“Service Missions: Called to the Work,” Liahona, Feb. 2025, United States and Canada Section.
Service Missions: Called to the Work
Missionaries serve as the voice and the hands of the Lord.
With service missionaries being integrated into missions worldwide, some members of the Church who haven’t heard about young service missionaries may wonder, “What is a service mission? How do service missionaries spend their time? Why a service mission instead of a teaching mission?”
To gain a better understanding of service missions, we will look at the experiences of four young service missionaries, starting with my own.
Photograph by Cristy Powell
Called to Serve a Service Mission
Before my mission, I moved out of my parents’ home and attended college for a few months. There, I experienced severe anxiety. I wanted to serve a mission but worried about my mental health challenges.
After working hard in therapy for several months, I was ready to serve and received my mission call. I was called to be a service missionary.
My father recalls: “He poured his heart into preparing for his mission. When his call finally came, it was even harder for us when we saw his disappointment in not getting called to the kind of mission he had hoped to serve.”
That is when I took this teaching from President Russell M. Nelson to heart: “Through a lifetime of service in this Church, I have learned that it really doesn’t matter where one serves. What the Lord cares about is how one serves.”
My mother said, “We had to trust that this call was directly from God and that he was needed as a service missionary.”
Looking back, I can truly say that I am happy with the progress I have made, the growth I have experienced, and the many lives I have touched, including members of my family, fellow missionaries, and those I have served.
As part of my service, I write for the Friend magazine, serve in the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple, and help two teenage boys who have special needs. I have found so much joy helping others come unto Christ through my service.
Photograph by Allison Oberg
Learning to Love
Sister Rachael Oberg was originally called to the Canada Montreal Mission speaking French. She was excited to serve the Lord but came home due to health reasons after serving for six months.
Sister Oberg was sad to leave her mission in Canada, but she felt prompted to continue her service and move forward with faith. Service missionaries live with immediate or extended family members, so Sister Oberg moved home with her parents and worked with her stake president to transfer to the Oregon Portland Mission, in the area where she lives.
When Sister Oberg served as a teaching missionary in Canada, she felt that she was the voice of the Lord as she taught the Savior’s gospel to others. Now, as a service missionary, she tries to serve as the hands of the Lord.
Sister Oberg said one challenge facing service missionaries “is having that sense of fulfillment in what you do and knowing that it is enough and that Heavenly Father is proud of you.”
Her approach? “It’s about that mindset shift I tried to have. You are serving someone in the hopes that you can become their friend. You are learning how to love other children of God.”
Under the direction of her mission leader, Sister Oberg has been able to serve in the Portland Oregon Temple, the temple’s visitors’ center, a senior center, and food pantries.
Sister Oberg shared that teaching missions and service missions, though different, are “one and the same. They are both the work. They are both bringing others to … Jesus Christ.”
One of the biggest lessons Sister Oberg’s parents learned from watching her missionary experience is that the Lord has a pattern. “He asks us to do things that are full of surprises and learning opportunities,” said Sister Oberg’s mother, “and when we do them with our whole heart, the outcome is the same: increased trust in our Savior and an increased ability to feel His love for ourselves and those we are serving.”
Photograph by Shaun Stahle
This Is Where God Needed Me
Elder Brandon Burton served as a proselyting missionary in the Philippines Cabanatuan Mission for eight months. “I loved teaching in Tagalog and felt that I had adjusted to the culture,” he said.
Unfortunately, he started to experience unexpected challenges.
“I felt like my life was slowly losing its color, and it was difficult to see the joy of the work,” he said. “Eventually, after I was diagnosed with depression, my mission leaders and I concluded that I should go home to navigate my new health challenges.”
Elder Burton was disappointed. He said, “I thought I was ruining God’s plan by coming home.” But he worked with his stake president to transfer to a service mission.
Through a series of miracles that took place before Elder Burton even boarded the plane home, his parents met individuals at Church headquarters who gave him the opportunity to serve the Lord with his unique skills and abilities.
The rest of his mission included teaching the gospel in the evenings, helping with articles for the Liahona magazine, working with horses, and serving in the Bountiful Utah Temple.
“God clearly showed that this was His plan and that He would provide for me,” he said.
Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said that “service missionaries bring great blessings to themselves, but more importantly, as they are doing this work, they’re blessing Heavenly Father’s children in unique ways.”
Elder Burton concluded, “I thought I came home because I was broken, but I learned that is not true. I transferred to a service mission because that is where God needed me, and He provided a way.”
Photograph by Mirna Ortiz
A Service Mission Pioneer
Elder Esteban Méndez’s mother said the Lord isn’t “casual” in His plan for His children. He is always aware of our needs. Elder Méndez was originally called to serve in the Guatemala Guatemala City Mission, and his parents were excited for him to serve.
Just before leaving the Mexico Missionary Training Center to enter the mission field, however, he returned home. His parents were confused. They came to understand that the Lord had called him to serve in Guatemala so that he could deepen his own conversion while in the Mexico Missionary Training Center. Much of his testimony began to grow there in Mexico.
Soon after returning home, Elder Méndez was called to be a service missionary in Costa Rica, where he lives. He didn’t know anything about service missions but accepted the call with faith that he could serve the Lord there too.
After accepting the call, Elder Méndez became the first young service missionary in Costa Rica. At the time, he and his companion were the only young service missionaries in the entire country.
Elder Méndez’s service includes assisting in the mission office, accompanying the teaching missionaries, and serving in the San José Costa Rica Temple.
Elder Méndez’s father said, “Because of Elder Méndez’s efforts, one extended family member has been baptized and another is taking missionary lessons.”
A Pattern for Service
Our lives are full of great adventures to help us learn. The Lord will guide and inspire each of us, and as we serve, we will increase our love for those we serve and especially for Him. As He has said, “If ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work” (Doctrine and Covenants 4:3)—wherever He may need us.