Elder Zwick counsels leaders 'to let the Spirit guide them'

PROVO, UTAH — When the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ visited the Nephites and instructed them, the 12 disciples whom the Lord had chosen knelt and prayed to the Father in the name of Jesus for "that which they most desired" (see 3 Nephi 19:9).

Elder W. Craig Zwick finds it striking that of all the things they could have prayed for on that occasion, "they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them."

Elder Zwick of the Seventy was a speaker Jan. 11 at the Provo Missionary Training Center for the three-day Seminar for New Missionary Training Center Presidents and Visitors' Center Directors.

Another presentation from the seminar is reported on page 6. Other proceedings from the seminar have been covered in the Jan. 7 and Jan. 14 editions of the Church News. Elder Zwick spoke to the 21 departing couples at the seminar on "the power of the Spirit in conversion."

He told of being in Guatemala not long ago and observing how the people of the city of San Cristobal greeted one another in their native Mayan language at a Church gathering. It translates to "How is your heart?"

"It's an invitation to say how you really feel," he remarked. "Is the Spirit part of what you're about to experience here?"

He counseled the new leaders to let the Spirit guide them in asking good questions of the missionaries who will be in their charge.

He told of being a mission president in Santiago, Chile, and interviewing a new missionary who spent much of his life on a fishing vessel. His grandmother had met LDS missionaries and wanted him to listen to them so they both could embrace the gospel. The young man was apprehensive and wouldn't look at President Zwick. At one point in the interview, he pulled a loaded revolver from his pocket and asked if he could carry it with him for the assurance it would give that he would not have problems with companions.

President Zwick persuaded him to give him the revolver and sent him on his way with his new missionary companion.

"I watched him progress and grow," he said. "He became a great leader in the mission."

At the final interview he told the missionary, "You are amazing. You have really progressed and grown." The missionary looked President Zwick in the eye and said, "President, you've grown a lot, too."

"How far he had come!" Elder Zwick said. "How far he had developed, all because the Spirit distilled upon him and brought to a level of trust, confidence and understanding."