What Type of People Volunteer to Serve a Mission?

 

I never realized how awesome senior missionaries are! Greg and I just spent two weeks at the MTC in Provo, Utah for training. I was able to visit with dozens of missionaries throughout the day.  Everyone had a unique story of how they came to serve a mission, and why they wanted to serve at their own expense for up to two years.

The 147 senior missionaries we met at the MTC were from a diverse and vast background. A few had just joined the church five years ago and wanted to serve while others have been members their whole lives. Some had never traveled far from home while others had traveled the world over. One couple in their forties, retired early to serve while others were in their eighties. All are willing to volunteer up to two years of their life, leave their grandchildren, and venture out into the world to give service.

Many senior missionaries are professionals with advanced college degrees, others with impressive resumes; some are business owners, or corporate executives. A few were ranchers, farmers and other blue collar workers. Some women never worked outside their homes. At least one couple decided to retire early and a few couples took a sabbatical to serve a mission. There were widows who desired to serve solo.

A common story I heard was the couple sold their home and claimed to be “homeless” and when they return they would decide where they would choose to live. Many sold their vehicles or gave it to their children. Several couples we met had served a senior mission prior and were going back out for their second or third full-time mission. But for most couples it was their first opportunity to go on a senior mission together.

One couple is assigned to Kazakhstan where they will be around very few members of the church in a Muslim country. Two couples were serving in United Arab Emirates where they are not allowed to wear a church name badge. A retired National Park Ranger and his wife were being sent to Amman, Jordon to do humanitarian work with thousands of refugees in the country. An engineer was going to India to help provide water wells for those in drought prone areas.

Everyone I met talked of grandchildren and how hard it was to leave them behind. But when asked why they decided to serve a mission, one couple joked “to get out of free babysitting”. Most couples expressed the desire to serve those in need and they admitted they were so richly blessed and this was their way to give back their time, talents, and abilities. Now isn’t that the way Christ would have us be?

“Let all your things be done with charity.” 1 Corinthians 16:14