What it costs people
Mission Service
From age eighteen, under written rules: a companion at all times, family contact on a weekly preparation day (plus special occasions), and doubt described as opposed to faith.
The point in one sentence
Starting at eighteen, the Church invites young adults to give full-time service promoting its message. Its own written rules for that service keep them with a companion at all times, set family contact on a weekly preparation day (the one day a week the handbook names for contacting family, with special occasions also encouraged), and describe doubt as something opposed to faith.
If you grew up in the Church, you were probably taught that a mission is a priesthood duty for young men. Few members have read the written rules a missionary lives under. Here they are.
I served one. This page does not say the experience is worthless, because for many people it was not. It lays the rules out in the Church’s own words so the structure can be seen plainly.
A mission, as the rulebook describes it
Three figures from Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ, the Church’s own handbook.
Source: Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ, churchofjesuschrist.org
What a mission is, and why people go
Start with the strongest case for it, stated the way believers hold it. A mission is a period of service. Missionaries leave home, live in a new place, and work alongside a companion toward a purpose they believe in. If they are learning a new language, the sample schedule sets aside 30 to 60 minutes a day to study it. The handbook says being faithful and obedient means you “try to learn, grow, and improve,” and it names the strain: “Missionary work is demanding, and feeling stress from time to time is normal.” It also tells them: “Take your physical and emotional health seriously.” (sections 4.3 and 4.4) Believers who served describe real growth and real friendships from it, and nothing on this page disputes that.
In principle it is also voluntary. When President Thomas S. Monson lowered the minimum age in October 2012, he said young men would have “the option of being recommended for missionary service beginning at the age of 18, instead of age 19,” and that young women who “have the desire to serve may be recommended for missionary service beginning at age 19, instead of age 21.” Of young women he added: “Many young women also serve, but they are not under the same mandate to serve as are the young men.” He cited the Church’s experience with young men from certain countries who were already allowed to serve at 18: “Their mission presidents report that they are obedient, faithful, mature, and serve just as competently as do the older missionaries who serve in the same missions.” (October 2012 general conference)
The same talk is also where the expectation for young men is stated: “We affirm that missionary work is a priesthood duty” and, separately, “we encourage all young men who are worthy and who are physically able and mentally capable to respond to the call to serve.”
The Church’s page for prospective missionaries lists the ages today as “Single men ages 18–25 and single women ages 18–29” for young teaching missionaries, so the minimum is now eighteen for both. (Church missionary page)
The Church’s General Handbook says young men ages 18–25 who serve as teaching missionaries “usually serve for 24 months,” and young women ages 18–29 “usually serve for 18 months.” (General Handbook 24.2.1)
On cost, the General Handbook says: “Missionaries and their families have primary responsibility for contributing financially to missionary service.” The monthly amount is set through the bishop (in some countries, the same amount for every missionary), and a young person “should not be delayed from serving for financial reasons.” If a family cannot cover the contribution, the bishop or stake president may ask ward or stake members to give to the ward missionary fund. (General Handbook 24.3.4)
What the rulebook says
The handbook is written to the missionary, in the second person. These are its words.
Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ, section 2.2.2, “Staying Together”
Staying with your companion will help provide protection from physical and spiritual dangers, false accusations, and loneliness. Obey this missionary standard at all times and in all places. Never be alone.
The stated purpose is protection, and that is a real purpose. The rule itself is absolute: all times, all places. The only exceptions listed are the bathroom, an interview with a mission leader, and a baptismal interview. The same section adds: “Do not create time to be alone. For example, do not stay up later or get up earlier than your companion.”
Section 2.2.2 on churchofjesuschrist.orgMissionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ, section 3.9.1, “Family”
You may communicate with your family on your weekly preparation day via letters, emails, text messages, online messaging, phone calls, and video chat. … You should initiate all text message conversations, online messaging, phone calls, and video chats. If your family needs to contact you, they should contact the mission president first.
Contact with parents is weekly, and the missionary starts it. A family that needs to reach their child goes through the mission president first. The same section adds that missionaries “also are encouraged to contact your family on other special occasions,” and section 3.9.7 tells them that if their family reports an emergency at home they should let their mission leaders know.
Section 3.9.1 on churchofjesuschrist.orgSame handbook, section 3.9.3, on friends and people in other areas of the mission
Limit these communications to emails or letters. Do not communicate with them by phone or video chat unless approved by your mission president.
“These communications” are with friends and people from other areas in the mission, which the section says must be “focused on fulfilling your missionary purpose.” It does not address friends back home.
Section 3.9.3 on churchofjesuschrist.orgThe handbook gives a reason for the companion rule and a channel for the family rule. Together they set who a young missionary is with all day, who they can talk to, and when.
The question is not whether the reasons are sincere. It is what the rules add up to.
How the rules changed
Only the changes I could verify in Church sources are shown. The 1974 policy history is not on this timeline because I could not confirm it from a Church page.
Sources: Church Newsroom, “Church Lowers Missionary Service Age” (Oct 6, 2012) and the Feb 15, 2019 announcement on missionary communication; Church missionary page
The exhibits
Every quote is from a Church source. The question each one raises is what the rules mean when a missionary reaches the point of doubt.
Preach My Gospel, chapter 6, section “Faith in Jesus Christ”
The Church’s missionary manual
What it establishes: This sits in the chapter “How Do I Develop Christlike Attributes?”, in a paragraph defining faith in Jesus Christ: “Faith is a principle of power. God works by power, but His power is usually exercised in response to faith… He works according to the faith of His children. Doubt and fear are opposed to faith.” The next paragraph says how faith grows: “Your faith will increase through diligent study, prayer, dedicated service, and obedience to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and the commandments.” The passage is about faith in Christ in general. It does not mention a missionary’s doubts about the Church, and it does not say where doubt comes from.
Chapter 6 on churchofjesuschrist.orgElder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Come, Join with Us,” October 2013 general conference
2013
What it establishes: This is the believing side of the doubt question, at full strength. A few sentences after that the instruction follows: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters… please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith.” Questions are normal; the order given is faith first.
Read the talkElder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lord, I Believe,” April 2013 general conference
2013
What it establishes: These are separate sentences in the talk’s closing testimony. The first names “doubt or devils” as things that can sway someone from the path. After “Hope on. Journey on.” he says to honestly acknowledge questions and concerns, “but first and forever fan the flame of your faith.” The talk is built on the father in Mark 9 who says, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief,” and Holland presents that father’s earnest but limited faith as enough.
Read the talkChurch counseling resource, “Missionaries Who Return Home Early”
Current
What it establishes: The same guidance names Family Services as providing, in some areas, “counseling sessions for missionaries who return home early,” and tells leaders: “Do not pressure the missionary to go back to the mission field. This decision can come only after full recovery from the challenges that brought him or her home.” Those are real resources and a real protection.
Read the guidanceThe sample day, measured
The handbook includes a sample schedule. It is labeled a sample, and the real day varies by mission. These are its rows.
| Time | What the sample schedule says |
|---|---|
| 6:30 a.m. | Begin the day. |
| 6:30–10:00 a.m. | Pray. Exercise (30 minutes). Shower, eat breakfast, and prepare for the day. Have personal study (60 minutes). Plan (30 minutes). |
| 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. | Find, teach, and serve others. (Also listed in this block: updating records, a health and safety topic review, companion study and lesson preparation, language study if learning a new language, and lunch and dinner, no more than two hours combined.) |
| 9:00 p.m. | Return to your housing, unless you have a teaching appointment; if so, return by 9:30 p.m. |
| 9:00–9:30 p.m. | Write in your journal, prepare for bed, and pray. |
| 9:30–10:30 p.m. | Go to bed. |
Where the hours go in the sample day
Hours between “Begin the day” and the end of the “Go to bed” window, from the handbook’s schedule. The 11-hour block is not 11 hours of teaching; the handbook lists several activities inside it.
Source: Missionary Standards, section 2.4.2. The schedule does not list sleep hours; the 24-hour row is shown only so the bars are on true scale.
The schedule includes an hour of personal study, half an hour of planning, and half an hour of companion study. Separately, the handbook’s media rule lists “Avoiding television, movies, video games, and unauthorized videos,” and its technology section says “Technology can be a tool to share teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and should be used righteously.”
The rules, side by side
Rules a missionary agrees to, in the handbook’s words
Each row is quoted from Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ.
| Section | What the handbook says | What it governs |
|---|---|---|
| 2.2.2 | “Never be alone.” | Companionship: at all times and in all places |
| 3.9.1 | “You may communicate with your family on your weekly preparation day…” | Family contact: once a week, plus special occasions |
| 3.9.1 | “If your family needs to contact you, they should contact the mission president first.” | Who relays a family’s message |
| 3.9.3 | “Limit these communications to emails or letters.” | Friends and people from other areas of the mission |
| 3.6.3 | “Avoiding television, movies, video games, and unauthorized videos.” | Media |
| 3.8 | “Technology can be a tool to share teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and should be used righteously.” | Technology |
Source: Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ, churchofjesuschrist.org
Statistics about missionary suicide, or about what share of missionaries come home early, circulate widely without a named source, a sample, or a denominator. The Church pages quoted on this page give no such figures (the early-return counseling guidance contains none), and the one academic article cited below reports survey percentages only.
That article measures something narrower: how early-returned missionaries (ERMs) who answered a survey describe their experience. In Religious Educator (BYU’s Religious Education journal), Kristine Doty-Yells reports: “Disturbingly, 73 percent of our survey respondents indicated they had feelings of failure regarding their missions.” And: “Fifty-eight percent of the respondents to our survey indicated that they felt their ward members received them poorly or indifferently.” Also: “Forty percent of ERMs felt pressured to return to the mission field.” And on activity afterward: “One-third of the respondents had a period of inactivity, and one-third of that third have not come back to church. Half of the ERMs said they were not as active as before their missions.” These are shares of the survey’s respondents, who were early-returned missionaries. This article does not give the number of respondents or say how they were recruited (it points to an earlier paper for the survey methods). “One-third of that third” means about one-third of respondents reported a period of inactivity, and one-third of that group had not come back, which is roughly one in nine respondents. None of this is a rate for missionaries as a whole, but it shows the experience is real. (BYU Religious Studies Center)
The common rebuttals
“Nobody is forced to go. It’s the missionary’s own choice.”
In principle that is right, and the sources above say so: Monson described the age change as an “option,” and said young women “are not under the same mandate to serve as are the young men.” Nothing on this page claims a missionary is physically compelled. What the same talk also says is that “missionary work is a priesthood duty” for young men, and that the Church encourages “all young men who are worthy” and able to serve. A young man deciding at eighteen is deciding under what the Church itself calls a priesthood duty. The Church’s early-return guidance separately tells leaders not to pressure a missionary to go back to the field. It is a choice, and the Church itself says it comes with an expectation.
“The companion rule is there for safety, not control.”
The handbook says so itself: it is for “protection from physical and spiritual dangers, false accusations, and loneliness.” That is a real reason, and for a young person far from home it is not a trivial one. The response is not that the reason is false. It is that the rule is absolute, with only the bathroom and two kinds of interview listed as exceptions, so a missionary has no time of their own away from another person. The handbook’s own words: “Never be alone.” Also: “Do not create time to be alone.”
“The Church says it is natural to have questions. Doubt is not forbidden.”
That is true, and Elder Uchtdorf’s words are in the exhibits above. It is not the whole instruction. The same paragraph ends with “first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith,” Elder Holland says to “[h]onestly acknowledge your questions and your concerns, but first and forever fan the flame of your faith,” and the missionary manual says “Doubt and fear are opposed to faith.” The Church welcomes the question. In every one of these sources, the answer that is asked for is faith first.
The Church asks a young person to promote its message full time, under written rules about who they can talk to and when.
Much of this site examines the claims that message rests on.
What this means
Here is what the Church’s own pages show. A missionary can start at eighteen and usually serves 24 months (men) or 18 months (women). The handbook says to stay with a companion at all times and in all places, to contact family on the weekly preparation day, to start those conversations yourself, and to limit contact with friends elsewhere in the mission to email and letters. Family who need to reach a missionary go through the mission president first. The sample day starts at 6:30 in the morning and has bedtime between 9:30 and 10:30 at night. The missionary manual says “Doubt and fear are opposed to faith,” and conference talks say questions are natural while asking that faith come first.
All of this is real, and all of it is written down by the Church itself. None of it was found by a critic.
The believing case is also real: service, growth, a language, a hard thing done among people who believed in it, and Church resources for missionaries who struggle, including counseling, in some areas, for those who come home early. Both belong in the picture. What the rules do is set the conditions a young person is in while promoting the claims at the center of the message. Much of this site is about whether those claims hold. The question the evidence leaves is whether the examining should come before the commitment, or after.