Will you serve a Senior Mission for the LDS Church?

[SteelBlue]

Not a chance.

[Copelius]

My wife made me promise to take her on a mission when I proposed. I intend to fulfill that promise but the mission will likely be one in which we are based in our own home seeing as I cannot see retiring ever based on my current financial situation.

[thesaint258]

I know a guy who just spent over $17k on a dog and training. You'd have to pay me at least that much to be willing to take on a dog. No interest at all. Thankfully, my wife is of the same mindset on pets.

My wife thinks she should have given more weight to my anti-dog stance when she was deciding on whether or not to marry me. I just tell her that she knew what I was when she picked me up.

[Moliere]

I remember a directive we had several years ago to pull a list from the ward's membership data that listed couples over a certain age that were potential candidates for senior missionary service. The directive was basically to get some of them to go out. The church put out some materials that were geared to guilt persuade these couples that it was better to show your grandkids that you're a hard-core LDSer than to actually spend a couple of years around your grandkids. [If you can't tell, I wasn't much for that angle.]

Anyway, as part of that, we received flyers from SLC that we posted in the meetinghouse that listed current opportunities. It looks like it's available online now as well:

https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsor...s.pdf?lang=eng



To be clear, the couples pay to go on a mission as well. The flyer linked above shows estimated monthly costs. Places like Panama are around $1,700/month; a place like London is going to be around $4,000/month.

Right, I was just saying that if I'm paying to live abroad (you'd pay as a missionary or a tourist) I'd prefer to be a full time tourist. Why pay $4k per month for the privilege to live in London if you are spending half your time in an office or inspecting apartments. Plus, I'd also bet your ability to travel outside the mission is very limited.

[Moliere]

Wow. So cool.

I said pretty much what everyone else is saying in this thread.

[The_Douger]

I kind of wish we would have had aparment inspections so I could leave my own notes

So, you went to the Phillipines? That's the kind of stories my brother has mentioned.

Serve another mission? Nope.

I am fairly certain Sister Douger also doesn't care to serve, which is a bonus because then I don't have to worry about it. I could easily do some of the missions some have mentioned on here, but I don't want to proselyte. Service or medical stuff would be fine. I think the focus should be on service more often with this stuff to begin with.

I loved when great things happened on my mission, but those were few and far between the drudgery that was persistent a lot of the time.

I got a lot out of it, but I was glad to come home, and I hate the "I've been called to go on another mission" dream that I periodically have.

[The_Douger]

Also, no mission inspections. I had a mattress with fleas for the entire 5 months I was in the area. The MP told me it was ok, they didn't have more, and it builds character.

[Uncle Ted]

I wonder how one gets assigned to this senior mission...

Tending the flock

Every morning before sunrise, Clair Huff slips into his blue jeans, pulls on his boots, grabs a baseball cap and heads out the door to work with his charges. As a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he's shed the traditional dark suit, white shirt and tie.


His responsibilities don't include teaching people about church doctrine, improving their health or distributing food and clothing to disaster victims.


In fact, he doesn't deal with people much at all. His flock is literally that . . . a continually changing group of feathered friends: pheasants, geese, chukkars, doves and ducks. Instead of knocking on doors, he spends his time bush-whacking in the thick brush along the southwest shores of Utah Lake, looking for the perfect place to nurture his birds by planting numerous stands of corn, rye and other grains.


For more than two years, he and his wife, Beth, have been serving God in a most unusual way.


They operate a private hunting preserve owned by the LDS Church.

"I don't know of any other missionary doing what I'm doing," he says, pointing to a row of several hundred cedar trees he planted as a future wind break on the wind-swept acreage that stretches out in every direction. After spending an entire career as a wildlife biologist, including his latest stint as assistant director of operations for the state Division of Wildlife Resources, Elder Huff seems uniquely qualified for the volunteer job description he's taken on: turn this 11,000-acre piece of desert into a revenue-generating hunting preserve.

[...]

Only a few pheasant and goose-hunting permits are sold each year, with hunting aficionados paying as much as $1,500 for the opportunity to hunt what is fast becoming an exclusive "club" for "members only." Once a hunter ponies up the cash to secure a permit, he's not only guaranteed a permit for the following year, but his chance to draw the prime target areas on the preserve improve along with his seniority in the exclusive group.


"All of our hunters are from Utah, many of them doctors, dentists and attorneys from Payson north to Ogden, including Park City," Elder Huff said.


The flatlands also provide an additional advantage for the well-heeled hunting crowd — a 2,600-foot landing strip where private aircraft can whisk hunters in and out of the remote preserve, saving them the long and lonely drive.


[...]

The preserve, known as Westlake Farm Commercial Hunting Area, is managed by the LDS Church's Farm Management Co., the same group that operates the adjacent farming operations and grain silos. The for-profit farming and ranching company is overseen by the church's Presiding Bishopric.


The church owns thousands of acres of farm and ranch land throughout the West, including the Deseret Land and Livestock Co., a private big-game hunting preserve scattered over 200,000 acres in northern Utah. Hunters from around the country vie for a limited number of elk and moose permits there that cost as much as $8,500 each.


Complete with a formal hunting lodge for housing and meals, the hunts are guided by a local outfitter. And while there's no guarantee that a hunter's bullet will find its mark, hunting on the preserve is so popular, there's a six-year waiting list to buy a permit.


Elder Huff is optimistic that the operation will turn a profit for the first time this year.


"This is a very viable habitat, and if they continue to invest the profits back in and find an innovative manager to run it, there's the potential to boost the number of permits we issue up to a maximum of about 250 someday."


And as the habitat, and consequently, the number and variety of wildlife improves, the price of the permits would logically go up as well, he said.


"Imagine if we got to the point that we could boost the price (of each permit) to $2,000 or $2,500. Times that by 250, and it doesn't take a lot to understand that this could be a very profitable operation."

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...ck.html?pg=all

Serving all of God's children, even the doctors, dentists and attorneys.

[Lost Student]

I wonder how one gets assigned to this senior mission...

Uncle Ted, I looked up the answer for you. The following text is from page 2 of the Senior Missionary Opportunities Bulletin.

Prospective full-time senior missionaries are encouraged to state their
preferences on the missionary recommendation form for missionary service.
However, they should be willing to serve where called. Full-time senior
missionaries are assigned by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and called
by the President of the Church.

I hope that helps.

[Joe Public]

I wonder how one gets assigned to this senior mission...


http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...ck.html?pg=all

Serving all of God's children, even the doctors, dentists and attorneys.

And on a volunteer basis, no less.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Geez. That sounds like a fun mission.

[CJF]

Geez. That sounds like a fun mission.

When I read that I immediately thought that this is the mission where you should the president.

[Jeff Lebowski]

When I read that I immediately thought that this is the mission where you should the president.

[clackamascoug]

Geez. That sounds like a fun mission.

I was keen until the getting up before sunrise requirement.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Told my wife about this bird ranch mission. Said she would prefer working a marijuana farm.