Meet the VanDusens

It wasn’t long after the President and I arrived in Arequipa that we were contacted by Tom and Melanie VanDusen from Northern Idaho. Brother VanDusen served here in Southern Peru as a young missionary and they requested to come serve as a senior couple.  Of course we immediately agreed and we have been hopeful and excited for their arrival ever since.  They finally arrived a couple of weeks ago and we are thrilled to have them and just in time because Brother and Sister Maxfield will finish their mission on November 18.  Senior couples have not just been a blessing for our mission, but they have literally transformed our mission  and we are so grateful for their dedicated service.  

Here is some information about them:

Elder and Sister Van Dusen met on Temple Square during General Conference of April 1974, the same day that Brother Van Dusen was baptized.  They were both just 18 years old and they lived in Southern California just 5 miles apart.  They dated for a year before Elder Van Dusen left on his mission to the Peru Lima Mission.  Elder and Sister Van wrote to each other weekly while he served and 4 months after he returned, they were married in the Los Angeles Temple.

In 1983 Elder Van Dusen graduated from San Jose State University with a degree in Aeronautics.  Elder Van had always wanted to be a pilot and after graduation  he joined the United States Air Force.  After pilot training the USAF made Elder Van a T-38 Instructor Pilot.  After just over 7 years, he left the USAF and started flying for the airlines.  He’s flown for; American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, KLM (the Royal Dutch Airlines) and ended his career flying for Delta Airlines as an Airbus A-320 Instructor Pilot.   He retired in 2020 at the height of the COVID pandemic after 30 years of flying airliners.  Elder and Sister Van now live on a small island in North Idaho that has a grass strip runway where Elder Van flies his Nanchang CJ-6A, a retired Chinese Air Force trainer.

Sister Van Dusen has a degree in General Studies from BYU.  She also enjoys Family History research and is considered an expert in the field. 

Elder and Sister Van have always planned on serving a Senior Couple's mission.  They wanted to serve in Arequipa because Elder Van had served much of his mission there. They were delayed because of COVID, Visa delays, the death of an infant granddaughter and an injury Sister Van sustained when she fell off a ladder. They believe that with each of these delays Heavenly Father’s wisdom has been displayed (see Isaiah 55:8-9).  They are delighted to be serving in the office of the Peru Arequipa Mission.

They have 4 children (3 girls and a boy) and 12 grandchildren.