Wanted: Young men or women who love the Lord, have a testimony of missionary service, are willing to sacrifice, want to dedicate a portion of their life at their own expense, and have a fondness for… technology.

When we think of full-time missionaries, we often have a definite image in mind: conservative dress, modest hair styles, white shirt and tie, and traveling in pairs. We normally don’t see missionaries carrying an iPad to their next meeting, working on lines of code, or testing the latest smartphone app. But this is exactly what Alan Smoot, manager for the LDSTech community, hopes to see more of in the near future.

“Not every young man or woman can serve a mission for various reasons, yet they may still have a desire to contribute their time and talents,” Alan explains. “As a bishop, I had one such young man come to me recently. He was tech-savvy and wanted to serve a mission, but for various reasons, a proselyting mission wasn’t appropriate. He was nevertheless able to contribute by coding.” 

Meet Elder Aaron Monson from Lindon, Utah. He recently completed a technology service mission for LDSTech. Growing up, Elder Monson played computer games, as do most kids today. Okay, he played a lot of computer games and was so involved with the games that he wanted to build his own, so he learned how to program. He took some intro to computer programming, information systems, and Java classes at BYU. Elder Monson then took a break from his studies at BYU to serve a mission.

For a typical day on his mission within the LDSTech community, Elder Monson worked on the LDSTech website, implemented new functionality (such as tags), performed maintenance (such as backup and upgrades), answered incoming e-mail sent to tech@ldschurch.org, participated in the tech forums, troubleshot bugs, contacted project leads to coordinate who would be coming to service day, and so on.

Elder Monson worked extensively on backend functionality for the LDSTech website, among other technical tasks during his mission for LDSTech.

In the evenings or weekends, outside of office hours, he assisted special needs in a branch, performed online missionary work, participated in Family Search indexing, attended the temple, and took institute classes.

About Technology Service Missions

The specific duties and schedule of technology missions depend on the abilities and needs of the missionary. Typically, missionaries live at home and commute to the assigned office. If missionaries live farther out, they arrange their own living area in proximity to the office. In some circumstances, they also work remotely. 

Unlike full-time missionaries, technology service missionaries are not assigned to a companion, and they serve a 6, 12, 18, or 24-month mission depending on personal circumstances.

The technology mission is also ideal for senior couples. The ideal couple would have a mix of skills. One may have some technical skills such as coding, designing, or testing, and the other may have organizational or communication skills. While one is coding or testing, the other can be managing and communicating with LDSTech community members.

Whether you’re young or more seasoned, single adult or couple, if you love technology and would like to serve a church service mission, you can serve within the LDSTech community. 

If you or someone you know is interested in serving as a technology service mission, the first step is to speak with your bishop. Then get in contact with Alan Smoot at SmootAR@ldschurch.org. Alan meets with all missionary candidates to assess their technical skills and determine the best way to serve.