PLEASANT GROVE — A measure of the pain and heartache Florence Voorheis experienced nearly nine years ago returned Monday night.

Voorheis found out while watching the 10 o'clock news that two missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been shot in Chesapeake, Va.

Since then, her prayers have rarely stopped.

"These families have been in our prayers all day long and all last night," Voorheis said Tuesday. "And every time I think about it, I ask Heavenly Father to bless them."

Morgan Winslow Young, 21, of Bountiful, was shot and killed by an unknown gunman Monday night on the side of a road where the two men had been going door-to-door doing missionary work. Young's missionary companion, Joshua Heidbrink, 19, of Greeley, Colo., was wounded in the shooting.

Voorheis understands more than most the mix of terror and sorrow likely felt by the families of the two missionaries since the shooting.

On April 9, 1997, her son, Orin, was serving a mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when he was shot in the head by a gunman during a street robbery. Orin Voorheis survived the shooting but suffered a debilitating brain injury.

Doctors initially gave the missionary about a 20 percent chance to live, Florence Voorheis said, but in three weeks' time he had recovered to the point that he could be transported to Utah.

Today, Orrin Voorheis leads a happy life, his mother said. Last month, he and his wife, Chartina, celebrated their third wedding anniversary.

The 29-year-old can't speak and his movement is limited to his face, neck and right hand, but he is able to communicate through facial expressions and spelling words with sign language, Florence Voorheis said.

"There has been constant, inch-by-inch improvement," she said. "He has a life, and it has joy in it. You look at that, and you don't look back."

Voorheis said she was devastated when she learned that her son had been shot, but the family got through the tough times by "always looking for the blessings."

"You have to look for the blessings, and it takes a while before you can begin doing that," she said. "But I'm a better person because of what Orin has suffered."

Voorheis said she'll continue to pray that those affected by Monday's shooting are able to look for those blessings, too.

"They're constantly in our prayers," she said, "and will be."

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