An AP is shorthand for assistant to the pprogramresident, a role historically reserved for the most athletic, most popular, but not necessarily most obedient male missionaries within the mission.

I learned that at least one mission has started calling sisters as "Sister APs."

Anyone know if this is widespread? Or is this a pilot program? Perhaps an aberration of a mission president?

On a different note, how do you think this is being received by the sisters and the elders? I would think this might bother some elders, who might view it as an encroachment on their territory.

I have a hard time imagining a mission giving the sister mishies power of any sort. If they do, it must only be over other sisters.

Should say president, not to mention other errors.

I forget what they were called. They were not APs, but they did have a sort of prestige to them. We got newsletters from them, and they were often at zone conference where they would give talks.

My wife has told me she was an AP while on her mission in Chile in the late 90's. Maybe it wasn't an official title and was just a role she filled unofficially?

In my mission (Ireland, '96-'98) the MP experimented with sister AP's for a while. They weren't given any authority, exactly. Rather, they were just traveling exhorters used to preach to the other sister missionaries.

I've heard of this before. It's not very common but it can be done, I think it depends on the individual mission presidents. Most of them aren't progressive enough to do this sort of thing but there are a few. From what I understand when sisters are called as "AP" it's more in the capacity of a secretary or personal assistant to the president but they have no authority over other missionaries. Sometimes sisters will be called as assistants to the mission president's wife too, or so I have heard.

I had a roommate at BYU that had served as a District Leader on her mission in the Philipines. She was there in the late 90s, I forget which mission, Cebu I think. She was only over other sister missionaries though and she could not conduct the baptismal interviews which is traditionally a District Leader's responsibility. Because she didn't hold the PH she could not do the interviews. She was just basically in charge of the other sisters, keeping track of their numbers, giving training lessons and interviewing them (I think she interviewed the sisters but I could be wrong on that part). In other words, she had no real authority.

We had sister districts and sister DLs in Germany in the late 70s. We quite unusual at the time.

If SLC gets word about this the practice will likely be brought to a quick halt.

Way back when, in the 70s, when the women's movement was raising people's consciousness, some progressive bishops started allowing women to stand in the circles when babies were blessed and some women were called to be in what were then called Sunday School Superintendencies. (Now it's Sunday School Presidents.) Once Salt Lake got wind of it, they quickly closed both practices down.

If SLC is aware of this and is giving their approval, then there is likely some special and lower-status calling that they are allowing. If mission presidents are doing this on their own, then SLC will undoubtedly put a stop to it.

(And as an aside, regarding Sunday School Superintendents, I have a relative whose non-LDS husband was once the SS Superintendent in their ward. That was probably in the 50s or 60s. That would not happen today. Ward leaders back then, before Correlation, had quite a bit more leeway in things like that.)