Any celebreties exempt from missionary service?

[statman]

You "don't doubt" and you're "quite certain" that you know God's thoughts.

And somebody else is deluding himself.

Nice.

No - I don't doubt at all that God most certainly does care if a young man goes on a mission or not. I don't know how many prophets have said very plainly that He does.

I'm sticking with deluded.

[CardiacCoug]

No - I don't doubt at all that God most certainly does care if a young man goes on a mission or not. I don't know how many prophets have said very plainly that He does.

I'm sticking with deluded.

Yeah, I think deluded is a pretty good word for that too.

[grapevine]

I quoted a talk by C Max CAldwell at a BYUIdaho devotional he gave in 2002, and the talks given by Thomas S Monson recently, William R Bradford, Joe J Christensen, H Bryan Richards quoting Joe and Ezra Taft Benson talking about the importance of missionary work. I pushed wrong button so it got lost. If anyone wants to put those links up welcome too.

Seems like everyone of them say you are to go on a mission regardless of anything else. People of course are not forced to go but still counsel is to go how the Lord wants you to go. Does not make sense to tell prophet to say one thing and you to do another.

As for military diffrent time and place. If circumstances made it impossible to go on mission than the Lord had compensation. Hal had that issue too as he is around the same age as Bob. He served a district mission thouigh. Right now circumstances are that barring worthiness or disability nothing is keeping someone from serving at 19.

[SteelBlue]

To do baptisms. Or to get married. No bishop is going to give a 20 yo who's not going on a mission a recommend for his own endowment unless a temple marriage is in the cards - but a lot would be hesitant about that too. Tough for a bishop and/or SP to conclude that a kid who doesn't want to go on a mission is prepared to live up to temple covenants that ask for more commitment than that...

Maybe if he was already in the military...

A 20 y.o. who decides not to serve but to marry instead would have little or no trouble getting a temple recommend imo.

[BlueHair]

I heard Brad Pitt is exempt from missionary service. Ashton Kutcher, too.

[Borg]

Geez...if I would have known this when I was 19, I would have put a little more effort to becoming a rock star or something.

[hostile]

So a young man should prepare to serve a mission or serve in the military. Maybe bishops and SP's should keep a stack of business cards for the local military recruiters to give to young men that don't make the cut for missionary service. At least then a young man has a chance to "return with honor" in another way.

I had a naval recruiter who was really pushing me to sign up tell me that serving a stake mission and a full time mission were the same thing, essentially. He thought I would be an excellent fit for the nuclear submarine program. I'm over 6'5" - I would have hit my head.

[TripletDaddy]

Has T-Mo said much about everyone serving missions during his tenure as Proph? My guess is that he will likely lay low on that one.

What is the scoop with hales? Grapevine mentioned something about the mission home being closed? I'm envisioning a Clark W Griswold Wally World surprise moment for Elder Hales and the Closed MTC. But I doubt it went down that way.

[Moliere]

I don't doubt at all that the Lord cares. I'm quite certain that He does. You're deluding yourself if you think otherwise...

This is like saying the Lord cares if we do our home teaching. He doesn't care if we do our home teaching, what he cares about is if we take care of our neighbors and look after their needs. Home teaching is a program in the church to standardize that principle. The program may change from time to time but the underlying principle won't.

THe full-time missionary program is just another program installed by teh church to try to standardize the edict to preach the gospel. Placing someones worthiness on their own decision to serve a mission is delusional, especially if it is a worthy, faithful person. That would be like telling a deacon he can't pass the sacrament because he doesn't want to participate in scouting.

You've got to separate the programs from the principles before you start calling people delusional.

[RobinFinderson]

My celebrity status nearly exempted me from missionary service... or rather, the things that I did that made me a local celebrity delayed my mission by three months.