I think most people are familiar with my mission story. I wasn't ever going to go on a mission. Ever. Then upon graduating I felt very strongly that I needed to go on a mission, and being obedient, I went. For the first little while I kept wondering what could happen that could get me sent home honorably (so did the mission president's wife), but in the end, it ended up being one of the best experiences of my life that I would never skip.
Since then, I have watched, interested, by the sidelines as this change took place. We had sisters in our first Rochester ward for maybe a month before we moved and haven't had any in our current ward, yet I am always intrigued by what I see and hear and read.
Once when we were visiting Mom and Dad, we went to church and before Sacrament Meeting started I was looking around to see who I knew. I saw some girls and didn't recognize them. I asked Mom who they were and she told me they were the sisters. I could see no differences between them and all the other females in the ward (the name tags must have been hidden or something).
Shortly after the announcement, I saw something on BYUtv about the lowering of mission age for sisters and during one interview one girl said something along the lines of "I think more girls would go but the mission age is so old that we all get married before we are old enough to go. If the mission age had been 19 when I was 19 I totally would have gone." Something about that irked me.
It seems like it has become the newest trendy thing for sisters to serve missions. It isn't a huge sacrifice. They can pretty much wear anything. What do I know. Maybe I am just bitter because it was not the cool thing to do when I went. It doesn't look like a cop out of something to do when you aren't married and have graduated from college. And, I know that there are those sisters who go at 19 who have sincerely felt the need to go.
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| Sister Scoresby returning in all her honor and great glory. See how I am glowing? |
6 comments:
Dad couldn't pick the sisters out of the YSA ward on Sunday. That's not that much of a surprise. I can't get over the odd things they can wear.
At my high school it was the cool thing to do even when the age was 21. (My high school had a lot of members. Release time seminary had classes A hour to 6th hour with at least two classes each hour) I remember the girls talking about how they were all going on missions. There were girls who said they were going to go and girls that said they would if they weren't married. I was one of the few who said I wasn't going to go.
I kept getting the feeling that I was not to go (I want to go as a couple when we are older.) I was teased a little bit about it and they joked that I must of thought I would get married right out of high school. I told them it was not what I felt I should do and even if I wasn't married I would not be going.
I ended up not having to worry about it because I met Michael at 19 and we got married when I was 20.
I even knew a girl who had a boyfriend and he wanted to get married but she did not because she wanted to go on a mission. Luckily her bishop advised her not to put off marriage just for a mission and that they can go as a couple later in life.
Maybe since they can go younger more will be going that still haven't out grown the idea of it being cool, but we will get more girls (that really want to serve) that would of gone but the got married before they were 21.
Lori
I don't think it's fair to assume that their motivations for serving are less than ideal or that it's not a sacrifice because they are younger and are allowed to wear different clothes than we did. Also, the fact that more sisters are serving now doesn't invalidate your own service or make it less meaningful. I think when it was announced, girls who might not have considered a mission previously did, and many of them decided to go, but we should give them the benefit of the doubt that they prayed about it, prepared, and are doing the very best they can. This is Emily.
I didn't mean to generalize and belittle younger sisters' missionary service. I do believe that for the most part sisters feel the call to serve and prepare much like before, and I'm in no position to make judgments about it. Even if their reasons for serving a mission weren't the same as mine, most sisters probably are good missionaries. However, I do think that especially here in Provo, there was a culture of young women feeling social pressure to serve a mission, and that should never be the case.
I deleted my first comment because my second comment describes my feelings more succinctly and less offensively. Probably the whole world read my first comment already and thinks I'm a jerk. I still think that there was a trend to serve a mission because it was the cool thing, but I guess even if a sister serves a mission to be cool, but worked hard and was obedient, good for her.
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