My LDS Mission Call

My LDS Mission

The Call to Serve

About the time I turned 20 the Bishop asked me if I had ever considered serving as a full time missionary. While the young men in our faith usually go when they are 19 the young women must wait until they are 21. I told him that the thought had crossed my mind, but that I had to see what was going on in my life a year later.

The call to serve an LDS mission comes from the President of the Church. The missionary candidate goes through a couple of interviews with local leaders to establish worthiness and then submits papers to Church headquarters expressing a desire to serve. A few weeks later a 'Call' comes in the mail. In it the candidate is told where he or she will be serving and when they will leave.

Before arriving in their chosen areas all missionaries attend a 3 week to 2 month crash course (depending on whether they need to learn a foreign language or not) at one of the several Mission Training Centers (MTC).

I received my call to serve on March 17, 1987. I found to my delight that I would be serving in the Virginia Roanoke Mission (as it was called at that time) The young man I had written to had served in that same mission. I would enter the MTC on June 3, 1987. I had just three months to get everything ready to spend 18 months as a missionary. I would not be returning home until the end of that time.

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