Two young Maple Valley men are preparing to serve as missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – one in Ukraine and one in Mexico.

McKay Allen will spend the next two years working with the Kiev mission in community service and teaching Christianity in the Ukrainian language, while Kyle Carr will serve the same length of time in Mexico’s Monterrey East mission, church officials said.

Allen began his service May 21 at the LDS Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. His eight weeks of preparations include studying the Ukrainian language for about five hours a day, six days a week. Church officials said it’s common in such training for new missionaries to pass in the first week what is typically learned in two years of high school language classes.

Other training includes the customs and protocol of the culture in which missionaries will live overseas.

Allen, who recently graduated from high school in Utah and moved with his family to Maple Valley, is the son of Brad and Dantzelle Allen. After his mission, he plans to study communications in college.

The LDS church has more than 60,000 missionaries in 120 countries. About 475 new missionaries enter the training center in Provo each week, according to church officials.

Carr entered the training center on Jan. 30 to learn Spanish and other information for his work in Mexico.

He’s the son of Kevin and Kathy Carr and is a recent graduate of Tahoma High School. He’s scheduled to return home in January 2010.