Less than a year after graduating from Rifle High School, Brooklynn Dennis will embark on her first international trip: an 18-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tucumán, Argentina. 

“I’m actually really excited since I haven’t really left the valley,” Brooklynn, who lives in Silt, said. “Living here my whole life, I just want to go out and travel and see the world. I’m just glad that I get this opportunity to do that.”

Usually under 25 years old, missionaries are sent all over the world to preach and serve for 18-24 months, often postponing college or trade school. More than 83,000 people are serving in nearly 405 missions throughout the world for the LDS Church at any one time, according to the LDS Church. 

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Missionaries can be single men 18-25 years old, single women over the age of 19 or retired couples. Single men, who are addressed with the title “Elder,” serve for two years and single women, called “Sister,” serve for 18 months.

A missionary’s day typically begins at 6:30 a.m. with personal study. The rest of the day is spent attempting to convert others by following up on appointments, visiting homes or meeting people in public places. They avoid entertainment, parties and other activities young adults commonly partake in so they can “focus entirely on the work of serving and of teaching others the gospel of Jesus Christ,” the LDS Church states. 

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Some missionaries are sent to certain parts of the world only to serve humanitarian or other specialized missions and do not proselytize.

“I don’t know about most teenagers, but sometimes (they) don’t have their lives figured out right as they graduate high school,” Brooklynn said. “I feel like doing this is going to help me not only grow my relationship with God and Jesus Christ, but also help me get where I need to be.”

Mission trips are voluntary, and expenses are paid out-of-pocket. “Many of them have worked years and saved their entire lives to be able to go,” LDS Just Serve Coordinator Ansley Dennis, who is also Brooklynn’s mother, said.

Inspired by her grandfather, who served in New Zealand, and father, who met her mother while on a mission trip in Colorado, Brooklynn, now 19, has wanted to go on a mission trip since she was a child.

“I remember being pretty young, sitting at the dinner table telling my parents that I wanted to go on a mission,” Brooklynn said. “At our church they instill it in you: if you want to, you can go do this. So I always thought that would be a really cool opportunity for me.”

Missionaries don’t return home until their service is complete and can only contact family and friends by writing letters and occasionally calling.

“Being away from my family for that long, and not seeing them in person will be a little hard,”
Brookylnn said. “Me and my mom have a pretty close relationship, and so I think that will be a little difficult.”

Prospective missionaries fill out paperwork and a series of questions about anything from their health to their interests, and “the president of our church and general authorities pray individually upon each name submitted,” Ansley said. “They seek revelation from the Lord as to where to send each youth member.”

Missionaries spend a short period of time at one of 17 different missionary training centers where they learn how to teach the gospel and if necessary, the language they will be teaching in. Training centers are located all around the world, including South Korea, Chile, England, New Zealand and Spain, with the largest in Provo, Utah.

On Nov. 14, Brooklynn will be sent to a missionary training center in Mexico for six weeks to learn Spanish before departing for Argentina, where she will preach and serve in Spanish. 

“I’ll be paired with other people who do speak Spanish, so they’ll kind of mentor me and teach me a little bit about it,” she said. “I know that if it’s what God wants me to do, then he’ll make it happen.”

While in Argentina, Brooklynn will stay in an apartment with three other missionaries, one of whom will work with her as her “companion” throughout the 18 month experience. 

“For the girls and guys who are coming out, they call them greenies, and they usually get paired with someone who’s older after the missionary training center. They’ll get paired with someone who’s had more experience,” Brooklynn said. “They’ll kind of train them and teach them different things.”

“As you can imagine, a lot of missionaries probably get homesick,” she added. “So it’s like having a best friend, leaning on each other and helping each other out through the 18 months.”

Brooklynn is just one of many local LDS youths preparing for a mission trip — Dallin Karen, Gavin Peterson, Jacob Coombs, Skyler Baltzer, Mylee Peck, Taryn Davis and Brinlee Allen will also depart within the next few months. 

“In a world that is struggling and there’s a lot of tumultuous things going on, I think it’s really inspiring to see kids that are led to help others and to love others like that,” Ansley said.

Allen graduated from Glenwood Springs High School in 2024 and was about to enroll in classes at Utah State University when she changed courses. 

“I feel like it was God telling me that I needed to be doing something different,” Allen said. “I don’t actually know why, but I know for 100% fact that I had that feeling and I knew that I needed to be going on a mission instead of going to school.”

Allen deferred her enrollment, and will instead leave the Valley on Nov. 18 to attend a missionary training center before going to Tallahassee, Florida for an 18-month mission. 

“Living in the Valley has been a little bit of a struggle for me, being one of the only students in my high school that goes to our church,” Allen said. “Being able to go out and serve and be able to focus on God and my religion will really help me be able to become a better person and grow into the person that I meant to become.”

Peterson, a 2022 Rifle High School graduate, will fly to Billings, Montana on Nov. 20, where he will serve for the next two years. After graduating high school, he oscillated back and forth on the decision to become a missionary, and only recently committed to serving. 

“Many people have a negative feeling or understanding of ‘mormons’ but a lot of those things are not true,” Peterson said. “We have been asked to try and change the way people see us and one of those ways was to let people know who we are and who we believe in.”