Mormon Missionaries

Mormon Missionaries

Even if you’re not all that familiar with Mormons, you might be able to pick out a Mormon missionary on sight.  They’re clean-cut, wear white shirt and tie (or a nice shirt and skirt, if they’re female), and a black name tag.  They go two by two, usually without cars—they walk or they ride bikes, often—knocking on doors or approaching people on the sidewalks.  Their message?  The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in full and they would like to share it with you.  Over 60,000 Mormon missionaries serve around the world today.  The majority of them are between 19 and 23 and most of those are young men, although “sister missionaries” are becoming more common.  Young men serve for two years and young women serve for a year and a half.

Also, the Mormon Church gives retired seniors the opportunity to serve missions—and multiple missions at that.  While young missionaries usually preach to the people they serve, senior missionaries are more likely to do more specialized things—such as give medical service to a community, among many other possible things.

All Mormon missionaries pay their own way.  They aren’t paid to serve missions.  They sometimes save up for years to be able to go, instead.  If a member really can’t afford to go, their ward and family can help and the Church receives donations for needy missionaries.

They go all over the world and they come from all over the world.  They may be asked to serve anywhere and they go where they’re asked to go.

To serve a mission, you need to complete an application process, first.  The would-be missionary has to be a worthy member of the Church and want to teach the gospel.  After the process is completed, the would-be missionary gets their mission assignment from Salt Lake City—where they’ll go and when.

After that, they go to one of 17 missionary training centers.  If they’ll be teaching in their native language, they stay in these centers three weeks to learn how to best preach the gospel.  If they’ll be teaching in a foreign language, they stay nine weeks to learn that language as well.

Mormon missionaries live in pairs and travel in pairs.  They’re supposed to stay with their companion at all times. 

The area they preach in is called a “mission.”  They won’t stay in just one place, though.  Missionaries move from one part of the mission to another pretty frequently—they also change companions regularly. 

And wherever they are, they preach Mormon beliefs to anyone who’s interested.  They preach about Jesus Christ, and His Atonement, how He saved all of us through His sacrifice.  They’ll talk about the plan of salvation and how families can be together forever.

They also do community service and help out in times of trouble or disaster.  They should be actively serving as well as teaching.

And what they do is a sacrifice.  The missionaries can’t go home during their time.  They can only call home a couple of times a year.  Their communication is mostly through letters and a weekly email. 

And the rules they follow are strict.  They preach six days out of seven and even on their free day, they can do only Church-allowed activities (movies and listening to rock music is out, for example).  They have to be very careful around the opposite gender.

But despite the sacrifice or, perhaps, because of it, many a Mormon has found the experience very rewarding spiritually.  In sharing what they believe is the true and complete gospel, they bless lives, even if people don’t always necessarily convert.