Every missionary who enters the Provo Missionary Training Center hopes to prepare for the work ahead.
There are classes to attend, scriptures to study, languages to practice, and schedules to keep.
It’s easy to walk past the same hallway every day without noticing what’s on the wall.
But one mural invites missionaries to slow down.
It honors Inez Knight and Jennie Brimhall — the first full-time single sister missionaries of this dispensation. In 1898, they accepted a calling to serve in England, stepping into a role that was almost unheard of for women in the Church at the time.
Today, many sister missionaries preparing at the Provo MTC pass that mural during their training.
For some, it becomes more than a piece of history.
It becomes a reminder.
Across from the mural are the words from Doctrine and Covenants 4:3:
“Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work.”
The verse is familiar to missionaries around the world.
Standing beside the images of those first sister missionaries, however, it takes on a deeper meaning.
More than 125 years ago, Inez Knight and Jennie Brimhall left home without knowing exactly what lay ahead.
They traveled across the ocean.
They taught in homes.
They spoke with strangers.
They faced criticism, uncertainty, and sacrifice.
Yet they continued because they believed God had called them to serve.
Few could have imagined what that small beginning would become.
Today, thousands of sister missionaries serve around the world, teaching in dozens of languages and helping people come unto Jesus Christ in places the first sister missionaries never could have imagined visiting.
The mural is not simply about remembering the past.
It quietly reminds today’s missionaries that they are part of the same story.
Every lesson taught.
Every testimony shared.
Every act of faith builds on the quiet courage of those who came before.
When Church leaders recently celebrated a record number of full-time missionaries serving worldwide, many people noticed the headline.
Far fewer noticed the mural.
Yet perhaps the two stories belong together.
One tells us where the Church is today.
The other reminds us how it all grows—one willing heart at a time.
History is rarely shaped only by famous names or dramatic moments.
More often, it moves forward because ordinary disciples quietly choose to say yes to God.
More than a century ago, two young women did exactly that.
And every missionary who pauses before that mural is reminded that faithful service has never been about being the first.
It has always been about being willing.
Official Sources
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