While many Church members serve within their local communities, some choose to devote even more of their time to humanitarian work. Many single young men and women fill a part-time service missionary role, in which they organize and participate in service and humanitarian projects within their communities.
Married couples may opt to serve as full-time welfare and self-reliance missionaries. These couples devote their time to administering humanitarian projects in their assigned area.
Full-time proselytizing missionaries participate in service projects as part of their ministry—separate from their work teaching about the Savior. These missionaries assist with emergency response initiatives as they arise.
Service Initiatives
Hundreds of missionaries across the world devote several months of their lives to help carry out the work of caring for those in need.
Some, like the Thomases, work in operations such as Employment Services that help Church members build self-reliance. They provide interview coaching, resume writing help, and networking opportunities to those looking for a job. Others serve the community at large by identifying and administering humanitarian projects in their assigned areas. Elder Christensen, for example, coordinates the Church’s collaboration with Colori Vivi, a company in Italy that provides tailoring jobs and train-ing for mothers who have been displaced from their homes.
Disaster Relief
Missionaries are often called upon to offer their assistance in emergencies and other disasters. In Poland, the Footes (a humanitarian service missionary couple) helped to lighten the burdens of others when they noticed that many displaced persons arriving at the train station were hauling loads of belongings in heavy shopping bags or rucksacks. To help, the Footes began handing out donated rolling suitcases to anyone who needed them. At one point, as many as 60 suitcases were handed out in a single day.
Missionaries drove up to six hours from Canada to a small town in Minnesota in the United States to coordinate relief efforts following several floods. Over the span of a month, missionaries and other volunteers from the region worked 12- to 14-hour days placing sandbags around homes and businesses throughout the impacted areas. These examples of service are only a few of many performed by missionaries each year. Such small acts accumulate to relieve burdens and restore hope.
“This work is exhausting, physically and emotionally,” said Sister Foote. “But you can see the light come into their eyes with renewed hope. We can see we have lightened someone else’s burden. It is all so worthwhile.”
Community Service
Missionaries are encouraged to spend 4–40 hours per week providing community service. For instance, missionaries in Ecuador volunteered their time and efforts to clear debris from an abandoned lot so they could then help build a Catholic chapel. Once it is finished, missionaries plan to offer free English classes there every week for the local community.
“Now is the time we can bless others and ‘lift up the hands which hang down.’”