Missionaries

I am a "convert" to the Church--in other words, I joined the Church at some time during my life and am not a life-long member. To join the Church, one participates in a series of lessons or discussion about the Church, presented by full-time missionaries. Full-time missionaries are usually around 20 years old. They usually serve in pairs. Upon completion of the missionary lessons, a person then may choose to join the Church through baptism and confirmation (more on this at some other time).

A person born a member of the Church is baptised at age 8 (the "age of accountability" in the Church). Generally speaking, someone joining the Church later must receive the missionary lessons, which explain Church principles and beliefs to create a foundation for joining the Church. After taking the missionary lessons, a person may then be baptised and confirmed a member of the Church.

Missionaries are volunteers who are assigned by the President of the Church to serve in a particular geographical area for around 2 years. I was called to serve in France. I had no say in the call to service--I could either serve there or not, but I didn't choose where I served. Having studied French, I was somewhat prepared for the language challenges. Many serve in countries and areas where they have never studied the language (and, in many cases, they've never even heard of the language). New missionaries receive training in a missionary training center in order to help them understand how to teach the gospel, how to be a missionary, etc. Those not learning a new language usually are there for three weeks before going to their mission. Those learning a new language are there about eight weeks before going to their mission. It may vary, but I think that's pretty standard.

When I served in France, some people occasionally were offended that I was sent as a "missionary" there. I think it's because the concept of a missionary there is usually to go to an undeveloped part of the world. But the role of an LDS missionary is to share the gospel and invite people to learn about the LDS church. So even where there are many, many church members (such as in Utah in the U.S.), the church still has a large amount of missionaries.

The basic LDS belief with regard to missionary work can be summed up as: "My life has been greatly blessed by virtue of my membership in the Church and my knowledge of its teachings, and I want to share with others what I have received." LDS missionaries are not paid and work hard to be able to save enough money to serve (although there are funds to enable those who can't afford to go to serve). They give up quite a bit to serve. When I was called to go to France, I did it out of a sense of duty and also a desire to serve, but I confess I was nervous and apprehensive. It took a lot of preparation and savings to go. It was a fantastic experience for me, but it was difficult. Most people we talked to had no interest in meeting with us or hearing us out. Sometimes whole days went by without anyone giving us an ear. And yet to feel the gratitude of those people whose lives were positively affected by the teachings we shared made all the challenges worthwhile.

I served in the Paris France Mission, which served about 1/4 of the geographic area of France. I served in six different cities, the smallest of which had a population of about 100,000. We had about 200 missionaries at any given time, paired up. Most were male missionaries ("elders"), while about 10-20% (I'd guess) were female missionaries. I had a total of 11 missionary companions I served with over the 2 years. Usually I lived in an apartment with 1-3 other missionaries. Most of my companions were American, although we had missionaries from many different countries serving in our mission when I was there.

While serving in Paris for about 6 months, my companion and I were assigned to an area by our mission president that included millions of people. We used the subway and buses and did quite a bit of walking. We would visit people who had expressed interest in the Church, met with former missionaries, who we met in the streets or subways, etc. Sometimes we would go to an area and knock on people's doors to meet people, although that was generally an ineffective method of meeting people (it could take a couple hours to meet someone interested, and sometimes much longer). We generally requested that people give us a few minutes to present a message about our Church. I met countless people over the two years. Some were very kind and uninterested, some were skeptical but curious, some invited us to their homes frequently and never chose to join the church, others were immediately interested and chose to be baptised after just a few lessons, etc. Everyone was different. Some wanted to meet with us to debate us--a usually unproductive endeavor. I was more interested in meeting with those who had sincere interest or curiosity and avoided people who wanted to engage in contentious argument.

One of my favorite activities was to set up a bunch of displays in a busy city center with pictures on them and talk to passers-by. Instead of bothering people at home (which was often the case if we were knocking on people's doors), we were able to have some interesting discussions in the street. Someone could chat for 30 seconds or an hour if they liked. We met a lot of people this way.

I think my main point with this post is to explain a little of what missionaries are doing and why they do it. In some parts of the world, the missionaries riding around on bikes in their suits and with their name tags (a common scene in my mission) have become an almost inconic sight. Missionaries often travel on bike and are always dressed well, in line with the seriousness of what they're doing (shorts or jeans would not be appropriate for sharing a serious, potentially life-changing message).

I also wanted to make the point that the missionaries are sincere in their work--they've all sacrificed a huge amount of time and effort to serve. It's a tough and life-changing experience. I gained a greater determination to be a good person, a love of other people, an appreciation of other cultures and languages (having taught people from all over the world), and a great respect for Jesus Christ, His life and teachings, and the principles of the gospel: honesty, hard work, love, kindness, virtue, etc. I was greatly strengthened and became a better person at a time in my life where many people are up to little good.

Serving a mission made an indelible impression on me that the work I was engaged in was good and the Church I served was Christ's.