Mitt Romney came from a political family-a father who was a governor and cabinet member, a mother and a brother who ran for office. It’s no surprise, therefore, that he would eventually find himself following the same path.
However, Romney began in the business world. He attended Stanford University and then left to go on a two year volunteer mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in France and found himself, at age 21, thrust into unexpected leadership when the president of the mission had to return to the United States for a while. He and his companion (missionaries work in groups of two, which are assigned by leaders and changed regularly) did more than just maintain the status quo. They developed a new program and increased baptisms to a level that broke records.
After his mission, he married his high school sweetheart, Ann. He transferred to Brigham Young University, owned by his church and graduated from there. He then attended Harvard, where he earned his MBA and his law degree. He managed all of this while taking care of his growing family, which would eventually have five sons.
Romney became a management consultant for Bain and Company, later forming his own company, Bain Capital. After ten years in this company, he decided to tackle politics, beginning with an extremely difficult race against the popular Edward Kennedy. His loss did not deter him. He was asked to rescue the Salt Lake City, Utah Olympics from disaster and corruption, doing so in such a spectacular way he was able to build on this to launch a campaign as governor of Massachusetts. This time he won, despite being a Republican in a Democratic State. At the end of his term, he launched a bid for the presidency, rapidly rising from unknown to one of the front runners. He eventually conceded to John McCain in order to allow the leading delegate-getter to focus on the general election.
Less well-known than Romney’s business and political career is his religious “career.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a lay church. Nearly every member has a church job, always serving without pay, all while caring for families and carrying out careers.
Even though Mitt Romney had a very demanding career and a large family of five boys, he always found time for his church work. He served as a bishop (equivalent to a pastor or minister, overseeing a “ward,” which is a congregation) while continuing his career. During his time as a bishop, a fire destroyed the church building. Many churches offered the use of their building. Bishop Romney, as was his style, looked at the big picture and promptly saw the benefit of having church members meet in all the offered buildings in rotation. Members quickly gained additional respect, love, and understanding for the faiths of the people whose buildings they borrowed. In addition, the members of those religions had an opportunity to meet Mormons and develop new friendships and respect for them as well.
Later he also served as a stake president. A stake is similar to a Catholic diocese, encompassing a number of wards (congregations.) Romney faced serious challenges in leading this stake, because it had many who were very poor and many who were immigrants and didn’t speak English. He decided to create congregations where lessons and talks (sermons) were given in a specific language, so people could learn the gospel in their own language. When the people of a congregation were too new to the church, leadership was brought in from other congregations until the members had the training and experience to lead themselves. Since transportation was often an issue, he found small buildings in their own neighborhoods, even though this meant the congregation was very small. In his time in this position, he learned a great deal about people of many cultures and lifestyles different from his own.
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