How strongly will you encourage your son(s) to serve a mission?

[CardiacCoug]

Just curious how the board feels about this question.

[Lost Student]

I put strongly encourage them, but it's hypothetical for me because I have no sons (yet?).

[jay santos]

I have three sons and have and will strongly encourage them to serve missions.

1. Societal norm and expectation (at least in my family/ward/community)
2. Great for maturity in helping drop the selfish, entitled thing most teenagers have and become focused on serving others
3. Great for learning a ton of life skills: independence, hard work, leadership skills, social skills, relationships, public speaking
4. Great for expanding your world view and accepting other cultures and people, especially for my kids growing up in Mormon suburbia

On the downside:

1. Can interrupt school especially math (not sure I ever totally recovered)
2. Possibility for shame based, negative pressure from leaders. If you can't keep the mission rules or perform to certain level with stats, then it's very possible it can become a negative experience.
3. Combination of grueling work and constant rejection can be overwhelming for some personality types.

[RC Vikings]

3. Combination of grueling work and constant rejection can be overwhelming for some personality types.

I would like to see a service only mission for this type of kid.

[Jacob]

I have three sons and have and will strongly encourage them to serve missions.

1. Societal norm and expectation (at least in my family/ward/community)
2. Great for maturity in helping drop the selfish, entitled thing most teenagers have and become focused on serving others
3. Great for learning a ton of life skills: independence, hard work, leadership skills, social skills, relationships, public speaking
4. Great for expanding your world view and accepting other cultures and people, especially for my kids growing up in Mormon suburbia

Wow. I really can't see encouraging my sons to go if your positives were the best reasons. There is only one reason I would encourage my kids to go and that would be to preach the true gospel. All the ancillary benefits can be just as efficiently gained elsewhere and without the monetary disadvantage of serving a mission.

[CardiacCoug]

I have three sons and have and will strongly encourage them to serve missions.

1. Societal norm and expectation (at least in my family/ward/community)
2. Great for maturity in helping drop the selfish, entitled thing most teenagers have and become focused on serving others
3. Great for learning a ton of life skills: independence, hard work, leadership skills, social skills, relationships, public speaking
4. Great for expanding your world view and accepting other cultures and people, especially for my kids growing up in Mormon suburbia

On the downside:

1. Can interrupt school especially math (not sure I ever totally recovered)
2. Possibility for shame based, negative pressure from leaders. If you can't keep the mission rules or perform to certain level with stats, then it's very possible it can become a negative experience.
3. Combination of grueling work and constant rejection can be overwhelming for some personality types.

I agree with your list. As much as I think that from a rational/non-religious perspective a young man could do so much more with 2 years outside of the restrictions/limitations of an LDS mission, from a practical perspective I think the 2-year LDS mission "boot camp" is pretty effective for helping most kids set the course for the rest of their life.

If you had a son with a personality type that you thought would not do well on a mission, would you possibly back off the encouragement or even discourage that particular son from serving a mission?

[CardiacCoug]

Wow. I really can't see encouraging my sons to go if your positives were the best reasons. There is only one reason I would encourage my kids to go and that would be to preach the true gospel. All the ancillary benefits can be just as efficiently gained elsewhere and without the monetary disadvantage of serving a mission.

What if your kid goes to the Netherlands and nobody accepts the gospel during his 2 years? Then from your perspective it was a total waste.

[jay santos]

If you had a son with a personality type that you thought would not do well on a mission, would you possibly back off the encouragement or even discourage that particular son from serving a mission?

It would be very, very difficult with the expectations that are put on my sons from sources I can't control that well.

I think I would just try really hard to coach him on what proper expectations should be and how to ignore the other voices.

[il Padrino Ute]

I voted to neither encourage nor discourage my sons (and daughters for that matter) to serve a mission. It's their decision and they'll get my support either way.

[Clark Addison]

Wow. I really can't see encouraging my sons to go if your positives were the best reasons. There is only one reason I would encourage my kids to go and that would be to preach the true gospel. All the ancillary benefits can be just as efficiently gained elsewhere and without the monetary disadvantage of serving a mission.

What do you see as a better place to gain the ancillary benefits? And by monetary disadvantage, do you mean the cost of the mission, or the future cost of delaying education by two years, or something else?

Just curious.

[Jacob]

What do you see as a better place to gain the ancillary benefits?

A job. The military. Total dedication to some other worthwhile endeavor.

And by monetary disadvantage, do you mean the cost of the mission, or the future cost of delaying education by two years, or something else?

Both and postponing the day he starts to earn money by getting a job.

[Jacob]

What if your kid goes to the Netherlands and nobody accepts the gospel during his 2 years? Then from your perspective it was a total waste.

No, it wouldn't be a total waste. I said that the reason was to "preach the true gospel." Of course the reason you preach is to convert, but you can't control what others do.

As an aside, my view is that if a missionary can't convert anyone in the Netherlands, lets send those missionaries to latin america. I never bought into the idea that the main or first object of a mission is to convert yourself.

[SteelBlue]

What if your kid goes to the Netherlands and nobody accepts the gospel during his 2 years? Then from your perspective it was a total waste.

Hey, I served there and technically we preached the gospel. It was just one of those "if a tree falls in the woods and there's nobody there to hear it...." situations.

[Indy Coug]

No, it wouldn't be a total waste. I said that the reason was to "preach the true gospel." Of course the reason you preach is to convert, but you can't control what others do.

As an aside, my view is that if a missionary can't convert anyone in the Netherlands, lets send those missionaries to latin america. I never bought into the idea that the main or first object of a mission is to convert yourself.

The church has already shifted their allocation (even if modestly) of missionaries to more productive venues.

[Clark Addison]

A job. The military. Total dedication to some other worthwhile endeavor.



Both and postponing the day he starts to earn money by getting a job.

If you believe in the church's mission, don't you feel that a young man would benefit more, not only spiritually but also in other ways, by serving the Lord than by joining the military? I think that for an LDS young man, there are things you can learn on your mission better than anywhere else.

For a young man planning to serve a mission, I agree with you that the primary reason should not be for personal growth. I want my son's reason for going on a mission to be to help bring people to the Lord, but I will admit that when I ask myself, "Why do I want my son to go on a mission?", the answer is just as much about what it will do to him as what it will do to those he teaches. I am selfish that way, I care a lot more about him than the folks he will meet.

As far as costs, if my son goes on a mission, those two years will likely be much cheaper for me than the years surrounding it.