The temperature is barely making an effort to rise above freezing as missionaries Elder Carroll and Elder Putnam begin their day.

They pull one of the eight white shirts in their closet, grab a pair of slacks and decide which tie they can wear in order to switch up their look from the day before.

Their name tags are clipped tightly to the outside of their jackets, reading, “THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.”

Nowhere on that tag will you find their first names, and they’ll be hesitant to tell you if you ask.

Mission

They are just two of nearly 80,000 members of the Mormon faith who are serving as full-time missionaries around the world.

According to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ (LDS Church) website, there are 334 missions in approximately 120 countries. Missions can span from 18 months to 2 years depending on the individual and the location.

Carroll and Putnam are just beginning their two-year mission that has placed them in the Pacific Northwest and, more specifically, Ellensburg.

“It’s called the Yakima mission,” Carroll said. “It’s all of Central Washington, from the border of Canada into the Dalles of Oregon.”

The two will remain within this designated area for the entirety of their mission along with approximately 180 other missionaries placed throughout the region.

Though they cannot leave these boundaries, they can be transferred around the area every six weeks.

Unplugged

Putnam and Carroll are just 18 and 19 years old, respectively. They’re typical teenagers.

They enjoy playing sports and talking about music; Carroll said The Weeknd’s “I Can’t Feel My Face” is his go-to song). Their breakfast usually consists of a couple granola bars.

However, their days are far from average.

You’ll never see them with headphones in as they listen to music, which has shifted mainly to gospel music since they started their mission, and their news is based solely on what they hear in passing.

“We don’t access the internet during [our mission]. We don’t read the news, we don’t watch TV, we don’t play video games,” Carroll said. “It’s just to keep us focused. It can be really distracting to get caught up in things like that.”

While they do have a cellphone, Carroll said it’s a “brick phone” that they use to contact people they’ve met throughout the week.

The two do have access to the internet, but only on Monday evenings to email their families a brief update on how they’re doing.

During their mission they will only see their families a total of four times, Skyping them twice a year for Christmas and Mother’s Day.

“Going away from your family is probably the hardest part,” Putnam said. “But once you get working you don’t really have a lot of time to worry, you just have to get down and get to work.”

Misconceptions

While both say that misconceptions of the LDS Church are common and can be frustrating at times, neither one seems to doubt their mission or the work they have set out to do.

“I’ve never really questioned why I’m here or what I’m doing,” Carroll said. “It’s all we do, all day, every single day. I think that sometimes people don’t understand that…People don’t understand where our church is coming from or the beliefs that we have, and so as missionaries that’s all we do is share those beliefs with people.”

Carroll and Putnam also say that they have felt welcomed by the community, citing only a few instances where they have been faced with conflict.

“There have been a couple times where we’ve been threatened a little bit,” Putnam said. “But if they’re like that, you just have to get out of there.”

One situation occurred while Carroll and Putnam were visiting Yakima during the beginning of their mission.

They were greeted at the door by the homeowner and his gun.

Putnam recalled a similar situation in which a man “got in their faces” while telling them that it was “gonna get ugly.”

“Most people that try and intimidate you want a response,” Carroll said. “They want you to be scared or fight back. But if you’re just like, ‘Oh yeah, have a nice day too,’ then they just don’t know what to do because that’s not something they expect. You just have to keep calm and be nice, that’s all.”

Remaining focused

Carroll and Putnam wake up before dawn, pray and prepare themselves for their day, keeping in mind the reason that they’ve agreed to place their normal lives on hold for two years.

“That’s why we’re out here, just to invite others into Christ,” Carroll said. “It’s almost like a whole different life in a way, but it’s cool because there’s no other point in our lives that we’ve been so focused on Christ’s gospel…That’s what we’re out here talking about, that’s what we’re living, that’s what we’re doing.”