Capital Press

FORT HALL, Idaho — The past few months have been a crash course in agriculture for 26-year-old Rebecca Loveland.

Her father, Kevin, considered it a privilege he couldn’t refuse when he received an unexpected calling in October to serve the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a mission president.

Rebecca was fresh out of graduate school, having earned a master’s in public administration from Brigham Young University, and had just started a job running business internships with Utah Valley University in Provo.

But she’s left that job to manage the family’s 5,000-acre grain and fresh potato farm, while her father spends the next three years training 200 LDS missionaries in Bentonville, Ark. Her mother, Ann, will be charged with overseeing the health of the missionaries. Her 15-year-old brother, Neal, will also make the trip to Bentonville.

Family, neighboring farmers and product suppliers have pledged to help her with the transition. Her 21-year-old brother, Matt, returned days ago from his own two-year LDS mission to St. Louis — the same city in which Rebecca completed a mission four years ago. Matt will put off college to assist her full time, though he may take some winter classes. They expect to average 60 hours of weekly farm work.

While in Bentonville, accompanied by a few other local couples willing to help run the mission, Kevin vows he won’t call to offer input on farm decisions. Rather, he’ll stay focused on duties he describes as “the Lord’s errand.”

“We feel like it’s a calling from the Lord, and so we feel like it’s a huge trust the Lord has in us to help share the Gospel with those who don’t know about it,” Kevin explained.

It’s not unheard of for working Southeast Idaho farmers to be called on missions. Kevin and his brother ran the family farm when their father left on a mission for Tucson, Ariz., 22 years ago. But they were in their 30s and were already involved in the farm.

“There are a lot of new things she’ll encounter, but she does have a huge support system,” Kevin said. “It’s very reassuring to know that not only do they want to (run the farm) but that they’re capable of doing it.”

As her parents have packed their belongings, Rebecca has spent time in the field studying soil and plant development with the farm agronomist, and she’s started weekly meeting to gather the input of everyone involved in the farm. Rebecca feels somewhat prepared to handle payroll, accounting and even government audits, but admits she has a lot to learn about chemicals, disease control, equipment and agronomy. She and her father have also had discussions about past decisions and future needs.

“I’ve already done a little bit of a cost-benefit analysis on a couple of things saying, ‘What do we think about this?’” Rebecca said.

Matt has run tractors on the farm in the past but will have to learn about irrigation management and pivot maintenance.

“It’ll be a new challenge,” Matt said. “It will be fun and exciting to get a little better with farm work.”