Southwest Indian Mission

Southwest Indian Mission

Here are free resources about the Southwest Indian Mission:

Southwest Indian Mission Address

Here’s a recent address for the Southwest Indian Mission. We try to keep this information up to date, but it’s a good idea to check the mission address with several sources, including your mission packet or the mission office.

This mission does not currently exist.

Phone Number: N/A
Mission President: N/A

Southwest Indian Mission Map

Here’s a link to the mission map for the Southwest Indian Mission (LDS). To access the official, up-to-date LDS.org map for the Southwest Indian Mission

*Mission does not currently exist. (Browse LDS.org mission maps)

Videos with Southwest Indian RMs

Here are in-depth YouTube video interviews with returned missionaries from the Southwest Indian Mission.  We interview hundreds of returned missionaries each year, so check back regularly to see new RM interviews. Coming soon..

LDS-Friendly Videos about Arizona

Here are LDS-friendly educational videos about Arizona. We scoured YouTube to find the best quality videos about Arizona, that are free from inappropriate music, immodesty and profanity.

LDS Church  food  nature  time lapses

Videos about New Mexico

Here are LDS-friendly educational videos about New Mexico. We scoured YouTube to find the best quality videos about New Mexico, that are free from inappropriate music, immodesty and profanity.

LDS Church and Missionary Work  places  history  nature  mission calls  time lapses

Southwest Indian Missionary Blogs

Here’s a list of LDS missionary blogs for the Southwest Indian Mission. This blog list includes the missionary’s name, URL and when their mission blog was updated.

*Send your missionary a gift (mission-specific shirts, ties, Christmas stockings/ornaments, pillowcases, etc.)

none found yet

Southwest Indian Mission Groups

Here are Southwest Indian Mission Groups- for LDS missionary moms, returned missionaries, mission presidents and other alumni of the mission.

  1. Southwest Indian Mission Group (84 members)
  2. SWIM Southwest Indian Mission Group (4 members)

Southwest Indian Mission T-Shirts

Here are T-shirts for the Southwest Indian Mission!

Shirt designs include Southwest Indian Mission logo/emblem shirts and Called to Serve shirts. The shirts make great gifts for pre-missionaries, returned missionaries and missionaries currently serving. LDS Mission shirts come in all sizes: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, up to 4XL.  The mission designs are printed on white shirts and are shipped to you.

*Simply click on a shirt design to view the details and submit an order. The designs on mission t-shirts may also be printed on other LDS mission gifts, including: Southwest Indian missionary aprons, Christmas stockings, ties, pillow cases, teddy bears and Christmas ornaments.

*Click here to browse LDS mission gifts

Southwest Indian Mission Presidents

Here’s a list of current and past Mission Presidents of the Southwest Indian LDS Mission.

  1. George Patrick Lee (Arizona Holbrook Mission)

Arizona/New Mexico LDS Statistics (2016)

  • Church Membership: 418,959 (Arizona), 69,896 (New Mexico)
  • Missions: 6 (Arizona), 2 (New Mexico)
  • Temples: 5 (Arizona), 1 (New Mexico)
  • Congregations: 857 (Arizona), 146 (New Mexico)
  • Family History Centers: 71 (Arizona), 30 (New Mexico)

Helpful Articles about

Coming soon..

Southwest Indian Missionary Survey

Here are survey responses from Southwest Indian RMs, to give you a snapshot into what it’s like to live in the mission.

*Click here to take a survey to help pre-missionaries going to your mission.

When did you serve?

  • 1969-1971 (Lynn)
  • September 1966-September 1968 (Jacob)
  • January 1964 – January 1966 (Sterling)
  • 1964-1966 (Jacky)
  • 1962-1964 (Carl)

What areas did you serve in?

  • Ajo AZ, Tucson AZ, Marana AZ..Holbrook AZ..traveled most of the mission serving with the president..for over 15 months of of my mission..so everywhere..as well.. (Lynn)

What were some favorite foods?

  • Fry Bread and Piki Breads and I even liked Mutton. (Lynn)
  • Frybread… That’s pretty much it. Oh, and I learned to love good, authentic Mexican food, especially sopapillas. (Jacob)
  • Fry bread. (Sterling)

What was a funny experience?

  • I served in the Mission Office for a period and one time..the Mission President family horse got lost in the night..and ran down the highway to the small town of Holbrook..got called by the local police that our horse was loose and could we come and get it..we drove the old mission Dodge pickup downtown and tied a rope to the halter and drove it back to the pen behind the Mission Home..also..lots of dive bombing the Elders with the Mission President as we flew to the remote parts of the mission..dropping rocks with messages rubber banded on them as we gave them transfer instructions..landing on dirt roads and shutting off the engine and rolling up to their quiet trailer or hogan and hitting the switch and roaring them out of their beds early in the morning..when they thought they could sleep in past missionary time start the day..and nobody would know! (Lynn)
  • Watching the local (Shiprock) high school students react to our Polynesian Elders’ performance for their high school Homecoming Dance entertainment. (Jacob)
  • The way Navajo Points. (Sterling)

What was a crazy experience?

  • Used to fly in President Tingey’s small Cessna and was asked to fly with his partner in the plane from Holbrook AZ to Monticello and be dropped off to drive some Indian Leaders to Conference..President Tingey was meeting us there with a car..Took off and got too high to keep visual and ended up on the wrong side of the mountain and ran out of gas..had to land on a bumpy wash road at an old trading post..landing was bad with wings tipping back and forth in the sage brush..finally stopped..walked to the trading post and got some gas in a can and called President on the Motorola radio to the airport where he we was waiting..finally took off and got there..and he laughed about it..Me..not so much..awfully quiet when a small planes engine stops and you are coasting into a rough landing..all worked out well and the three of us in the plane did a lot of silent praying!..Pilot was going to fly over the mountain..I said..NO..we are flying low and following the road around it so if we need to land again we have a real road to land on! (Lynn)
  • Spending the night once in our district leader’s trailer in 2nd Mesa (Hopi Reservation) while the villagers were conducting some sort of a tribal ceremony that, supposedly, included “Skin-walkers”. (Jacob)
  • Dust storms, snakes, snow, liquor drinking by my Lamanite brothers. (Sterling)

What was a spiritual experience?

  • I had many but one..while serving with the Mission President..I was blessed to drive Elder LeGrand Richards of the 12 when he visited the mission..from one Zone conference to another..he had been a Secretary to the Mission President as well..and we talked about the difference between him taking short hand and me small recorder and typing..and praying with him in the mornings before we drove from one place to another..often several hours in the car together..then we flew in the small plane again with President Tingey flying and I would point out things below..he finally said to me..”Elder..I can’t see outside this plane..so you might as well quit pointing things out”.. (Lynn)
  • While working in Indian Wells, the trader’s “nanny” received 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her face, neck and upper chest area (she had been leaning over the kitchen stove to light it). While she was in the hospital, we gave her a blessing, and about a week later she returned home – fully recovered. (Jacob)
  • The old folks were very spiritual. Love teaching the school children every week in the borden schools. (Sterling)

What are some interesting facts about the Southwest Indian Mission?

  • Mission does not exist as it was then..boundaries have changed and at the time we went..we were Called to Serve only the Lamanites..we did not teach others..unless they were part of the families..now it is split up into other missions and all missionaries can teach anyone..we had headquarters in Holbrook, AZ on Route 66..now the mission is called the Arizona Mission.. (Lynn)
  • Us Polynesians and our Lamanite brothers and sisters have a lot of the same concepts of life. Example: Mother Earth. Us Hawaiians call this “Malama”. Respect and take care of Mother Earth and Mother Earth will take care of you. One of many principles of life I found very compatible to what we as Hawaiians or Polynesians or us Lamanites come from the same cloth of life. We are of the House of Israel or more specifically one of the tribes or the House of Joseph. The fact that we Polynesians were called to go among our people to serve was the promise made in The Book of Mormon. (Sterling)

What was the weather like?

  • Mostly mild with high desert winters..cool to cold and some snow and HOT desert summers..but moderate when the breeze came..some Elders in the South of Arizona got real hot..my first area was AJO, AZ a Copper Mining town near the border of Mexico..we taught the Papago Indians..Mission covered the four corners area, so temperatures varied both summer and winter.. (Lynn)
  • Typical Northern Arizona, New Mexico, high-desert plateau weather. (Jacob)

Any things you really like about the area/people?

  • Mild mannered people with much softness of heart and spiritual in their own way..quiet places to contemplate and enjoy the vastness of the desert. (Lynn)
  • For a guy who grew up in the East (Washington, D.C., metropolitan Maryland, and a little bit of North Carolina — the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont region), the Southwest was as foreign to me as the moon, but I grew to love it! The Navajo people were a genuinely caring and discerning people! (Jacob)

Any packing/clothing advice?

  • Seasonal from lows to highs..light duty clothes that can be washed and little ironing as there aren’t many dry cleaners on the reservations..lots of different areas to serve with lots of different clothing requirements..from cities like Mesa and Phoenix to small dusty and often dirty small villages and dirt roads..good serviceable pants and short sleeve wash n wear and shoes that can go to church and walk in the dirt! (Lynn)

What blessings did you receive from serving a mission?

  • I suppose the usual and yet not so usual..grow spiritually, socially…find a new love for others..stretch and learn how to serve and not be served..simplicity of the Gospel..good life does not need things, but people and service.. (Lynn)
  • Too numerous to enumerate or speak about. It was an experience I will always treasure! (Jacob)

What are some skills you gained?

  • To lead and speak in meetings..and how to follow and be humble.. (Lynn)
  • Teaching Primary at the boarding schools. I enjoyed it so much that when I returned home, I graduated from University of Maryland with a Teaching Certificate and taught public school for 30 years in Maryland before I retired. (Jacob)

What do you wish you knew/did at the beginning of your mission?

  • Come better prepared in knowledge of The Book of Mormon and that all righteous things were and are possible if you pray about it, and you will find a way.. (Lynn)
  • The Navajo language. (Jacob)

Any advice/testimony for pre-missionaries going to the Southwest Indian Mission?

  • Serving among the Laminates in any mission is a blessing..be patient and don’t try to change someones life to match what you think it should be..be tolerant of others traditions and beliefs..pray always and learn to speak from your heart not trying to impress, but to connect. (Lynn)
  • My mission does not exist any more. It was incorporated into the regular Arizona mission, and nobody learns to speak Navajo anymore. (Jacob)

What was a funny language mistake?

  • As an English-speaking Elder I would try and learn a few words from each tribe and impress them when I was with them..often using the wrong word or form of the same and see the instant surprise or laughter..from the children and wise smiles of the Elders who knew the languages ..no MTC in those days to learn Navajo or Hopi or Apache etc..so, you learned it on your mission..most of the 20 plus tribes spoke enough English to get along..Navajos and Hopis used more of their own language and I wished I would have learned more of each.. (Lynn)
  • I made mistakes just about every time I tried to speak it. (Jacob)