You may be familiar with the idea of clean-cut, clean-shaven young men in dark suits with name tags being missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s probably because there are over 40,000 of them right now serving in areas all over the world. But you may not have known that women in the church serve missions, too. They make up about 13,000 of the Church’s proselyting force.
Unlike the young men who generally begin their missionary service at age 19, a woman is eligible to begin her missionary service at age 21 and will serve for 18 months. Because the church does not pay its missionaries, young women usually begin saving at an early age in order to be able to provide for their own living expenses. Depending on where they live and where they are called to serve, the new missionary will attend one of 17 Missionary Training Centers (MTCs) around the world. There they will immerse themselves in scriptures and doctrine, learning how to trust the Lord, to teach and possibly even learning a foreign language. After 3 to 8 weeks of training, they leave the MTC and head to the corner of the world that they will come to know and love over the next year and a half.
M. Russell Ballard has said:
A full-time mission is totally appropriate for a young woman, if that is what she wants to do and she is worthy. Holding the priesthood comes with the obligation for young men to carry the message of the Restoration to the world. Young women are invited to participate in missionary work as it is appropriate to their circumstances. If they have prospects for marriage, that is a higher calling. But young women who are in a position to serve make great missionaries. They are good teachers, they have empathy, and they can relate particularly well to women. I don’t think that we have a mission anywhere in the world where the mission president wouldn’t be thrilled to get more sister missionaries.
(M. Russell Ballard, “How to Prepare to Be a Good Missionary,” New Era, Mar 2007, 6–11)
In addition to these young sister missionaries, a woman may decide to serve a mission later in life, too. She may be part of a missionary couple with her husband, if she is married or as a single senior sister missionary if she is not. There are many types of missionary service available to these sisters. They may enjoy a service mission or a mission that focuses on “health, welfare, or other needs.” They may serve close to home, volunteering as needed in their area. Or they may travel to the other side of the world to serve.
Regardless of their age, mission, or type of service, the missionary experience for women can be some of the most challenging work that they undertake in their lives. It can also be the most rewarding.
