Sister Pinnock’s favorite calling, prior to being a full-time missionary, was her calling to be the Laurel President as a young woman in her ward. [Laurels are young women ages 16-18 who have not yet graduated from high school.] Because of the added responsibility for the care of each of the girls in her class, she felt the love of the Lord as she reached out to each young woman so they would all feel included.

When asked why she wanted to serve a mission Sister Pinnock responded, “While in London for study abroad, I was able to share the gospel for the very first time. I received so much joy from doing that. I also had had so many friends who came home from their missions a better person. They knew the gospel better, became stronger as individuals, and learned to serve others better.

“I have felt the same joy I felt in London while sharing my testimony on my mission. Even if the people I meet don’t accept the message, I feel strengthened by sharing my convictions with others. I also feel Heavenly Father’s love stronger than ever before. I know and have felt His love for all people.”

Sister Pinnock shared an experience on her mission where she learned that God was aware of her and her struggles:

“My first week on my mission I felt like I didn’t know anything. I felt that there was a lot expected of me. It broke my heart that something so dear to my heart, the gospel of Jesus Christ, was being rejected. Doors were being slammed in my face. It was hard, and heart breaking. I felt discouraged. I learned for the first time that I had to solely rely on the Lord. Previously, I had always relied on others like family members or friends in times of need. But through prayer, I found out how much I needed Heavenly Father and the Savior, and that missionary work cannot be done without Them. That night after feeling so discouraged, I turned out the lights in our apartment, my companion was already asleep and I cried and expressed everything that was in my heart to Heavenly Father. I prayed to know that I was called on my mission and how I was going to get through it.

“The next day, I was doing my personal scripture study and felt directed to read in Alma 8:15: ‘Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you.’

“It made me realize that despite others rejecting the message, it doesn’t matter because I still have a testimony and that testimony came directly from my Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost. He will guide me and lead me through this mission.

“I learned that it is not just my name on my name tag. I am a representative of Jesus Christ.”

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For more Missionary Monday posts, please click here.

Sister Nai grew up in a Samoan ward in Sydney with about 150 people who regularly attend. Their ward used to meet in a school hall but eventually a meetinghouse was built by the church. They speak both Samoan and English in her home ward.

When asked about how she feels about living a religion whose roots came from across the globe Sister Nai said, “All of my family and friends are first-, second- and third-generation converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, so we cannot say that we have Pioneer ancestors who crossed the plains, but we still feel a connection to the early Church pioneers. The gospel has brought us so many blessings to our lives. None of us have pioneer ancestry but we are so grateful for the people who sacrificed so that the gospel could be brought to us.”

Sister Nai explained that in Australia the Joseph Smith story can feel far removed for some. The fact that over 100 years ago an American boy prayed to know which of all churches was correct and then he was answered by a visitation by God the Father and Jesus Christ can seem distant at times in Australian culture. But after meeting faithful Latter Day Saints, Sister Nai said, the testimony of Joseph Smith becomes more real to people.

Sister Nai explains, “We hold to our values and morals but we aren’t weird. They see us not drinking beer at the summer barbecue and recognize there is something we hold firm to. Meeting us takes away the mystique of the Joseph Smith’s First Vision. Our lives are the testimony of the reality of the Joseph Smith story.”

Sister Nai was one of only two Mormon youth at her high school. “I prayed to Heavenly Father that I could do it all, have the full high school experience and keep my standards. I can see now how Heavenly Father let that happen. He brought certain people into my life that let me live the gospel and take all the opportunities that were available to a Samoan Mormon girl. I was able to participate in the the Youth Round Table in my area. That meant I was able to participate in the development of government initiatives for youth in Australia. We were working on family and youth related issues as well as identity issues up until the time I got my mission call. It was wonderful to learn from this experience that we as youth had that power. Nothing could hold us back.”

When asked about why she decided to serve a mission for the Mormon church Sister Nai replied, “It was an answer to prayer. I was doing it all. Everything that I wanted was happening all at the same time. I was happy but still felt a nagging that there was something else I needed to do. When I received my answer to prayer and found out that serving a Mission was something Heavenly Father wanted me to do I made my plans and it has been a fantastic time.”

Two weeks prior to being interviewed for this portrait, a woman named Adrianne whom Sister Nai was teaching was baptized. She had been investigating the Church for three years. Her husband was already a member of the Church but Adrianne wanted to find out for herself. After three years of study Adrianne said, “This is where I found peace. This is where my relationship with Jesus Christ will be strengthened.” These are the experiences that make missionary life sweet for Sister Nai and others who spend time as missionaries — to see people find the peace and joy of the gospel.

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For more Mormon Women on a Mission posts, please click here.

Juli is a returned missionary who served a full-time mission in the Arequipa, Peru mission in 1982-84. She is 48 years old with two beautiful teenage daughters. Juli says this about her stage of life, “Actually, I wish I could go back to my mission days, they seemed far less stressful and carefree, but I wouldn’t trade having my kids and husband!” Juli loves crafts, and wishes she had more time to do them. Juli also love home decorating, fitness and nutrition, and spending time with her family.

When asked how she prepared for her mission Juli responded. “I did a lot of soul searching and wondering, ‘Am I cut out for this?’ After much prayer and scripture study, I thought, ‘Yes I am!’ I felt a calm reassurance. When I got my mission call, I thought I had to be this perfect person who knew all of the scriptures and be super spiritual. I thought, ‘How am I going to measure up and be able to be a good example and teach these people when I am unsure myself?’ But, when I got to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT, I felt so much at home even though I was thousands of miles away. I felt such a strong bond to the people preparing to serve with me. I had a hunger and need to get out in the mission field. I am that type of person that once I set my mind on something, I go for it whole heartedly and give 100%. That is how I felt about my mission.

“When I got to Peru, I knew I was supposed to be there at that EXACT moment. My mission call came during the Christmas season. My mom was disappointed. She asked if I couldn’t postpone it until after the New Year. I said, ‘Absolutely not!’ I had an undeniable feeling that I should get all of my affairs in order and go on my mission at my appointed time. Actually, if I could have, I would have liked to have gone sooner.”

When Juli was asked what made her decide to serve a mission she said, “I had attended a singles retreat [the Church has a program for young single adults, providing spiritual gatherings, fun activities, opportunities for service, etc.] where a lot of young adults where there as well as several men and women who had previously served missions. I could feel their energy and their love for their missions, and that made me feel like there was something missing in my own life. Many of my friends were either getting married or going on missions. I had completed nursing school and was working at a nearby hospital, but felt like I wanted something more in my life at that time. I went into my Bishop’s office and inquired about the possibility of going on a mission. He jumped up and said, “When can we start filling out the papers?” That’s all it took, and with the support of my Bishop, my congregation and my family I went forward.”

When asked if there was a time where she knew God answered her prayer while on her mission Juli responded, “I would have to look in my missionary journal, but there was a time where my comp and I usually took a certain route home, and this time, we had decided to take an alternate route, on the road we met a man who was selling pots and pans (of all things.) We said we didn’t need any, but that ‘We are representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, would you be interested in hearing our message?’ He said ‘Yes.’ and during that conversation we made an appointment for our 1st discussion with him.”

Juli has since enjoyed keeping in contact with the people she met while serving in Peru through her mission’s website.

If you have served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and would like to share some of your experiences with our readers, please email us at mormonwoman (at) gmail (dot) com. Or, if you would like to share your conversion story, please email us at the same address.

For more Missionary Mondays articles, see here.

Sister Roundy was a pageant competitor and won the Miss Outstanding Teen Pageant in her county. She is the youngest of five children and has four older brothers. Her dad is a retired math teacher and her mom works at the Elementary school in her town. Sister Roundy has 15 nieces and nephews and was quick to point out there is another on their way. It was clear in talking with her that she loves her family.

Sister Roundy has been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints since her baptism at the age of 8. When asked about her feelings about the Church, she said:

“There were times all throughout my life after I had been baptized when I knew the church was true. But one experience that impacted me the most was when I was 19 years old and was enrolled in an Institute class called ‘Atonement, Repentance and Forgiveness.’ As part of the lesson material our instructor had us study Matthew 11:28-30 which reads:

Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give ye rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

At that moment I personally understood my relationship with the Savior. I understood how the Atonement works. It provides us rest, not only from our sorrows, but from guilt and pain. I think that experience changed my attitude. It made me a lot more optimistic.”

At the time of this interview, Sister Roundy had only been on her mission a few weeks. She felt that in that time she had already received a great blessing. “The fact that I have been given the gift of tongues and I know it is a great blessing to me. In just a few weeks of training at the MTC [Missionary Training Center] I can communicate in Spanish and understand what is going on. I know that is through the Spirit. It is nice to bear my testimony in Spanish after only weeks of training. It is a miracle.”

When asked why she served a mission Sister Purcell said, “I have had a life long desire to serve and have always loved the missionaries.” In her last year before serving a mission, Sister Purcell went to Hawaii to care for her grandfather who had suffered from a stroke. “One of his last desires was for my cousin and I to serve a mission for the church.” Sister Purcell’s cousin recently received his own mission call and has been called to serve in her same mission. Amazing!

While considering a mission, Sister Purcell spoke to her older brother who had previously returned from his mission. He said, “There are hearts that only you can touch.” After hearing those words Sister Purcell had a stronger desire to serve knowing that the Lord was preparing people for her to meet and teach.

Sister Purcell was given the opportunity to teach the mother of one of her friends who is the only Mormon member of his family and is currently serving a mission in Fiji. He asked her to share her testimony to his mother so she could understand why he had chosen to serve the Lord in Fiji. This was her testimony: “I called her up and explained about what both her son and I were doing as missionaries, and the message we wanted to share with others. Because of the Restoration of Christ’s original gospel we have countless blessings. Some in particular are temples which allow us to receive ordinances and make covenants to seal our families together forever. I explained that Heavenly Father would not put us down on earth and give us families and let us experience the happiness that families give us and then not provide a plan for us to be reunited again.” Sister Purcell had a great impact on her friend’s mother.

Sister Purcell had another great experience while in the Missionary Training Center (MTC). “In the MTC there was a moment when I broke down, I didn’t know if everything I was learning was true. I was born and raised in the Church and came from a strong family who taught me well. It was a struggle. After speaking with my instructor, he counseled me to pray. He told me to ask for the answer to two specific questions:

1. To know that Jesus is the Christ

2. To know that Heavenly Father loves me.

I decided to follow his advice and found a quiet place to pray. I prayed in the linen closet on the Fourth floor of the MTC and asked the questions my teacher had suggested. I didn’t know if I would get an answer, I assumed that if I did get an answer it would just be fate or a coincidence. I sat in the linen closet for over an hour while I waited for an answer. There was a file cabinet next to me and I felt prompted to open it. Inside was a brand new issue of the April 2008 issue of the Ensign and on the front was a beautiful picture of the Savior. The caption was “Jesus is the Christ.” I just started crying. Later on, I had choir practice at 5pm. We walked down the bleachers where we were practicing and the director was passing out the music. The song we were to sing that day was titled, “This is the Christ.” I remember the choir director telling us to sing the song with feeling because this is a testimony we are sharing. He then said, ‘Sing your testimony of the living Christ, someone in this room needs to hear it.’ At that point there was not denying that God was aware of me and that Jesus IS the Christ.”

Sister Purcell has been faithful to the testimony she received in the Missionary Training Center. She has had the opportunity to share that message that Jesus is the Christ to hundreds of people since starting her mission.

She loves traveling. “I love diving into a culture and learning what it is like to be a part of it. I love eating, talking and having fun. Lots of laughs, lots of smiles.” Sister Slight lived in Chile for four years but has also traveled to Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. “No matter where I go, the Church is the same where ever I am. This is a worldwide church!”

“A lot of my conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came while I was in High School. During that time, I realized that if I wanted good grades, and be sane and happy while taking a very heavy load of classes, I needed to rely on the Lord. I realized I could not do it myself. I realized that I needed to read my scriptures and pray before taking a test, writing essays or found my self struggling to do it on my own. I learned that I wanted to depend on the Lord because I realized after experimenting with prayer and study that He can make my life better than I can make it.”

“Throughout all of my studies, I learned to depend on the Lord and to let Him help me with temporal and spiritual things. In one prayer I told God my issue. I had a paper due the next day and I didn’t know what to write it on. I needed help. Despite wanting to make use of every single minute to work on my essay, I decided to read my scriptures. The paper I was asked to write was on the book, “Wide Sargasso Sea.” After praying and reading my scriptures, I immediately knew to write my essay on the Natural Man. That human nature is carnal. The main character in this book was stuck in the mode of satisfying his immediate desires and that was depriving him of a greater perspective on life. I believe God wants to help us both with our spiritual needs but also our every day problems as He helped me with this essay.”

“My high school English teacher taught me to make the most of my life and that comes through education. She taught me not to let complacency or laziness get in the way of making a difference in any place you may be. I believe in education, especially for women. Finding what makes us happy and gives us fulfillment is what God wants for all of His children.”

Sister Slight’s parents currently live in Qatar, and attend the International Ward in Doha Qatar. Despite not being able to preach the gospel openly, her parents are happy to have a place to worship and still find that people are drawn to the religion even though members obey the law not to proselyte.

Hermana Olmos converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when she was 10 years old along with her family. Reflecting on that time, she says:

“The first time the Elders knocked on my door they asked for a glass of water, which my mother gave them but when they wanted to share the message my mom said, ‘No thank you. I’m OK with my religion.’ The second time the Elders came, my father let them in. My mom was mad. But she must not have been so mad because she met the Elders in December and was baptized in February.” Hermana Olmos smiled at the memory.

Hermana Olmos loved studying with the Elders when they came to her house. She especially loved the part when they said that families can be together forever. I thought, “I want to live with my family forever.”

On Hermana Olmos’ baptismal day, she was baptized in a small local lake in the town of Zicatepec along with her 8-year-old sister. Her parents had previously been baptized. “I felt so good when I was baptized. I felt I was on my way to having an eternal family.”

In Mexico, Sister Olmos attended the Calipan Branch [a branch is a small congregation in the Mormon faith, smaller than a ward] in Calipan Mexico. There were 20 – 24 members in her branch and they met in a member’s home. While there, Sister Olmos served as a Counselor in the Young Women’s program. For activities, the leaders took the girls to LDS dances in other cities, played sports and went camping.

When asked why she wanted to serve a mission Sister Olmos said, “Always when I was learning the Gospel I saw that the Elders were happy teaching the Gospel. I thought I would want to teach the Gospel like them. When I was 20, I felt scared during my interview to serve a mission. Then I read in the Doctrine & Covenants 82:10 “I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” I wanted the blessings of serving a mission so I had to serve. Also, I really know that families can live together forever. I want all families to know that.”

When asked if there was a time when she knew God answered her prayers Sister Olmos said, “All the time. When I was flying to the Missionary Training Center in Utah, I did not understand any English. I thought AAAAH! I want to return to my house. So on the plane, I prayed and read the scriptures in Spanish. The person sitting next to me said something to me in English that I understood a little. Then he talked to another person and she spoke to me in Spanish. This made me SO HAPPY, because I knew that Heavenly Father loved me.”

Generally, the missionaries are young adults. More often than not, you’ve likely seen young men in dark suits with black name badges that say “Elder” (which means ‘teacher’) and their last name, along with the name of the Church. These young adults leave behind schooling, family, friends, and other pursuits to focus on serving the Lord for two years, generally around the age of 19.

Young women also sometimes will choose to serve. They can serve at the age of 21, and their missions last for 18 months. Similarly, senior missionaries serve in different capacities all over the world, also for 18 months. These seasoned missionaries are usually, but not always, married couples who have retired and have made the sacrifice to donate their time in the Lord’s service. Sometimes senior individuals and couples will serve more than one mission. Additionally, there are also married couples who serve for three years to preside over entire groups of around 150-200 missionaries (for example, see here and here).

What is missionary life like? Why do people choose to leave behind the comforts and rhythm of life, family, education, career goals for this service? What are the challenges and blessings of missionary service? With a new feature beginning tomorrow, through the personal stories of Mormon missionaries past and present, together we will explore the answers to these and other questions.

The feature will focus in particular on stories of Mormon women. We will include stories of women who are currently serving as missionaries, stories from women who served missions in the past, and also stories of what is called “member missionary” work — where Mormons seek to share the joy of their beliefs with others in their day-to-day lives. [Edited to add that we'd love to hear from missionary moms as well!] We invite those of you who have any such stories to share to send them to us at gmail, with either of the two usernames: ‘mormonwomen’ or ‘mormonwoman’

We hope that through our Missionary Mondays feature, you will not only learn more about Mormon missionary life, but will feel the joy that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to our lives, and also to continue to get to know more about Who We Are as Mormon women.

(Don’t worry; we’ll still have our Weekly Question on Mondays as well!)

Following are some videos and links to introduce a little about how missionary life begins.

A mission begins with receiving a “mission call” — a letter from the leaders of the Church, assigning the individual or couple to any of over 300 locations all over the world. The opening of the call is usually a very significant event, shared with friends and family — with lots of oooos and ahhhhs to go around. Often, friends and family will make guesses of where the missionary will serve. You can see some of the different ways this event is made special…surrounded by family and friends, singing hymns to set the tone, going to the temple to open the call….

(The quality on the next video is not great, but it captures the joy of missionary service so well…..)

(There are many, many more videos on YouTube…we had a hard time choosing just a few here.)

Missionaries all attend a Missionary Training Center (MTC) (there are several located in different places around the world). The main center is located in Provo, UT. You can see a few pictures from MTC life here.

After a few weeks in the MTC, where missionaries study the gospel intensively, learn about how to teach and serve the people in their missions, and learn their language (where applicable), it’s on a plane and off to their area of service. Keep checking back on Mondays for more about Mormon missionary life! (You can also read more here.)