Free resources about the Venezuela Maracaibo Mission:

Aquí están algunos recursos gratuitos sobre la Misión Venezuela Maracaibo:

• Mission address and phone number
• Mission map
• Video interviews with returned missionaries
• Missionary blogs
• Facebook groups
• LDS Mission t-shirts and gifts
• List of past mission presidents
• Cultural articles written by returned missionaries
• Survey with RMs

*Other Mission Pages: Venezuela LDS Missions.

Maracaibo Mission Address

Here’s a recent address for the Maracaibo Mission. We try to keep this information up to date, but it’s a good idea to check the address with several sources, including your mission packet or the mission office.

Venezuela Maracaibo Mission Map

Here’s a link to the mission map for the Venezuela Maracaibo Mission (LDS). To access the official, up-to-date LDS.org map for the mission:

1. Log into your LDS account here.
2. Click here.

Videos with Maracaibo RMs

Here are in-depth YouTube video interviews with returned missionaries from the Maracaibo Mission.  We interview hundreds of returned missionaries each year, so check back regularly to see new RM interviews. Coming soon..

LDS-Friendly Videos about Venezuela

Here are LDS-friendly educational videos about Venezuela. We scoured YouTube to find the best quality videos about Venezuela, that are free from inappropriate music, immodesty and profanity.

Maracaibo Missionary Blogs

Here’s a list of LDS missionary blogs for the Maracaibo Mission. This list includes the missionary’s name, URL and when their blog was updated.

*Send your missionary a gift (mission-specific shirts, ties, Christmas stockings/ornaments, pillowcases, etc.)

Venezuela Maracaibo Mission Groups

Here are Maracaibo Mission Groups- for LDS missionary moms, returned missionaries, mission presidents and other alumni of the mission.

1. Mision Venezuela Maracaibo Facebook Group (659 members)
2. Mission Venezuela Maracaibo Facebook Group (406 members)
3. Mision Maracaibo 1991-94 Pres. Turley Group (278 members)
4. Reunion 1985-88 Pres. Cesar Cacuango Group (149 members)
5. Retornados de Mision Maracaibo Decada del 90 Group (134 members)
6. Mision Maracaibo Reunion Facebook Group (84 members)
7. Mision V Maracaibo Facebook Group (23 members)
8. Mision Venezuela Maracaibo Facebook Group (20 members)
9. Companeros de la Mision Maracaibo 1984-86 Group (2 members)

Venezuela Maracaibo Mission T-Shirts

Here are T-shirts for the Venezuela Maracaibo Mission!

Shirt designs include Maracaibo Mission logo/emblem shirts and Called to Serve shirts. The shirts make great gifts for pre-missionaries, returned missionaries and missionaries currently serving. LDS Mission shirts come in all sizes: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, up to 4XL.  The mission designs are printed on white shirts and are shipped to you.

*Simply click on a shirt design to view the details and submit an order. The designs on mission t-shirts may also be printed on other LDS mission gifts, including: Maracaibo missionary aprons, Christmas stockings, ties, pillow cases, teddy bears and Christmas ornaments.

*Click here to browse Maracaibo Mission gifts

Maracaibo Mission Presidents

Here’s a list of current and past Mission Presidents of the Maracaibo Mission.

1. 2015-2018, Efrain R. Garcia Lopez
2. 2012-2015, Juan F. Zorrilla
3. 2009-2012, Sergio L. Krasnoselsky
4. 2006-2009, Alberto Coello
5. 2003-2005, Denton Rex Rogers
6. 2000-2003, James Boyd Martino
7. 1997-2000, Gary Rex Wight
8. 1994-1997, Arthur L. Porter
9. 1991-1994, Frederick Turley
10. 1988-1991, Robert Lees
11. 1985-1988, Cesar Cacuango
12. 1982-1985, Karl R. Fenn
13. 1980-1982, Wesley W. Craig
14. 1979-1980, Alejandro Portal Campos

Venezuela LDS Statistics (2016)

• Church Membership: 165,527
• Missions: 4
• Temples: 1
• Congregations: 256
• Family History Centers: 49

Helpful Articles about Venezuela

Coming soon..

Maracaibo Missionary Survey

Here are survey responses from Maracaibo RMs, to give you a snapshot into what it’s like to live in the mission.

*Click here to take a survey to help pre-missionaries going to your mission.

When did you serve?

• 2002-2004 (Paul)
• 2000-2002 (Fulano)
• 1999-2001 (Matt)
• 1999-2000 (Elizabeth)
• 1999-2000 (Kelly)
• 1991-1993 (Xavier)

Which areas did you serve in?

• El Vigia, Maracaibo, San Cristobal, La Villa, Ciudad Ojeda. (Paul)
• Maracaibo, Puerto Cumarebo, Palotal, and La Fria. (Fulano)
• Punto Fijo, San Cristobal, and Maracaibo. (Elizabeth)
• Maracaibo, Merida, Ojeda. (Kelly)
• Maracaibo, Ciudad Ojeda, Lagunillas, Rubio, San Cristobal, Ejido, Merida, Coro. (Xavier)

What were some favorite foods?

• Platano. (Paul)
• Pabellón, the Venezuelan national dish, is great. Some empanadas and arepas. Tostones, and just about any other kind of plantain. And you can get a mean steak in Rubio on the cheap. (Fulan0)
• Iguana, lots of black beans and white rice. Chicken was good too. (Matt)
• Guanabana!! The soups in the mountains, cachapas, and fried yucca. (Elizabeth)
• Rice, Black Beans, Steak, Chicken, Platanose, Arepas, Empanadas, Arroz con Leche, and of course The Malta. (Kelly)
• Arepas, empanadas, hayacas, pollo con arroz. (Xavier)

What was a funny experience?

• Pranking other missionaries in La Villa. (Paul)
• Living in San Antonio, on the Colombian border, one of our jobs was to renew missionary visas. The main office would send us passports, we’d take them to the customs office, and they’d stamp people in and out of the country. Questionable legality, of course, but they didn’t care. Until they did. We had a group of four passports, my own included. The agent stamped us out, and handed them back to me. “Can you stamp us back in?” I asked. “No,” he says, “because you didn’t actually leave the country. You have to leave and come back.” Okay, we think, so we just run across the border to Colombia and get it taken care of there. The mission office approved, and off we went… except they wouldn’t process us in, either. Turns out they didn’t like playing that game unless we were actually going to stay in Colombia for a while. So I was illegal in both countries and stuck in San Antonio. Several days and a few thousand bolivares later, they agreed to renew our visitors visas one last time. From then on out, they started sending us to Panama and Curaçao to renew visas. (Fulan0)
• Teaching a discussion while the family’s 80 year old grandfather started a fire to cook himself some food in the middle of a small bridge behind their house. Running out to get him off the bridge and putting the fire out all while he was fighting us because he was hungry. (Matt)
• Having very little money–and enjoyed a small dinner of variety. And the time it rained in pinto Fijo and we had to all walk home on Preparation day in knee-high water. (Elizabeth)
• I was very serious, I don’t remember anything especially funny. (Kelly)
• While sitting for almuerzo with a greenie companion at a member’s house, I past the bug of juice to my companion and asked him… “Te gusto”? Without hesitation and answered to the affirmative quite speedily and said “yes”, while taking the bug in his hands. The family just out laughing uncontrollably and after a few minutes of awkwardness, my companion finally asked why everyone was laughing, one of the family members explained to him that he in fact said he was in love with me! He then realized what I had asked and was rather embarrassed, but later laughed about it and started to plan a joke to be played on me at a later time. (Xavier)

What was a crazy experience?

• A companionship in our apartment had a gun pulled on them one night and got shot at the next. (Paul)
• Well, living on the border in FARC controlled areas, where the state department wouldn’t even let its employees go, was just peachy. (Fulano)
• I was held at knife point. I gave him a pamphlet and invited him to church. (Matt)
• My companion and I were walking and talking and about to cross a street, when we just stopped. A car came speeding down the road, and hit another car, throwing the driver and killing him. It could have been us had we not paused. (Elizabeth)
• A woman fell and cut her arm open on some glass. My first aid training came in handy, when I went into autopilot and wrapped her arm with a kitchen towel. I felt like I should have found something better to wrap it with, and worried about, until we saw her again, and she was all healed up! (Kelly)
• While in a small town (approx 2000 ppl), my companion and I took a Cerrito to visit an investigator family. When we arrived we noticed that the mom wasn’t there but only the teenage daughter and her little brother were there. We decided not to go into the apartment but to talk with the girl through the gate leading up to her apartment, from the street. Not long after, while my comp was talking to the girl, as his back was towards the corner of the street/block, I noticed over his shoulder a man visibly upset, pounding his fists and murmuring something to himself not easily audible from where we were. As my companion and I continue to talk with the girl, I noticed this man had crossed the street at the corner about three or four times, and each time he come across to the same side we were standing, he got more and more upset with each time looking at our direction and pointing at us. At this point, the last time he crossed to our side he stood there and starred at our direction and began to run lime thenworriors in braveheart. My companion was oblivious to what was about to happen and I was in shock not knowing what to do. This man, leaped like a ninja with one leg in the air trying to kick my companion. He may have landed one or two punches on him because he was the one closer to him, but at some point the altercation moved to the street. He attacking us, we trying to defend ourselves. I used to be a wrestler in HS, so, I pinned him under my weight and made the attempt to talk to him while he was under my control, but suddenly, someone who thought we were beating him up (obviously didn’t witness that he was in fact, the aggressor, pulled out a knife and ordered us (me) to leave him alone. I immediately let go of the aggressor and explained to the man with the knife that we were trying to protect ourselves and did not want to hurt anyone. He took the aggressor and tried to called him down while at the same time walked him to the end of the block from whence the aggressor came to begin with. My companion and I were shaken a little and sister ourselves off and went back to the girl who was still at the gate witnessing all of these, a little shaken herself. As we said goodbye, we walk to the corner to catch our carrito to go back home and change our now dirty clothes. As we stood there (same corner where aggressor come from), we saw this same man coming at us again yelling, espias! Espias! I’m going to kill you espias… by this time, there was a crowd of people standing watching, mostly kids from a school kitty-corner from where we were. I used the same technique to subdue the aggressor and this time, there were others trying to help us keep this man down. I this point, I felt strongly to use my priesthood to defuse the situation by saying to him… “in the name of Jesus Christ, I order you to be calmed” “an el nombre de Jesucristo, he ordeno que te calmes.” He suddenly stopped fighting, stopped yelling, stood up, and walked away to never be seen again by us missionaries. That night, I knelt down ask asked Heavenly Father to forgive him for he knew who we were nor what he had done. And I also asked Heavenly Father to bless him. To this day I don’t know what happened to him. (Xavier)

What was a spiritual experience?

• Every day teaching the people. (Paul)
• It was the highest baptizing mission in the word at the time. The Church was exploding. Great time to be a missionary. (Fulano)
• When for a moment I could feel the Spirit speaking for me. That my language skills were perfected and my thoughts were clearly spoken. I know it wasn’t me. (Elizabeth)
• Seeing people make changes for the gospel made a big impact on me. I learned from their sacrifices and faith. I still remember their examples and have referred to them many times since my mission to strengthen my own testimony and to make my own changes. Such is Life, that we continually make changes of faith, for the gospel. (Kelly)
• Too many to count. (Xavier)

What are some interesting facts about the Maracaibo Mission?

• Super hot. Borders Colombia. The indigenous people are called Guajidos. (Paul)
• There are no longer Americans or other Latin Americans in my mission, yet the church continues to grow with the amazing members. (Elizabeth)
• Spanish Speaking. Socialist State. Very open and loving people. Hot. Humid. Obvious distinctions between the classes. (Kelly)
• Used to be the richest country in South America. (Xavier)

What was the weather like?

• Hot. (Paul)
• Hot, hot, and hot. Except the Andes. That’s chilly in the winter. (Fulano)
• Hot and humid every day of the year. (Matt)
• Hot—incredibly hot. The sun was different–so much hotter. (Elizabeth)
• Hot & humid. (Kelly)
• Diverse weather. From blistering heat to extreme cold in the Andes. (Xavier)

Any things you really like about the area/people?

• Ballanato playing everywhere you went. (Paul)
• Genuine, friendly people who loved and respected us, even if they weren’t LDS. (Fulano)
• The love. The humility. The unselfishness. The mountains were cool too:) (Elizabeth)
• They were open and friendly. I miss them very much. (Kelly)
• People were always warm and friendly specially because they love Mexicans. (Xavier)

Any packing/clothing advice?

• Get extra thickness in the crotch. I wore holes in my pants from all the walking. (Paul)
• Don’t get the mesh garments. They aren’t any cooler and get uncomfortable. (Fulano)
• Take art supplies and pictures. I was able to make things colorful and draw stories and make crafts with the items I brought. I wore a lotnofni. (Elizabeth)
• Breathable clothes. Large fanny packs were best. (Kelly)
• Don’t ever wear long sleeve shirts or suits. Never needed it. (Xavier)

What blessings did you receive from serving a mission?

• Great knowledge of the gospel. I understand that I live in a rich country that has so much. There are so many people who live with nothing. (Paul)
• An increased understanding of love and the power that comes from it. I learned to understand nature and nurture and to have more empathy. I learned to believe in myself and love myself in a way I didn’t understand before. (Elizabeth)
• The experience was my number one blessing. It was very educational, as a degree in any subject is educational. Number two, being able to serve. That was a blessing in and of itself. I will never be able to do that again…maybe when I’m older, but service full-time is a true blessing!! (Kelly)
• Stronger testimony of Jesus Christ. (Xavier)

What are some skills you gained?

• Spanish language. To let go of pride. (Paul)
• Confidence–helping others feel love and share love and speaking skills. (Elizabeth)
• Teaching, resolving concerns, finding concerns, asking questions, encouraging others, fellowshipping skills… all these things helped me be a good mother and visiting teacher. (Kelly)
• How to approach people. I’m rather introvert and this helped. (Xavier)

What do you wish you knew/did at the beginning of your mission?

• Whether you like it or not the mission has an aspect of sales to it. I didn’t like that. (Paul)
• I wish I had known how large my heart would become–and that I’d become emotional at the sound of missionaries, homecomings, departures, how love can truly change the world. I wish I had known to trust the lord from the get go–to stop worrying about others–but to only love the LORD. (Elizabeth)
• I am not the normal personality and didn’t understand what people meant when they said things like; do not waste a single second of your mission, and always act like the Savior would act. These sorts of instruction confused me… as they didn’t come with clarification. Most people understood straightaway what was meant, but not me! I also wish I knew that my companion was part of my mission. My service, love, and friendship towards her was a big part. I did not realize this until too late. I spent much time resenting companion time, because I thought it distracted me from more important things. (Kelly)
• How much I was going to miss the mission after I left. (Xavier)

Any advice/testimony for pre-missionaries called to Maracaibo?

• Trust your companion. Let go of your pride. Trust that God will take care of you. Have a testimony of prayer and let the Atonement take away your sins. (Paul)
• Learn to love. Pray for everyone. Pray for your companion, yourself, pray all the time. Literally. Learn something from everyone–even if you don’t like them. Pray for them the most. Trust the sport and learn to recognize it everywhere. Never lose it.  (Elizabeth)
• Be a friend to your companion. Be yourself. Keep the rules. Reach out, reach out, reach out. The more you reach out, the more you reach. Move on if your investigators are not ready. You can still check back with them, but keep looking for those who are ready. Talk to your president if you are confused or lost or whatever. Do not expect miracles at home… sometimes life happens even when you are serving the Lord. And sometimes the miracles come 10/15/20 years later. Enjoy your mission and those with whom you serve. Be patient with your weird companions, I was one. Know this is just one of your many adventures. (Kelly)
• Love those whom you serve. (Xavier)

What was a funny language mistake?

• Embarazada does not mean embarrassed. It means pregnant. (Paul)
• We were talking with some natives, I had a native companion—and they turned to me and said they couldn’t understand her–that I was more native. (Elizabeth)