When Rachelle Wilkinson of the Cedar Park Texas Stake found out she was having quintuplets nearly 20 years ago, she said it felt like an “out-of-body experience.”
“‘This doesn’t happen to real people. How is this happening to me?’” she recalled thinking.
After an ultrasound revealed she would be having five babies, her doctor immediately began talking about reducing the pregnancy.
Bombarded with information and statistics about the likelihood of her babies surviving if she carried them all, she felt the gravity of what decision to make pressed heavily on her.
Wilkinson and her husband, Jayson Wilkinson, sought desperately for guidance.
“We prayed, we had gone to our bishop, we had gone to the temple, I had read every conference talk I could find on answers to prayers and receiving personal revelation,” she said. “We wanted to do whatever the Lord wanted us to do, but we didn’t know what that was.”
It wasn’t until more than two weeks later, during a meeting with her stake president, that she experienced a defining moment that answered her prayer.
Wilkinson said the moment wasn’t prompted by anything her stake president said or did, but she recalled “the strongest feeling” coming over her.
“It was the strongest, most powerful answer to [my] prayer that I had ever received,” she said. “In that moment, I just knew that Heavenly Father had sent those babies here for a reason, and I knew that I was supposed to do whatever I could to get them here as safely as possible.”
On July 31, 2007, Rachelle Wilkinson delivered five healthy babies, breaking the national record in the United States for the collective birth weight of quintuplets at 21 pounds, 7.2 ounces.
Today, the Wilkinson quintuplets are 18 years old — and each of them has chosen to serve missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A sibling bond that keeps growing
Three of the five quintuplets have already begun their missions, with the other two set to begin in the summer.
Ryder Wilkinson was assigned to the California San Jose Mission and began his Spanish-speaking service on Sept. 1, 2025. Rustin Wilkinson started his mission in the Côte d’Ivoire Abidjan West Mission, on Sept. 23, 2025, learning French, while Kyndall Wilkinson began serving in the Nevada Las Vegas West Mission on Feb. 9, 2026.
Kaydence Wilkinson is preparing to serve in the Korea Seoul Mission on May 6, 2026. Kassidy Wilkinson will follow shortly after, beginning her mission in the Italy Milan Mission on June 3, 2026.
For Kassidy Wilkinson, the decision to serve came last spring, while visiting her grandparents serving in the Italy Rome Mission.
Seeing how the Church impacted people’s lives in Italy inspired her to share the gospel like her grandparents were. While visiting, she also had the opportunity to go to Rome and had the feeling she would return one day.
Upon learning she would be serving in the Italy Milan Mission, Kassidy Wilkinson said she “couldn’t stop smiling.”
“I don’t know if I’ve felt that much joy suddenly, all at the same time, as I did when I opened my mission call,” she said.
High school graduation gave rise to many changes for the quintuplets. They would split up for college and go on missions — a milestone Kassidy Wilkinson was nervous for.
“We’re going to come back and be total strangers with each other,” she remembered thinking.
However, she discovered the outcome was the opposite of what she expected.
“Honestly, I feel like we’ve grown closer,” she said. “I feel like because they have such a strong relationship with God, it affects all their other relationships, too.”
Kaydence Wilkinson noticed a difference in her relationships with her siblings too.
“I think I talk to them more now that they’re on a mission,” Kaydence Wilkinson said. “I email them every week, and I can call them every week.”
Though Kaydence Wilkinson acknowledged that it is hard to be apart from her siblings, she said she knows “they’re doing a good thing.”
“The work that they’re doing is so important, and it’s way more important than wanting to see them,” she said.
Kassidy Wilkinson said hearing and reading her siblings’ inspiring stories and emails about their mission experiences has enhanced her understanding of the impact they have on others.
“Something I get to experience as a quintuplet with all my siblings serving missions is the power of missionary work,” she said. “I can see that it really is a very powerful experience for the person that is going on a mission and who they’re touching on the mission — who they’re finding and teaching and bringing to the Church.”
A transformative experience
P-days for Rachelle Wilkinson is an “all-day affair.” It’s on the missionaries’ preparation day, or P-day, when they can call home.
With three quintuplets already serving, she juggles their various time zones to be able to talk with all of them.
“I just set aside my Mondays for that,” she said. “My kids are going to be all over the world, which is really crazy.”
Rachelle Wilkinson said she loves how many youth are choosing to serve missions, adding she has noticed the “positive change” within her own children who have chosen to serve.
“It’s really helped them to strengthen their testimony, but also to build confidence in themselves and their abilities,” she said.
She has seen how her two sons’ relationship has grown because of their shared experiences as missionaries.
“I feel like they really appreciate each other a lot more now that they’re doing this hard thing together,” she said.
Kaydence Wilkinson didn’t expect she and her siblings would have vastly different experiences on their missions, she said, but she thinks “it will transform us in the way that we need to be changed.”
“It’s such a blessing to be able to go and serve Heavenly Father and be a representative of Jesus Christ every day. You get to do that every day,” she said.
Kassidy Wilkinson shared a quote from Brigham Young University President C. Shane Reese, given during his speech to students, faculty and staff during a BYU devotional on Tuesday, Sept. 16: “Alone, your light cannot be hid; together, your light floods the earth.”
“That’s what I feel like it is as a quintuplet. I feel like I just see the light flooding the earth from my family,” she said.
