Mormon missionaries intensify Spanish outreach

The immigrant woman, just months into her life in Waynesboro, came from an ugly place.

Hometown gang violence in the Mexican state of Chihuahua drove her to leave. Faith carried her.

“If we don’t have faith, we have nothing,” she said in Spanish to two Mormon missionaries invited into her plain but newly furnished home.

The missionaries, sitting opposite her on a sofa, nodded. It’s why they stopped by.

Pulling from news reports, they tried to bridge the culture gap with sobering, but casual, conversation. Next, they would attempt to cross the faith gap. Sitting nearby, a Catholic figurine watched from above the family television set.

Mormon church leaders have laid plans to expand their Spanish outreach in Virginia and to perpetuate their presence — new just this year — in Waynesboro. The church first deployed Spanish-speaking missionaries in the state 20 years ago.

Nationwide, less than 1 percent of Hispanics are Mormon, compared to almost 70 percent Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center. Worldwide, Hispanics make up the fastest growing contingent of Mormon converts, church leaders said.

Another half-dozen Spanish-speaking missionaries recently arrived in Virginia, including a native speaker in Waynesboro. And the church is launching an English conversation program, said Virgina Richmond Mission President James Perry.

The outreach is uncommon in Waynesboro, where immigrants wanting a service in Spanish would find the nearest Catholic Mass 30 minutes away by car. Only one church, Basic City United Methodist, features a weekly Spanish service.

In homes, speaking Spanish, the Mormons kept their message simple and repeated their invite to their Church of Latter Day Saints, which includes a service translated into Spanish and carried through headphones.

“We go a lot off trial-and-error,” Mormon Elder Carter Campbell, 20, said of the language challenge.

Like other elders and sisters, as the missionaries are known, Campbell learned Spanish in six weeks.

“It’s hard to persuade in Spanish,” he said. “How to get to the hearts of the people?”

Knock again

By car, Mormon missionaries abide by strict mileage guidelines. By foot, they travel without limits.

So on a spring day, in a neighborhood with a generous Hispanic presence, Campbell and Elder Karson Pasker parked as soon as they reached a residential street and stepped out.

The pair, the first to work Waynesboro full-time in Spanish, walked side by side in matching dark slacks, pressed white shirts, white-lettered name tags and bright ties. They surveyed front porches, toys in yards and cars for signs of immigrant households.

Detailed day planners are packed with items beginning at 6:30 a.m. and carrying through with personal and companion and language studies, and into the night with appointments.

On that day, part of the daily schedule was open for knocking on doors. The technique — neither preferred, nor most efficient — comes with surprises and standoffs, Pasker said. But Hispanics tend to welcome them.

“They’ll invite you in … even give you some food,” he said.

The elders and sisters, who rotate through various communities, said Waynesboro is especially friendly and interconnected.

The people “have the desire to change their lives,” said Sister Emily Marvin, 22, who works in English. That contrasts with people in cities who tend to resist help and the invite to church, she said.

Missionaries undergo intense language training before they enter communities. Interactions further their skills and — gaffes and misinterpretations included — help them connect.

Their names, or at least their uniforms, often precede them because of the speed of conversation in the community. Their service work, from stopping to hammer in a yard sale sign to blocking out an afternoon to paint a shed, is widely known.

“They know you are people of God,” said sister Natalie Brady, 22.

The missionaries also observe closely what could be lacking in a home or a person’s life and ask if they can help.

“The Lord said take it to every person in the world,” said Mark Millburn, a former president for the Virginia Richmond Mission. “Over time, you begin to understand [missionary work] better … and why at 19 or 20, they put life on hold to seek out those few.”

With her Spanish, Brady helped translate school papers and medical terms.

“It really showed them that we cared,” she said.

The missionaries, who wear the name of Jesus Christ on their chests, try to “be as he would be.”

“Emulate to the best of our ability,” Campbell said. “Humble, meek, hopeful, patient … ”

During lessons in homes, missionaries try to help individuals grow, not change, they said. In the case of speaking to Catholic Hispanics, the goal is reaching common ground.

At services in the Church of Latter Day Saints on Jefferson Lane, a Spanish-speaking missionary translates sermons in real-time by speaking into a microphone connected to headphones.

At least 120 people attend most Sundays. Amid a sea of children from typically large Mormon families are just a few Hispanics. The missionaries try to make them comfortable.

Sunday for many other Hispanics means a day of travel out of Waynesboro, to Catholic Masses in Harrisonburg, Charlottesville or Lovingston.

It’s been four years since St. John’s Catholic Church in Waynesboro offered a regular Spanish mass. Last month, a Spanish service returned for one day. A Bible study and ESL class are underway.

“I saw something had to be done,” said Jose Rodriguez, a maintenance employee acting as Hispanic liaison.

He wants to host more baptisms and quiñcinieras, which are traditional parties on a girl’s fifteenth birthday.

Rodriguez estimated 90 percent of local Hispanics are Catholic. But he understands if they’ve looked elsewhere.

In their lives

Spanish thrives at Basic City United Methodist Church.

For at least six years, Pastor Don Gibson has ministered in Spanish and built a program that includes after-school tutoring for Hispanic children, a multiracial youth group, an Hispanic youth praise band, English classes and a broad web of service projects including food deliveries and a clothing drive.

Far less structured is Gibson’s personal response to at least a handful of Spanish calls a day for keys locked in cars, overdue rent, funerals, rides to job interviews or home visits.

“Everything,” he said. “I’m in the lives of the people of the church.”

Because his is the only dedicated Hispanic church in town, Gibson aims to serve all people regardless of denomination.

So giving, Gibson’s pastor fund often runs dry. Some congregation members said they are disappointed in fellow Hispanics who accept help without also coming for the word of God.

On typical Sunday nights, the Hispanic congregation trickles in late as Gibson walks the room. Latin music plays. More than 30 people attend.

Clap-along songs follow, with lyrics projected onto a wall, with which blond-haired Marina Obrusnik, of Uruguay, sings and plays piano.

After Gibson’s sermon, members come forward to kneel at the altar.

One-by-one, they step to the front of the church and pray with their heads on folded hands, lips moving. Gibson steps to each of them to bestow a blessing. He rests his hands on their shoulders.

He’s with them completely.

And when they return to their seats some wipe away tears.

Gibson’s message is authentic, said Otilio Briones, of Stuarts Draft. Like others, he repeatedly came back to the word “good” to describe Gibson.

The congregation files out in the dark. Many catch rides back home in the church van.

Meeting needs

While Gibson develops a program seemingly without a ceiling, the Mormons strive for continuity in theirs.

A Spanish lull followed the departures of Campbell and Pasker at their mission ends.

“It kept coming to my mind that we needed someone,” said sister Marvin, who asked leaders to meet the need.

Spanish-speaking missionaries, including those who arrived this month, make up about 30 of 200 in Virginia, Perry said.

The newest in Waynesboro is native Spanish speaker Joyce Vazquez, 25. She arrived in late November with more than a year of mission experience, mostly in large Virginia cities, and about four months remaining in her mission. She works bilingually alongside two English-speaking missionaries.

Raised in a family that converted to Mormonism, but not far removed from Catholicism, Vazquez said she has many ways to connect with and serve Hispanics, many of whom find comfort in conversations about life back home.

She said she finds many “willing to learn.”

“If we can empower individuals ... I think the impact to the community will be felt in lots of different ways,” Perry said.

He said increased community involvement, improved parenting and better jobs follow language training.

He said Hispanics, often on the fringe of society, have unmet needs.

“No matter what your feeling is ... in the political arena, in the interim there is plenty of good work to do,” he said. “Sometimes that’s the thing that’s missed in this.”