Do These Five Things First

• Get the missionaries' numbers and text them today. ↗ send that text — "Hey, I'm [name], just called as Ward Mission Leader. Looking forward to working with you. When's a good time to meet this week?" That's it. Don't overthink it.
• Get on the bishop's calendar for 15 minutes. church calendar ↗ You need to know: who's his counselor over missionary work, does the ward already have a coordination meeting, and what does he want from you.
• Ask the missionaries if there's already a weekly coordination meeting. If yes, find out when and show up. If no, that's the first thing you set up — pick a time after sacrament meeting that works for everyone.
• Find out if there's a ward mission coordinator — some wards have a member of the high priests or elders quorum in this support role. If so, loop them in immediately. They're your partner.
• Get a list of who has been fellowshipping the missionaries' friends (or ask the missionaries). Even just two or three families. Add them to your fellowship list ↓ These are your most important contacts.

What You Actually Are

You are the bridge between the full-time missionaries and the ward. Not their boss. Not a program manager. A bridge.

The missionaries find people and teach them. Your job is to make sure those people — the missionaries' friends, as the Church now calls them — have a warm place to land in the ward. Real friendships, a seat on Sunday, a family to have dinner with. Missionary discussions convert minds. Ward fellowship converts lives.

You're also the missionary advocate in Ward Council. When the bishop asks what the ward needs to do to support missionary work, that's your voice.

What You Don't Do

• You don't do the missionaries' work for them
• You don't run every activity or every fellowship visit yourself
• You don't manage the missionaries' schedule or tell them where to go
• You don't need to be the most outgoing person in the room — you just need to be reliable

What You Do Every Day

This takes about five minutes.

What Happens Every Week

What Happens Every Month

Key Relationships

Who's on the Group Text

You probably need two separate threads:

Missionary Coordination Thread

• You (WML)
• Full-time missionaries (both companions)
• Bishop's counselor over missionary work (or the bishop directly, depending on preference)
• Ward mission coordinator, if your ward has one

This is your operational thread. Scheduling, quick updates, "someone visited church today and their name is __." Keep it focused.

Fellowship Family Thread(s)

• You + specific families as needed
• You might have one general thread if your fellowship network is small, or individual threads per family

Don't mix fellowship families into the missionary coordination thread. They have different roles and different levels of involvement.

What Is the Missionary Coordination Meeting?

It's a weekly sit-down with the missionaries, usually right after sacrament meeting (20–30 minutes). This is the most important thing you do every week. If nothing else on this page happens, this happens.

Who Attends

• You
• The full-time missionaries
• The bishop's counselor over missionary work (or bishop if he wants to come)
• Ward mission coordinator if you have one

Start With Names — Not an Agenda

Don't open with a checklist. Open with names. Ask the missionaries: "Who are you working with right now?" Go through each person. Say their name out loud. Ask what's happening in their life. What do they need this week — not from the lessons, from the ward?

When you start with names, the Spirit can prompt. You might realize halfway through a name that you know exactly who in the ward needs to meet that person. The agenda builds itself from the names. An agenda that starts with programs will never get to the person hiding inside them.

What Comes Out of the Names

1. What does this person need from the ward this week? A home to visit, someone to sit with at church, a meal, a ride, a specific introduction.
2. Is anyone coming to church this Sunday? If yes — who's going to greet them, sit with them, make sure they don't walk out feeling invisible?
3. Any upcoming lessons where a member's presence would help?
4. Anything from last week that still needs follow-through?

What You Do After

Same day: send any texts or make any calls that came out of the meeting. Don't let it wait. The whole point of the meeting is to produce action. If you leave and nothing happens until next Sunday, the meeting was a planning exercise, not a coordination meeting.

What They Are and How to Build the Network

A fellowship family is a ward member or family who is willing to open their home and their friendship to people who are meeting with the missionaries. That's it. They don't need to be scriptorians. They don't need to give a lesson. They just need to be genuinely warm and not weird about it.

What to Look For

• They've done it before and didn't have to be convinced
• They can be around people who aren't members without making it awkward
• They follow up on their own — they don't wait for you to assign them
• They understand that their job is friendship, not conversion

How to Build the List

• Start by asking the missionaries: "Who are the families you call when you need a home to visit?" Write those names down.
• Ask the EQ and RS presidents: "Who in the quorum/relief society would be great at this?"
• Invite people directly. Most people who'd be great at this are just waiting to be asked. "We need families who can be a warm presence for people the missionaries are working with. I think you'd be great at it. Would you be willing to be one of our go-to families?"

How to Use Them Without Burning Them Out

• Don't call the same family every week
• Rotate. Build a list of 5–8 families so no one carries too much
• Thank them specifically, not generically
• Check in monthly even when you don't need anything

What You Bring to Ward Council

Ward Council is where the bishop coordinates the whole ward. You represent missionary work at that table. Your job is not to give a status report — it's to bring specific needs and make specific requests.

What Works

• "The Smiths are coming to church for the first time this Sunday. Can the EQ president make sure someone sits with Brother Smith?"
• "Maria has been coming for a few weeks but she doesn't know anyone her age yet. Does anyone know a sister in her 30s who could reach out?"
• "The missionaries have a family they're working with who speaks Spanish. Who in the ward can help with that?"

What Doesn't Work

• "We need the ward to be more missionary-minded." (Too vague. Nobody knows what to do with it.)
• Long updates about the missionary program in general
• Asking for volunteers without a specific task and timeline

One or two names with a specific ask. Every time. The ward council will learn to expect it from you and it will become productive.

How to Magnify This Calling

The basics above will make you a solid WML. Here's what separates a solid WML from an exceptional one:

• Lead with names, always. Know every friend's name — not just the ones close to baptism. When you open a meeting, a prayer, or a conversation with a name rather than an agenda item, you invite the Spirit to work differently. The agenda builds itself from the names. President Packer and Elder Renlund both taught it plainly: no program is more important than any person.
• Own the transfer transitions. The missionaries will forget to brief you on everything. You ask. You get the notes. You make sure momentum doesn't reset. You are the institutional memory of the missionary work in this ward — not the missionaries.
• Act on Sunday visitors the same day. Text a ward member before you leave the parking lot. "Hey — a family came today, [name]. They live on your street. Any chance you could reach out this week?" You have maybe 72 hours before the moment is gone.
• Build the culture, not just the activity. The goal isn't more events — it's that ward members naturally think to invite their neighbors, naturally welcome newcomers, naturally tell the missionaries when something's happening. You build that by modeling it and celebrating it publicly when it happens.
• Don't be the bottleneck. The worst version of this calling is where everything flows through you and stops when you're unavailable. Build relationships between ward members and missionaries directly. Your job is to start those connections, not to be the middleman for every one.