NORWICH – Two young Norwich men will be spending the next two years of their lives on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and learning the Spanish language along the way.
Ben Mennis headed to Provo, Utah last week to receive missionary training, cultural skills and to brush up on the Spanish dialect before heading to Trujillo, Peru, his final destination. The 19-year-old Norwich High School graduate will spend the next two years within a 400-mile radius of the city knocking on doors, doing service work, teaching people about the Mormon religion and staying in church-owned apartments along the way.
Jeremiah Hodack, also 19 and a Norwich High School graduate, leaves in mid-September for his own training in Utah before heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina to do the same.
Both men completed their freshman year at Brigham Young University in June. Mennis is a biology major and aspires to become a veterinarian. This summer, he completed an internship with Dr. Michael King at Pet Street Station in Norwich.
Hodack is a mathematics major at Brigham Young. He said he would like to earn a doctorate degree and, later, become a math teacher.
Hodack said he looks forward to doing “something completely different.”
“It’ll be a learning experience and a chance for me to grow. I’m looking forward to the challenge,” he said.
Peter Mennis said his son, Ben, wants to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people because it “has changed his life and he wants people to see how it can change their lives.”