Newberg Graphic Online

‘Sisters’ share in their faith

Religion — Pair of young women serve as LDS missionaries in Newberg

• By: Laurent Bonczijk  
• Published: 4/24/2010 12:00:00 PM

Photo By: Laurent BonczijkRachel Johnson and Emily Low

   They don’t wear slacks or tool around on bicycles, but despite their lack of adherence to stereotypes, Emily Low and Rachel Johnson, both 21, are Mormon missionaries all the same.
   Low and Johnson are part of a sliver of observant women from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who choose to go on a mission like the ubiquitous young men, albeit a shorter one. They wear gray skirts and have the use of a car. Despite those perks, their mission is no easier than the men as they work six days a week and have limited contact with friends and family.
   Both young women displayed a communicative joie-de-vivre, which might explain while they didn’t recall incidents of rude behavior by Newberg residents. It might help that the town sports more than 40 churches, including two LDS wards (housed in a single building on Deborah Road).
   “I grew up LDS,” said Johnson, who hails from Stirling, Alberta, Canada. At first her faith was simply something she accepted, but “as I grew up I started to study it.” She wanted to find out whether what she believed was true, and her inquiries brought a satisfactory answer.
   She said her faith has brought her a lot of happiness in her young life and she has wanted to share it with others: “It’s what brought me out here eventually.”
   Low, who comes from Valley Forge, Pa., has a similar story. “I know how much happiness this message of our savior Jesus Christ and his restored gospel has brought me and my family,” she said, and she wanted to share it with others.

Women missionaries uncommon
   Gene Platt, a Newberg resident who serves in public relations for LDS wards in the Portland area, said that statistically few women go on a mission. They have to be at least 21 and less than 5 percent enter the mission field. Of young men 19 to 26 years old, Platt said that 30 to 40 percent will eventually serve a two-year mission.
   There are 180 missionaries in the Portland area; Platt said 20 to 30 of them are women.
Missionaries must subsidize their work to the tune of $400 per month, Low said. In turn, the church provides them with training, housing and an allowance to cover their cost of living.
   Different wards will provide different levels of support to their missionaries. “The members here are actually so nice to us,” Low said, “they feed us every night.”
   Missionaries are paired by their local supervisor so that an experienced missionary teams up with a less experienced one. They also change geographic areas throughout their assigned region. Low and Johnson are together for the second time, but expect to be assigned new partners for the next leg of their mission.

A work day
   Low and Johnson’s days are planned with near military precision. They wake at 6:30 a.m. and have 90 minutes to eat and exercise. From 8 to 10 a.m. they study scriptures. From 10 a.m. until at least 9 p.m. they’ll work to bring new converts into the church.
   The routine does have its advantages: “You just have to worry about today and this week,” Low said, adding that they’ve become really good at approaching strangers, “Oh man, I have no idea how many people we talked to.”
   While they enjoy knocking on doors to share their faith, said they couldn’t imagine being door-to-door saleswomen.

Knocking on doors
   While they don’t have any horror stories to share about proselytizing in Newberg, the sisters, the term Mormons use for their women missionaries, have found that “there are a lot of misconceptions” about their faith among the general public and “any misconception is usually taught by someone who doesn’t know.”
  They find it most frustrating when people tell them that their pastor has advised them not to talk to Mormons until they know more about the faith. The pair ponders how those people are supposed to learn when they won’t talk to the faithful themselves.
   It’s not all Catch-22 or people in underwear answering the door. “Sister Johnson and I have met such incredible people,” Low said, “we’ve been fed dinner before by total strangers.”

A deeper faith
   “Being a missionary is not easy,” Low said, but the experience has pushed her in ways she hadn’t imagined possible.
   While they both felt mature in their faith before undertaking their mission, it has helped strengthen it even more. “I had no idea when I came out that it would strengthen my faith,” Johnson said. She said that some of the discussions she’s had made her think “why do we believe this?” Which in turn made her turn to her scriptures where she has found answers.
   Low said she believes that she’s matured and grown in ways she wouldn’t have if she’d stayed at home or remained in college. Both women plan on finishing their education once they finish their mission trip.
   The close relationships missionaries must develop with one another has also helped them develop relational skills. “You have to be able to work well with this person (you’ve never met),” Johnson said of being paired. Low posited that living in close quarters around the clock with someone is good training for wedded life.
   Platt, who has five daughters, said one chose to become a missionary and that he saw her develop spiritually at a quicker pace than his other children.
   “No. 1, she was always quite service oriented,” he said, adding that after graduating from college she didn’t have any immediate plans to marry. She returned from her mission in Northern Spain much more ready to take on the rest of her life and has since started a family of her own.
   “A mission is a little bit like a crucible,” Platt said, as it provides “wonderful concentrated growth.”

Focusing on others
   Both women said that entering the mission field, while hard, also had a certain ease to it. By focusing on other people all day they feel that they’ve developed more selflessness than they had before.

Back to their lives
  Once their mission ends both women plan to finish their college educations. Johnson is working on a bachelor’s degree in English and theater at Brigham Young University; Low is finishing a physical education and coaching degree at BYU.
   They think that because they’d already been away from their families and friends for college it made the transition to the mission field easier than it is for the boys who are often straight out of high school.
   Their workload also helps with the homesickness as they have precious little time to stop and feel sorry for themselves.

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