Beginning January 2, 2019, all young men and women in the United States and Canada — including those who may not be able to serve a proselyting mission due to health reasons — will use the same online recommendation process. They will complete recommendation forms, participate in interviews with their local Church leaders and undergo evaluations by medical professionals. Candidates will then receive a call from the president of the Church to serve either a proselyting or service mission.

Those called as service missionaries live at home and serve at Church operations, with nonprofit and charitable community organizations or in other assignments approved by their local Church leaders. The service missionary program has been tested in various locations since 2014 and recently expanded to the entire United States and Canada.

During the recommendation process, all candidates will be considered first for full-time proselyting missions. Those unable to be called as proselyting missionaries for physical, mental or emotional reasons may be called as service missionaries. In some cases, candidates will be honorably excused from any formal missionary service.

Additionally, proselyting missionaries who return home early due to accident, illness or other health conditions may be reassigned as service missionaries for the remainder of their missions.

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-changes-recommendation-process-young-missionaries

So now the church will have Class A (proselyting) and Class B (service) missions. Kind of like BYU vs. BYU-Idaho. Can't make the first team, kid? Here's your booby prize.

Wonder if it's possible to become a ZL or AP in a service mission…

So you live at home for a service mission. Does thst still mean no dating, no movies, no cool music?

No family outings to swimming pools?

Worst ever sent to your room punishment.

It stated that the stay at home service missions have been tested since 2014. If so, why haven't we heard of them?

Are ym and yw under some gag order not to disclose this?

The Lds leadership has probably been discussing this, but it sounds more inspired by lying about a non existent program.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2018 06:49PM by messygoop.

A few years ago my wife and I did a trip in the UK where we visited some of the spots where our ancestors were from, we needed to verify some information and during some trips to SLC made about three trips to the Geneology Library. There were several young guys in missionary attire whose job it was to refile the microfilm tapes and do other menial tasks. I talked to one kid who told me the Church was sending kids with autism spectrum issues on these kind of missions. He was not having a good time. He also mentioned other kids working at Deseret Industries for free as they do a "service mission" and get " job training." It comes off as a way to get identured slave labor for free.No salaries, no payroll taxes, no insurance , etc etc etc.

Yes, we've been hearing about them for the past few years -- mainly in the greater SLC area. They've been used for young people with health or other issues that prevent them from going on a regular mission.

My thinking is that broadening this program is driven in part by the rising number of early return missionaries. The church is slowly losing its grip on young people and is desperate to retain them.

This reads exactly like a 1965 US Draft Notice!

Cold. Demanding. Institutional. Rude.

It reads like kids won't have any choice. Either a proselyting mission or a service mission. Hey--there are other choices, like, not going, getting a job, going to college, traveling, changing religions, etc.

I can't believe parents will take this strong language seriously, as though this cult has authority over them as parents and authority over their children. Mormon parents obey, and turn over the fate of their precious kids to a cult.

It's a statement. An edict. Non-negotiable.


LOL! It seems to me that they don't know what to do with the many young missionaries who are coming home early!

Good point!

Wasn't one of the reasons that the church justified the shortened worship was to give more accountability of parents teaching the gospel in their homes?

I think that this edict proves how annoyed the church corp is with the young person crisis.

"Service mission" = internet troll

“In some cases, candidates will be honorably excused from any formal missionary service.”

WTF??? I thought it was VOLUNTARY!! Guess the cult doesn’t see it that way.

You can't quit. You have to wait for us to humiliate you by telling you that you're not fit to serve.

The power to humiliate is one of the keys of the priesthood that the Church prizes most of all.

"I see that you were nominated as a candidate to be a service missionary--our program for people who aren't fit to be real missionaries. Let's see....[looking over some papers submitted concerning the candidate and beginning to snort and giggle uncontrollably]...Mwa...ha...Sorry about that. No. You can't even be a service missionary. That would be ridiculous. But your heart was in the right place, so....I hereby magnanimously honorably release you from any formal missionary service. Remember, this is an HONORABLE release. You're not a sinner. You're just completely incompetent. So now when you tell your family and friends that you were deemed unfit for doing ANY kind of meaningless task that we could possibly think of for you, please remind them that you have been HONORABLY released."

Our stake president routinely excused anyone that served in the military from missionary service. He said we'd have too hard a time adjusting.

They're making it sound like every person MUST apply and THEY will decide what kind you will serve or whether or not you will be excused. Not YOUR choice, theirs! That way someone who just plain doesn't have any interest in going and doesn't apply is the same as a draft dodger. If future wifey wants to know your mission status (i.e., proselytizing, service, or excused) and you say "none," kiss Miss perfect goodbye.

Like gettinreal said--I thought it was supposed to be voluntary.

any wages, does that make you a "missionary"?

Excerpt: "Those called as service missionaries live at home and serve at CHURCH OPERATIONS, with nonprofit and charitable community organizations or in OTHER ASSIGNMENTS approved by their local Church leaders."

According to that description, the types of assignments can literally be anything.

But, hey, as long as you get to wear one of those shiny black badges with white lettering identifying you as "Elder Whatzit" or Sister Whozit" you can be a missionary too, and if you're assigned to prepare meals with an "Easy Bake Oven" (light bulb sold separately), you can call yourself an international chef.

Sounds like a way to expand the free-labor pool while finessing the problems that the Church is having in recruiting healthy (mentally and physically) missionaries for full-time missions as actual missionaries.

The potential for abuse would seem to be unlimited. Like the prison warden in the Shawshank Redemption personally profiting off the free prison labor that he could "assign" wherever he pleased, what types of scams might well-connected local leaders get up to when they have free slave labor at their disposal?

When I was a kid, I remember our local leaders were constantly getting janitorial contracts with various business and companies for "building funds" and other special funds. The members did all the work, the money all went to the Church. The Church was able to underbid real janitorial service providers.

I expect that things like that may be more difficult to implement these days, but I wouldn't be surprised if the "Service Missionaries" assignments end up displacing numerous jobs that are currently wage-paying jobs, with the result that people who are currently doing those jobs will lose their livelihood.

Why do you always get to wash President Gonzo's Porsche, while I always get stuck doing the family's laundry? It's just not fair!

Do you still have to pay for the service mission?

The most expensive part of being a full-time proselytizing missionary is moving away from home to work in the assigned "mission field" where you have to pay rent, transportation, food and all other expenses associated with living away from home.

In the past, most of those expenses of living abroad or in another state were paid by each missionary's family. But I understand that since my time that changed to a standardized monthly amount that families paid to the Church. The Church then pools those funds and redistributes them, so that missionaries assigned to expensive areas (e.g. Switzerland or Norway) don't end up with much greater monthly financial burdens than missionaries assigned to areas that have a much lower cost of living.

Who knows? I guess it's possible that they will make the "Service Missionaries" also pay a monthly amount into the Church missionary fund, which would be a very spectacular rip-off!

They will have to charge for the service mission in order to convince the sheep that the two mission paths are equal.

Mormon conversation patterns: "Where did you serve your mission?"

For almost the entire history of the Church, that conversation starter gave the other person a chance to talk about where they went on their mission. Usually, the more exotic the location, the more points you scored.

People who served in a place like Utah or Nevada would feel like they had been ripped off in the mission lottery and there was usually some amount of undiscussed disappointment on both sides of the conversation compared to cases where the mission in question was someplace more exotic, like Taiwan, Italy or the Surface of the Moon.

But that pecking order is changing. Now the folks who served stateside, whether Utah, Nebraska or Mississippi, will be able to hold their heads high and proudly proclaim the location where they served their mission, confident in the knowledge that a growing number of people will have served their mission in their parents' basement.

"Where did you serve your mission?"

"Oh...you're asking where I served my mission?"

"Yes. Which country or planet did you go to for your mission?"

"Oh...well...that would be this country."

"Really? Which state?"

"State? I guess it was this state.... Okay! Okay! I spent my mission living in my mom's basement! You happy now?? What's with the big interrogation??? Gosh darn it all anyway! It was the happiest two years of my life...in my mom's basement. What difference does it make anyway?!"

Somebody does... and YOU KNOW tscc won't.

This is fairly status quo for the morg. What a joke. How about real service instead of tracting, pamphleteering, and one day a week "English Class" crap?

I wouldn't be so against my daughter being a missionary if she were helping people daily instead of trying to talk people into a worship of the dead cult.

It is a few years old. TSCC called an extra mission in Salt Lake City a few years ago that brought so-called missionaries to do free work in the cob, and all that other "service" stuff, like show-ferring, cleaning details, "research", window washers, book-keepers, etc. It's called service so members won't think it is a disservice.

Missionaryism does two things: (1) Keeps (tries to keep) members put; (2) gets free [paid up front] stuff done, and keeps young men-women busy, out of school & out of work/ growth.

M@t

In other religions people doing this type of service are usually called "monks" or "nuns."

Abbeys and cloisters to come?

"In some cases, candidates will be honorably excused from any formal missionary service"

This is the only sentence that mattered in the entire pronouncement. Because it makes not going on a mission non-shaming, and allow kids not going on missions to go to the temple sooner. The temple is the only place to enforce revenue.

I predict 90% of all missions worldwide will be service missions where the member lives at home if the member or his family cannot foot the bill for the mission.

icanseethelight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I predict 90% of all missions worldwide will be
> service missions where the member lives at home if
> the member or his family cannot foot the bill for
> the mission.

Mormons following the JWs.

Elder Berry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> icanseethelight Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> Mormons following the JWs.

Yea-but, Mormons follow nobody, not even themselves.

It's true

M@t

They follow their leaders or at least claim to.

The "leaders" have no 'leaders'.

I may be wrong, but I saw an additional disturbing nuance in that announcement. It is implicit in the sentence that icanseethelight reproduced:

"In some cases, candidates will be honorably excused from any formal missionary service"

What bothers me about this sentence, and the article, is that they seem to indicate that the church wants to conduct these interviews of ALL young people when they reach 18 or 19. Some will be sent on proselytizing missions, others to service missions, and some will be excused from any mission service.

Does this mean that the church wants to assert that it has control over every young person and has power to assign him or her to church-chosen projects? It could be that the article conveys that impression mistakenly, or that my biases are coloring my reading, but I get the suspicion that the church wants to militarize youth further, as it were, interviewing them all and giving them all their marching orders. Put differently, the church may want to impose the Law of Consecration from the temple on everyone graduating from high school.

Does this bother others or is this just my paranoia?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2018 03:20PM by Lot's Wife.

Excerpt from the instructions accompanying the announcement to the leadership which can be found at:

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/multimedia/file/service-mission-letter.pdf

"When the stake president is unsure if a candidate could serve a proselyting mission, he may discuss
with the candidate the possibility of being called to a two-transfer mission,1
a service mission, or
being honorably excused.
If it is determined that a candidate will not be called to a proselyting mission, a Missionary
Department representative will counsel with the stake president before a service mission call is
issued.
Service missionaries are invited to speak in sacrament meeting before and after their missions, and
they report to the high council upon completion of the mission. A calling as a service missionary
is recorded on a membership record in the same way as a proselyting mission"

Other nuggets include:

parents and bishops send in persons interests.
family still pays.
an be as short as 6 months and are not full time, meaning it is like a part time job.

So, an 18 year old with a scholarship could accept it, then indicate on his submission papers his interests which coincide with an "approved charitable organization" near his dorm, do 6 months service, and get credit for serving a mission. Making it easier on the kids and the parents to not question the church and continue paying tithing, feeling good about how holy they are. And since he has now been to the temple, guilt over paying tithing and marrying as young as possible can begin.

My, my. It sounds more like the Sea-Org with every new announcement.

Mormon horror movie: I Know What You Did On Your Mission

TRANSLATION: Lowering the missionary age has been a disaster and the missionary program has been failing for a long time.

The church NEVER changes anything just to improve it. It changes only when circumstances force it to.

Service missions are not what the members think they are. I have a family friend who requested a service mission do to the health of his father and not wanting to leave home for two years.

He got his request and he was assigned to do grounds keeping at local temples in the greater SLC area. He stayed at home and every morning he would leave home and meet the rest of the crew.(Other service missionaries and a few paid workers and the paid foreman.) At that point the foreman would inform them where they were headed for the day. He had to pay for his own gas to and from each work site.

Service missions will be all about service to the mormon church for free no doubt about it.

FREE WORK for tscc-
Like I say, No pay!
That's what it is.

This service mission crap just sounds like another way to tighten the noose and make sure everyone is completely controlled and completely miserable. It's ridiculous and extremely culty.