Senior Missionaries Serve Around the World

Mormon missionaries are young men, right? Right, but they are also young women and senior couples. Approximately two-thirds of 65,000 missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are young men. A quarter are young women, and almost a tenth are senior missionaries.

Senior missionaries serve in all the Church's 418 missions around the world. They serve in many different positions such as humanitarian services, educational and medical assignments, member and leader support, and staffing mission offices. Senior missionaries bring to their missions many years of valuable experience both in their Church callings and professional lives.

The Kenyan Mormon Newsroom recently reported on senior couples serving in East Africa. Here are the stories of two of the couples in the article.

“Recently called mission president Ephraim Msane and his wife Nomthi have come from South Africa to direct the missionary work in both Kenya and Tanzania.  Before being called as mission president he was involved in business ventures and now is doing full time church service.  President Msane said, 'We have always wanted to serve in the church together.' Now they can devote all of their time to the direction of missionary work in these East African countries.

John and Kaylene Petersen from Glendora, California are LDS Charities missionaries assigned to the Nairobi, Kenya area.  They have overseen water projects, school improvement projects and have assisted in wheelchair and vision projects in several areas of Kenya.  They said of their mission service, 'Helping make a better life for these wonderful people has been such a great experience for us'.”