Youths and adults in Butler County have opportunities for church mission trips. However, few have missions like those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

Men and women are called elders and sisters during their mission. The commitment for men is two years, for women, 18 months.

“All my friends are doing this,” said Elder Brandon Daynes, 19, of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Daynes has been a missionary for nine months. He served in Indiana, Pa., and now lives in South Buffalo Township, Armstrong County.

For this placement, he lives and works with companions Elder Jacob Story, 19, of Orem, Utah, and Elder Spencer Haws, 18, of Lehigh, Utah.

“I grew up with having brothers doing missions,” said Story, whose mission began a few months ago. “I wanted to find out if it was for me.”

Haws has been a missionary for nine months and previously served in McKeesport and in Huntingdon.

“Our purpose is to invite others to come to Christ,” said Haws. “They have a lot of questions. That’s good.”

“We try to do some sort of service every week,” said Haws.

The trio has helped with soup kitchens, building houses, walking dogs and moving households in an area that stretches south from Worthington and Templeton in Armstrong County to Blawnox in Allegheny County.

Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh Mission area is one of 400 LDS missions worldwide. Each has a president.

Its president, Clinton Topham, supervises and assigns 240 missionaries, most between 18 and 26 years old. New missionaries arrive every six weeks and work near LDS congregations such as those in Butler, Cranberry Township, Wexford and Sarver.

Topham said, “They have been taught throughout their youth about what missionary life is going to be like.”

“They are proselytizing to find and invite people to join the church, they are working with people who have joined the church and have fallen away and they do service for people,” said Topham.

He meets regularly with the missionaries for training that builds on the two weeks of instruction they already had in Utah.

“I’d never really thought about going on mission because it didn’t really fit in with my career plans,” said Sister Alisa Larsen, 20, of Farmington, Utah. When the eligible age for missionaries changed recently, she decided to participate.

She started her mission in Brookville. Then she served in Carlisle, Beaver Falls and New Brighton and now in Butler County.

Larsen said, “I always thought it would be really scary. But I prayed about it and Heavenly Father told me that this is what I was supposed to do.”

Sister Storm Thomas, 20, of Payson, Utah, is paired with Larsen. Thomas has been in Elizabethtown and Monongahela.

“I come from a family who didn’t go to church. I was the only person who went to the Mormon church actively,” said Thomas.

Thomas said, “Since being on the mission, my family has become a lot more invested in researching out the Gospel for themselves and wanting to make it a bigger part of their lives.”

Sisters and elders pay in advance for their mission expenses with the help of their parents, other people or the church.

Worldwide, LDS missionaries follow the same disciplined schedule that designates times for exercise, meals, prayer, study, service, appointments, planning and sleep.

On Thursdays, Larsen and Thomas help with the free community meal offered at Katie’s Kitchen at Butler’s St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Other days may include meeting with LDS members who want more fellowship. Missionaries also receive requests for literature and visits through the website lds.org.

The sisters and elders face misconceptions. Some people don’t realize that LDS members believe in the Bible or that they belong to a Christian church.

“Mormon is a kind of a nickname that we’ve been given,” said Larsen. “We are Christian and do believe in Jesus Christ as our savior.”

“What sets us apart is the Book of Mormon,” said Daynes. “It clarifies what the Bible teaches.”

Story said his faith makes him a better, happier and more peaceful person. He feels it also can give others peace in a world of changing values.

“We don’t take away from other people’s faith, we want to add to it,” said Haws.

The workload and being far from home can be difficult. Missionaries write letters and e-mails to their families but only talk with their families twice during their missions.

Haws said moving every few months allows for greater experience.

The sisters and elders know the missions change their lives.

“I’m more responsible,” said Daynes.

Haws said, “The biggest change as I spend time helping others to Christ is I feel my own relationship with Christ strengthening.”

“I have a better understanding of what God wants me to do and the role he can play in my life,” said Story. “It’s made me recognize that God loves me and everyone else in the world. It’s given me hard things to do and I have to lean on him more.”

Thomas said, “It also teaches us how to grow up and be on our own. It’s impacted every aspect of my life.”

“If we pattern our lives after Jesus Christ, we find happiness that isn’t temporary. It is permanent and lasting,” said Larsen. “It is a deeper joy than anything else I’ve experienced.”