A Conversation with an American Mormon Missionary Couple in Samoa
Patricia and Paul Streiff adore their kids and grand-kids; love their home and neighbourhood in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley; and have season passes to University of Utah football games. And yet, they have volunteered - twice - to spend two years in a foreign land helping others. What motivates them to serve as missionaries, at their own expense and without any pay, wherever they are asked to serve? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ director of public affairs for the Pacific Area, Richard Hunter, recently asked the ever-sunny couple a few questions to get to the bottom of why they serve and why they want to keep on doing it.
Why did you volunteer to be missionaries?
We were in a Stake Conference [a Latter-day Saint stake is similar to a diocese in other Christian churches] when the Stake President said that they had so many needs around the world for senior couples, and that all of us should be thinking about it. We both went home and neither of us said anything about it for a week or so. One day as we were driving down the freeway, Pat said I can’t get the thought out of my head that we should go on a mission, now. I looked at her and said “that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking too.” I guess we were both leery about saying anything to each other. When we finally started to talk about it we found that we both felt we should go. Our lives had been so blessed that we knew it was time for us to make some sacrifices and go serve the Lord.
Why go on two missions?
We had had such a great experience on our first mission in Taiwan that we decided that we would like to serve again. It was exciting to live in a foreign country and have an opportunity to experience another culture and get to know lots of wonderful people, both members of the Church and those of other faiths. We made many dear friends in the government and among the Muslim, Catholic, and Buddhist communities. It took a little time to get used to the unfamiliar types of food but we found that much of it was very delicious and very suited to our tastes.
What do you like about Samoa?
We love the people. We love to sit in our office at the service center and listen to the local members. They are singing, laughing and walk around in their bare feet with flowers in their hair. We have been so impressed with their dedication to the Lord’s work and their love for their own country. Samoa is a beautiful place with just one season, summer. It has been a joy to work and serve here.
What have you learned from the people of Samoa?
One of the first things we noticed when we arrived in Samoa was just how loving the Samoan people were and how important their families were to them. They place a very high importance on serving in the Church and have put this ahead of their own personal wants and desires. They have taught us to be more thoughtful of each other and to take the time to care for and love those around us. The pace of life is much slower here and we have learned to take a step back once in a while and let things come to us rather than pushing all the time for success. The work gets done and it’s much less stressful than what we had been used to.
What do you like best about being missionaries for the Church?
Being missionaries for the Church makes us feel that we are trying in a small way to help people find the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a great plan for happiness and we find satisfaction and joy in doing all we can to help that message get to the people of the world. We also love the association we have with all of the other senior couples. We get to rub shoulders with such remarkable people. We have served with couples that have served two or three missions and are planning to serve more. It’s a great association and it’s like you have an instant family away from home.
What do your children and grandchildren think of you being off serving missions?
Our family has supported us all the way and we feel the prayers they are saying for us every day. They have helped us financially, spiritually and physically by taking care of our home and other obligations. Even through they love to have us around they know that it’s our turn to serve the Lord and are always upbeat in their support. Our grandchildren now have their own email addresses and we get to hear from them all the time. They love to hear about our adventures in the mission field.
How is this mission different to your first mission?
Our first mission was to Taiwan. We lived in a very modern city with over five million people. The majority of them were Buddhist and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was almost unheard of. The average person on the street had never heard of our Church but a few did recognize the name Mormon. Samoa on the other hand is a much smaller nation with just a fraction of the people of Taiwan. 99% of the population is Christian and just about everyone knows about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Much of our first mission was spent getting to know people and then helping to educate them as to who we are and what our church is all about. In Samoa, everyone knows who we are so we spend more time working with local members and helping them plan and organize to be more effective in their outreach and service to others.
What is it like being missionary companions with your spouse?
The one good thing about having your spouse as your companion is that you know that on transfer day you won’t get a bad one. It’s really amazing how close you become and just how much you learn to appreciate the talents and abilities of one another. It’s not easy going from a normal work day where one or both of you go to separate jobs during much of the day and now spend every minute together. It takes a bit of adjustment and lots of patience but the rewards are well worth it.
What is the hardest part about being a missionary?
We think that being away from family is the hardest thing. Missing baby births, weddings, birthdays and grandchildren being baptized is always hard. Having to give up many of your favorite foods and restaurants is hard but you find many new ones that seem to fill the need. And of course it’s always hard to leave your comfortable home and all the conveniences that you have become used to.
What is your funniest missionary story?
We have had so many funny stories that it’s hard to pick a single one. When we were serving in Taiwan, we found it necessary to shop at several different stores to find the necessary ingredients for a meal. Instead of a four or five star meal, we had three, four or even five store meals. In order to get to all these stores we had to use either the bus, taxi, bikes, underground rail system or walk.
One day as we had just finished shopping at one store, we noticed a bus with the number that would take us to a rather isolated little store that carried quite a few U.S.A. products. It was just about to pull away from the curb when we jumped on board. Everything was working out great but there was just one little problem that we had not considered. The streets of Taiwan are very confusing with little streets running in every possible direction and we had jumped on this bus without a clue as to which way it was really going.
We reasoned that one way or the other we would end up at the location we desired because most of the buses take a circular route that just keeps going around and around. The stop we desired would have only been ten or fifteen minutes away so after riding for over an hour we began to get a little worried. We had often talked about how fun it might be to just get on any random bus and see where it ended up but now that we were actually experiencing this it became quite an adventure.
It was getting dark and we had no idea where we actually were. One by one all the other passengers had exited the bus and we were now the only ones on board. We kept thinking that bus would reach the end of its route and head back the other way. Suddenly, the driver pulled to the curb, said something in Mandarin Chinese and motioned for us to exit the bus. We tried to tell him with our best hand signals and very poor Chinese that we needed to go back the other way. He shook his head as if to say no and gave us a hand sign that he was finished for the day and we must get off.
We stood there on the street and were actually laughing at the predicament that we had gotten ourselves into when a nice little lady on the other side of the street somehow perceived our predicament and motioned for us to come across the street and walk in the direction she pointed. We followed her directions and about a block away found another bus stop. We waited only ten or fifteen minutes until another bus showed up with the same number and we took the hour and a half bus ride back the other way and eventually arrived safely at our desired destination. We decided that it was probably not a good Idea to take random buses just to see where they ended up.
Are there more missions in you?
We have decided that as long as our health and money holds up we will continue to serve. We have found that we are not really needed to serve at home because there are so many capable people in our home wards [a ward is a Latter-day Saint congregation]. We feel like there are so many opportunities to serve away from home and it makes us grow spiritually and we feel like the sacrifices we make are so small in comparison to the blessings we receive through serving.
