A Mormon missionary is a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS church). The LDS church is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with around 56,000 full time missionaries worldwide . The Church is the largest religious community in the Latter Day Saint movement.

Preparation to serve

Young men between the ages of 19 and 26 who are considered worthy (or follow the teachings of the church), are encouraged to consider a two-year, full-time proselyting mission. Women who would like to serve a mission must be at least 21 and generally serve 18-month missions. Elderly, retired couples are encouraged to serve missions as well, but their length of service varies from 3 to 36 months.

After application to the church, prospective missionaries receive a "call to serve"—an official notification of their location assignment—through the mail from the president of the Church, assigning them to a specific area and responsibility of service. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve are responsible for assigning missionaries, through continuing revelation, to various areas of service, both domestic and foreign.

Before beginning their mission, prospective male missionaries are ordained to the office of an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood (if they do not hold this office already). All missionaries are "set apart" (through a priesthood blessing) to preach the gospel. They also, whenever possible, go to the temple for the first time to receive their Endowment.

Cost

Missionaries are expected to pay their own expenses while on the mission, usually with assistance from family and friends. In the past, each missionary paid his or her actual living expenses, but this approach created a disproportionate burden on missionaries who were assigned to more expensive areas of the world. So in 1990 a new program was introduced to equalize the financial responsibility for each missionary and his/her family. Now, all young missionaries pay a flat monthly rate which is distributed according to regional costs of living. The cost of a mission as of January 2006 is USD$400 per month, which covers food, lodging, transportation, and personal items.

Young people in the church are encouraged to save money throughout their teenage years to pay as much of this as they can, although nearly all receive assistance from family (usually parents). Missionaries who cannot raise the needed funds may obtain assistance first from their home congregation or from a fund operated by the church and contributed to by members. In some cases, the general missionary fund is used to pay for missionaries' expenses, but the church discourages relying on this fund and prefers

It's been typical for church members to invite the local missionaries over for dinner from time to time since the Church's inception. While these invitations are appreciated, in some areas, invitations can be infrequent. In an effort to further defray costs for missions, in the 1990s, the Church recommended in some areas, that ward members should provide lunch and dinner for the local missionaries. Coordination of this effort is handled through the weekly church meetings, and is not a general policy. In some areas, missionaries are asked to politely decline dinner invitations unless they come from less active members, investigators or recent converts.

Training

Newly called missionaries attend a short training period at one of almost two dozen Church Missionary Training Centers (MTCs). The largest MTC is located in Provo, Utah adjacent to Brigham Young University (BYU). Missionaries serving English-speaking missions spend three or four weeks at the MTC and are trained in the use of proselytizing materials, taught expected conduct and study the scriptures. Missionaries bound for foreign-language missions spend longer periods at the MTC—eight to ten weeks—in order to learn the language. During this period, they are encouraged not to speak in their native tongue but rather to immerse themselves in the new language. Other MTC campuses exist in other parts of the world (usually where there is a denser populations of returned missionaries to teach) for missionaries serving in their native countries outside the US.

MTCs and their teaching methods have reportedly been studied by various organizations because of the rapid ability of the missionaries to learn a foreign language in the setting. Occasionally, missionaries are said to be fluent in the language they study at the end of the eight- to ten-week period.

Missionaries generally stay in the same general location for their entire mission. They are, however, relocated (or "transferred") within this region every few months. This area is called a "mission" and is an official geographical area recognized and administered by the Church.

Dress and grooming

Full-time proselyting missionaries are required to adhere to a dress code: for men, conservative, dark trousers and suit coats, white dress shirts, and ties are generally required. For women, modest and professional dresses or blouses and skirts must be worn. In some areas this standard is altered slightly. For example, in hot, humid climates, suit coats are not required. Casual clothes may be worn when providing manual labor or during "preparation day" (called "P-day" by missionaries) when the missionaries recreate and do their cleaning, shopping, and laundry. All full-time missionaries wear a name tag that gives their surname with the appropriate title ("Elder" or "Sister" in English-speaking areas) and bears the church's name, unless the mission president considers this inadvisable due to circumstances in the area (e.g. political situation).

Organization

A mission is a geographic area defined

Most missions are divided into several zones, a zone being a geographic area specified by the Mission President. A zone encompasses several more organizational units called districts. A district typically encompasses two to four companionships, and may or may not comprise more than one proselyting area. A companionship, assigned to a proselyting area, is the smallest organizational unit of a mission. A companionship is comprised of two missionaries, occasionally three in special circumstances and for typically short lengths of time.

Each zone and district is presided over by leaders drawn from missionaries serving in that area. Zone and district leaders are responsible for gathering weekly statistics and assisting companionships in their units.

In addition the leaders mentioned above, the Mission President has two assistants. Assistants to the President are missionaries who have typically previously served as district or zone leaders. A.P.s assist the President in administering policies and assisting missionaries throughout the mission. Sometimes a missionary who serves as A.P. fulfills his position and returns to regular proselyting before completing his missionary service.

Companionships live together and are to be aware of their companion's whereabouts at all times. This includes being within eye-shot of them almost constantly. Companions share the same living quarters and the same bedroom (but not the same bed, except in the case of married missionary couples). Companionships can last from weeks to months. They are dissolved when one or both missionaries are transferred to another area.

When companions have conflicting personalities or interests, they are encouraged to try to resolve them themselves. If unable to, leaders may be used to help resolve the differences. Sometimes the only resolution is transferring one of the missionaries.

Missionary companions are directed to stay together at all times, unless accompanied by missionary from another companionship. In the US, missionaries often go on "splits" or "team-ups" with church members, teaching discussions or making contacts while accompanied by a church member. This allows the companionship to accomplish more work in the same time. Whether split, these arrangements typically last from one to three hours, once or twice a week. However, the church has recently discouraged such "splits" from taking place.

As with all church policies, the above organization may vary from mission to mission.

Relationships and marital status

Single missionaries are prohibited from dating or courting while serving missions. The requirement of companions to stay together at all times discourages this activity. While missionaries may interact with members of the opposite sex, they may never be alone with them or engage in any kind of intimate activity (e.g. kissing, holding hands, flirting).

Missionaries may have heterosexual girlfriends, boyfriends or fiancées back home, but they are prohibited from meeting with them or calling them while serving their missions. They may write them once a week, just as they may do to family members and friends. Missionaries are, however, encouraged to end their relationships before serving their missions, as it is seen as the best option for both parties involved. Despite this, many missionaries choose to continue their relationships while on their missions. This can, of course, lead to the dreaded "Dear John" letter, since the missionary is prohibited from dating, but his/her love interest is not. Some girls with fiancés on missions choose to serve as nannies for the two years, hoping to effectively remove themselves from the dating pool while awaiting their fiance's return.

In the early days of the church, young men were called to serve missions regardless of marital status. Today, however, married men are not expected to serve missions, unless specifically called to oversee a mission as a mission president (a three-year appointment), or in local areas to assist full-time missionaries. A call to be a mission president is typically extended to the couple, and in turn, the entire family.

Older, retired couples are also encouraged to serve missions and may serve as long as they desire (typically from one to two years). Many older couples have been known to serve several consecutive missions, which may include proselytizing, service, genealogical or historical/historical re-enactment temple work or to fulfil various other needs of the Church.

Types of missionaries

The LDS Church also has a strong welfare and humanitarian missionary program. The missionaries who serve these types of missions typically serve in poor and third world countries and do not actively proselytize. Regular proselytizing missionaries typically engage in welfare activities and community service for a few hours a week.

Coming of age

Completing a mission is often seen as a rite of passage or crucible for young LDS men, and most tend to regard it as a positive event: The phrase "the best two years of my life" is a common cliché among returned missionaries when describing their experience.

Of course, some missionaries regard their missionary tenure poorly. Some report that they serve missions not out of genuine desire to do so but due to peer pressure or due to cultural and familial expectations.

Cultural icon

The most visible missionaries are typically those who proselyte door-to-door and ride bicycles for transportation, but not all missionaries engage in these activities. There are "service missionaries" who solely volunteer in impoverished areas, do genealogical research, and/or are tour guides or hosts. In many areas, even proselytizing missionaries spend most of their day responding to incoming phone calls, queries, delivering requested media from the Church's television commercial outreach, and use public transit or drive automobiles owned by the Church.

The widely visible, uniform, and active missionary force of the LDS church has been targeted by some as an indication of cult characteristics but also clearly identifies them as LDS missionaries as they go about their work.