ROCHESTER — When the white envelope arrived at 19-year-old Amy Fleming’s house earlier this year, she was filled with excitement and fear.

The letter in that envelope detailed where the Rochester woman would be spending the next 18 months of her life and what language she would be speaking. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Fleming had decided to spend the next year and a half serving as a church missionary, following in the footsteps of her five older brothers.

“When I put my papers in, I didn’t know where I was going to go. I could have gone anywhere,” she said. “It is scary because you don’t know.”

When Fleming tore into the envelope, she finally got a chance to see her assignment. The 2014 Century High School graduate was being sent to Belgium and the Netherlands. She’d be headed first to Provo, Utah, for six weeks of missionary training, including a crash course in Dutch.

“I really wanted to go to Europe, so I was really excited to be able to go,” she said.

Fleming left to begin her missionary training on Sept. 13. She will not return home until October 2015.

Family history

Making the assignment extra special is the family’s deep historical ties to the region. In the 1730s, Fleming’s relatives fled to America to escape religious persecution. Members of the Schwenkfelder Church abandoned all of their belongings to travel to America, Fleming’s mom Shauna Fleming said. Displayed in the family’s home is a painting of the Schwenkfelders arriving in Pennsylvania and being greeted by William Penn. Among those pictured is Fleming’s distant relative, 16-year-old Christopher Schultz.

Fleming’s mom said it’s amazing to think that her daughter will be returning to the land her relatives had once fled and will be sharing her religious faith.

“Here she is going back spreading the message of Christ to that area,” she said.

Missionary service runs in the Fleming family. Amy Fleming’s father, Bill, previously served in France. Her uncle, Tom, also did missionary work in Italy. Her five older brothers all chose to go on missionary trips. Two of her brothers have done work stateside, while one went to Brazil, another Honduras and a third is wrapping up work in Botswana.

More than 80,000 missionaries are doing work for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in more than 400 missions throughout the world, according to the church’s website. Single men between the ages of 18 and 25 are eligible to go on mission trips and serve for two years. In the past, women had to be age 21 in order to go on a mission. Two years ago, the church lowered the minimum age to 19 for women to participate. While men are encouraged to go on a mission trip, women are invited to go and serve for 18 months, according Bill Fleming.

 

Brothers’ example

His daughter said she was inspired to go on a mission trip after seeing the impact it had on her brothers’ lives.

“When they come home from a mission, they are just two very different people and they seem much more dedicated to serving the Lord when they come home. They are a lot more grounded in their beliefs and a lot more mature, and that is something I wanted for myself,” she said.

Fleming had already been accepted to Brigham Young University. She has deferred her enrollment until after the missionary trip. When she returns, she plans to study business at the university. The Rochester teenager admits many of her friends don’t really understand her decision to go on a mission trip.

“They think it’s very neat that I’m going overseas, but I don’t think they understand the seriousness of it,” she said.

Missionaries must raise the money to pay for their mission trips. To do that, Fleming has spent years saving money earned from babysitting jobs, retail work and the odd job for family members for the trip. She said she gets to send an email to her family once a week, prompting her mother to interrupt her and tell her she needs to send those weekly emails. She gets to Skype with her family twice a year — once at Christmas and once on Mother’s Day.

She has one younger sister, Emily, who will not have to worry anymore about competing for a chance to use the family’s Jeep now that her sister is gone. Her mother said their youngest daughter is also considering going on a mission trip in the future.

The parents said they’ve never told their children they need to go on a mission. Rather, they leave it up to them to decide if they want to do it. Both said they are thrilled that so far six of their seven children have all chosen to commit themselves to missionary work.

Bill Fleming added, “It’s great. I had a great experience when I went and hoped that my children would serve and so far, each of them has.”