I have been transferring notes from keep to my journal and in a note mor than two years old I remind myself to capture the feeling that I felt when President Monson announced the lowering of the missionary age. I felt that that would become a cultural touchstone in the church. I’ve never followed up on that self-made assignment so I’m doing it now. It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than two years since I felt I should record that feeling, and yet I still remember the feeling.
When President Monson started talking about the missionaries and how prepared they are these days and especially when he noted that in some places they were allowed to leave as early as 18 I basically expected him to announce that they would be able to leave at 18 everywhere. Even expecting it a few seconds in advance it was electrifying because I knew that it many a real change of gears and an indication of the hastening of the work (although that phrase hasn’t been coined back then). When he went on to announce the lowering of the age for sister missionaries I was not so much surprised that the age was lowered as I was amazed that it was lowered enough to almost coincide with the age of the elders. I fist thought that might lead to trouble and then I felt reassurance that the chosen servants of the lord were very careful in making this change so I would trust them.
I remember thinking of the nieces who suddenly has new options for their life paths (Analese and Whitney specifically) and also quickly realized that listing the age would narrow a life gap which caused many young men to lose their way. More than two years later, all those feelings still seen accurate to what we have seen so far since this change was announced. We have more missionaries serving and fewer falling through the cracks after high school and we have no significant issues that I know of from the elders and sisters being basically peers.
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