Two Latter-Day missionaries for Monticello

Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.

You might see Sister Call and Sister Williams walking around Monticello, or maybe they've stopped and are helping someone.
Both young women are with the Tallahassee 6th Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), and their mission is to serve and share the gospel with all who they come in contact with.
There are LDS missionaries around the world, and multiple “companionships” (as they are called) of missionaries in Tallahassee area alone.
While Sisters Call and Williams serve the area of Jefferson County, their group, the Florida Tallahassee Mission goes into Madison and Perry, north to Mobile and Troy AL, and then west all the way into Mississippi.
Sister Call, who is from Arizona, has been on mission for 15 months, and started her mission of service and salvation in Pensacola before she was transferred to the companionship on the FSU campus. From there, she was later moved to Troy, AL, then back to Pensacola, and now here- in Monticello.
Sister Williams, from Idaho, has been on her mission period for a slightly shorter period in comparison, only nine months. She started in Sims, AL, and was kept there for 7 ½ months before being transferred to the Tallahassee/Monticello companionship.
“We all have the opportunity to serve,” said Sister Call. No one is forced to go into a missionary period.
In order to qualify as a missionary, Call said that a letter recommending the aspiring missionary must be sent by their congregation leader to the Salt Lake City, UT, church headquarters.
Once the letter is received, the prophets and apostles in Salt Lake City seek divine revelation and place the missionary in the place they are led to go.
“We know that we want to serve a mission, we know how long we'll be gone, but we have no idea where we are going to go until we get our letter. It's really cool, because you can go anywhere in the world,” said Williams. “You always get to make a lot of fun memories and new experiences. You meet lots of different people that you've never met before”
Men serve two-year missionary periods, while women serve for 18 months.
After being sent on their mission by their church leaders, the missionaries will be in an area for at least six weeks, at which point they will either be instructed to move somewhere else, or be told to stay and wait.
“You for sure stay in an area for six weeks, then every six weeks we get a call saying we are going or staying,” said Williams.
For both young women, their decision to become a missionary was brought about by their love for people and their desire to help people in ways both spiritual and physical.
“I chose to become a missionary because I love helping people. What better way to help people than to bring them eternal joy and happiness?” said Call. She spreads happiness through sharing the gospel, but also doing a lot of community service.
“We do pretty much anything,” Call added, saying that she has helped with food distributions, various festivals, including the Watermelon Festival. She also volunteers at any place that accepts volunteers, such as Second Harvest and the Ronald McDonald House.
But they don't wait on a community event or organization to give them ways to help.
“If we see someone pulling weeds when we are walking, we'll ask them if they need help. It's just little small acts of service sometimes too,” said Call. Some of the projects they've managed to get involved in through their offering of aid is painting homes and moving furniture. “Our main purpose is to just lift up others around us, wherever we are, and help them have a little more joy, have a smile on their face and bring them closer to Jesus Christ.”
Sister Williams said that her love and compassion towards humanity is what pushed her to give her time to the mission field.
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ has brought me so much joy and so much peace, and I just want to share that with other people so they can know how to get through those hard times; they can know that this life isn't the end, there's life after death and to know that we can be with our families forever,” said Williams. “I love people so much, I just love to serve them, and this is the greatest way I could just serve them.”
Both Sister Call and Sister Williams have their current 'home base' in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints congregation located off of Buck Lake Road, in Tallahassee.