The Interface

When Elder Simeoli was 19, he left his home in Las Vegas to serve his two years as a Mormon missionary in Maine. After teaching and proselytizing there for his first year, he moved to Middlebury and has lived here for almost eight months.

Elder Covington, 19, arrived in town two weeks ago from his home in Orem, Utah to begin the missionary work encouraged of all qualified Mormons of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

“It’s a lot to take in at first, but I love the work. There’s so much peace that comes from it,” he said.

Elder Simeoli remembered his first day as a missionary almost eighteen months ago, shaking his head and smiling.

“It’s kind of like shell-shock. Everything changes. I was a very laidback person back home. I kept to myself most of the time,” he said. “As a missionary, it’s really hard to do that, seeing as we’re here to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Elders Simeoli and Covington are two of over 50,000 Mormon missionaries proselytizing in 344 missions all over the world. They are the two impeccably dressed young men you may have seen on the streets of Middlebury, Bristol and Vergennes talking with or running from local residents, depending on the temperament of the latter.

“There’s really no telling who will listen and who won’t,” Elder Simeoli said. “I’ve had what seemed to be nice old ladies chase me away with sticks, whereas I’ve gone up to big hairy bikers and they’re more than happy to talk about Jesus Christ.”

LDS Mormons often bear the brunt of stereotypes that target Mormon fundamentalists even though they are unassociated with the more radical sect. They also receive the critiques from the non-religious aimed at followers of any highly dogmatic, proselytizing religion.

“A lot of people think we’re brainwashed robots or polygamists,” Elder Simeoli said. “I don’t practice polygamy. No one I know practices polygamy. And I’m not brainwashed. But it’s not something I can prove to them. People will believe what they want to believe.”

Although they were raised in Mormon families, Elders Simeoli and Covington both found truth in Mormonism through individual prayer.

“For a while I didn’t really have a testimony. I just kind of went along with it,” Elder Covington said. “Finally, I prayed to God to ask if the Book of Mormon was really true and I received the answer that it really was true. I just felt really peaceful.”

“It’s through multiple good feelings that we can receive answers to our prayers,” Elder Simeoli said. “When I prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true, I just felt a great sense of peace. I’d always generally felt good about it. But it was in that instance that I had a strong confirmation. I felt warm and peaceful. I felt love, and that’s how I knew.”

As missionaries, every day is regimented by myriad rules. They do not ever use their first names, only the respectful title, “Elder.” They can call home only on Mothers’ Day and Christmas. They can use e-mail once a week.

“I don’t think an hour could cover [all the rules],” Elder Simeoli said. “The point is to keep our minds centered on the work, to limit as many distractions as possible.”

The strict schedule made for missionaries in the Book of Mormon sees to that.

At 6:30, they rise, pray, exercise for 30 minutes, prepare for the day; at 7:30, they eat breakfast; by 8:00, they must be studying the scriptures; at 9:00, they companion study The Bible; they begin proselytizing at 10:00 and get a one-hour break for lunch and dinner throughout the day, only returning at 9:00 to plan for the next day’s activities. They generally retire at 10:30. Elder Simeoli had an enthusiastic take on this exhausting schedule.

“It’s a lot easier when you have restrictions, when you have things to limit your time,” he said. “There is no room for error. There is no time to go do something other than what we’re doing.”

I asked Elder Simeoli if he ever accidentally refers to himself with his first name, skips the morning exercise or slips up somehow with so many rules to follow.
“Well, no one’s perfect,” he said. “I find joy in trying to be as obedient as I can because it’s through obedience that we receive blessings.”

Elders Simeoli and Covington are in a unique position as missionaries whose mission includes a college with a student body of relatively few practicing Mormons. Although they are not authorized to proselytize on campus, they talk with as many students as possible, as their target audience is “anybody and everybody.”

“I’ve found that unfortunately a lot of college students either don’t know what they believe or they have no belief in a higher power at all,” Elder Simeoli said. “So it’s kind of sad at times because being a member of the Church of LDS has brought me more peace and happiness than anything, and I know it can do the same for each and every one of them, but if they lack that crucial foundation that there is a God it’s a lot harder to teach someone.”

Students are not the only skeptics. “Most of the time people are ‘All set.’ That’s how they like to put it,” Elder Simeoli said. The Elders have had success converting some ‘investigators,’ however. One formerly clinically deaf woman regained the ability to hear while reading the Book of Mormon after studying with the Elders. She now meets with the Elders regularly.

“It was a small miracle. It’s not everyday that something like that happens,” Elder Simeoli said, shaking his head reverently.

Both Elders said it will be bittersweet to end their missionary work and return home. “Leaving here will be hard because being a missionary does bring a lot of happiness,” Elder Simeoli said. “I’m happiest when I’m making other people happy.”

Elder Covington was unsure what he’d like to do after his two years are up. Elder Simeoli would like to go to culinary school and start up a restaurant with his father.

“It will be a bar and grille type thing,” he said. “Without the bar.”