Smiling, Serving, Seniors

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Many men and women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volunteer their time and resources to serve full-time missions upon retirement. 

Potentially a big decision, carefully weighed against family time, health concerns, and sometimes just the freedom and opportunities of retirement—it is an opportunity to reach out with individual talents and skills to do good in the world. 

Melbourne Australia, with one of the longest Covid lockdowns in the world, is now home to over 30 senior missionary couples, each serving in a variety of ways. These missionaries love the Lord, they’re happy to be here, and they find joy in serving together. 

As the mission secretary, Sister Wieland (Oregon, USA), recalls, “I sang as a primary child (and teacher) ‘When I’m helping, I’m happy; and I sing as I go.’ Having the opportunity to help others all day long brings me great joy—whether it’s finding a warm winter coat for a Filipino missionary, or helping a convert locate her past missionaries, or simply sending the good news to families the details of their missionary coming home. It is a pleasure to be able to share my talents and has been very gratifying to see changes I have brought about in the mission office.” 

Two senior missionary couples in the Australia Melbourne Mission (AMM) serve as Self-Reliance specialists. Both Michael and Julie Smith (Hawaii) and Larry and JoAnne McClellan (Washington, USA) love people and bring valuable life experience and skills to their callings. 

Sister Julie Smith says, “I love, love, love the light in the eyes when just the right resource (that the Lord had

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provided) is discovered to meet a need. See it in Sister Latisha Tia’s countenance after finding out about BYU Pathway Connect! Now she can earn a degree debt-free! How merciful is our Saviour!"

As a mental health counselor, Sister McClellan has a compassionate way of relating to others. She says, “We love having the opportunity to meet so many people and our hope is that as we work on the career initiative that there’s a chance that one or more of these young adults will see opportunities that they hadn’t before. Through their own choice and hard work, they may even affect generations! How exciting is that!?!” 

The couples who serve in member-leader-support have varied experiences depending on what their assignments are:

David and Donna Wright (Virginia, USA) have the unique opportunity to work with three  congregations in downtown Melbourne: International, Vietnamese, and Chinese speaking. 

 “We have really enjoyed getting to be with the junior missionaries in their teaching appointments and to be able to add comments and testimony. They are great teachers. It has been great to participate and teach in the English classes, assist with Home Evenings and take the lead in Games Night."

Sister Ana Carlin (Utah, USA) works with young sister missionaries, organizes activities for young adults, works in the Melbourne Temple, and teaches a Zumba exercise class twice a week to the branch and anyone in the community who wants to attend.

James and Joan Rumsey (Nevada, USA) have dual responsibilities with member-leader support (they help members get their information loaded and corrected in Family Search) and repair missionary flats. “We feel that the Lord sent us here to get the living quarters of His young missionaries upgraded, so we are passionate about getting it done. We feel His guidance daily.” 

Bart and Debra Pace (Utah, USA) serve as Church Communication Specialists, share Newsroom stories for Australia and Papua New Guinea, train communication directors, and support the Pacific Area Communication team with various projects. 

“Interfaith work has been one of our favourite things to experience,” says Elder Pace. We enjoy visiting congregations of other faiths and making friends there. This has led to some wonderful opportunities."

What is the motivation for seniors to leave their homes and families for one to two years to serve? 

For Marcia Wineteer, Housing Coordinator for the AMM, it was a prompting she received ten years before retirement (Oregon, USA). Something was said in a church meeting that touched her heart and she knew that she would one day serve a mission, so she started saving her money. 

These seniors find time in their busy schedules to get together occasionally to meet for dinner, attend the temple, go hiking, see a play, or perhaps celebrate a milestone anniversary.

The AMM, led by Paul and Nadene Thomas (Brisbane, Australia), work tirelessly with the Saviour’s love in their hearts serving over 200 missionaries. They include the seniors in zone conferences, weekly Zoom meetings for Preach My Gospel (scripture) discussions, and Sunday evening miracle sharing and mission prayer.

Sister Thomas says, “Senior missionaries… bring enthusiasm, wisdom, and an added measure of strength to gathering Israel. They are a wonderful support to our young missionaries who are coming from all around the world. Every interaction, every smile, every hug from our seniors makes such a difference to our young missionaries and their growing confidence to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.”