Mormon Missionaries

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been commissioned by Jesus Christ through revelation to modern prophets to take the gospel to the world.  It began doing so in the first days after its founding, when it had just a handful of members.

Most Mormon missionaries are young adults.  Young men usually serve missions for a period of two years and can depart at age nineteen.  Young women may also serve, and they serve for eighteen months, usually beginning at age twenty-one.  Retired couples also serve missions of varying lengths and types, including health missions, and humanitarian aid missions.  Some couples serve repeated missions.

Mormon missionaries pay their own way when they serve, except for their transportation costs.  If they serve in foreign countries, they must learn the language of the people they teach.  This can be quite intimidating for them, but because of the spiritual gifts for which they qualify, miracles happen on a daily basis, and most become linguistically and culturally fluent.  Young missionaries give up much in order to serve.  They listen only to uplifting music in the mission field.  They take a long break from school, sports, careers, hobbies, family, and even romance, while they are gone.  Missionaries serve in companionships of two, and they are transferred from place to place within the mission to which they are assigned.

Mormon missionaries are trained before they go out into the field at Missionary Training Centers.  There are fifteen such centers in the world, with the largest being adjacent to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.  There, the “greenies,” or newly-called missionaries, learn about the cultures where they will serve, a little of the language, and of course, the doctrines of the gospel they will teach.  Mormon missionaries are not trained to “sell the gospel.”  They are trained to teach by the spirit and to reach those who have been spiritually prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel into their lives.  Many of these people have been praying and seeking for the truth.

At the present time, the Mormon Church has over 51,000 missionaries serving in 344 missions around the world.  The Church always seeks permission from national governments before it begins to do missionary work in the countries of the world.  Therefore, there are some countries where missionaries do not proselyte but may do service work, or where missionaries may only work with expatriates in the country, or where there is no Mormon missionary presence at all.  For instance, there are Mormon missionaries in Malaysia, with permission to teach from the national government.  This permission is conditional, however.  The missionaries do not teach Moslems, but serve expatriates and citizens of other faiths.  Mormons believe in upholding the law and obeying governments.

Each mission of the Church is overseen by a “mission president” and his wife.  If he has children still in the home, they accompany him during his 3-year term of volunteer service.  Mission presidents are “called” to their positions, just like all the servants in the Church, which has a lay clergy.  Often, the mission president has served in the mission during his younger years, or at least has experience with the language spoken.

Proselyting missionaries always spend part of their time performing community service.  If disaster strikes, they immediately participate in relief efforts as they are able.  For instance, when the earthquake occurred in Haiti, French and Creole-speaking missionaries were able to translate for medical and emergency workers and thus aid those who needed care.   Missionaries also provide leadership in small branches of the Church, where most members are inexperienced with the administration of various aspects of worship and organization.

Mormons are able to extend their reach now by presenting the gospel online.  You can see some of the results of their efforts at Mormon.org.