Faith Matters: Utah couple answers call to lead Latter-day Saints

 

A “sacred responsibility” brought Utah native Michael Smuin to the South.

Smuin is the new president of the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He serves with his wife, Holly. The couple succeeds Louisiana natives and Southern University graduates John Amos and Michelle Amos.

“The members of our church and the people that are not of our faith have been kind and good and gracious,” Smuin said. “We’ve been received very warmly with great love and acceptance. And, of course, you’ve got to love the food. We just feel right at home.”

The Smuins relocated from their home in Vernal, Utah, about three months ago to assume the three-year commitment to lead the mission in Baton Rouge.

The couple left behind four adult children, five grandchildren and his successful dental practice to answer the call to help train more than 200 missionaries for the service of Jesus Christ. Smuin said the mission comprises about 60 churches in most of Louisiana and Mississippi and a portion of Arkansas.

“Throughout our lives, we have made a commitment to when God calls, we go, we respond,” Smuin said. “We wanted to serve because we feel that God wanted us to serve. We wanted to lay everything aside and follow and do what we could.”

The Smuins served for years in several lay positions in their church in Utah. That caught the attention of church leaders, who asked the couple in October to lead the Baton Rouge Mission. They gladly accepted the opportunity to become one of more than 400 couples worldwide serving the church, widely known as the Mormon church, in such a capacity.

“It came as somewhat of a shock to us but humbling because it is quite a sacred responsibility to be helping these missionaries and being a part of work,” he said. “We were humbled, but we felt it was inspired of the Lord, and so we committed that if they needed or wanted us to serve, we in this capacity would do it.”

Smuin, 56, said they had about six months to get affairs in order, including temporarily turning over his 29-year dentistry practice to one of three sons.

The Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission plays a significant role in the church’s efforts to spread the gospel and promote love, service and unity.

As mission president, Smuin's primary responsibility is ministering and working with the missionaries aged 18-21. When out in the community proselytizing, the male missionaries are most recognizable by their white shirts, black pants and name badges, and women by their dresses.

“They work two at a time in a specific area to spread the word. We train them. We make sure they are safe, that they’re healthy, and they’re being diligent in their calling as missionaries,” he said.

Smuin recalls his times serving as a proselytizing missionary as a young adult in the mid-1980s — when he got his first taste of the South. He spent two years in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Coming down here has been really hot. Just absolutely gorgeous. The scenery, the foliage and the green are just amazing. I love the geography of these states,” he said.

Smuin's only other time residing out of Utah was while attending the University of Nebraska Medical College of Dentistry. Prior to that, he attended the College of Eastern Utah — a junior college where he was a pitcher on the baseball team — and the University of Utah.

After dentistry school, he settled into Vernal, where his parents were raised, and has been a fixture in the community since, practicing his dentistry and his faith.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church Smuin and his wife have known.

“It’s been a great blessing to us. We were raised this way,” he said. “The faith that I have in God and Jesus Christ ties intimately with my family. So those are my top priorities: my faith and my family. They mean everything to me.”