakthroughs that demonstrated to the mission what could be accomplished. Their dedication and success spurred other missionaries onward and upward. Before long, almost every missionary in the entire mission was reaching to surpass him or herself.

Led by these "Ensigns," the very next month, February 1981, the mission broke through the 600 mark with 622 baptisms. Then the following month, March, ten missionaries (five "Ensign" teams) broke through the 25 baptism per month barrier and led the mission to over a thousand convert baptisms: 1,018. Now there was no doubt. We knew it was possible for missions to bring in thousands.

            The changes which followed also contributed to the "breakthroughs," but it was the "Ensign" teams that led the way in developing and implementing these, as well.

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