Missionary

Elder Paul Newton has been called a pioneer and a guinea pig — appropriate for the first-called senior single male missionary since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently expanded missionary opportunities for single men 40 and older.

And he is starting a pilot program as part of his 12-month service in the Adriatic North Mission.

Elder Newton’s pioneering journey spans more than just the physical distance from his Salem, Utah, residence to the nearby Provo Missionary Training Center and on to the mission office in Zagreb, Croatia.

The real journey has been the past half-dozen years, first when hopes and plans for a senior mission with his wife, Kathleen, were dashed by disease and death, followed by the Nov. 1, 2024, announcement that single senior men could serve and then the nearly several weeks needed to complete his online application, which required Missionary Department assistance.

“I’ve wanted to go on a mission ever since I served the first one as a young man,” said Elder Newton, recalling feeling “clean and connected to Heavenly Father” as a missionary a half-century ago in South America. “And now, I get to do that again.”

He treasures this Dec. 23 text from Tami Evans, a project coordinator in the Missionary Department’s senior missionary services division: “You may not know this, but you were the very first single senior elder called. I know it was a process and at times difficult, but you are paving the way for us to be able to fix things and make it better for years to come.”