Young Single Adults Invited to Apply to Serve as 2025 Nauvoo Performing Missionaries

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By Susan Sims, for the Church News

They sing, dance, play instruments, present shows and get lots of applause. They are also missionaries.

They are Nauvoo performing missionaries, who serve for about three months in one of two casts between May and October each year. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is looking for more young single adults to apply for this unique experience for 2025.

While a performing mission doesn’t replace a teaching or service mission, serving as a Nauvoo performing missionary is a great way for young single adults to serve at any stage in their post-high school journey up to age 25. These missionaries are set apart, have companions, follow mission rules and testify of the Savior — they just do it differently than other missionaries.

Their daily schedule is full of performances from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Smaller ensembles might be singing outside on a corner near the Print Shop, while others are in the Seventies Hall portraying apostles who are heading to England on a mission. Others are teaching families how to dance like the pioneers or portraying Emma Smith and other women who founded the Relief Society. The Nauvoo Brass Band can be found delighting crowds from their horse-drawn bandwagon or in the Visitors’ Center.

These missionaries strive to make visitors feel like family members. One recent social media post from a visitor listed favorite moments from their trip, including “the kids staying longer at the Trail of Hope to sing with the missionaries” and “having the missionaries who were all hungry for lunch turn their van around to come sing privately to us.”

As impactful as the performances are for visitors, the experience changes the lives of the missionaries, too.

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Elder Brandon Turley, who opened his teaching mission call to Germany on a preparation day in Nauvoo, reminded his fellow performers, “Anyone can be a missionary whether it’s [teaching], performing like we are now, or just sharing the word of God to those around us.” He said the music of Nauvoo helped him feel a desire to love others as Christ does.

Elder Derek Furch and his wife, Sister Nancy Furch, direct the shows and manage the Nauvoo performing missionaries’ daily schedules. Elder Furch said, “It is a Nauvoo miracle that the Nauvoo performing missionaries can keep up such a busy schedule of performances and expend the amount of energy that they do. They keep their spirits high and wear their missionary badges proudly.”

Sister Heidi Squire, who plays violin, summed up the feelings of many of the Nauvoo performing missionaries when she said, “I feel so blessed to be here with such wonderful, Christlike people by my side.”

Sister Brenna Millward added: “We all have been really exhausted with long hours of dancing, but I have felt the sustaining power of the Lord with each of us. I know that there is a lot of power that is given to us because we are missionaries. I saw on my teaching mission, and I see again on this mission, that as we are obedient and striving, the Lord can do a lot with our effort.”

The purpose of a performing mission isn’t as much to entertain visitors as it is to teach eternal principles and Church history through song, vignettes, music and dance. These powerful tools put to use in a sacred setting can change lives for the missionaries and their audiences.

Young single adults interested in applying should watch an informational YouTube video for instructions. It is also possible to apply to be a Nauvoo performing missionary at nauvoohistoricsites.org (click on “Serve” at the bottom). The deadline for 2025 applications is October 18, 2024.

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