BEAVERCREEK — Many people are familiar with missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but many don’t know that there are different types of missions a member of the church can serve.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints performs humanitarian service, manages a large library of family history records and maintains food production facilities to provide for the poor, among many other things. All of these functions require volunteer service, to which missionaries may be called.
One such missionary is Evan Hancock, of Beavercreek.
Despite a brain tumor from his youth that left him with some weakness on his left side, Evan felt eager to follow in his siblings’ footsteps and serve a mission.
Because of his prior health conditions, Evan knew that he would be serving in the United States. He was assigned to labor in the Provo Utah MTC Mission as an online proselyting missionary. He was later re-assigned to the Salt Lake City Utah Mission as a church service missionary for the remainder of his service.
“I was a little frustrated at first,” Evan said, speaking of getting his call to Utah. “But eventually, I realized that God is in the details.” He learned, as do many missionaries, that he had been sent to the place he was needed most.
Evan worked in the Missionary Training Center, where he worked online, talking to people who had questions about the church.
“In Provo, we served as temple workers on our preparation day,” he said. Because assisting patrons in our sacred houses of worship is an assignment generally given to older couples, it is truly a unique experience to assist in the temple at such a young age.
Evan shared that he “learned a lot about trusting in God.”
