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Mormon missionary
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over fifty thousand full-time missionaries worldwide, as of June 2007. Commonly referred to as Mormon missionaries, most LDS Church missionaries are single young men and women in their early twenties and are assigned to a mission of the church that is usually far from the missionary's home.
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over fifty thousand full-time missionaries worldwide, as of June 2007. Commonly referred to as Mormon missionaries, most LDS Church missionaries are single young men and women in their early twenties and are assigned to a mission of the church that is usually far from the missionary's home. Missionaries do not receive a salary for the work they undertake, and most are financially supported by themselves or their families. Throughout history of the church, over one million missionaries have been sent on missions.
Preparation to serve
Basic qualifications
LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball said "Every young man should fill a mission". Young men between the ages of 19 and 25 who meet standards of worthiness are strongly encouraged to consider a two-year, full-time proselytizing mission. This expectation is based in part on the New Testament passage "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..." (Matt. 28: 19-20). In 2007, approximately 30% of all 19-year-old LDS men became Mormon missionaries; from LDS families that are active in the church, approximately 80-90% of 19-year-old men serve a mission.
Women who would like to serve a mission must meet the same standards of worthiness and be at least 21 years old; women generally serve shorter 18-month missions. Married retired couples are encouraged to serve missions as well, but their length of service may vary from 3 to 36 months depending on their circumstances and means.
Standards of worthiness
All missionaries must meet certain minimum standards of worthiness. Among the standards that a prospective missionary must demonstrate adherence to include regular attendance at church meetings, regular personal prayer, regular study of the Standard Works, adherence to the law of chastity, adherence to the Word of Wisdom, and payment of tithing.
Other exclusionary factors
In addition to spiritual preparedness, church bishops are instructed to ensure that prospective missionaries are physically, mentally, and emotionally capable of full-time missionary work. In the same speech where he called for "every young man" to fill a mission, Kimball added, "we realize that while all men definitely should, all men are not prepared to teach the gospel abroad." Apart from general issues of worthiness and ability, there are a number of specific situations that will disqualify a person from becoming a full-time missionary for the LDS Church. Those excluded include those who would have to leave dependent children in the care of someone else; young couples who are still in child-bearing age; those who are in debt and have not made arrangements to meet these obligations; those who are on legal probation or parole; couples with serious unresolved marital problems; those who are HIV positive; and those who have been convicted of sexual abuse. Additionally, members who have submitted to, performed, encouraged, paid for, or arranged for an abortion and members who have fathered or mothered a child out of wedlock are usually excluded from missionary service, as are men under 26 and women under 40 who have been divorced and anyone who has participated in "homosexual activity" after age 15.
Until 1978 the LDS Church did not call men of African descent to go on missions, due to the ban on blacks holding the priesthood. This ban was lifted during Kimball's presidency.
Mission call
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After application to the church and the requisite approval, prospective missionaries receive a "call to serve"—an official notification of their location assignment—through the mail from the President of the Church. The mission call will also inform the prospective missionary what language he will be expected to use during his mission. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are responsible for assigning missionaries to a particular mission.
Temple attendance
Before beginning their mission, prospective male missionaries are usually ordained to the office of an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood (if they do not hold this office already). All missionaries are "set apart" by the laying on of hands to preach the gospel; this is usually performed by the missionary's stake president. Prospective missionaries also usually attend the temple for the first time to receive their Endowment if they have not already done so.
Training
Newly-called missionaries attend a short training period at one of 17 church Missionary Training Centers (MTCs) worldwide. The largest MTC is located in Provo, Utah adjacent to Brigham Young University. Missionaries who will not be learning a language in order to serve their missions spend three weeks at an MTC and are trained in the use of proselytizing materials, taught expected conduct, and study the scriptures. Missionaries bound for foreign-language missions spend eight to thirteen weeks at an MTC, depending on the language to be learned. During this period, they are encouraged not to speak in their native tongue but rather to immerse themselves in the new language.
Cost
Missionaries are expected to pay their own expenses while on the mission, often with assistance from family and friends. In the past, each missionary paid his or her actual living expenses, but this approach created a disproportionate burden on missionaries who were assigned to more expensive areas of the world. In 1990, a new program was introduced to equalize the financial responsibility for each missionary and his or her family. Now, all young missionaries pay a flat monthly rate which is then redistributed according to regional costs of living. The cost of a mission as of January 2006 is USD$400 per month, which helps to cover food, lodging, transportation, and other mission related expenses. Missionaries are asked to bring extra personal money for any personal items they would like to purchase. Once the money is received by the Church it is then redistributed to the missionaries in amounts proportionate to the cost of living within the assigned mission area. As families now contribute to a general fund for missionary expenses, the sum is deductible under many nations' tax policies regarding charitable gifts.
Young people in the church are encouraged to save money throughout their childhood and teenage years to pay for as much of their mission as they can, although many receive assistance from parents, family, or friends. Missionaries who cannot save the required funds may obtain assistance from their home congregation or from a general missionary fund operated by the church and contributed to by Latter-day Saints around the world. Married couple missionaries are expected to pay their own costs. In many areas, church members often invite locally-assigned missionaries over for meals to help reduce the overall expenditures of the missionary program.
Dress and grooming
Full-time LDS missionaries are required to adhere to a dress code: for men, conservative, dark trousers and suit coats, white dress shirts, and ties are generally required. For women, modest and professional dresses or blouses and skirts must be worn. In some areas these standards are altered slightly. For example, in hot, humid climates, suit coats are not required and dress shirts may be short-sleeved. Casual clothes may be worn when appropriate, when missionaries are providing manual labor or during preparation day, when the missionaries are involved in recreation, cleaning, shopping (at the discretion of the mission president), and laundry.
All full-time missionaries wear a name tag that gives their surname with the appropriate title ("Elder" or "Sister" in English-speaking areas). The name tag also bears the church's name, unless the mission president considers this inadvisable due to circumstances in the area (e.g., adverse political conditions).
Organization
Missions and mission leadership
Every part of the world is assigned to be within a mission of the church, whether or not LDS missionaries are active in the area. An adult male mission president presides over the missionaries in the mission.
Most missions are divided into several zones, a zone being a geographic area specified by the mission president. A zone encompasses several more organizational units called districts. Each zone and district is presided over by leaders drawn from male missionaries serving in that area. Zone and district leaders are responsible for gathering weekly statistics and assisting missionaries in their areas of responsibility. A district typically encompasses four to eight missionaries, and may or may not comprise more than one proselytizing area.
In addition to the leaders mentioned above, the mission president has two or more assistants. Assistants to the President (APs) are typically missionaries who have previously served as district and/or zone leaders. They assist the president in administering policies and helping missionaries throughout the mission.
Companionships
A missionary companionship, consisting of two or, occasionally, three missionaries, is the smallest organizational unit of a mission. Every missionary is assigned by the mission president to be another missionary's companion. Missionary companionships are generally maintained for months at a time and most missionaries will have served with multiple companions by the end of their mission. Only in rare instances will missionary companions have met prior to the start of their missions. A missionary's companion is always a missionary of the same gender, with the exception of married couples, who serve as each others' missionary companion for the entirety of their mission.
Missionary companions are instructed to never be apart during the day or night (with the exception of time allowed for bathing and use of the toilet). Companions share the same living quarters and the same bedroom (but not the same bed, except in the case of married missionary couples). When companions have conflicting personalities or interests, they are encouraged to try to resolve them themselves. If they are unable to do so, mission leaders may be used to help resolve the differences. Sometimes the only resolution is reassigning the missionaries to new companions; however, this is often seen as less than ideal as missionaries are encouraged to learn how to work with and love their companions rather than live in an environment of contention waiting to be reassigned. .
Personal relationships
Contact with family and friends
Missionaries are encouraged to write a letter to their parents weekly. Because almost all of their time is otherwise occupied, other communication is limited. However, a missionary may use preparation day to correspond with any person that is resident outside of the boundaries of the mission. Missionaries do not go on vacation and are generally only permitted to telephone their parents on Christmas Day and on Mother's Day (some mission presidents also allow missionaries to telephone their parents on Father's Day). Missionaries are provided with a free church e-mail account to correspond with their parents and other relatives, but a missionary may only access their account on preparation day using a computer in a public location, such as at a public library or an internet café.
Romantic relationships
Single missionaries are prohibited from dating or courting while serving missions. The requirement of companionships staying together at all times is intended, among other reasons, to discourage these activities. While missionaries may interact with members of the opposite sex, they may never be alone with them or engage in any kind of intimate physical or emotional activity (e.g., kissing, hugging, holding hands, flirting). Missionary companionships are also asked not to visit with single members of the opposite sex apart from an initial first visit. If further visits are required, those contacts are usually handed over to a companionship of the same gender as the contact or to married couple missionaries. Alternatively, a missionary companionship may be chaperoned by an adult of their own gender.
Many missionaries leave behind a girlfriend/boyfriend when they embark on their missions, but they are prohibited from meeting with them or telephoning them while serving their missions. They may, however, write to these persons once a week by postal mail. However, missionaries often end their romantic relationships before serving their missions, as many see it as the best option for both parties involved. Some missionaries, on the other hand, choose to continue their romantic relationships while on their missions. This can, of course, lead to a "Dear John" letter. Some relationships are able to last during this time of separation.
Marital status
In the early days of the LDS Church, men were called to serve missions regardless of marital status. Today, however, married young men are not expected to serve missions, unless called to oversee a mission as a mission president. A call to be a mission president is typically extended to the married couple, and in turn, the entire family of the chosen mission president. Older retired couples also may serve as missionaries, but do not take their families with them.
Number of missionaries and number of converts
As of December 31, 2007, there were 52,686 LDS missionaries serving in 348 church missions throughout the world. Their work, often in cooperation with local members, resulted in 279,218 convert baptisms in 2007. Author David Stewart points out that the number of convert baptisms per missionary per year has fallen from a high of 8.03 in 1989 to just 4.67 in 2005. He argues that the number of converts would increase if Mormon missionaries made greater efforts in meeting new people; he points out that the average companionship spends only four or five hours per week attempting to meet new people.
Types of missionaries
The most visible and most common type of missionaries are typically those who proselytize door-to-door and ride bicycles for transportation, but not all missionaries engage in these activities. There are "service missionaries" who solely perform volunteer work in impoverished areas, do genealogical research, or are tour guides or hosts at Temple Square and other historical church sites. In many areas, even proselytizing missionaries spend most of their day responding to incoming phone calls and queries, delivering requested media from the church's television and radio commercials. Many missionaries also use public transportation, walk, or in some areas drive automobiles owned by the church.
The LDS Church also has a strong welfare and humanitarian missionary program. These humanitarian missionaries typically serve in impoverished areas of the world and do not actively proselytize; humanitarian missionaries will not wear any identifying tags if local law forbids it. This allows them to operate in countries where religious organizations are typically forbidden, such as in predominantly Muslim countries or in Southeast Asia. Regular proselytizing missionaries are asked to engage in welfare activities and community service, limited to four hours a week on days other than weekends or preparation day.
In 2007, 80% of all Mormon missionaries were young, unmarried men, 13% young single women, and 7% retired couples.
Senior missionaries
All retired couples and elderly single women of the Church who are able, both physically and financially, are encouraged to go on full-time missions. For those with health or financial limitations, many other opportunities for service in their home congregations or communities are available.
Senior missionaries, also called Elders and Sisters like their younger counterparts, pay their own expenses, though they may receive some assistance from family. They have more choice in the placement and purpose of their mission, particularly if they have unique skills such as medical expertise or knowledge of foreign languages. Many serve humanitarian missions in which they are sent to specific regions and help with agriculture, food procurement, medical missions, or clean water initiatives. These are run through the Humanitarian Services arm of the LDS Philanthropies first begun in 1955. The LDS Church has recently begun immunization projects and a wheelchair initiative with much of the volunteer work being performed by senior missionaries. Some senior missionary couples serve as leaders in areas of the world where there are few experienced church leaders. Part of their responsibility includes training local members to be effective leaders.
Senior missionaries represent a small percentage of the total full-time missionary force of the Mormon Church. As of 2004, there were approximately 5,000 senior couple missionaries in the Church out of more than 56,000 total missionaries. However, senior missionaries form a large part of the Church’s part-time missionary force.
In the last 2 decades, the LDS Church has stepped up its call for senior couple missionaries. Leaders have encouraged this both as a responsibility to help our fellow men and as a cure to loneliness which often affects the elderly. In 2002, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley said,
"Caring for the elderly has become one of the great social problems of our time. Of course they reach an age when they cannot do very much. I can testify of that. But there are years between retirement and that age when they can play around doing things that really lead nowhere or they can give their great talents, the fruits of many years of marvelous experience, to lift and help people. They become concerned with others less fortunate and work to meet their needs. And they say, 'What a great time we are having!' I know of one couple now on their eighth such mission."
Building missionaries
Building missionaries were originally called by the president of the Tongan Mission in the early 1950s. Among their major successes was building Liahona High School.
From 1955 on, Wendell B. Mendenhall institutionalized building missionaries on a larger scale with skilled tradesmen called as supervisors of the missionaries. Most of the supervisors were Americans, while most of the workers were young men indigenous to the areas of the South Pacific and Latin America where the work was carried out. However, at times the situation was more complex. One example is Jose Alvarez, who was a native of Argentina, but had lived in the United States for three years when he was called to go with his family to Chile, where he served as a building missionary supervisor.
Often, trainee or assistant building supervisors would work under the leadership of an experienced supervisor in preparation for an assignment as a fully-fledged supervisor of some project or group of missionaries.
Most building missionaries had had little or no building experience prior to their call. This, however, rarely prevented them from gaining experience and learning in every aspect of the building work involved within the project. The only exceptions were with regard to laws that required that in certain aspects, such as with electricity and plumbing, for instance, the work had to be carried out by registered tradesmen.
Although there were many specific rules that proselyting missionaries were expected to live that building missionaries were not, and some building missionaries were called as young as 17 years of age, many expectations - such as the expectation for a commitment of 2 years' service, for instance - and requirements for worthiness, as well, were the same, and prospective building missionaries were interviewed with regard to such matters prior to their call. Formal letters from the First Presidency re such respects were also eventually sent out to building supervisors for missionary reference and compliance.
The prime differences re the conditions for building missionary service were that such missionaries were to reside for short time periods at the homes of different members from the congregation of the building upon which they were working. During the early 1970s, in Australia, such host families deemed it an honour and were offered just $5 per week to assist. As the missionary's role was one of service, a building missionary was offered $3 per week for basal living expenses. Thus most missionaries needed to use personal savings to cover any of the rest needed, or to receive from their parents or friends any extra needed. Fundamentally, however, the host family looked after the missionary and it was his part to blend in with and help the family during off-work hours.
Building missionaries were also assumed as part of the wards and stakes in which they resided, and were expected to be examples of support for local leaders, programmes and Church involvement. They were to live all the standards that were set out by Church leaders for young members of the Church, and as service missionaries, were not expected to be involved in 'free-lancing' after hours, or going to parties or non-Church dances and activities. As their call was one of a full-time missionary, they were not generally called to other positions in the Church while on their missions, although they could quite readily accept interim assignments from time to time. There was also ready opportunity, depending on precise circumstances, for building and proselyting missionaries to work together on one another's programmes, which very often occurred. The responsibility for, or prime authority over, any proselyting missionary was vested in the mission president of the mission to which he/she was called. However, with regards to the building missionary, such was vested in the stake president of the stake within which the missionary resided at the time in question. When it came to the actual work of the site itself, the set-apart authority was the building supervisor, who worked under the instructions of regional or General building authorities of the Church.
Although building missionaries were expected not to date, nor engage with intimacy or familiarity, they were, nevertheless, encouraged to "build meaningful relationships" with members of the opposite sex, but were expected to do so only in group settings and within the propriety of their calling.
Many such Church missionaries, unlike proselyting missionaries - who generally remained within the one mission - were moved around a country or over a large area to wherever their work was required or the next project commenced. This could also mean that they worked under multiple supervisors and multiple stake or district presidents over the period of their mission call.
The building missionary program was phased out in the 1970s.
Over most of the course of the building missionary program, opportunities were also made available for the general membership of the Church to also provide service to or be directly involved in the actual building work itself on the chapels and Church structures being erected, by putting in personal "service hours", which were also recorded. Many of the local women also involved themselves in assistance by providing food and drinks during breaks. Others assisted in various other at-hand labors at the site.
Coming of age
For young Latter-day Saints, completing a mission is often seen as a rite of passage and most tend to regard it as a positive event; the phrase "the best two years of my life" is a common cliché among returned missionaries when describing their experience. Although Gordon B. Hinckley has suggested that a mission is not to be a rite of passage, this cultural aspect remains. With the usual starting age of 19–21, a mission provides a clear event or marker for the traditional age of adulthood, but is not necessary for continuance in church membership or in spiritual growth.
Returned missionaries
A returned missionary (often abbreviated "RM") is a term used by members of the LDS Church to refer to men and women who have previously served as Mormon missionaries. Once they return home, RMs are generally encouraged to begin dating seriously and to seek marriage.
While technically a gender-neutral term referring to any person who has returned from a mission, RM most often refers to men.
In Mormon culture, stereotypes and jokes abound regarding newly returned missionaries, most dealing with their difficulties in handling the reverse culture shock or learning to speak their native language again if they served a foreign-speaking mission. Other stereotypes revolve around the fact that as missionaries, they lived highly structured, disciplined lives and avoided contact with members of the opposite sex, so many RMs have difficulty readjusting to social life and dating. Other stereotypes include the supposed rush of many RMs to get married as soon as possible. Many families whose daughters are old enough to marry encourage them to date RMs since they are judged to be the most eligible.
Returned missionaries are frequently called to assist in the local missionary effort and are encouraged to stay active within the LDS Church through callings and service. RMs who served in the same mission frequently stay in touch and gather for mission reunions held in Salt Lake City to coincide with the semiannual LDS General Conference.
Some celebrities served LDS missions, including Shawn Bradley (Australia), Orson Scott Card (Brazil), Stephen Covey (England), Jon Heder (Japan), and Mitt Romney (France).
Mormon missionaries in popular culture
In popular culture, missionaries have been depicted in several works of print and film. John H. Groberg's (1993) missionary account In the Eye of the Storm (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft; ISBN 0884949001) was adapted into the movie The Other Side of Heaven. In 2008, former missionary Chad Hardy was subjected to church discipline after releasing a pin-up calendar entitled "Men on a Mission", which consisted of pictures of scantily-clad returned missionaries.
Films about LDS Church missionaries include the following:
- The Best Two Years: A comedy film about a group of missionaries in the Holland region of the Netherlands who are struggling with their missionary work.
- Get the Fire: A PBS documentary of the struggles of missionaries in foreign countries.
- God's Army: A fictional film about a young missionary's adjustment to mission life in Los Angeles.
- Latter Days: A fictional movie in which a secretly homosexual Mormon missionary falls in love with a man in Los Angeles.
- Millions: A movie about a British boy who stumbles across millions of stolen pounds and is inspired by several Mormon missionaries to do good with it.
- Orgazmo: A 1997 fictional comedy about a missionary starring in a porno movie.
- The Other Side of Heaven: A Disney film based on the true mission experiences of John H. Groberg in Tonga.
- The R.M.: A comedy about a returned missionary's adjustment to life post-mission.
- Saturday's Warrior: A film in which two missionaries convert an artist searching for truth.
- States of Grace: Portrays themes of repentance and change in a mission story set in a gang-ridden section of Los Angeles.
History
Incidents
In August 2006, three male missionaries from Idaho, Nevada and California participated in the vandalism of a Roman Catholic shrine in San Luis, Colorado. This included pretending to sacrifice each other and holding the head of one of the statues. The LDS Church apologized for the desecration shortly after the incident. The incident recalled a 1972 occurrence in which a pair of missionaries in Thailand took pictures of themselves sitting on an ancient Buddha statue. Although the missionaries may not have recognized the statue for what it was, they were caught and sentenced to a year in prison, and their images were published in the newspapers. The King of Thailand pardoned them on his birthday, and they were released after six months. Missionaries of the church are counseled to respect other religions and cultures in order to avoid such conflicts.
Missionaries have also been the victims of violence at times, though rarely. From 1999 to 2006, only three LDS missionaries were murdered worldwide, while 22 died in accidents of some sort. Missionaries of other Christian faiths have a much higher murder-to-accident ratio, with 155 out of 164 missionaries dying due to murder rather than accident. One of the three LDS missionaries killed during that time was Elder Morgan Young, who died after he and his companion were shot while proselytizing in a residential area of Virginia. His companion survived. A few cases of kidnapping have also occurred, a recent one being in 1998, when two male missionaries were abducted while working in the Samara region of Russia. The kidnappers demanded USD$300,000 dollars for their return. The missionaries were released unharmed a few days later without payment of the ransom. In 2008, three men from Port Shepstone, South Africa were convicted of raping and robbing two Mormon women missionaries in June 2006.
In 1977, the case of a Mormon missionary who said he was abducted and raped by a woman was covered extensively by newspapers in Britain.
External links
- - A comprehensive index of LDS missionary alumni web sites
- : Brigham Young University's online collection of missionary diaries, spanning 1830s to 1960s
- from Mormon Times
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