After being baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during his freshman year of college, Robbie Bosco remembers his head coach, LaVell Edwards, placing his hands on his head and pronouncing a priesthood blessing.
“In the blessing, he mentioned that football would not be the most important thing in my life,” Bosco recalled. “And I was a little bit frazzled by that because I was like, ‘What do you mean? Football is the most important thing in my life.’”
That blessing from his late coach has turned out to be prophetic.
“As I’ve grown older, it is so true,” Bosco said. “Football wasn’t the most important thing in my life, and it never will be.”
He said the things he is most grateful for are his family, his testimony and being sealed to his wife, Karen, in the Salt Lake Temple.
Just a few months ago, Robbie and Karen met with Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They received an unexpected call to serve as mission leaders in the Ohio Columbus Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They will preside over approximately 200 full-time missionaries.
“Everyone at work is telling me I better not become an Ohio State fan,” Robbie said. “We will continue to be 'True Blue,' but we will definitely love the people of Ohio, no matter where they’re at. We will be fans of everything in Ohio, for sure.”
Immediately after receiving the call, both Robbie and Karen felt overwhelmed and experienced similar feelings of inadequacy, followed by a realization that God would help them.
“I started thinking of reasons why we wouldn’t be able to do it,” Karen said. “But everything I thought of, I realized that in the last five years, the Lord has taken care of that.”
For Karen, some of those things included important dental work and overcoming a fear of driving — something she has learned she will need to do often in Ohio to allow Robbie to respond to hundreds of emails from missionaries each week.
“My thoughts were, ‘Are you sure we can do this?’” Robbie said. “I think those thoughts lasted a day or two, and then we just realized, ‘The Lord has us.’”
Robbie recently had both knees replaced and served as a bishop in a young single adult congregation — two experiences they now believe helped prepare them for their new roles.
“Going through the training process, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so loved and so seen by my Heavenly Father,” Karen said. “He’s giving us these opportunities that I think we desire, but we would never take the time to do because they sound so hard.”
Another way this call has felt “tailor-made” is the presence of three temples within the boundaries of their mission.
“We love the temple,” they said. “When our missionaries return home, we want them to love it as much as we do.”
As mission leaders, they hope to establish a culture built on hard work, obedience, diligence and helping others come closer to Jesus Christ.
“When you start to think about everything according to the purpose of bringing people unto Christ, you realize that should be the culture of your life,” Karen said.
Growing up in Roseville, California, Robbie attended church a few times a year because his mother was a member, but he was not baptized until his second semester at BYU.
“I look at my conversion story more as a process. It wasn’t anything overnight,” he said. He believes God led him to BYU to play football so he could be surrounded by people who would help strengthen his testimony.
Because of everything going on at the time, Robbie did not serve a mission as a young adult, while Karen served a mission in Finland. Robbie said Karen’s mission experience, along with her knowledge of the gospel, will be one of her greatest strengths as a mission leader.
Karen believes Robbie’s path will also be an advantage.
“I think it’s going to be to his advantage that he didn’t serve a mission,” she said.
She said his lack of preconceived ideas about what a mission president should be like could help him better follow spiritual promptings.
“He can be the mission leader that Heavenly Father wants him to be because he will be listening to the Spirit and because he doesn’t have a framework for it yet,” she said. "With those two different points of view, we should make a good team to help the missionaries."
Now, instead of being part of a team trying to score touchdowns, his team will focus on helping others build testimonies of Jesus Christ.
If there’s one thing the former national championship quarterback knows about Jesus Christ, it’s that he wouldn’t be able to fulfill this assignment without Him.
“I don’t think we could do it without Him,” Bosco said. “He’s our support. He’s who gives us hope. He’s the one who has given us the opportunity to return to our Heavenly Father. I honestly believe that if we had an assignment like this that wasn’t gospel-related, it would be almost too much to overcome.”
Fortunately for the Boscos, their support extends beyond themselves.
“I know both our testimonies are strong. I know our faith is strong. I know our family loves us, and our kids and grandkids are going to support us. We have nothing to fear,” he said. “And I know my mom’s up in heaven, and she’s still doing cartwheels, I’m sure.”