Hermana Catherine Crotzer steps off the plane Tuesday at Los Alamos County Airport after traveling from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Courtesy photo
Catherine Crotzer is welcomed home at Los Alamos County Airport by her family and friends, from left, Sarah Crotzer, Ron Crotzer, Catherine Crotzer, family friend Gideon Nelson, Laura Crotzer, family friend Martha Katko and Madelyn Crotzer. Courtesy photo
Special to the Los Alamos Daily Post
Catherine Crotzer, a 2012 Los Alamos High School graduate, returned to Los Alamos Tuesday after serving an 18-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In October 2012, the minimum age requirement for able, worthy young women who have the desire to serve a mission was reduced from age 21 to age 19. Crotzer was enrolled as a biology major at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho at the time. She submitted her mission papers shortly thereafter and was one of a large wave of younger missionaries who responded to the lowering of the age limit.
Crotzer’s mission began in June 2013 when she entered the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center for six weeks of intensive Spanish language instruction. After serving for five months in a Spanish-speaking branch of the Maryland Baltimore Mission while awaiting her visa, she headed to Argentina last December. While in Argentina, Crotzer served in the Buenos Aires South mission.
Missionaries receive their assignment from Church headquarters and are sent only to countries where governments allow the Church to operate. Missionaries do not request their area of assignment and do not know beforehand whether they will be required to learn a language.
More than 88,000 missionaries are serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at any one time. Crotzer’s twin brother, Thomas, is also serving a mission and is assigned to the Chile Osorno Mission. Missions for males are for 24-months, and Thomas is not scheduled to return until next August.
Crotzer will give a report about her mission in a returned missionary fireside at 7 p.m., Dec. 14 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Los Alamos chapel. The public is invited to attend.
Stepping off the plane Tuesday at Los Alamos County Airport from Buenos Aires, Crotzer is led to her ‘Missionary Taxi’. Courtesy photo