The First Lithuanian Sister Missionary

Ilona Yakovlevna Machinič met Latter-day Saint missionaries in September 1993, and in February 1994 she was baptized. A short time later, her branch president asked her to pray about serving a full-time mission. She was not excited about the possibility of serving. Although she loved the missionaries, she didn’t think she could be one. “I’m not so worthy,” she thought. “I don’t have that much faith to go and live that kind of life.” She felt prompted to consider a mission anyway. “The Spirit of God was so strong that I prayed one day. I didn’t want to. I don’t know how I prayed. And it was answered that I needed to go on a mission,” she recalled. Still, doubts remained. “I wasn’t glad when I received this answer,” she said. “How could I do it? … It was hard.”

But her faith in the gospel overcame her doubts. She became excited to serve and submitted an application. She was called to serve in the Utah Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission and was asked to learn American Sign Language. The sister missionaries called to Temple Square provide tours of the historic temple grounds for visitors from all around the world. Having never heard of this, she called her branch president. He confirmed that there was, indeed, a mission on Temple Square. She was the first woman from Lithuania to serve a full-time mission for the Church.

When she arrived in Salt Lake City, she was reassigned to speak Russian. Machinič worked with many tourists at Temple Square who later invited local missionaries to their homes; some eventually joined the Church. Because Machinič was not involved in these subsequent meetings, she rarely saw the results of her work. Her mission, however, did lead directly to one baptism that she was aware of—while Machinič was serving, her mother joined the Church in Lithuania.