Memorial service for two missionaries set for Sunday in Texas

WESLACO, TEXAS — A memorial service for Elder Trevor Reinhold Strong of Taylorsville, Utah, and Elder Derek Jason Walker of Fairfield, Idaho, will be held Sunday, Nov. 20, at 6 p.m. at the Weslaco meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The two LDS missionaries were killed in a hit-and-run accident while riding their bikes in Donna, Texas, last week.

Elder J. Romeo Villarreal, an Area Seventy, will preside at the meeting. Funeral services were held previously in the missionaries' respective hometowns.

"Many people in the community have encouraged that a memorial service be held for the two missionaries," said President Stephen J. Trayner, president of the church's Texas McAllen Mission. "We hope that through this service we can offer the peace and comfort that comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Community members who are not able to attend the meeting in Weslaco are invited to view the memorial service via broadcast in nearby LDS meetinghouses in LaVista and Dove.

Meanwhile, KRGV Television in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is reporting that new 30 mph speed limit signs are up along Midway Road between Weslaco and Donna in Hidalgo County — including the area where Elders Strong and Walker were killed last week.

After the accident, local residents went to the media with their concerns about inadequate safety conditions in the area, and county officials assured them steps would be taken to make the area more safe, including speed limit signs, rumble strips and lighting.

Cyclists in the Rio Grande Valley have also expressed their concerns about safety issues in the wake of the fatal accident involving the missionaries.

"Anytime that there's an accident or somebody that's been injured or somebody that has been killed, it's always a concern. It hits close to home," said Timothy Mantle of Bicycle World in McAllen told

Action 4 News reporter Erika Flores. "We're worried because of our own safety, and we want to be out safe on the streets and enjoying our ride."

Mantle said it's frightening to know that a car can strike a cyclist even when that cyclist is doing everything he or she can to be seen on the road.

"They had their lights on both front and rear lights," he said of Elders Strong and Walker, as well as Elder Zachary Harris of Huntsville, Alabama, who was also injured in the incident. "They had their helmets on as they should. It was just a careless driver that wasn't watching and as they intended to pass and didn't realize that there was somebody else on the road."

That driver, Jose Luis Garza, eventually turned himself in to Hidalgo County authorities and is currently being held on a $1 million bond for two counts of causing an accident with bodily harm or death.

EMAIL: jwalker@desnews.com