Relief Society President in Guatemala Helps Prepare Missionaries for Service

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By Laurie Williams Sowby, Church News

Elizabeth López de Sánchez believes in the power of little things. Of petite stature herself, López has proved to be a great force for good in her calling as Relief Society president of the Antigua Guatemala Stake based in and around the country’s colonial capital in the department (state) of Sacatapequez.

“She’s constantly ministering, all day Sunday and throughout the week,” said Sister Roxanne Probst, who leads the Guatemala Antigua Mission alongside her husband, President Marcus F. Probst. Latin missionaries have sometimes arrived with just one extra set of clothes in a trash bag, Sister Probst noted, but López’s efforts to gather appropriate clothing and other accessories have made a big difference in the number and readiness of missionaries.

Her influence has helped the stake grow its missionary force with the aid of Relief Society presidents in the stake’s eight wards. When she started this project two years ago, López said, there were seven missionaries out from the Antigua stake; there are 42 currently serving.

López shared some of her thoughts and experiences during an interview at the Ciudad Vieja meetinghouse, where she was the first person to be baptized after the building’s dedication in 1994. She and her husband, Juan Carlos Sánchez, a carpenter and joiner, have lived in Ciudad Vieja all their lives, raising their three children who have all chosen to serve missions.

She expressed gratitude for two sister missionaries who didn’t overlook her because she was only 15; she was their only baptism. “The gospel changed my life,” López said, “and I want to help others have it.”

A general authority’s admonition during the pandemic that “we need more missionaries to hasten the work” stuck with her, and she decided to help missionaries get ready to go.

“One of the hardest things for missionaries is resources,” López explained. “As a Relief Society, we gather appropriate missionary clothes, and now we have suitcases,” thanks to quarterly shipments of luggage donated through a foundation in the United States.

The project has helped more than 100 missionaries, including López’s own daughter — who was in the first group and has since returned from Costa Rica — and two sons. One is now serving in the Argentina Bahía Blanca Mission, and another has recently begun serving in the Argentina Salta Mission.

From the stake president, López obtains a list of young people who are planning to go on missions in the next six months and works to help them be prepared. “We can get everything we need for one missionary in one week,” she said. “If they need something, I ask all eight Relief Society presidents.”

Preparation goes beyond clothing and something to carry it in, though. When she hears about free immunizations somewhere, she organizes a bus trip for prospective missionaries and accompanies the group to the clinic. She also accompanies them to the dentist’s or doctor’s office if they need that support.

She celebrates them when they leave and again when they return. In between, López writes a brief message of encouragement to every missionary every week on their social media page. On their birthdays, she makes sure a handwritten letter is delivered to their families, which the families then photograph and send to the missionary. When the missionary returns home, the original letter is there waiting.

And she can tell you without even looking at a list the names and mission assignments of every missionary she’s helped prepare. Of her continuing efforts to support them, López says she simply wants those elders and sisters to know someone at home is aware of their service and cares about them.

Such support was lacking during her own mission, she said. Baptized against her father’s wishes when she was 18, López later served a mission. She remains the sole member of the Church in her family. Her husband was also baptized as a convert; in fact, the two first met at the Ciudad Vieja Ward building. He served a mission to El Salvador, and five months after she returned from hers in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, they were married in the Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.

López said she learned on her mission that “my calling is not for a period of time but forever,” with helping future and current missionaries an important work. Having completed the theoretical part of her program for a degree in legal and social sciences, López has set aside the thesis and practicum for now in order to support her three missionary children financially. She hopes to one day resume her studies and graduate as a lawyer.

Meanwhile, she’ll keep offering a few brief words of encouragement every week, writing a birthday letter, remembering someone’s name and mission, accompanying prospective missionaries to vaccination clinics and helping gather missionary clothing.

“It doesn’t require grand efforts,” she emphasized. “Little things matter.”

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