Many Options for Senior Missionaries

A new website makes it easy to find options for service suited to your particular abilities, availability, and interests.

senior missionary couple helping to fill waterpots in India — A senior missionary couple serving in Hyderabad, India, helps fill waterpots. Members considering senior missionary service can now explore options on a new website.

Many seniors want to serve but aren’t sure exactly what they could do as senior missionaries. If you are considering serving a mission as a senior, there’s a new website that can help you explore various options that fit your particular situation.

Seniormissionary.lds.org helps match abilities, availability, and interests with current service opportunities, at the same time taking into account any limitations or concerns potential missionaries may have.

Exploring the site allows members to find ideal service experiences without feeling pressure. Members may recognize opportunities they know they could fulfill but also some they haven’t thought of before. Some members may be surprised at the variety of available missionary assignments that would suit them very well.

Members who are available to serve immediately or in the future may search, mark their favorites, and access additional resources, such as a cost breakdown for each full-time service assignment. In addition to searching based upon individual preferences, visitors can search for missions indicated as having a critical need. Opportunities are updated continually.

The website “allows a couple in their very own home to sit down at their own computer and the world opens up to them,” said Elder Brent H. Nielson, General Authority Seventy and Executive Director of the Church’s Missionary Department. “They don’t have to wait until the bishop asks them to consider serving a mission. We encourage them to reach out first and feel free to speak up and be open about how they want to serve.”

screenshot from senior missionary website — Seniormissionary.lds.org allows a couple to sit down at their own computer and see at a glance all of the missionary opportunities around the world.

“We’re not saying that couples [or individuals] can pick and choose their own missionary assignments,” explained Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “A call is still a call. … [But] we talk to our senior couples about their service preferences, and every consideration is given to letting them serve where and how they want to serve” (in Richard M. Romney, “Senior Missionaries: Needed, Blessed, and Loved,” Ensign, Apr. 2016, 69).

“If you are tempted to think you’re not needed, let me reassure you that you are,” President Russell M. Nelson said. “Seniors strengthen the younger elders and sisters. They provide support that helps others to serve better in their own responsibilities. And can you imagine what it means to a leader who has only been a member for a few years to have ready access to seasoned Church members? Senior couples are often a literal answer to the prayers of bishops and branch presidents” (“Senior Missionary Moments,” Ensign, Apr. 2016, 67).

Read a more detailed article at lds.org/go/optionsE618.

Check out the new website at Seniormissionary.lds.org.