Rumors of 19 year old females going on missions

[jay santos]

Perhaps. For my part, though, I knew as a missionary that service hours were just something we did to pass a few hours a week in lieu of proselyting-- a token gesture, really. If all you do is increase the number of hours, it might appear as little more than a way to kill time during a not-so-busy week. If missionaries spend a few months devoted solely to service (especially the first few months, when the language skills are at their worst), it may place greater emphasis on the importance of service.

Nah. Just have them do service in off peak hours like weekday mornings or early afternoon. Blue collar work like shoveling shit at a dairy farm is not bad. But I would also look for opportunities where we a missionary could provide more than hard labor, such as tutoring at schools or English classes.

[All-American]

An increase in the number of service hours per week would be the best answer. Then you can proselyte when it's most effective and spend a lot more time at the food bank or just walking around doing random acts of service. I probably taught more discussions through service than I ever did knocking doors and I spent a lot more time knocking doors than anything else.

Perhaps. For my part, though, I knew as a missionary that service hours were just something we did to pass a few hours a week in lieu of proselyting-- a token gesture, really. If all you do is increase the number of hours, it might appear as little more than a way to kill time during a not-so-busy week. If missionaries spend a few months devoted solely to service (especially the first few months, when the language skills are at their worst), it may place greater emphasis on the importance of service.

[Moliere]

So make the first six to eight months of the mission post-MTC service oriented. Think of it as Ammon watching the sheep and feeding the horses before ever mentioning anything about God. No stigma, because everyone does it.

An increase in the number of service hours per week would be the best answer. Then you can proselyte when it's most effective and spend a lot more time at the food bank or just walking around doing random acts of service. I probably taught more discussions through service than I ever did knocking doors and I spent a lot more time knocking doors than anything else.

[Jeff Lebowski]

So make the first six to eight months of the mission post-MTC service oriented. Think of it as Ammon watching the sheep and feeding the horses before ever mentioning anything about God. No stigma, because everyone does it.

There you go. We could call it "the Ammon Project".

[All-American]

You know, I love the idea of offering a humanitarian mission option, but there are two things I see getting in the way of this either happening or being effective.

1. Dominant church culture (and by this I mean Utah culture) would inevitably begin to value one type of mission over the other, and I fear that those who chose the humanitarian mission would likely be seen as second class citizens who couldn't hack the rigor of a proselytizing mission, essentially a step above those who don't serve, but still not. Church records would likely note the type of mission served and it could possibly become even more of a screening test for leadership positions. (please don't argue with me that it's not, we all know better).

2. It will be difficult for leaders to rationalize/justify such a use of resources given the (scriptural?) mandate they feel they have to proselytize the world. All of the "no unhallowed hand shall stop . . . " rhetoric will be difficult to overcome, especially with our elderly apostles who still hang on to a dated worldview of what it means to find new revenue sources share the gospel. The question will be asked "How many MORE converts is this going to bring us? How many of those converts will be full tithe payers?"

So make the first six to eight months of the mission post-MTC service oriented. Think of it as Ammon watching the sheep and feeding the horses before ever mentioning anything about God. No stigma, because everyone does it.

[pellegrino]

Ha. Some of you non-Utah mormons need to get over yourselves.

You of all people should know that that's the rug that ties the room together, so don't pee on it.

[New Mexican Disaster]

Since we were kind of on the topic of cool Op Eds from the trib

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion...e-lds.html.csp

That was a good one.

[TripletDaddy]

Since we were kind of on the topic of cool Op Eds from the trib

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion...e-lds.html.csp

[Jeff Lebowski]

You know, I love the idea of offering a humanitarian mission option, but there are two things I see getting in the way of this either happening or being effective.

1.Dominant church culture (and by this I mean Utah culture) would inevitably begin to value one type of mission over the other, and I fear that those who chose the humanitarian mission would likely be seen as second class citizens who couldn't hack the rigor of a proselytizing mission, essentially a step above those who don't serve, but still not. Church records would likely note the type of mission served and it could possibly become even more of a screening test for leadership positions. (please don't argue with me that it's not, we all know better).

2. It will be difficult for leaders to rationalize/justify such a use of resources given the (scriptural?) mandate they feel they have to proselytize the world. All of the "no unhallowed hand shall stop . . . " rhetoric will be difficult to overcome, especially with our elderly apostles who still hang on to a dated worldview of what it means to find new revenue sources share the gospel. The question will be asked "How many MORE converts is this going to bring us? How many of those converts will be full tithe payers?"

Ha. Some of you non-Utah mormons need to get over yourselves.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I'm not sure tracting has been terminated world-wide, but I know it has in at least some missions, including ours. And yes, the FT missionaries in our area are always looking for things to do.

I need to push my GA friend harder on my proposal to revamp the service requirement among the Church's young adults. I'm still fine tuning it for my non-existent audience, and yeah, I know I've mentioned it before, but it's a great idea, dammit. Impose the equivalent of universal conscription on all young adults at 18. But give them a choice of proselyting, humanitarian service or military service. Establish the Church equivalent of the Peace Corps for the humanitarian element. There a lot of talented, retired business managers and leaders who would be happy to head this up in place of the usual serve-in-the-mission-home-and-check-missionary-apartments couples missions. Imagine if half of the current force of 80K missionaries chose humanitarian service. If they devote as much time to their work as proselyting missionaries (at least 50 hours a week), you'd have over 100 Million hours of humanitarian service being expended annually around the world. With nearly everyone (I think even most agnostic or nonbelieving youth would jump at the chance to join the humanitarian team) serving, the cultural stigma of not serving a mission would be great reduced. And despite substantially reducing the number of proselyting missionaries, I prophesy that the number of convert baptisms would increase, and the Church's rep for doing good throughout the world would be immeasurably enhanced.

Uchtdorf/PAC/LaVell 2014!

How do we donate to campaigns?

[Northwestcoug]

PAC, I read your idea to my wife. She mentioned that the peace corps idea is ironic, since the original idea for the Corps was patterned after LDS missions. Or so she learned at the JFK museum many years ago.

[pellegrino]

You know, I love the idea of offering a humanitarian mission option, but there are two things I see getting in the way of this either happening or being effective.

1. Dominant church culture (and by this I mean Utah culture) would inevitably begin to value one type of mission over the other, and I fear that those who chose the humanitarian mission would likely be seen as second class citizens who couldn't hack the rigor of a proselytizing mission, essentially a step above those who don't serve, but still not. Church records would likely note the type of mission served and it could possibly become even more of a screening test for leadership positions. (please don't argue with me that it's not, we all know better).

2. It will be difficult for leaders to rationalize/justify such a use of resources given the (scriptural?) mandate they feel they have to proselytize the world. All of the "no unhallowed hand shall stop . . . " rhetoric will be difficult to overcome, especially with our elderly apostles who still hang on to a dated worldview of what it means to find new revenue sources share the gospel. The question will be asked "How many MORE converts is this going to bring us? How many of those converts will be full tithe payers?"

[fusnik]

We went from 4 companionships in our stake to at least one in every ward.

The Elders stop by my house at least once a week during the day because they know my wife is home. They don't come in, they ask for water and ask what new gadgets have come out. They have been told no iPads for at least a year, and no sitting in the ward house for the foreseeable future.

Poor kids.

[wuapinmon]

I'm not sure tracting has been terminated world-wide, but I know it has in at least some missions, including ours. And yes, the FT missionaries in our area are always looking for things to do.

I need to push my GA friend harder on my proposal to revamp the service requirement among the Church's young adults. I'm still fine tuning it for my non-existent audience, and yeah, I know I've mentioned it before, but it's a great idea, dammit. Impose the equivalent of universal conscription on all young adults at 18. But give them a choice of proselyting, humanitarian service or military service. Establish the Church equivalent of the Peace Corps for the humanitarian element. There a lot of talented, retired business managers and leaders who would be happy to head this up in place of the usual serve-in-the-mission-home-and-check-missionary-apartments couples missions. Imagine if half of the current force of 80K missionaries chose humanitarian service. If they devote as much time to their work as proselyting missionaries (at least 50 hours a week), you'd have over 100 Million hours of humanitarian service being expended annually around the world. With nearly everyone (I think even most agnostic or nonbelieving youth would jump at the chance to join the humanitarian team) serving, the cultural stigma of not serving a mission would be great reduced. And despite substantially reducing the number of proselyting missionaries, I prophesy that the number of convert baptisms would increase, and the Church's rep for doing good throughout the world would be immeasurably enhanced.

That sounds like a good idea. A really good one. In deed. MormonCorps

[clackamascoug]

Even the military/mission hybrid is a good idea.