Beginning in January 2024, all young service missionaries will be integrated into teaching missions under the leadership of mission presidents.
Service missionaries will continue to report to a service mission leader couple who will work under the priesthood keys of the mission president. The service mission leader couple currently provides — and will continue to provide — day-to-day supervision and assistance to each young service missionary.
The announcement was made in a letter dated Sept. 21, 2023, to general and local priesthood leaders.
The purpose of a service mission is “to help others come unto Christ by serving them as the Savior would.”
Worthy young men ages 18-25 may serve a service mission for six to 24 months, and young women ages 19-29 may serve a service mission for six to 18 months, as close to full time as their capability and circumstances allow. These missionaries live at home and serve locally, and each young man or young woman is provided a customized mission experience tailored to his or her talents, skills and gifts.
Watch the numbers reported next April very carefully...
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
Conclusion. Therefore, the best evidence for the Book of Mormon is notoriously unreliable.
I would consider a young man serving in different ward or stake positions (part time job) and paying 10 % of his gross income from 16 to 65 as a mission. That 10 % compounded over the years could be invested in an IRA and be either be used by the now elderly man, or left to family if serious sickness came into his life too soon.
Beginning in January 2024, all young service missionaries will be integrated into teaching missions under the leadership of mission presidents.
Service missionaries will continue to report to a service mission leader couple who will work under the priesthood keys of the mission president. The service mission leader couple currently provides — and will continue to provide — day-to-day supervision and assistance to each young service missionary.
The announcement was made in a letter dated Sept. 21, 2023, to general and local priesthood leaders.
The purpose of a service mission is “to help others come unto Christ by serving them as the Savior would.”
Worthy young men ages 18-25 may serve a service mission for six to 24 months, and young women ages 19-29 may serve a service mission for six to 18 months, as close to full time as their capability and circumstances allow. These missionaries live at home and serve locally, and each young man or young woman is provided a customized mission experience tailored to his or her talents, skills and gifts.
Watch the numbers reported next April very carefully...
I have questions, I have no idea what I should or could look for next April. Perhaps you could clarify what you are thinking about here a bit and how it might matter. I am not familiar with service missionaries. When did that start and why?
I have questions, I have no idea what I should or could look for next April. Perhaps you could clarify what you are thinking about here a bit and how it might matter. I am not familiar with service missionaries. When did that start and why?
Im thinking the Church will try to mask diminished missionary numbers by bolstering the reported figure with service missionaries. And that a service mission will become a Prosletysing Lite type of mission.
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
Conclusion. Therefore, the best evidence for the Book of Mormon is notoriously unreliable.
I have questions, I have no idea what I should or could look for next April. Perhaps you could clarify what you are thinking about here a bit and how it might matter. I am not familiar with service missionaries. When did that start and why?
Im thinking the Church will try to mask diminished missionary numbers by bolstering the reported figure with service missionaries. And that a service mission will become a Prosletysing Lite type of mission.
Perhaps combining the two numbers, so that you cannot break them out separately?
One problem with that idea, of course, is that the number of converts per missionary would drop drastically.
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Im thinking the Church will try to mask diminished missionary numbers by bolstering the reported figure with service missionaries. And that a service mission will become a Prosletysing Lite type of mission.
Perhaps combining the two numbers, so that you cannot break them out separately?
One problem with that idea, of course, is that the number of converts per missionary would drop drastically.
Didn't they do that with Senior missionaries a few years back? If I recall correctly, it appeared to be done to boost missionary numbers also, back then.
Perhaps combining the two numbers, so that you cannot break them out separately?
One problem with that idea, of course, is that the number of converts per missionary would drop drastically.
Didn't they do that with Senior missionaries a few years back? If I recall correctly, it appeared to be done to boost missionary numbers also, back then.
One of my cousin’s daughters served a youth service mission at a time when youth service missions weren’t a thing. She has autism, which disqualified her from serving a teaching mission. But she wanted to serve a mission and put the singleminded focus that was a part of her autism to work advocating for herself to find a way to serve a mission. She was a kind of an early pioneer for youth service missions being an option for young people who were deemed unsuitable for teaching missions. She served a service mission and was very proud of what she accomplished.
Given the nature of the program, I doubt this organizational move has anything to do with hiding numbers. They could hide the numbers anytime but just reporting a single total for missionaries. It looks to me like a normalization of the youth service missionary program, making it a part of the regular part of the youth missionary program instead of a stand-alone program centered in Salt Lake. It’s a moves that makes an inclusionary program a routine part of every mission.
he/him we all just have to live through it,
holding each other’s hands.
