Comments on: “Seniority of Elders”

By: The Other Clark

The Other Clark — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:04:33 +0000

On a serious note, I agree with #3 and #8 that co-seniors and mutual consent companionships didn’ work in my mission, primarily because of the immaturity of those involved (especially me!)

I suspect that in 1926, when it was not uncommon for a married man in his 30s to play greenie to some much younger, fresh-faced single guy, the potential for tension was much higher.

By: The Other Clark

The Other Clark — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:01:51 +0000

that is to say he stands first – the first among equals. This is in harmony with the spirit of our Church organisation… [He] will speak and report for himself and associates on matters pertaining to all of them as a unit.

I think we finally have a definition of what it really means to be presiderer.

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:15:47 +0000

The mission I served in had very clearly delineated senior and junior companion roles, which for the most part seemed to work well without anyone exercising unrighteous dominion. Each transfer letter indicated who was to serve in which capacity, and length of service in the field didn’t always guarantee seniority. Training meant you were senior, of course, but there was also a curious policy of having “co-senior companions”, particularly where both missionaries in the companionship had served relatively similar lengths of time in the field and weren’t too wet behind the ears. It was unofficially known as being “co-junior”, as sometimes neither missionaries would be willing to make the decisions. It only proved that having insisted on defining companions as “senior” or “junior”, any variation from that was pretty pointless!

By: IDIAT

IDIAT — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:33:07 +0000

Senior/Junior was a distinction on my mission, but I’m not aware of any real control freaks. I went straight from Junior to DL, never was entrusted with a “greenie.” Most companionships were encouraged to work together and in a unified manner, but in general senior companions tended to be missionaries who had been in the field longer than their junior companion. I was fairly easy going, and for a while, got put with “difficult” missionaries, or so I was told. Taught me how to grin and bear craziness, but also to look for people’s redeeming qualities.

By: Coffinberry

Coffinberry — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:08:43 +0000

Timely, Ardis.

My #3 son should have arrived in “the mission field” today, and no doubt is assigned as junior companion (or at least trainee to his more experienced trainer). I hope he gets a great senior.

By: lindberg

lindberg — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:37:03 +0000

In my mission “junior” and “senior” seemed to be determined solely by seniority. I recall it was just kind of assumed — I don’t remember any specific junior/senior assignments from the APs or anything. Other than my trainer (who clearly felt he was the one in charge and was a bit put out having to deal with a clueless and overzealous bean), I recall that we mostly worked together as teams without any particular power dynamics. I hope my “juniors” would agree.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:15:21 +0000

We did not really have senior companions in my mission in Germany; that is, the transfer letter specified only “companion,” not junior or senior. In practice, the one who had been in the city longest usually took the role of senior, though in all my companionships it was pretty relaxed. I never (even by my trainer) felt ruled over by an older missionary. In fact, if anything, I was far harsher with my trainer than he was with me, owing to my own pride and unrealistic expectations.

By: Grant

Grant — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:13:18 +0000

becoming senior didn’t mean much for me as my fist junior informed me in no uncertain terms that in the mission from which he had been transferred (while waiting for visa) the president did not have sr. or jr. companions but everything was done by mutual consent effectively giving him a veto over everything I proposed. Since he was an angrier kind of guy than I was, I just went along with whatever he wanted so he wouldn’t yell at me so much.

By: Bruce Crow

Bruce Crow — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:25:04 +0000

Being senior meant I could end our useless “finding activity” with enough time to walk the five blocks to our next appointment and not have to pay for a taxi ride in order to make it on time.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:24:01 +0000

It was a grim day in April 1974 when I learned of my transfer to a new branch, to serve as a junior companion to Elder B_____, whose reputation was already known throughout the mission.

And he did not disappoint–the reports about him were, unfortunately, all too true. But I decided that I could endure it for the month until surely he’d be transferred onward and I’d become a senior companion. Of course, he wasn’t transferred, I remained his companion for another month–which was the longest month of my mission.

Of course, having learned from that experience, I was a terrific senior companion.

And here’s the proof: about a month into my new junior’s mission (he was a greenie when we became companions in June), after he had dropped about 25 pounds of baby fat, the ZL came to me one day and said “Butler-choro, I don’t care what you eat. I don’t care if you never eat. But you gotta make sure your companion gets enough to eat. He says he’s starving to death.”