Choosing Missions

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk, We are All Enlisted, from October Conference was a call for young men to serve missions and be worthy to do so.

"From every man, young and old, who bears the priesthood, I ask for a stronger and more devoted voice … a voice for good, a voice for the gospel, a voice for God."-Elder Holland


A young woman I know recently started being interested in a young man who has not left on a mission yet. He is handsome and looks the part, is 19, but is not interested in serving a mission at this time.


He is "waiting" to see if that is what he wants to do. We definitely don't want missionaries out in the field who are not worthy to be there. But I am hearing this a lot from the young men. They are waiting to see if that is "what they want to do." Thankfully, they usually end up going. But their whole attitude concerns me.

I don't have any sons, so obviously I haven't dealt with this first hand. But I do have brothers, nephews, friends, and neighbors, and have been a missionary myself. That is a head-scratcher to me. I don't get the lack of commitment and the "I don't have to do anything I don't want to do" attitude.

We need to be preparing these young men with the expectations that this is what they have been commanded to do by a prophet of God.

Youth need to be exposed to spiritual experiences, where they can feel the spirit and strengthen their faith and testimony on a regular basis. That desire to go is not going to just happen on it's own. They need exposure to the Spirit.

I don't mean to be harsh, but I also don't understand the mothers who are almost afraid to bring up the subject with their sons. They want it to be their son's decision. They stand back and wait to see if their sons decide to go or not. In my opinion, I think a more pro-active, high expectation approach needs to be taken. We need young men serving missions and preparing for this long before the time comes and parents who expect them to do so.

We had a general authority speak to us at one of our Regional conferences and he mentioned the fact that a mission experience is irreplaceable in so many ways. He said, " It would take a person 40 years outside the mission to learn what a missionary learns in 2 years on his mission."

40 years!

A mission is an irreplacable experience that can't be duplicated.

We need young men choosing missions.