HELLO!  We are Jon & Jenni--The founders of MissionaryMall & Sister MissionaryMall.

We first met at the MTC while we were both teaching.  Jenni was teaching Portuguese (she served in Recife, Brazil) and Jon was teaching Spanish (He served in Uruguay), so it was a miracle that we were in the “binder room” filling our reports on our classes at the same time on a Saturday morning in late July.

At one point after visiting for a while and knowing that it was unlikely that our paths would cross again at work, Jenni said “So, are you going to ask me for my phone number, or should I just give it to you?”  Jon was smitten!  After dating for a while and convincing her that she should take him seriously (He is a little younger and wasn’t even close to finishing school) we got engaged and then married in the winter of 1996.

As a kid, Jon had worked in construction with his grandpa, and had a few businesses mowing lawns, washing cars, etc.  At BYU, Jon had a serious entrepreneurial itch, as did Jenni.  Our first venture was a water purification system for missionaries which sold a whopping total of 12 units.  We were stumped!  Jenni and Jon’s brother had both gotten sick on their missions from drinking bad water, so we knew there was a need.  We called around to several customers, seeing why more missionaries weren’t taking water filters, when a customer told us something that proved to be a very important realization.  Water filters simply were not on the mission list!  So, naturally, we needed to sell things that were on the missionary list.  Missionary Mall was founded on July 10, 1997 in the basement apartment of Jon’s parents’ home.

Those were busy days.  Jenni would work full time to provide the money needed for our small family.  Jon would receive shipments in the morning, and then do all of the alterations on his mom’s 1974 Bernina Record (that’s right– Jon did all of the alterations for the first few years).  Miraculously, we started growing!  In 2000, we moved to a store on 9th East in Provo (across from Creamery on the 9th).  In 2003, we moved to Orem where the Sister MissionaryMall is now.  In 2005, the Elder store moved across the parking lot to our current location and Jenni kept the old space to dedicate just to sister missionaries.  We now have three stores including a huge outlet store located in front of our warehouse in Springville. We just can’t believe how incredibly blessed we are to be doing something that we love!