ABC News: What's it really like being a Mormon missionary?

Sister Wolfgram can only see her family twice a year via Skype: on Mother’s Day, and at Christmas.

She’s allowed to email relatives weekly, but as a Mormon missionary, this is the most contact will she have with her family, during her 18 months of overseas service.

“I come from a family of 10, there’s four brothers and four sisters, so I miss them a lot,” says Sister Wolfgram, who was raised in West Valley City, Utah, a majority Mormon state.

Her family is originally from Tonga, another heartland for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — home to more Mormons per capita than any country in the world. Statistics show that nearly 60 per cent of the population belongs to the church.

“As Tongans, the two most important things are God and family … and then food,” Sister Wolfgram smiles.

She is one of the 80,000 voluntary missionaries currently serving an 18 to 24-month placement assigned and organised by the church and, like all female missionaries, she’s given the title ‘sister’.

Male missionaries are called ‘elder’, regardless of age.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News Australia