Download PhotoElder Allan and Sister Dana McMakin recently arrived on Guam as humanitarian missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Oregon. They are the parents of six children and eight grandchildren ages 2-19 years old.
Allan has a graduate degree in Photography. He started his career as a staff photographer for curriculum at California State University—Los Angeles. However, he didn’t want to raise kids in southern California so moved to the north coast of Oregon where he started his own photography studio and camera equipment retail store. Although he did all the typical weddings / seniors / family photos, his bread and butter was technical photography and darkroom work. He also worked as the Academic Manager at a Job Corps Center before retiring (“retired” means he just drove school bus and worked as a K-3 classroom aide).
Dana also has a graduate degree—in English Literature and Rhetoric. For the most part, she was a teacher (though she taught at many different schools, including 2 colleges, 5 high schools and a middle school). Her first teaching job was while she was still in high school when she was offered a full year of high school credit for not attending high school but rather teaching Vietnamese and Cambodian refugee children whose families had escaped southeast Asia toward the end of the war.
Although both are from California, they met, married, and raised their family in Astoria, OR (where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean). Dana said: "We live in an old evangelical Lutheran church built by immigrant Finns in 1893; it was a great place to raise a family. Our hobbies include hiking, backpacking and working on our house. Allan, of course, loves to take photos and I make quilts for the grandkids, garden, read and write."
Allan served his first mission to Sweden when he was a recent convert. They started their current mission in Vietnam where they were representatives for Latter-day Saint Charities. Although they did not want to leave Viet Nam, they are very excited to be serving in Guam and feel very much at home here.