Some Reflections from a Co-Junior Senior Missionary

A few months into our time serving in the France Paris Mission, Delys pulled up the mission roster listing all the missionary companionships, their locations, their assignments (Sister Training Leaders, Zone Leaders, District Leaders, Office Elders, and so forth), and their individual status as junior or senior companion. Usually, the more experienced missionary is designated the senior and the less experienced missionary the junior.

When I served in the France-Belgium Mission from March 1972 to March 1974, it was a very big deal to “go senior” because, in those days, the senior companion ran the show, while the junior companion was considered a sidekick, like Tonto to the Lone Ranger or Robin to Batman. The junior companion was subject to pranks of various kinds, especially during the first few months, and relegated mostly to keeping the daily door-to-door tracting records.

When the companionship had a productive week and achieved some success, it was the senior companion who received the credit because, well, the junior companion was only following orders. I had one senior companion even tell me I should always ride my bike behind his because the Spirit would communicate any itinerary changes only through him. I refused, of course. It was as if the real mission didn’t truly begin until a junior companion was promoted to senior companion, which usually happened around the one-year mark.

             So, it was a tremendous shock when Delys informed me that we were listed on the mission roster as “co-junior senior missionaries.” I confronted President Munns face-to-face regarding this disrespectful travesty at the first opportunity because I had already earned “senior companion” in France half a century ago. He shrugged and said, “I know, I know, but it’s the only thing the computer program will let us do.” Then he tried to convince me that senior missionaries are, by definition, already “senior companions,” but that argument still seems a little weak to me.

Nevertheless, after much reflection, I’ve decided to drop the issue entirely. If I forced President Munns to promote one of us to senior companion, he (being very honest and ethical despite also being an attorney) would have to promote Delys. That’s certainly what I would do in his place. So, I’ll happily remain a co-junior senior missionary with my wonderful co-junior companion until it’s time to return home.

P.S. As a young missionary, I went senior two months before the rest of my group, but I got a junior companion who was as feisty as I had been. That’s karma (and an inspired mission president) for you. We served four cold winter months together in St. Quentin before getting paroled (I meant “transferred”) because it took us two months to figure out how to work together humbly and effectively without worrying about who was senior and who was junior.