“Don’t Miss Out on a Senior Mission,” Liahona, July 2024.
Aging Faithfully
Don’t Miss Out on a Senior Mission
Our covenants invite us to serve each other, stand as a witness of God, and comfort those needing comfort. Serving as a senior missionary is one way to fulfill these invitations, blessing our own lives and those we serve.
There are 34,000 senior missionaries serving full-time or in service missions right now who, like their younger counterparts, are finding plenty of joy in the journey. Singles and couples can serve as senior missionaries in a variety of assignments.
And the needs are significant. In the October 2023 general conference, Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles encouraged older members to consider a senior mission. He asked: “‘What are you doing at this stage of your life?’ There are so many ways senior missionaries can do what no one else can. You are a remarkable force for good, seasoned in the Church, and poised to encourage and rescue God’s children.”
Explaining how senior missionaries are called, President Russell M. Nelson said: “Opportunities for senior missionaries are varied and vast. Their calls to serve are officially made after prayerful consideration has been given to their occupational background, language experience, and personal capabilities. Of all qualifications to serve, a desire to serve may be the most important.” He also described the contributions of senior missionaries as “irreplaceable.”
“Some senior missionaries work in the mission office or with BYU–Pathway or humanitarian initiatives that have a well-defined structure,” a senior missionary noted. “We’ve served several of those types of missions ourselves. So we were a little uncertain when we were called to an MLS (member and leader support) mission. Once we got started, we really liked the flexibility and creativity that type of mission gave us to visit members and strengthen local branches.”
A senior sister serving at a visitors’ center said, “When my husband passed away, I wasn’t sure what to do with my time. Now I have things to do, places to go, people to see. I’ve got people depending on me.”
“There’s no need to be apprehensive even if you didn’t serve while younger,” a sister remarked after returning home from her senior mission. “It’s a new role for everyone. We all learned together to rely on the Lord as well as each other and found that ‘by small and simple things are great things brought to pass’ [Alma 37:6].”
Blessings for the Missionaries
Senior missions vary as much as senior missionaries. There are all types—each with its own challenges, joys, and personal benefits. But there are a few commonalities for any type of senior mission: meaningful scripture study, frequent and earnest prayers, engaging service, ongoing guidance from the Holy Ghost, and a unique opportunity to make a difference.
“I never felt closer to the Lord than when we were serving as senior missionaries,” a senior missionary said. “I knew some things were out of my control, especially back home with kids and grandkids. So I put things in the Lord’s hands. And He blessed our family. We were never closer to our grandkids than visiting with them each week on Zoom. We talked about things they never would have been interested in before. While it doesn’t happen to everyone, in our case, one son came back to church while we served, and another son remarried and was later sealed in the temple.”
Another senior missionary said, “Our daily personal and companionship scripture study became more meaningful because we were looking for ways to apply the scriptures, not just read them. I wasn’t just going for ‘mileage,’ as I had sometimes done in the past. In our service, it seemed that I was constantly referring to a scripture we read that day or that week, so I began expecting to use recent scriptures I had read during each day. I was less passive in my scripture study, anticipating that I would refer to something I had read during the day.”
“Serving a mission has given me a new lease on life,” a senior sister said. “It gave me a meaningful purpose, a new zest for living, and something to do beyond golfing or babysitting grandkids.”
“Service is a two-way street,” another senior missionary stated. “When we thought—a little presumptuously—about how much we were doing for others, we didn’t have much success. But when we realized how much we were learning and growing ourselves, not only did we change but others also seemed more interested in what we were saying and doing. We cast our bread upon the water, and it felt like it came back buttered.”
Stronger Relationships
When people serve as senior missionaries, they develop deep relationships that last a lifetime. Many grow close to the people they serve. They also cultivate strong relationships with other missionaries and local leaders. “We created friendships with younger missionaries, other couples, and people we would have never met had we stayed at home,” one senior missionary said. “We still stay in touch with each other. At a time when I thought every day was going to be the same, going on a mission gave us a fresh start and new friends to share the journey with us.”
Senior missions can help couples strengthen their marriages as well. As people retire or reduce time working, couples may find they need to reconsider a common purpose together since they may no longer be rearing children in their home. They may also be used to being in their own domain with their own schedules. Aging or retirement can change that. Starting a new, shared experience together, whether serving from home or full-time on a senior mission, can help create a new purpose for a couple and strengthen their reliance upon each other.
“There’s an old saying that in retirement ‘you get half the income and twice the husband as before,’” one sister laughingly said. “Serving a mission in a place away from home allowed us to talk through these changes in ways that we never would have before our mission. After my husband retired, we just simmered when we had any conflicts. Now, instead of going our own way and ignoring each other, we don’t want to have a negative impact on the Lord’s work, so we talk through what bothers us.”
“My wife and I started talking each night about the tender mercies we had each day while serving our mission,” one senior missionary said. “Not only did it help us focus more on what happened and less on ourselves, but it also gave us a chance to see goodness all around us even when parts of the day hadn’t gone well.”
“And because it was the last thing we did each night,” his wife added, “we went to bed less stressed and more content than we had for years. It even helped me sleep better!”
Blessings for Those They Serve
Life has its ups and downs—its good days and bad days. So do missions. But serving the Lord has many intrinsic rewards, not just after the mission is over but during the mission as well. As her cousin Mordecai said to Esther, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14; emphasis added). Looking back on their service, many senior missionaries have felt they were assigned to a task or an area where they were uniquely qualified to fill a particular need.
I experienced the powerful good that a senior missionary couple can do firsthand when I lived in Louisiana, USA. Soon after being called to serve on the New Orleans Louisiana Stake high council, I was assigned to support the Port Sulphur Branch. There were only a few active priesthood brothers in the branch. Most teaching and leadership positions were filled by women whose husbands were not members. Occasionally, senior missionaries or stake leaders were assigned to the branch, but they had limited success in reaching these part-member families.
Then a senior couple from Wyoming, USA, was assigned to support the branch. They had been farmers for many years and had worked in a local cheese factory near their home. Because of their background and life experience, they related easily to many people in Port Sulphur who worked in the oil industry. The senior couple spent a great deal of time building relationships with and ministering to the part-member families in the branch. Because of their service and love, during their time in Port Sulphur the branch was uniquely strengthened and blessed through their faithful service. Several men from these part-member families joined the Church, strengthening the elders quorum and the branch.
Senior missionaries bless lives—their own as well as others’. Don’t miss out on wonderful opportunities to serve and grow!