Changes in missionary work happen so fast that it might feel like every time we blink our eyes open to a surprise. We may resist sudden change because it is unfamiliar and frightening. Sending a daughter out to serve a mission at age eighteen is a change that can make some people uneasy.
Bret and I served as mission leaders during a time of unprecedented change. During our mission, the missionaries who had been accustomed to calling home twice a year were suddenly allowed to call home every week. This change concerned us. We worried our missionaries might get homesick and lose focus on the mission. It turned out our worries were unfounded, and the change blessed the missionaries and their families. In addition, during our tenure of service, the tried-and-true “white bible” was replaced with Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ. As much as we celebrated the switch to principle-centered learning, we wondered if our missionaries would lower their standards and start wearing their hair in ponytails. That didn’t happen. What did happen is the missionaries chose high standards, rather than feeling compelled to live the standards. COVID came during our mission, and our missionaries suddenly began teaching with smartphones. Again, we were concerned the missionaries might lose their focus and abuse the technology. Instead, the technology allowed our missionaries to teach remotely, and the missionary work not only continued but flourished.
As we navigated these and other changes, we learned that although change can rock our world, when we embrace the change with faith rather than fear, we can realize the tremendous blessings the change was intended to produce.
Protection for the Sisters
As parents, we often worry more when we launch our daughters out into the world than when we launch our sons. This may be because we are concerned for their safety, and we assume (perhaps erroneously) that boys can take care of themselves. If this is the case, I can assure you, a mission is one of the safest places possible to send an 18-year-old girl after high school. It’s safer than going away to college, and it’s safer than backpacking around Europe. It’s safer than taking an overseas job as a nanny, or an internship, or any other option available to a young lady right out of high school. Evil influences can be found in any of these places, even if you send your daughter to a church school. Although a mission is not the Celestial Kingdom, a mission is more likely to provide a safe environment spiritually, physically, and emotionally than any other destination.
Watched Over by a Companion
Missionaries have all kinds of people to watch over them and protect them. From the moment they arrive in the mission, they are met by a responsible party—not by a stranger holding a sign that says their name, but by someone with a tag that says, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” They will step into good hands as soon as they walk off the plane.
Even when things do not go as planned, the Lord will protect them. Days after we arrived in the Dominican Republic, we went to the airport at the appointed time to pick up a sister missionary arriving from Honduras. She didn’t come off the plane, and we could find no information as to why she wasn’t on the flight. At two o’clock in the morning, we received a phone call saying she had missed her flight and was now at the airport in Santo Domingo waiting for a ride. We quickly dressed and headed back to the airport. Halfway there, we received another phone call. It was from a member of the area presidency who had arrived on a late flight and saw our sister missionary waiting for her ride. He picked her up and brought her to our doorstep.
Missionaries are assigned a companion as soon as they arrive in the mission. The companion already knows everything that is necessary to keep her companion safe. She knows the bus schedule, she knows how to exchange money, she knows what areas are off-limits to missionaries, and she knows what kind of backpacks/fanny packs are safe to wear in the mission. She knows the language, she knows customs regarding eye contact, conversation, etc. And the new missionary gets to be with that experienced companion 24-7. They are always within sight or sound of one another.
Cared for by Mission Leaders
Not only does an 18-year-old sister have a full-time companion, she has mission leaders who will love her like their own daughter. The mission leaders will teach, counsel, and listen just like a loving parent. They receive inspiration as to the needs of the new missionary, both temporal and spiritual. We had a sister in our mission from El Salvador who arrived in very poor health. As sick as she was, she had received a blessing before she came that she would complete her entire mission. Throughout her mission, she called me with various aches and pains that usually required a “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” response. However, once she called complaining of pain in her lower abdomen. The spirit told me that this time it was serious. We took her to the hospital and discovered her appendix was about to burst. Doctors removed her appendix, and she completed her mission without any more health issues.
Not only do mission leaders care for missionaries physically and spiritually, but they care for them emotionally, too. Once, I was sitting in a chapel with a sister from the Philippines, and I could tell that she was really sad. As we began talking, she shared that she had lost her mother as a young girl, and she was feeling an unusual longing for her mother. I listened to her for some time. We wept together, and I hugged her and held her like a daughter. I felt the Lord was allowing me to share her mother’s love when she needed it the most.
Guarded by Angels
The greatest protection of all comes from the heavens, where angels guard over missionaries. When my husband, Bret, was serving as a young missionary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, they rode bicycles everywhere they went. Their bicycles weren’t fancy mountain bikes or bicycles with many gears. They rode old-fashioned bicycles that had a single gear and stopped with coaster brakes. Buenos Aires is a busy city, and trains run all throughout the city. Once Bret and his companion were approaching a series of train tracks, and Bret rose up on his bike, ready to push down hard on the pedal to get some momentum as he crossed 12 rows of train tracks. However, the front tire locked. The back tire popped up in the air, and the bicycle didn’t move an inch. Just then, an express train sped by only a few feet in front of his front tire. A bit shaken, Bret checked the pedals, and once again the bicycle worked fine.
Many may wonder why the church made this change regarding the age when young women can leave on their missions. Why were sisters always older than elders to begin with? and why is the eligible age for service now the same? Like when we experienced so many radical changes on our mission, the church often announces what will change in missionary work, but does not always announce why. In a future article, I will share from the perspective of a former mission leader, as well as the mother of both sons and a daughter who have served missions, the blessings I foresee coming from this change.
JeaNette Goates Smith is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the author of four books about family relationships that can be found at www.smithfamilytherapy.org. She and her husband, Bret, served as mission leaders in the Dominican Republic from 2017-2000. They are the parents of three boys and one girl.
