Rumors of 19 year old females going on missions

[TripletDaddy]

Really? That doesn't make sense to me. But I have always tried to avoid too many of them

to be honest, i wasn't serious at all with that post. It was more like a practice swing in the on-deck circle. Apparently the question has garnered enough serious responses that perhaps it is a legitimate topic.

I'm with you. Adding a PS to something is great when you are in high school, I guess. On a message board, don't see the need.

PS a quick look at wiki seems to indicate that PSS, PPS, and PPPS all have their own time and place. In other words, great news everybody, we are all right and Uncle Ted is wrong, as usual!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postscript

[jay santos]

I'm big on missions. I'm also big on this new missionary age change. I say take it another step, and tell the girls they can go when they're 18 also. Send them all out when they graduate, boys and girls.

But let's also not set them up for failure. Let's scale back the expectations and the guilt trips for stats and numbers. Let's be realistic about what activities they have available to do with their time, and not grind them down with meaningless, nonproductive work for more than a few hours a day. Give them other options, like service. If homesickness and loneliness is a problem, then let's reevaluate the rules about how often they can contact parents.

I don't know if it's true that more missionaries are coming home with depression and mental health issues because they can't hack it, but if it's true, then let's not fix or blame it on the supply side, let's fix it on the demand side (yeah i know that comparison didn't really work--oh well). Missions are damn hard. It's OK to make them just a little easier.

[creekster]

i thought the convention was to add alternating Ps and Ss, as opposed to only adding Ps?

Really? That doesn't make sense to me. But I have always tried to avoid too many of them

[old_gregg]

No, the convention here is if you have something more to add or otherwise edit your post is to write "Edit:". If you need to add or edit further you should use "Edit #:" where # is 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on.

not starting with edit 0? keep showing your true colors, pal

[imanihonjin]

We seem to be losing sisters. Or they are being transferred to areas of the mission I never see. We currently have sisters in our ward, and they are being double-transferred somewhere and the area is being turned over to elders.

Do you only have one set of missionaries in your ward? If so, count yourself lucky.

[Jacob]

No, the convention here is if you have something more to add or otherwise edit your post is to write "Edit:". If you need to add or edit further you should use "Edit #:" where # is 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on.

It wasn't an edit.

[Jacob]

i thought the convention was to add alternating Ps and Ss, as opposed to only adding Ps?

I couldn't figure it out. I did a quick google search before posting, but didn't want to waste more than a few seconds. Can I get a ruling? I'm pretty sure PPS is correct, but don't know what to do after that other than avoid adding another end note.

[Uncle Ted]

i thought the convention was to add alternating Ps and Ss, as opposed to only adding Ps?

No, the convention here is if you have something more to add or otherwise edit your post is to write "Edit:". If you need to add or edit further you should use "Edit #:" where # is 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on.

[falafel]

I'm not the one who said it, but I whole heartedly agree. Maybe it's just that we're seeing a bigger sample, but some of the sisters I've run into (and wow there are a grip of sisters- it seems like I hardly see Elders anymore) seem like these shy, mousy, socially backwards girls who can't string together a cogent gospel message rather than the confident, earnest troopers I would stereotype sister mish's as being.

We seem to be losing sisters. Or they are being transferred to areas of the mission I never see. We currently have sisters in our ward, and they are being double-transferred somewhere and the area is being turned over to elders.

[falafel]

i thought the convention was to add alternating Ps and Ss, as opposed to only adding Ps?

Post-script. Post-post-script.

[Commando]

PPS: I chuckled a little when someone said that their recent missionaries were "exceptionally immature." Aren't most 18 year old boys exceptionally immature? Maybe they were just exceptionally immature for missionaries, but typically mature for 18 year olds.

I'm not the one who said it, but I whole heartedly agree. Maybe it's just that we're seeing a bigger sample, but some of the sisters I've run into (and wow there are a grip of sisters- it seems like I hardly see Elders anymore) seem like these shy, mousy, socially backwards girls who can't string together a cogent gospel message rather than the confident, earnest troopers I would stereotype sister mish's as being.

[TripletDaddy]

i thought the convention was to add alternating Ps and Ss, as opposed to only adding Ps?

[Jacob]

Nope. The potential mental health pitfalls seem a little obvious to me, but maybe that's my advanced psychiatry training.

I don't know that it's an overall negative mental healthwise, but if you're losing 10+% of your participants and that number worries you, then there are a few tweaks you could make. Or not.

I admit to having little-to-no experience with mental health problems. Your post just seemed like you were making a claim that was obviously true, when it was not at all obvious to me. A few points. Do we know for sure there has been a surge in people leaving their missions for mental health reasons? Is the number anywhere near 10%? If there are substantial numbers leaving purportedly due to mental health issues, do we know what percentage of them are really mental health issues? (I'm sure they can all be classified as mental health, but many likely amount to "I really don't like this").

But the points you made were that the typical missionary life, as it has existed for the past several decades is an obvious cause of mental health issues, when most of us didn't see that when we were actually there. Maybe your advanced psychiatric training has led you to conclude that Mormon missionary service is just plain bad for mental health. That seems like an obviously faulty claim to me.

PS: those declaring that everyone should just go to college for a semester or a year before mission service seems a little absurd to me. First off, 50% or more of the potential missionaries shouldn't be going to college. What do to with them? To those of you who felt homesick at college, a few miles from home, that's a shame. But you got over it and I can't imagine why you wouldn't be able to get over it on a mission as well as at college. Excuse my ignorance. I never felt homesick at college or on the mission.

PPS: I chuckled a little when someone said that their recent missionaries were "exceptionally immature." Aren't most 18 year old boys exceptionally immature? Maybe they were just exceptionally immature for missionaries, but typically mature for 18 year olds.

PPPS: I don't care when youth go on missions. The church should probably do what it thinks best fulfills its objectives, whether those objectives lean more towards converting others, or creating life-long devotees of their youth. They should just be straight forward about what those objectives are. I always thought the only reason for the service was to convert others, and I treated my service in that manner. I'm not so sure I was completely right. I know many missionaries don't get the chance to convert many, or any, so the leadership must also have some other purpose in mind. I believe the decision to send 18 year old men and 19 year old women was largely a pragmatic rather than a revealed decision. I think they ought to be straightforward about that as well.

[Topper]

A year of college makes a world of difference.

[FMCoug]

Thank you all for making my case. A 19-yr-old can be significantly more ready for a mission than an 18-yr-old. One year away from home at school is one of the best kinds of experience for a prospective missionary.

By FM's logic, the recent bump in early returns has nothing to do with the age change. Rather, there has been some sudden surge in helicopter parenting.

I'll give you the recent bump. But the increase has been a problem since long before the age change. I know for a fact it was something the Missionary department was looking into at least 5 years ago, if not longer.