If you are considering a senior mission, check out the following website: lds.org/csm/missionOpportunities.pdf. This site is probably also located on your ward or stake website. Pertinent and up-to-date material includes requirements for serving, how you are called, where you could be called and what missions cost in different parts of the world. It gives a lengthy list of positions currently needed. You could either call those departments directly or enter them on missionary applications.

The site clarifies that the final say as to where people are called rests with the Apostles and differentiates which callings come from the Apostles and which come from Stake Presidents or other sources. Some of these details will be discussed in future columns.

A quote from the Missionary Department at that site says, “ All missions within the United States and Canada need senior missionaries: In many cases you can live at home and serve. ” (Emphasis added.)

Today we will deal with the opportunities available to serve a full-time or part-time mission from home. Although senior missionaries are needed around the world, the church in recent years has encouraged an escalation of calls to missionaries living in areas where it is possible to serve from home.

This helps to meet the needs of those who have problems that would prohibit them from serving a mission away from home as well as utilizing the finances, time and strengths of individuals from a home base. A mission from home allows missionaries to use their own automobile, stay in their home, but still give vitally needed service. Many times individuals are called or volunteer who have already served missions in other places.

In our Bountiful, Utah, home ward there are three couples and one individual currently serving home-based missions: One of these couples is Richard and Diane Bretzing, who served returned as a Mission President couple presiding over the Washington D.C. South Mission. They have recently been called as Directors of Farmland Reserve Missionaries, which organization is a totally owned corporation of the Church that operates investment farms. This full-time two year leadership calling allows them to stay in their home, but involves their overseeing all senior couples who serve on the investment farms throughout the world. They travel extensively to interview, hold zone conferences, train in Preach My Gospel, and oversee the couples.

This program is new since March of 2008 and is under the Presiding Bishopric. Those who are called or who volunteer are called by the Presiding Bishopric and they do not go to the MTC but are trained by the Bretzings. The missionaries include welders, licensed plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and those having construction, concrete, grating and heavy equipment expertise or other type of handyman skills. Individuals serve for the duration of a project, which lasts for varying amounts of time, usually a few months. They often return as volunteers at different times to serve the Church as needed.

The Bretzings report that these volunteer missionaries save the Church millions of dollars. Both the Bretzings and those serving throughout the world find great satisfaction and fulfillment in their assignments.

A second couple from our ward, Bob and Joye Petersen, have served for 12 years as Church Service Missionaries. They served the first six years in the Member Locator Department and then moved to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building as Hosts where they just completed six years in January. This calling comes in three year increments and Brother and Sister Petersen have just signed up for their third increment, meaning that they will serve for three more years in the host position.

This calling is issued by the stake president and currently requires serving two days a week with four hours per day, or a one-day shift for eight hours. Individuals may request these or similar callings, filling out a paper that is sent to their stake president. The Petersens obviously enjoy their service, repeatedly extending as each calling is completed.

There are 700 missionaries working at the Family History Department in Salt Lake City . They vary from full-time missionaries to those who serve as little as eight hours a week for a period of six months. Many individuals still have professional careers such as Kent Hauck from Kaysville, Utah, who despite working full time, serves weekly on the International Floor. His assignment involves assisting patrons from all over the world in locating ancestors, entering their family history into the computer, preparing temple work cards, etc.

He had to have extensive training, hone his missionary German and take classes given by the Church. There is a need for more missionaries and this is another assignment that can be requested. Because family history is a great passion of Brother Hauck's, he considers his time there as the highlight of his week.

There is a prevalent belief that couples can serve proselyting missions only if they leave home. This is not the case. Robert and Susan Roylance served a full-time proselyting mission from their home in South Jordan, Utah for 18 months, being assigned a state which they covered as regular missionaries do, and covering the Thai/Laotian Ward and the Korean Branch. They would drive over 150 miles a day or over 700 miles a week. Although a few other couples had previously been called to full-time proselyting missions from home, the Roylances were the first to receive training in the MTC.

Six months later they were called to an Inner-city Mission , again to work with refugees. They served for 12 months and then extended for six more months.

Duties include providing support and shadow leadership. They discover and record where inactive members and non-members live. They find partial member families whose children are not yet baptized, working to integrate those families into wards.

They have dealt with immigrants from 34 different countries, dealing with 20 non-English languages. A very effective way of meeting people is to teach English. They use one of the Church programs, the “Daily Dose,” and go with an interpreter directly to the homes to teach. Therefore, they are able to develop a relationship with the family, and find that this is an extremely successful way to teach the gospel as well as to teach the language.

Organizing media referrals is another way to help the younger missionaries who have limited time. The Church offers free Books of Mormon or CDs and videos to interested parties through media advertising. The Roylances take referrals and deliver them to recipients, asking if they would like a message about Jesus Christ. If the answer is yes, they give instruction about the Restoration. Then if the investigators are still interested, they invite the young missionaries to return and finish the lessons.

A tender experience occurred one day as they were coming from a media referral. Passing a woman waiting on the street with her dog, they greeted her, then continued down the street. Sister Roylance had an impression flash through her mind that she should return to the woman, so she did so.

“Would you like to hear about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?” she asked the woman. The woman answered, “Yes, I would!” They discovered that the woman's husband was an inactive member of the Church and later discovered that his family had been fasting and praying for the couple. On the second lesson the woman asked, “Are there some sins that are worse than others?” They answered yes and discussed some of these sins. They discovered that she was dealing with a serious transgression and arranged for her to meet with the Mission President. As he received her confession and taught her the doctrine of repentance and that through the mercy of the Savior's atonement, even serious sins can be forgiven, she felt such gratitude. She had felt doomed, feeling that she could never be forgiven.

This woman was eventually baptized and the Roylances observed that she came out of the water with a glow on her face. She explained how she felt that a great burden had been lifted from her shoulders as she emerged from her baptism.

Dale and Eulalia Kotter from Atlanta, Georgia, are currently serving a home-based mission. They have served previous missions, the first in Jamaica for 18 months as Brother Kotter served as patriarch for the island while Sister Kotter typed the blessings, and they provided shadow leadership in a branch there. They served a Church Service Mission in the Southeast Area where they coordinated Church Service Missionaries for three years. They were in charge of a major “Measles Vaccination Campaign” sponsored by the Church in Nigeria, working with the government in PR contacts, overseeing media advertising, and helping to organize the local clinics in which thousands of children were vaccinated for this disease that has huge mortality rates for the children of Africa.

After returning to Georgia, they submitted further missionary application papers and were called by President Monson for an 18 month mission to serve full time from home. They teach investigators, reactivate less actives and strengthen recent converts.

The Kotters report that they love this mission as they have loved all of them. They have had sweet experiences and sacred miracles occur on each mission.

Wonderful blessings of service and satisfaction follow those who serve, and serving from home, either full or part-time is an excellent way to fulfill the scripture that says, “Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work.” (D&C 4:2-3)

Starting with this column, we will be posting requests for missionary volunteers that are printed in the Missionary Department's website:

Member Locators ( Salt Lake City or St. George, Utah )