When Sister Hoopes began volunteering at her local elementary school in Springville, her goal was simple: Help a young Syrian child learn English. As they worked on his English, however, the young service missionary quickly realized she was the one being taught.
Despite having experienced terrible things in his home country, she said that the young boy showed her what it meant to be genuinely happy.
Sister Hoopes is a young adult missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her calling as a missionary is full-time, and she is part of the church’s service missionary program, where missionaries willingly give their time to serve within their local communities. According to the church, the program’s purpose is to help others come unto Christ by serving with loving kindness, ministering “to the one.”
Sister Hoopes said that she didn’t know about service missionaries until she became one herself. In fact, she initially began her mission in Denver, Colorado, where she was serving a more traditional proselytizing mission, and then transitioned to a service missionary.
“I actually had no idea about service missions before I (started) one,” she said. She also said that the transition from teaching others about Jesus Christ in Denver, to serving others like the Syrian child at the local elementary school, has changed her focus.
“He taught me so much about being so happy all the time,” Sister Hoopes said. “I never saw him anything but genuinely happy.”
According to Sister Hoopes, this child had seen terrible things that were normal to him, but she said that he taught her that if she could find one thing she could believe in, it would help her to get through all of the little moments that scare her. She realized that not only had her new friend from Syria started over, but she was starting over too. They were working through it together.
Sister Hoopes’ time at the elementary school is over, but she said that she has served in many capacities since, while still on her mission. She currently volunteers her time helping at the Provo City Center Church of Jesus Christ temple grounds, a children’s hospital in Lehi, and the barbershop at the Provo Missionary Training Center. She has been visiting widows, helping busy moms, and lending a hand wherever she can in her own neighborhood.
Elder Kent’s Journey Around the World from Home
Elder Kent is another service missionary in Springville who is making an impact in the community.
After graduating from Springville High School in the spring of 2024 and completing some college, Elder Kent prepared to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ. He received a unique call to serve as a service missionary right in his hometown.
Serving as a service missionary was unfamiliar to Elder Kent, but he quickly started serving his community. Through some connections he asked a BYU professor in the economics department if he could use some help in the Family History Lab. Now he volunteers as a research assistant and has volunteered there for the past year.
Elder Kent is currently working on a project for Kazakhstan, in central Asia. He scans websites to pull names off books to build genealogy trees.
In addition to that project, he has also aided in genealogical research in collaboration with Cornell, Stanford, and Notre Dame, among other projects.
Elder Kent also worked with employees at the Church of Jesus Christ headquarters developing church apps such as: Gospel Library, Preach My Gospel, Gospel for Kids, and Gospel Living among other projects.
“I was with the quality assurance team, making sure that those apps functioned, testing, and writing reports,” he said. “I worked in the cubicles next to the developers and collaborated with them.”
While many of Elder Kent’s projects are behind the scenes, some of his assignments are visible in the community. He has volunteered at the Springville Latter-Day Saint Employment Services, Tabitha’s Way, assisted living, and with the Springville Track and Cross Country team, just to name a few.
Lately, he has been helping with a free clinic in Orem called the Bingham clinic. He has helped them with a lot of things to get their feet off the ground. When he first got there, he helped with painting the walls, which led to helping with other needs. He has helped with quarterly reports, scheduling volunteers, creating policies and procedures. He also built an app to help with the logistics of people clocking in and out to help use everyone’s time efficiently and effectively.
The Bingham clinic has volunteer doctors and staff and is free for anyone who makes less than 300% of the federal poverty limit.
He said that volunteering with the Springville High school track and cross-country team has also brought him a lot of joy.
“That team did a lot for me, and I’ve seen it do a lot for other people. And I want to make sure that everyone has a good opportunity to feel loved and included on that team,” Elder Kent said.
Throughout his journey as a young service missionary, he has learned to seek out opportunities to bless, lift and serve the community around him.
“I’m learning how to connect with people, how to interact with them, and how to help them,” he said.
Sister Hoopes and Elder Kent are just two examples of how Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint missionaries are able to serve in their very own home towns. There are many ways for people within the community to serve.
Ask yourself: How will you find time to serve in your community?
