Mormon men can serve missions at eighteen if they have finished high school. Mormon women can begin service at age nineteen. The men serve for two years and the women for eighteen months.

Mormon Missionaries Volunteer

The missionaries serve as volunteers, which means they are not paid for their service. They pay their own way, although Church members often make donations to assist missionaries who cannot afford to serve. It is not mandatory (and the current Mormon prophet, Thomas S. Monson, joined the military instead of serving a mission as a young adult), but it is considered a responsibility for the young men. It is a part of their priesthood duty. Worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood, which is the power and authority of God to use under His direction on the earth.

Although women are not under the same priesthood responsibility as men to serve a mission, they are welcome to serve and it has long been acknowledged that they are often welcomed into some homes and situations where men are not. When the age of service was recently lowered for them, the numbers of young women serving skyrocketed.

Why are Mormon young adults so willing to take a few years away from school, work, and dating to serve missions? This has long baffled people who are not Latter-day Saints, particularly when they hear of the strict rules Mormon missionaries must follow. For the course of their missions, Mormon missionaries do not date, watch secular television or movies, listen to secular music, or engage in most other typical young adult activities. Six days a week they focus on serving the Lord, and on the seventh, they do chores and engage in appropriate recreation, such as playing basketball.

And yet, the number of young people eager to serve is increasing. Although young Mormon people hear talk of missions from early childhood, there comes a time when they have to make a personal decision about their service. For many it is a difficult time, particularly if they are already well-known for sports or entertainment.

Why Do Mormons Serve Missions?

Most who decide to serve a Mormon mission explain that they realized they had the rest of their lives to date, play sports, perform, and go to school. This was a time they could give back to God for everything He has done for them.

Pop star David Archuleta chose to put his music career on hold for two years to serve a mission in Chile. Before leaving, he said, “I’m doing this to be able to have more of that one-on-one time with my Heavenly Father—with God. I hope that you guys will respect that it’s time for me to work on my relationship with him and the time that I need to give him.” (See Josh Furlong, David Archuleta begins 2-year missionary service, KSL.com.)

For many young people, this will be the last time in their lives when they will have little to think about but their religion. During this time, there is extensive dedicated time to study the scriptures and to learn more about what their faith believes. They have a great deal of time to pray, and during their workdays, they are largely teaching the gospel to other people or providing service. It is a time to escape the natural self-centeredness so many young adults experience as they focus only on themselves and their futures. During their missions, God, not their own wishes, is their focus.

They receive many leadership opportunities and exposure to the world. Most are sent to places very different from their own homes—wealthy young people to the inner-city, city teens to the country, for instance. Many go to foreign countries and see worlds they’d only read about in textbooks. For some, it is the first exposure to real poverty or a chance to look into the lives of others, as the people they teach often share their life experiences with the missionaries. They learn to live around the clock with another person because they are assigned a partner, or companion. These companions change regularly, from every few weeks to few months, and they must teach themselves to adapt to these changing personalities. It is magnificent preparation for marriage.

However, the primary reason most serve is that they love God and want to demonstrate their love for Him by giving Him a few dedicated years of their lives. Missions, then, are an act of love for God and for God’s children.

I was taught the gospel by missionaries when I was a teenager. I know first-hand how critical their service is. At a time when many teenagers are pulling away from their families or making dangerous lifestyle choices, the missionaries were gently teaching me to honor and respect my non-Mormon parents and to make moral choices that would protect me throughout my life. They were changing the world—one person at a time.

Learn more about Mormon missionaries by watching this unscripted television series showing the lives of several Mormon missionaries:

My friend was a Mormon. I’d known Mormon kids before and always liked them, but I’d never spent extended time with them. When I came home after the campout, my mother asked what we’d done. I said, “Prayed. Every time I turned around we were praying as a group or people were praying on their own or they were saying they felt inspired to do something. I’ve never seen such a praying people.”

Praying All Day

This was a whole new concept of prayer for me. I’d grown up saying bedtime prayers but not attending church much. Prayers were really more of a tradition for me than a central feature of life, but for these Mormons, prayer was something very different. They didn’t always get on their knees to pray. They had formal prayers in the morning and evening, before meals, before we went canoeing, before we drove to or from the campsite, and when some teens got lost for a short time. However, they also prayed informally for guidance, comfort, or wisdom.

Over the years, since becoming a Mormon, I’ve realized I can keep the lines of communication open all day long. I can talk to God just as if He was standing right here beside me as I do the dishes, write, or shop. Just as importantly, He can talk to me while I do all those things. It has led to a much more personal relationship than anything I’d ever imagined in my pre-Mormon days.

My early prayers hadn’t included waiting for answers. I got answers to action-based requests such as, “Please help me do well on my test,” but I didn’t know how to get answers that required God to send me information. I don’t think I even realized God could give me information.

Praying for Information

It made a huge difference to me to find out God could help me with anything at all if it was righteous and important. Prayer was a conversation, not a monologue. While I have formal prayers, those informal chats are essential to my spiritual growth. Often as I’m doing something that requires no thought, I talk informally about something that is on my mind. Somehow, those prayers, rather than the formal ones, are more productive. I don’t think about the formula for a formal prayer and I’m not in a hurry to get on with my day or to go to sleep.

When my children were young, car rides and housework were great times to get them talking and to share my ideas with them. It seems God uses that technique as well and so during those times of mindless work, I can talk quietly, openly, and in-depth with God about anything that is on my mind that day—my business, my family, my church work, or even just me. God is never too busy to stop and listen to me while I talk, no matter how long it takes. He never gives me pointless advice and He always knows just what I need.

How do I know when God is talking to me?

At first it was hard, simply because I’d never listened to Him before. I knew that during spiritual situations, I’d often felt my heart leap or feel full and I’d come to recognize it was the Holy Ghost confirming the correctness of something. When I asked a yes or no question, I frequently discovered I had that same feeling if the answer was yes and a negative feeling in my heart for a no. I was able to confirm that by keeping track in my journal of how things turned out. If I followed the warmth that I interpreted as a yes, things always went well. When I ignored it, or when I went ahead and did what I suspected I had been told not to do, things did not. It was a personal science experiment.

From time to time, thoughts came into my mind. It’s very difficult to explain how a thought placed there by the Holy Ghost, who delivers God’s answers, is different from my own, but again, I recorded my ideas about the source in my journals and then monitored the results until I could tell the difference. I suspect the way they come differs with each person—the method of idea delivery is one that is comfortable for me.

Waiting for Answers to Prayers

Sometimes God makes me wait. I have to pray for a long time in order to get an answer. I have realized that when those things happen, there is always a good reason. Often I already knew the answer but was hoping God would give me a pass on doing what I knew was the right thing. He sometimes didn’t answer in those situations because I needed to learn personal responsibility for my knowledge. Other times, I feel He wanted to know if I really wanted an answer. If I was willing to keep asking, I was also more likely to act on the answer. Other times, the timing simply wasn’t right or I was asking the wrong question. Often, I needed to ask a smaller question first. Sometimes, I hadn’t studied the issue enough to come to a decision on my own that I could confirm with God.

Over the years, I’ve come to trust God. He promised He would hear and answer prayers, and so He does. He is able to make sure I know the source of those answers. Whether I’m on my knees or elbow-deep in dishwater, God is ready to have a serious conversation.

Mormon is a nickname sometimes used to describe members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. People sometimes inadvertently refer to this faith as the Mormon Church, but Mormons teach that a church belongs to the person for whom it is named, and so they never use the term “Mormon Church.” The long name is a mouthful, but it clarifies whose church it is. When shortening it, they call it The Church of Jesus Christ.

Mormons believe wholeheartedly in the atonement of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon teaches that grace and salvation come only through Jesus Christ and that had He not been willing to atone for our sins and to die on our behalf, we would have had no eternal future.

What Does the Bible Say About Grace and Works?

The Bible speaks of grace, atonement, salvation, and exaltation in many seemingly contradictory terms. To fully understand what the New Testament really says about the subject, we have to look at all the scriptures involved, not just the one or two that reinforce the way we want it to work. So, while the Bible says we are saved by grace and not by works, in other places it says that a person who does not keep the commandments will not get into Heaven.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21, KJV of the Bible)

Titus 3:3-7 says we are not justified by works, but James 2:17-26 says that we are. How can both those ideas be true at once?

One way to understand this complication is to look at a few basic facts most Christians would agree on and then to see how they fit into a larger picture. Most Christians, for instance, agree that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and that this is something we could not do for ourselves. Most also agree that a wicked person can’t go to Heaven and that good Christians should act like good Christians, although they may disagree about what type of behavior constitutes good Christianity.

What Do I Have to Do to Be a Christian?

Most Christian religions state that we are saved entirely by grace and nothing else. However, most also require a person to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior in order to be saved—and this, of course, is an act. Most also require baptism, again an act. The question is really, then, not whether acts are required, but how many and what they are.

It is clear from the Bible that how we live our lives matters. Mormons believe that the atonement was performed for everyone, even those who are evil or who reject it, and that it was a free gift. Some portions are unconditional—everyone gets them, whether or not they believe in Christ, or whether or not they want them. For example, we all rise from the dead and live forever, and we all have the ability to repent of our sins. That is the result of grace.

However, other aspects of the atonement, while present and available, have to be activated. For example, the ability to repent is of no value unless we actually do repent. Repenting activates additional aspects of the atonement.

Mormons believe that being saved is a lifetime effort. We don’t believe that once we accept Jesus as our Savior that our responsibility to Him comes to an end and we can go on with our lives with no spiritual responsibilities. Jesus made that clear when He told us that if we love Him we must keep the commandments. Accepting Jesus as our Savior is only the first step, not the last. It is then that we can really begin to fulfill our mission on earth.

While grace at its most basic level allows all of us to live forever, the full measure of the atonement allows us to live in God’s presence forever, and for most of us, that is a greater goal. Not everyone will receive exaltation in God’s kingdom. For that, we have to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and then we have to act like Christians. This does not mean we put on a meaningless show as did the Pharisees, who felt that exact obedience to very detailed laws would save them and nothing else was required. (See Matthew 6:5). Jesus made it clear that this was not enough. He criticized those who fasted and prayed, but who did so only when people were looking and only by making a big show of the process. That would be the definition of being saved by your works and that is not what Mormons are taught to do. Rather, they follow what the Bible and the Book of Mormon says on the subject. Here is what the Book of Mormon teaches on this subject:

For I remember the word of God which saith by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also.

For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.

For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.

For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.

And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.

Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do that which is good; neither will he give a good gift. (Moroni 7:5-10 in the Book of Mormon.)

In other words, obedience to the commandments isn’t something a Mormon does to “earn points.” The commandments aren’t kept lightly or out of a need to “earn” heaven. Rather, they are kept because we love Jesus Christ and we made a promise to Him that we would keep His commandments and honor His name. It would be extraordinarily disrespectful to say, “Sure, I’ll accept you as my Savior, but I’m not going to change my life for you, no matter how great your sacrifices were. I’m not really interested in making any sacrifices of my own.” Mormons consider the willingness to sacrifice worldly things for Jesus Christ to be a measure of our love for Him and a way of thanking Him for what He has done for us. In addition, we promised to do so and our behavior is a measure of just how much we meant our promises and how much commitment we’ve really made to Him.

When we study the teachings of Jesus in the Bible, we note He spent more time on how to live than on actual doctrine. Clearly, how we live our lives matters or Jesus wouldn’t have spent so much time telling us how to do it. Nor would the Bible in general be so filled with commandments. Actions matter.

When we get to Heaven, we will be ourselves. Everything we’ve chosen to become in our hearts and minds will still be there. In Heaven, in God’s presence, we will be happier than we’ve ever been before. Part of that happiness will come from being with God again. Part of it will come from not being with those who choose not to live by God’s standards. Another part will come from having become the person God wanted us to be. No unclean thing can dwell in God’s kingdom and so we need to work on cleansing ourselves so we are worthy to be in His presence. We can’t get there without Jesus’ atonement, but we do need to get ourselves ready for eternity, just as we prepare for anything else that really matters. You have probably worked very hard to prepare yourself for important events or to make yourself worthy and ready for important goals on earth—isn’t getting back home to God even more important than getting into college or achieving the leading role in a play? Why would we refuse to put time and effort into achieving Heaven?

Mormons aren’t earning their way into Heaven. They are merely putting God first and are demonstrating their happiness at being able to put the world aside as much as possible to focus on things of eternal value.

Additional Resource:

Read more on whether we are saved by grace or works at LDS.org.

There were times, of course, when there was no prophet. Those times were called apostasies and they happened when people rejected and endangered the prophets. God would take away prophecy for a while before allowing us to try again. When Jesus Christ began his ministry, He served as the prophet as well as the Lord. There was no need for another prophet when the Lord Himself was here. However, when he was killed, we again needed a prophet. Peter, as head of the apostles, received that responsibility. He received revelations such as the one that took the gospel out beyond the Jews to all the world. His revelations changed practices, even practices in place while Jesus was alive. The same revelation that made it acceptable to preach the gospel to the world was also used to end required circumcision, for instance.

Apostasy in ancient times

Most of the apostles were killed, however, and after a while, no one was appointed to take their places as they died. The world had largely rejected the prophets and so they lost the privilege of having one. Now the few valiant Saints who remained faithful were left on their own to decide what was true.

Even while the apostles remained, Saints were wandering off course. The apostles spent much of their time writing letters or preaching in an effort to stem incorrect interpretations of gospel doctrine. Fortunately, there was a source of official information, someone authorized to interpret scripture correctly. When the apostles were gone, there was no one to ask when disagreements arose. Each group of Saints made its own interpretations. If they disagreed, they simply broke off to form a new denomination.

Various councils in places like Nicaea codified the most popular doctrines, but they were chosen by ordinary people, not prophets and were made long after the apostles were gone. The Protestant reformers tried to codify doctrine as well, but they never considered themselves prophets and were simply doing the best they could, often under dangerous conditions. They, and their later followers, helped to bring about freedom of religion, a condition essential for a restoration to occur.

Any time God brought prophets back into the world, it was necessary to restore anything that had been lost while there were none. By the 1800s, so many truths taught in the Bible were lost or altered that small adjustments weren’t enough. There were millions of denominations, all teaching conflicting ideas even when they were part of the same larger faith group. Not only were there many variations of Protestantism, but there were even variations in groups within that division—for instance, there are many different flavors of Baptist faith.

Joseph Smith was baffled by all these choices. He understood instinctively that they could not all be true since they disagreed with each other on very critical subjects. He found that James 1:5 in the Bible instructed Christians to pray if they wanted to know what was true. Since that was obviously the only way he could really learn the truth, he did just that. He was told in a vision by God and Jesus Christ personally that none had the complete truth, so he wasn’t to join any of them. When he was grown God sent an angel to help prepare him to lead the restoration as a prophet.

Restored Knowledge

The Church he helped to organize is known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some people call it the Mormon Church, but Mormons ask that that name not be used. The Book of Mormon quote Jesus Christ in saying that the Church belongs to the person for whom it is named, and so it needs to be named after Jesus, not Mormon, who was a prophet. The word Mormon can be used to describe the Church’s members, however.

Mormon doctrine is restored knowledge, not new ideas. Many of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles have been lost or altered. Many take small portions of the Bible out of context, giving them a meaning never intended. Of course, there are also many translations of the Bible, all of which can alter a meaning based on the word choices the translator makes. It is impossible to simply translate word for word without making choices. Over time, occasional verses were added or subtracted to meet a specific goal. Finally, of course, the Bible was not compiled until long after the apostles were gone and there were many documents. Compilers made choices about which to include and there is not, today, a single canon. Various faiths use different combinations of books in their Bibles and some books are lost completely. (See Mormonism and the Bible/Lost Scripture at FAIRLDS.org.)

Without a prophet, it is impossible for the gospel to travel on a correct path. Although the Bible is an essential resource revered by Mormons, we know it has been interpreted in many different ways, as evidenced by the many churches in existence today that interpret it differently. The gospel requires a prophet to clarify that which is not always clear.

Mormonism provides that prophet. The Bible says the Church must be built on a foundation of prophets and apostles and that God will do nothing except through prophets. He understood the essentialness of the prophet’s role, which is why He created prophets to begin with. Only with a prophet can a true restoration occur.