MEN ON A MISSION

 By Andy Malby, editor

Mormons battle homesickness, indifference in quest for converts



Life is about to return to normal for Alex Denney.

Next week, he will leave Three Forks and fly home to Chesapeake, Va., after two years as a Mormon missionary in the church’s Montana Mission.

He has spent those years in towns like Hardin and Lakeside, Lewistown and Livingston. He hasn’t seen his hometown in that entire time and has only phoned his family there a handful of times.

"When you’re on a mission, you’re focused on your mission," he said. "Your life is on hold."

Denney and his current mission companion, Marcus Journey, have been going door-to-door in Three Forks, Manhattan and other towns in the area for about six weeks. Their mission, along with bringing new converts to the church, is service, Denney said. "We’re always seeking to help people spiritually."

It’s not easy work. Besides being away from home and family for a solid two years, Denney said he had a gun pulled on him in one of the towns where he served. Journey tells a story about serving at the 24-hour beckon call of a wheelchair-bound man in Wyoming.

But the biggest enemy is indifference.

"Most people are just not interested" in hearing what the men have to say. But that doesn’t get them off the hook. Up at dawn, the men are required to work until 9:30 p.m., every day. They get one day off each week to regroup.

"Can it get dragging some days? Yeah," Denney says. "But there’s a great reward in being able to teach people and seeing their lives change for the better."

Journey, a native of Kansas City, Kan., has been out 10 months. He spent two years in college before making the decision to go on a mission, and put his studies on hold. For the last several weeks, though, he’s battled an illness that keeps him up "half the night" and threatens to sideline him. But he wants to stay in the field.

"I love being a missionary," the 20-year-old said. "If I didn’t believe in what I was doing I wouldn’t be doing it."

Denney said missionary work is more than just going door-to-door in search of converts.

"It’s a calling, a mantle we’re given," he said. "We’re called upon to do this job."

Both men said the greatest rewards are in the relationships they build along the way, both with church and community members and with fellow missionaries.

"The relationships you build with different people, whether of your church or not, are the best thing," Journey said.

Denney, whose mission began before the national economy tanked, said getting a foot in the door to talk with people may get easier as economic pressure takes its toll.

"In hard times, people are more likely to turn to the Lord and realized they do need Him," he said. "I think it will bring people to at least want to hear our message."