MEN ON A MISSION

The doorbell rings. When you open it, two young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty stand outside. They wear white shirts with dark ties, slacks, and shoes. Each wears a spiffy name tag identifying him as "Elder Smith" or "Elder Christensen" or the like. These guys represent "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

Perhaps you just ordered a free Book of Mormon from the official LDS church website, or a free video like "Family First" from a TV ad. Or perhaps your house is a "cold call" in a neighborhood where the missionaries happen to be "tracting." You invite them in, and they unzip their "scripture bundles" (containing the King James Version of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, all crossreferenced). For the next hour, more or less, you'll be listening to one of seven carefully-honed, basic lessons in Mormon theology. Their "magic bullet" is Moroni 10:3-5 in the Book of Mormon, which they will inevitably highlight or mark in the copy they give you. If you allow return visits, you'll hear a second and a third, and so on until you either accept Mormon baptism or tell them you're not interested.

Since the 1960s, about a million Mormons have gone on a mission. The majority are single young men, new "Melchizedek priesthood" holders, often away from home for the first time. A few missionaries are single young women ("Sister [Surname]") and married couples. In 1990, there were about 220 missions in 97 different countries, and about 35,000 LDS missionaries in the field.

Each mission is overseen by a mission president, usually an older married man whose wife works with him. While on mission, Mormons live rather spartan lives. They are always paired: for prayer, church meetings, home visits, and knocking on doors. Their schedules are tight, granting only a few free hours each week for laundry, grocery shopping, and writing letters home. Typically, they live with a clothing code and may not participate in contact sports (injuries result in lost mission time). They are not allowed to date, watch TV, go to movies, or read frivolous, non-missionary things like magazines. Even the missionaries' contact with their families is kept to a minimum. Many have only been allowed two calls home per year (e.g. Christmas and Mother's Day). If parents want to check in on missionaries, they may ask their ward bishop to check with the mission president.

Budding young elders do not get to choose their mission fields. Fluency in a particular language does not get the missionary sent to a country where that language is spoken. All the training an LDS missionary needs, including linguistic and cultural, is received at Mission Training Center (MTC) on the Brigham Young University campus in Provo, Utah. Domestic missionaries spend about two to three weeks in intense scripture and memorization studies at MTC, while missionaries bound for foreign lands stay in MTC's language saturation program for about two months. Here's a typical MTC day, according to James Coates' In Mormon Circles: Gentiles, Jack Mormons, & Latter-Day Saints (Addison-Wesley: 1991, p.142):

6:00-6:30Arise, shower, dress, personal prayer
6:45-7:20Breakfast
7:45-8:00District meeting
(session with all those assigned to the same country)
8:00-10:00Memorization drills
10:00-11:00Scripture study
11:00-12:00Memorization drills
12:00-1:00Lunch
1:00-4:00Language class
4:00-5:00P.E./cultural lectures
5:00-5:45Dinner
5:45-6:00District meeting
6:00-7:00Language laboratory
7:00-10:00Group study
10:00-10:30Group prayer and lights out

In 1990-1991, a Mormon family would spend about $8400 dollars to send a young man on a typical two year mission. He would also need about $1000 for clothes, medical & dental exams, passports & visas, and his share of travel costs. The LDS church would pay all but $50 to get him to Provo, and all but $100 to get him from Provo to the mission field. Copies of the Book of Mormon, which missionaries hand out for free, are purchased by parents or provided by local wards or stakes (Mormon equivalents of parishes and dioceses).

As you can see, many people put a lot of time, money, and personal sacrifice into the Mormon missions. Though we cannot agree with their doctrines, we ought to respect their hard work and effort. You should always be generous, patient, attentive, and polite to the Mormon missionaries who come to your home, especially if you will be inviting them inside.

Information in this section is based on James Coates' In Mormon Circles: Gentiles, Jack Mormons, and Latter-Day Saints (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley; 1991), pp.135-151. For more information, see Isaiah Bennett's When Mormons Call (San Diego: Catholic Answers). You may also want to check out: official Missionary Training Center website for the press and Missionary World.

YOU ARE A MISSIONARY

Remember that you are on a mission too. Every Catholic must be committed to the mission of evangelization. Who me? Yes, everyone. In 1988, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic exhortation addressed "to All the Lay Faithful" called Christifideles Laici (On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World). This exhortation is addressed to you, so you ought to get a copy and read it. (Pauline Books & Media publishes an inexpensive edition; it is also available at the official website of the Holy See.) Relax on the sofa with it, take it to Eucharistic adoration, have a personal weekend retreat, organize a study group, read it on your lunch breaks from work... whatever you do, read it.

Here are some relevant passages. Words in bold represent words emphasized by the Holy Father.

From that distant day the call of Jesus "You too go into my vineyard" [Mt 20:3-4] never fails to resound in the course of history: it is addressed to every person who comes into this world.... You go too.... The call is addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world.... the most precious fruit desired... is the lay faithful's hearkening to the call of Christ the Lord to work in his vineyard, to take an active, conscientious and responsible part in the mission of the Church in this great moment in history.... A new state of affairs... calls with a particular urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always unacceptable, the present time renders it even more so. It is not permissible for anyone to remain idle.... Today we have the greatest need of saints whom we must assiduously beg God to raise up.... All the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity; All of Christ's followers are invited and bound to pursue holiness and the perfect fulfillment of their own state of life.... the vocation to holiness is intimately connected to mission and to the responsibility entrusted to the lay faithful in the Church and in the world.... Upon all the lay faithful, then, rests the exalted duty of working to assure that each day the divine plan of salvation is further extended to every person, of every era, in every part of the earth.... the lay faithful have the ability to do very much and, therefore, ought to do very much towards the growth of an authentic ecclesial communion in their parishes in order to reawaken missionary zeal towards non-believers and believers themselves who have abandoned the faith or grown lax in the Christian life.... The apostolate exercised by the individual -which flows abundantly from a truly Christian life (c.f. Jn 4:11)- is the origin and condition of the whole lay apostolate... and admits no substitute. Regardless of circumstance, all lay persons (including those who have no opportunity or possibility for collaboration in associations) are called to [the apostolate of the individual] and obliged to engage in it.... In the apostolate exercised by the individual, great riches are waiting to be discovered through an intensification of the missionary effort of each of the lay faithful. Such an individual form of apostolate can contribute greatly to a more extensive spreading of the Gospel, indeed it can reach as many places as there are daily lives of individual members of the lay faithful. Furthermore, the spread of the Gospel will be continual, since a person's life and faith will be one.... the life of Church communion will become a sign for all the world and a compelling force that will lead persons to faith in Christ: "that they may be one; even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (Jn 17:21). In such a way communion leads to mission, and mission itself to communion.... Jesus says to his disciples: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide" (Jn 15:16). Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and imply each other to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion.... The lay faithful, precisely because they are members of the Church, have the vocation and mission of proclaiming the Gospel: they are prepared for this work by the sacraments of Christian initiation and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.... the command of Jesus: "Go and preach the Gospel" always maintains its vital value and its ever-pressing obligation.... the present situation... absolutely demands that the word of Christ receive a more ready and generous obedience. Every disciple is personally called by name; no disciple can withhold making a response: "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel" (1Cor 9:16).... Humanity is loved by God! This very simple yet profound proclamation is owed to humanity by the Church. Each Christian's words and life must make this proclamation resound: God loves you, Christ came for you, Christ is for you "the Way, the Truth and the Life" (Jn 14:6)!
You may not sit on the sidelines. You must take the field: the mission field.

How? First, devote yourself to cultivating and living a truly Christian and sacramental life. Daily prayer (if not more frequent), weekly Mass (if not more frequent), and regular confession are a must. You should also study the Bible, the Catechism, Church documents, the lives of the saints, and Church history as much as you are able. There are many apologetics resources available to help you learn, explain, and defend the faith better. Live your faith, know your faith. The Lord has called you to be a missionary.

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