Missionaries Share their Faith

Sister Whitney and Sister Armstrong first came across advertising representative Ervey Olivas as he was mowing his lawn. Somewhat taken by surprise, he referred them to the Ulysses News to discuss their mission.

The two Utah natives are spending 18 months in Kansas as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their days are spent meeting people, discussing their faith, studying scripture and looking for opportunities to serve.

“We go around talking about Jesus Christ with everybody, helping them grow their relationship with him,” the missionaries said.

Their purpose, they explained, is to invite people to come closer to Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

This can mean knocking on doors and asking residents if they would like to hear their message, but it can also mean offering to help someone in the community.

“We love just doing anything we can for the community,” they said.

Of Ulysses, the missionaries said they have generally found residents to be welcoming.

“I feel like everybody here is so kind,” they said. “There’s such a Christ-like community here in Ulysses.”

Although not everyone is necessarily excited to see missionaries at the door, as I joked my mother would turn off the lights and tell everyone to be quiet, the missionaries laughed.

“There are people sometimes that maybe aren’t the biggest fans,” they said.

Still, they said their goal is not to pressure anyone or argue about religion.

“I want people to know that we respect all religions because there’s good things in every church,” they said. “Our purpose isn’t to come out here and be like, ‘Hey, you’re wrong.’”

Instead, they said they hope people feel the love of Christ through their interactions.

Both missionaries were raised in the church, although Sister Whitney said she did not always know she wanted to remain a member.

“I definitely had lots of experiences or times in my youth where I was like, ‘I don’t like this church. I don’t think I want to be a member of it,’” she said.

After leaving home and attending college, however, she said she began to view her faith differently.

“I kind of decided that, like, I was gonna be a member of this church and that it was something that would bless me in my life and bring me a lot of joy,” she said.

That realization eventually led her to want to serve a mission and share that experience with others.

Both missionaries expect to return to college after completing their assignments.

For now, Kansas is their home, albeit an unexpected one, since neither specifically chose the state.

Before receiving their assignments, missionaries submit information about themselves, including their health, interests, and whether they would be willing to learn another language. Church leaders then assign them to missions throughout the world.

The sisters were assigned to the Wichita, Kansas mission and were also assigned to speak Spanish, learning the language as part of their missionary preparation.

“There are missionaries throughout the entire world,” they said. “And they’re also from all over the world.”

Both women grew up in different parts of Utah. One comes from northern Utah, where orchards and fields are common, while the other is from central Utah.

The missionaries also explained a common label: “Mormon” is a nickname historically used to describe members of the church, but members are formally referred to as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Their faith includes the Bible, which they read in the King James Version, as well as the Book of Mormon, which they describe as another testament of Jesus Christ containing accounts of prophets who lived in the ancient Americas.

The church’s practices include attending church every Sunday, studying scripture, and praying. Sunday meetings include taking the sacrament, which the missionaries compared to Communion, followed by scripture study.

Rather than having a single pastor deliver every sermon, members of the congregation are sometimes asked to speak.

“We got asked to speak one Sunday,” they said, meaning they prepared a roughly 10-minute talk about faith, scripture or personal experiences.

Thankfully, the missionaries joked, there are no PowerPoint presentations involved.

The missionaries also described the church’s “Word of Wisdom,” which includes abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, coffee, and tea.

The prohibition on coffee and tea prompted my curiosity. The missionaries explained that the practice is part of their religious commitments to avoid addictive substances.

The conversation moved into larger questions about how people understand scripture and how faith relates to science.

The missionaries said their church encourages members to study scripture and seek personal answers through prayer. They said they do not see science and faith as opposites.

“I’m a big believer that science and God work together,” one missionary said.

Rather than viewing unanswered questions as a problem, they said they see them as part of the purpose of life.

“I feel like kind of the point is that we don’t know the answers,” one said. “We’re here to learn and grow.”

When asked about their favorite parts of scripture, Sister Whitney immediately named Matthew 11:28-30, in which Jesus invites those who are weary and burdened to come to Him for rest.

She said the passage reminds her that Jesus Christ should not be viewed as another burden in life.

“I think sometimes it’s easy to think that, like, being a member of the church, going to church every Sunday and keeping all these promises that I made to God is so, so much,” she said.

“But when I remember that verse of scripture … Jesus Christ, he’s not the burden of life. He’s like the relief of life.”

Sister Armstrong said her favorite passages currently involve Jesus’ miracles, particularly the account of the loaves and fishes.

“I learned so much from that, that he magnifies it,” she said. “It is enough in his eyes. We give him all that we have and he makes it enough.”

Although Ulysses may only be home for 18 months for Sister Whitney and Sister Armstrong, they said they hope to leave people with something that lasts longer than a religious message.

“We want people to feel love from us,” they said, “and hopefully that they can feel the love of Christ through us.”