Senior Missionary Service: A Blessing for Now and for Future Generations 

A call for a greater number of senior missionaries is sounding throughout the Pacific Area and indeed the world. As a result of a pilot program, senior members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who live in the Pacific Area and desire to serve missions, can now serve at a reduced cost.  

Elder Jeremy Jaggi, referring to Doctrine and Covenants section 4, said in Melbourne earlier this month, “If any senior couples desire to serve the Lord, they are called to the work – nothing holding back. This scripture is being fulfilled here and now.” 

Elder Jaggi is a member of the Pacific Area Presidency of the Church. 

 “We currently have 42 senior couples serving from the Pacific and 241 individuals serving from home (mostly part-time) as service missionaries,” Elder Jaggi said. “Of all potential missionaries who are eligible, we want many, many more, including senior sisters.” 

He said that the life experience, love, and abilities that these seniors have to offer are invaluable in furthering the work of the Lord. 

The Church is blessed. Families are blessed. Young missionaries are blessed. Couples are blessed. 

These volunteers are willing to leave their homes and families for 6-23 months, or perhaps serve while living at home. Some, such as doctors, architects, lawyers, psychologists, or accountants, bring knowledgeable assets to their service; others learn new ways of serving.   

Member-Leader Support missionaries strengthen Church congregations around the world with ministering and leadership skills. Some volunteers keep mission offices staffed and running smoothly; others work in Church communications.  Some do humanitarian work or teach self-reliance skills; others work with young adults or education. Some may help others with their family history; others help prisoners reform their lives. The possibilities are vast and exciting. Learn more here. 

Sister Rhonda Glen, who serves with her husband as Pacific Area Senior Missionary Support Advisors, likes to invite senior members to join the "mature regiment” to support the “youth battalion.”  

She says to those contemplating service, “If you wait until all the lights are green, you may never leave your driveway. You can stay home and bless your family, or you can go and serve, and let the Lord bless your family.” 

Elder K. Brett Nattress, who recently served as the Pacific Area President of the Church, saw how his family was blessed as his mother tearfully told her grandchildren, “I love you, but the Prophet has called me to serve a mission and I’m going to answer the call.” 

Elder Nattress continued, “I can’t think of a better example for my children and grandchildren than them serving a full-time mission and showing them how much they love the Lord.”  

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President Gabriel Reid and Sister Heather Reid, mission leaders of the Australia Sydney Mission, are proactive in working with senior service missionaries. Here are some comments from seniors serving in their mission: 

"Serving from home is a blessing and a privilege. We are able to maintain close family and ward ties and can share in milestone occasions at little to no extra cost as opposed to serving overseas. 

Senior missionaries bring gospel maturity and wisdom to a mission and can be role models for junior missionaries. Every day is an opportunity to come closer to the Lord and see miracles happen if we look for them."  Sister Pownall -- ASM Office Secretary (Service Missionary)  

"Working hand-in-hand with local senior service missionaries, full-time senior missionaries have been able to accomplish so much more in furthering the Lord's work. Coordinating the establishment of an ASM bicycle program is one example. The Vehicle Coordinator, with the help of local Church Service Missionaries, Elder and Sister Pollard, has managed to establish a mission-wide system to ensure every junior mission companionship who need bicycles receives them quickly. The Pollards were able to locate all current bikes in the mission, assess their roadworthiness, establish a repair agreement with a local bike supplier franchise, provide an effective distribution system, and organize a central storage location. Truly a blessing that could only have happened with the help of senior service missionaries!"   Elder Settle - ASM Fleet Coordinator  

Senior missionaries also have a profound impact on the young missionaries. 

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Robert and Darice Dudfield, of Melbourne Australia, recently returned from opening a new mission in Ethiopia. They would have given anything for more senior missionary couples to help in their challenging three years.  

With a serious bout of Covid, and a civil war requiring relocation of missionaries to Kenya, the Dudfields were grateful for the senior missionaries they did have. 

Of the Kenya experience, senior missionary couple Elder and Sister Moyers helped the younger missionaries see that “unexpected and drastic change presses on our emotions, intellect, and especially our faith in our purpose. Each person sees and reacts to change differently, revealing strengths and weaknesses. Some naturally trust and have faith and begin to capitalize on the challenges that change has brought to them. Their focus is on what they can do, not on what they can’t, and they discover new horizons in themselves and their mission. Being relocated is either a blessing or a challenge, and each missionary has the agency to choose which it will be for him or her.” 

This missionary couple helped to build “the Church within, one person at a time” the former mission leader, Robert Dudfield, said. “The time they were able to devote to their service was miraculous.”   

He added, “We learned the significant value of missionary service and the great value of senior couples. This is a call for those willing and able to serve. It changes your life.”  

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President and Sister Johansson of the Australia Adelaide Mission bring the strength of Polynesian heritage to their service, speaking Tongan and Samoan respectively.

President Johansson says, “As senior couple missionaries serve in the AAM, their dedication, life experience, and love is valued by not only us as mission leaders, but also by the young missionaries, local communities, and local congregations.” 

This service also blesses marriages of senior missionary couples. Elder Bart Pace, serving in Australia with his wife, Debra, says, “This mission has been a wonderful opportunity to strengthen our marriage. My career prosecuting criminal cases required a day-to-day adversarial mindset. This mission has been a refreshing change of focus to truly look to the Lord in all we do each day with greater unity. Each day from sun-up to sun-down we are focused on serving the Lord and each other.” 

Elder Wayne Maurer, the Area Seventy responsible  for senior missionary work in the Pacific Area, offers this advice: “The desire of the Area Presidency is to make a senior mission available to everyone. All who desire to serve a senior mission can serve. 

He continued, “I remember when my grandparents served a mission when I was 18. This was the single most influencing factor to help me decide to serve a mission at 19.  

“A senior mission not only blesses those who serve, but also builds faith and desire in the extended family back home. Of course, the blessings extend to the mission and those being served.“My experience has seen missions bring great joy and an increase of the Spirit into my life.”