His mission defined every aspect of his life
When Cedar City, Utah, native Elder Kent D. Watson received his mission call in 1963 to the Southern Far East Mission, he thought he had been called to serve in Florida.
"I was raised in a small town in the 1950s," he said. "The first time I rode on a jet airplane was when I went on my mission."
Yet that call to the most unexpected place defined his life. There he would become proficient in the Chinese language. It would set in motion a career path that would climax with Elder Watson serving as chief executive officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers China, a major international accounting firm. And through a missionary companion, Elder Watson would meet his wife, Connie. Together they returned to his former mission, where he served first as a mission president, then interim mission president in Taiwan.
In total, he would spent 17 years of his life in Asia.
Now he will return to Asia again, this time as a General Authority serving in the Second Quorum of Seventy.
"I owe everything to my mission," he said. "It was on my mission that I really strengthened my conviction as to the truthfulness of the gospel.... It was because of my mission that I decided to study accounting, which is a profession that I enjoyed, and had the opportunity to live in several cities and work for several major industrial companies. It was because of my mission that I had the opportunity to serve again as a mission president. Also, it was as a result of my mission that the capstone of my career was helping to establish my (accounting) firm in the People's Republic of China."
Elder Watson said an important moment in his life came during an interview in the mission field by then-Elder Gordon B. Hinckley. "In the interview, he advised me to continue to study Chinese, which I tried to do for the next 40 years."
Sister Watson said her husband still studies Chinese every single day. "That is how he became so fluent; it is his hobby. He loves it."
The passion for Chinese was something a young Kent Watson could not have imagined before his mission call.
The third child of L. Dee and Joyce Judd Watson, Elder Watson spent his first 20 years in Cedar City, a small town in central Utah. "I was born to wonderful parents," he said. "They taught me the gospel when I was a young boy and I have always been a believer. I had three awesome brothers and one sister."
Really, he said, he lived "just a regular childhood."
After high school graduation, he attended the College of Southern Utah before entering the mission field.
In the early 1960s, the Southern Far East Mission included Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines. Elder Watson spent two and a half years in Taiwan.
The Church was young in Taiwan, which then had 13 little branches that met in rented facilities with missionaries serving in priesthood leadership positions.
Twenty years later when the Watsons returned to Taiwan — this time so he could serve as president of the Taiwan Taichung Mission from 1989-1992 — Elder Watson could not believe how the work of early missionaries like himself had taken root and grown. When he returned as mission president, there were two missions in Taiwan, all the major cities had beautiful LDS meetinghouses and local leadership. The Taipei Taiwan Temple had been dedicated in 1984.
When the Watsons returned again to Taiwan in 2003, so he could serve as an interim mission president, they found the Church had continued to grow and thrive in the country. Now there were second- and third-generation Church members, beautiful stake centers and many more cities with LDS meetinghouses. More important, all the leadership in the Church, including the Area Seventies, were local members, he said.
"The biggest blessings in our lives have come from having the privilege of knowing and serving with members throughout the world, but specifically in Asia," he said. "The story is one of the stone rolling, how the Church is expanding, and my testimony as to the Lord's blessings in that territory."
With his wife, Elder Watson said he has enjoyed serving in the Church in many locations and raising their family in several different cities globally. "That is sort of the face of our family."
Born in Coleville, Utah, Sister Watson, the daughter of Raymond and Wilma Lingmann, also could not have imagined spending so much of her life outside the United States. "I have had many wonderful years as a companion, mother, homemaker, corporate wife and family relocation manager," she said. "That is, honestly, what I have been doing for 40 years. We moved and we moved all the time."
In fact, she said, the family moved so much that all five of the Watson children graduated from different high schools. As a result, however, the family communicates worldwide very easily.
A blessing, they say, as Elder Watson will continue his service in Asia, being assigned as second counselor in the Church's Asia Area Presidency.
"I loved my mission," reiterated Elder Watson. "It was there that I learned to love the Chinese language, people and culture, and I have had a passion for that part of the world ever since."
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