World Events
Topic: Age limit for Mormon missionaries

#	Author	Message
1	SuperDry Wed 6/25/2008 12:24p	On the way to work today, I saw two Mormon missionaries alongside the road. What was odd was that one of them was about 30 years old by my guess, and the other was around 45 years old. I've never seen them older than perhaps early-mid 20's. How unusual is it for a 45-year-old man to be a Mormon missionary? I assume that he was a recent convert, and that in that case, the mission can occur later in life. ?
2	trekkeruss Wed 6/25/2008 12:39p	It is common for missionary pairs to be split up and paired with other elders of the ward that the missionaries are assigned to. Perhaps that is what you saw.
3	Kar2oonMan Wed 6/25/2008 12:56p	Or, with gas prices being what they are, you saw a couple of corporate execs commuting to work on bikes? ; )
4	mele Wed 6/25/2008 12:59p	There are two female missionaries who canvas our neighborhood. They are very nice girls.
5	Mrs ElderP Wed 6/25/2008 1:00p	Women can go out anytime after their 21st birthday... Men do have an age limit (27?) I'll have to go look it up. Men do get called to administrate missions, an unusually young mission president may be in his late 30s, more likly they are retirement age. If men do want to go out later they have to bring a wife. Retired couples do all sorts of good for the church, mostly service missions. (They may help out at a family history center, or assist chruch leaders in areas or the world where the church is young and leaders didn't grow up with "the way we do things", or teach skills they learned in their work years: helping farmers and so on, or administrate the program for college age young adults in countries where the church is small) less often, but still possible they may serve prosiliting (door knocking) missions. Couples have much more latitude than "single" missionaries. They can choose their assignements or just offer to go where ever the church wants them. They can easily restrict their assignments due to health concerns. They also are usually expected to provide their own housing and their own transportation. (Unlike the youngens who have an apartment assigned to them and may or may not have a mission car assigned. ) However, I agree with trekkeruss: you probably saw a "split" a local with a full time missionary. In some areas the locals (known as stake missionaries) get tags too. Not where I live though.
6	Elderp Wed 6/25/2008 1:00p	For males the age limit is 25 to serve a fulltime mission away from home. For women it is more flexible, but they generally follow the same guidelines. The idea is missions are great, but they shouldn't get in the way of having a family. To go as a couple (married missionaries) the minimum is 40 and you have to have no family obligations (ie your kids need to be out of the house). Having said that those requirements really just apply for fulltime missionaries. There are several part time opportunities for missionary service. I go out with our full time missionaries all the time on splits. Splits are when full time missionaries go out with a local member for the day. The only difference between me and them is I don't have a tag that says Elder. It should be noted that there are many types of missionaries in the LDS church. There are proselytizing missionaries. They preach and are usually the most visable. There are service missionaries. They don't preach and are told to go out and do charitible service to others. There are Temple missionaries, you will see them only at the church's temples. There are church history missionaries, they are assigned to a point of historical interest to the church and teach visitors about that site (the tours are free).
7	mele Wed 6/25/2008 1:02p	Why do older men have to bring their wives?
8	Elderp Wed 6/25/2008 1:11p	It would be really rude to leave them behind.
9	SuperDry Wed 6/25/2008 7:51p	<<< Men do get called to administrate missions, an unusually young mission president may be in his late 30s, more likly they are retirement age. >>> Let me restate what I said earlier. The older of the two I saw was *at least* 45, but he might have been as old as 65. He was definitely no spring chicken. <<< Or, with gas prices being what they are, you saw a couple of corporate execs commuting to work on bikes? >>> Perhaps! That is, as long as their workplace dress code provided that they they wear dark slacks, a white short-sleeved dress shirt, undershirt, black tie, backpack, and black name tag hanging over the top but not pinned to the breast pocket. :-) It was somewhat an unusual sight. I grew up in areas where Mormon missionaries were quite common sights, but now that I live in Texas, they are somewhat rare. They tend to stand out as you're driving down the road, and these two did so in particular since they didn't fit the mold of what you'd think of as being the typical Mormon missionary. Whatever the particulars, it was an unusual sight.

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