Fogg to further faith, attend mission trip after graduation

In the upcoming months, senior Ben Fogg will be preparing for his mission for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—in other words, the Mormon church. Although he is unsure of where he will be just six months from now, Fogg is eager to go wherever he may be assigned.

The Mormon church believes in divine intervention on behalf of the church leader, who is guided by God as to where each individual will be sent to spread the church’s faith. Some individuals are called to the bayous of Louisiana, while others to the luscious green Samoan Islands. Although Fogg does have a desired location in mind, he doesn’t want to say because he’s worried he’ll jinx it.  

“If I say where it is, I’m going to get called to the opposite side of the world,” Fogg said. “That’s what happens.”

Fogg hopes to be an engineer after graduating college, and knowing a foreign language could be a valuable resource in his professional life.

“If I get called to a place that doesn’t speak English, I’ll obviously have that resource,” Fogg said. “I’ll also know the customs and culture of that place.”

The Mormon church believes that on missions, missionaries must stay with a companion at all times. A companion is a spiritual partner that you work with throughout your mission. Each companionship lasts six weeks, and then a new companion is assigned. In his companions, Fogg will be looking for compatible traits that

he hopes to someday find in his wife as well.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to find out how to work with other people but also find characteristics that I want to have in my eternal companion, my wife,” Fogg said.

However, despite these hopes for compatibility, Fogg won’t be able to choose his companion.

“The thing about companions is that you don’t get to choose [them],” Fogg said. “The mission president that is in charge of your mission is the one that gets to choose the companion that you’re paired with.”

On his mission, Fogg will be seeking out people to join the Mormon church. Currently the Mormon church is composed of 15 million people and growing; over 6 million of those people live in the United States. While on his mission, Fogg believes that he will grow spiritually.

“I feel like it’s going to affect me a lot on a personal level,” Fogg said. “I think I’m going to see more personal changes as I’ve grown on my mission.”

After his mission, Fogg is hoping to continue his running career. He is hoping for companions who can run with him so that he can stay in shape. At this point, he is considering Brigham Young University [BYU] and Virginia Tech and is talking to both coaches.

“I haven’t decided where I’m going, but I got into BYU, so that’s exciting,” Fogg said. “I’m kinda leaning towards BYU.”

Photos courtesy of Gregg Zelkin and John Lorence