Mormon teenagers attend a meeting called Mutual (which is short for what used to be called Mutual Improvement Association) once evening a week from ages twelve to eighteen or until they graduate from high school. Sometimes the teens all meet together. Other times they group by gender or age. Although they want the program to be fun, Mormon teenagers have lots of opportunities to have fun. These meetings are supposed to have a bigger purpose as well.

Take a look at the new website:

Youth Activities

You’ll see the activities are grouped into eleven categories. Mormon teens plan their own meetings under the supervision of adult advisers. The adults make sure the rules are followed and teach the teenagers leadership skills. If they see a problem, they use something called shadow leadership to fix it. That means they don’t tell the teens how to fix it—or even what it is. They will ask questions until the teens have figured out the problem and the solutions themselves. The questions just help the teens learn how to think about the problem.

They are taught to first figure out what their group needs help with or what they need more experience in. Let’s say the group is in the inner-city and many of the teens want to go to college, but they can’t afford it and they’ve been upset about that. The teens who are in the current presidency (the class president, her two counselors, and the secretary) go to the youth activities website and look under “Preparing for Future Roles,” which includes college. There is an activity on paying for college. They read the suggestions and then make their own plans, adjusting the suggestions to fit their needs.

That’s not the most exciting activity, but it can change their whole lives. It’s important, and the teens really want to have great futures, so even though it isn’t glamorous, they enjoy it because it lets them start dreaming of a better life.

Next week, they want to have a little more fun. The Mormons have been making short videos about real teens and their challenges or testimonies. These are called “Mormon Messages for Youth,” and you can watch some of them here:

Mormon Messages for Youth

The leaders of the youth group are planning an activity with all the teens in their group—all ages, both genders. They want to encourage their peers to improve their creativity and to learn more about helping others. They go to the creativity section of the new website and see an idea for making your own Mormon Messages. They know their friends would love making their own videos, holding a movie night, and maybe even posting them online, so they plan an activity that will be done over a few months. The first month, they divide into groups and show some Mormon messages. Then the groups make a plan and give assignments to the teens in their group. The next month, when they have another large group activity, they make their videos. The third month, they have movie night to show the videos, have treats, and decide what to do with them.

This activity teaches creativity, movie making, and missionary work or helping others, but it does it all in a fun way.

If you belong to a youth group of any kind, check out the site. You may find some ideas that will work for your group, no matter what religion you are.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often inadvertently referred to as the “Mormon Church”) has a video for teenagers featuring a teen girl with the same problem I had. She wants to know what is true. This girl also got her answer from another teenager—but one who lived in the 1800s. Like her, a fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith was trying to figure out what church to join. He didn’t just want to pick one that was fun or that his friends and families belonged to. He wanted to join the true church.

Too Many Churches: Which One Is Right?

But how could he figure out which one that was? He went to lots of different churches and talked to ministers and other people he respected. They were all quite firm that their church was the right one. The problem was that their churches all disagreed with each other. Every denomination has certain important teachings that differ from those of other churches. How could you possibly guess which one was right? After all, these were ministers. It seemed like they knew more about the Bible than Joseph would, but even they couldn’t agree on what was true.

Joseph Smith’s family loved the Bible and read it as a family. However, Joseph decided that it was time for him to read it on his own. He was reading in James 1:5 when he came across a really interesting verse. Here is what it said:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God—James 1:5.

Suddenly Joseph knew how to solve his problem. All those ministers might have ideas about what was right, but God knew for sure what was true. All Joseph Smith needed to do was to ask God. Right there in the Bible, in a book a lot of people think was written by Jesus’ own brother, was a promise that God would answer that question, as long as you asked with faith that He could answer.

Praying to Know the Truth

Joseph decided such an important prayer needed to be done in private. Privacy wasn’t easy to come by in a small house filled to the brim with family, so he went into the woods near his home. There he knelt down and prayed out loud—the first time he’d ever prayed aloud.

Joseph got his answer. In his case, God and Jesus came in person to answer his prayer. Joseph was called of God and given the responsibility of becoming the first prophet in modern times, so he needed a rather special answer. When my friend told me about Joseph Smith, I said I didn’t think God would be coming in person to answer me. She agreed, but said I didn’t need Him to come in person. He could send the Holy Ghost to put the answer into my heart. All I had to do was to pray and to believe I’d get an answer.

The girl in the video, which you can watch at the end of the article, realized that she could do what Joseph Smith did. Just as I did when I was sixteen, she asked God to help her know what was true. You can see by the smile on her face at the end of the video that she got her answer.

I did, too—the same one this girl got. It took me awhile. I needed to study and to learn how to pray for answers and how to recognize the answers. I met with Mormon missionaries for a few weeks and they taught me how to do all that and encouraged me to follow my friend’s advice and to pray. A few months later, just after my seventeenth birthday, I was baptized and became a Mormon.

Do you have a Mormon friend? If so, ask them to tell you about their own testimony. If you don’t, you can go to Mormon.org and read about Mormons. You can even chat online with a missionary. It’s not a place to socialize or argue, but it is a place to ask serious questions if you’re a person who really wants to know what is true.

Chat with a Mormon missionary.

Read what happened when Joseph Smith wanted to know what was true. (He was only fourteen at the time.)

Watch the video:

Most pre-teens and teens like to pretend their families are a burden, even though they secretly love them. He didn’t seem to see any need to pretend. He talked about how his family worked hard to be a great family and how they planned to be a family forever—even after death. He had my attention with that one. I loved the idea of being a forever family.

Mormon Boys Were Trustworthy

In high school our drama teacher made a rule that only the Mormon kids could drive when we had club parties or field trips. He’d noticed they were the ones who never got drunk and that they tried to be responsible in our activities. They also tended to be the leaders. I noticed all that, too.

Then I moved to a new high school. It was a little school and my first day everyone just stood back and watched and waited, trying to decide which niche I belonged to before anyone spoke.

Only one person didn’t bother to wait around. He greeted me the moment I entered Spanish class and, learning I was new, invited me to join his friends during break and lunch so I wouldn’t have to be alone my first day. He didn’t know what niche I should belong to, but it appeared he didn’t care. I wasn’t surprised to learn he was Mormon. I’d noticed the Mormon boys were like that.

Soon he invited me to visit his church’s youth group and to go on a campout the church group was having. He said it would help me meet other students, who, as I quickly learned, also didn’t care what niche I should belong to.

It was at the campout that I really began to see how the Mormon boys were different from other boys I knew. They had beautiful manners and treated the girls with so much respect. When we exited the van, they took our hands to help us down. They carried things for us and waited on us hand and foot—not because they thought we were helpless but because they wanted us to feel special and cared for. They didn’t just reserve that for their girlfriends. All the girls got the same royal treatment.

Mormon Boys Treat Girls with Respect

I noticed how nicely the boys with girlfriends treated them. The girls never had to worry about the boys pressuring them. The girls told me they shared the same moral standards and the boys never tried to go beyond those appropriate limits. In my experience, Mormon boys and girls helped each other maintain their standards by setting and keeping rules for their relationship.

After a while, I understood that this was because they had bigger goals than enjoying high school. While they were definitely enjoying their teen years, they didn’t bother to spend them getting into trouble. The boys were all preparing to go on missions when they were older. (At the time, they could go when they were nineteen. Today, they can go at eighteen.) This meant they needed to keep their moral standards high and to spend time learning how to serve and respect others. They had spent a lifetime learning to treat people with respect.

Not all of them did, of course. There were some who hadn’t caught the vision yet and, even when they had, they made a few mistakes—who doesn’t? Overall, though, I found the Mormon boys I knew to be more mature, more responsible, more trustworthy—and more fun. It was a pleasure to be with a boy who treated you with respect, who paid attention to your needs instead of just his own, and who knew how to have the kind of fun that wouldn’t get you in trouble if your parents saw you doing it.

I liked them so much I ended up marrying one! It was this focus on eternal things that made the difference then and that continues to make the difference now.

Young single Mormon adults devoted June 15, 2013 to doing service projects across the Southeast as part of their regional conference. They went out into their own communities to serve, and a group from Macon, Georgia chose this project as a way to serve their town. A married couple, Faye and Keith Whigham serve as their advisors and they were the ones who first learned that a house was being built that weekend. They suggested it to the young adults, who enthusiastically agreed to assist. The young people spent a warm Saturday framing and painting the home alongside people from many other faiths and organizations.

Mormons Serve Because Jesus Served

They explained to reporters that they do this type of service regularly because Jesus taught His followers to serve others. They believe a true Christian will try to emulate Jesus Christ and so they look for regular opportunities to perform service projects. Their advisors said attendance is higher at their service projects than it is at any of their “just for fun” meetings.

Our willingness to sacrifice and our skills in cooperative efforts come from our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, from the inspired teachings of our leaders, and from the commitments and covenants we knowingly make (Dallin H. Oaks, Unselfish Service, April 2009 General Conference address).

The Day of Service activities had been done informally by congregations for generations, but in the 1980s, The Church of Jesus Christ asked several South American countries to participate in a formal day of service. They asked local government leaders what needed to be done in their community and then sent congregations to carry out those projects, inviting those who were not Mormon to assist. The program was so well-received that other areas began to imitate it and it is now done world-wide as an annual event for most areas, often with several states joining together in order to accomplish more. Volunteers wear yellow vests with “Mormon Helping Hands” on them so leaders can quickly identify their own people when necessary. Programs include cleaning parks, repainting schools, collecting food for food banks, gathering clothing for homeless shelters, and anything else a community needs. They often partner with other organizations, such as this project with Habitat for Humanity.

Some young adults might be spending the majority of their time on themselves, but programs like Day of Service demonstrate that many young people are living lives of service to others and it is to those young people we can look to for our futures.

In California, some teens are fighting the trend of overly expensive proms. Mormon teenagers and their guests held a prom at the Santa Margarita Bell Tower that cost just fifteen dollars. The boys wore suits (most Mormon boys already own suits that they wear to church) and the girls wore lovely dresses that were modest and did not appear to cost the many hundreds of dollars some traditional prom dresses cost.

You can see how the teens dressed in the media coverage of this Mormon prom at Deseret News.

The music was carefully chosen to be morally appropriate while still modern and popular. The teens were not allowed to engage in sexualized dancing. Everyone had to be at least sixteen, since Mormons believe dating should be reserved for those sixteen and older. Eighty percent had dates, but those who preferred not to date yet were welcome.

Mormons believe that dating in high school is a chance for young people to get to know each other and to develop friendships with and understanding of those of the opposite gender. However, they teach their young people to date in groups and to date a wide range of people rather than to become exclusive at such a young age. Studies have shown that teens who pair off too young are more likely to become pregnant or to marry too soon.

Mormon boys are taught to wait until they return from their volunteer missionary service to begin courting (dating one person exclusively with the thought of possible future marriage in mind). Girls are encouraged to wait until they finish high school or return from their own missions. This allows them to avoid serious relationships until they are old enough and mature enough to marry.

Mormons also teach their young people to remain morally pure before marriage. This is one reason to avoid early serious relationships. They are taught that they are responsible for the moral well-being of their dates. This holds true for both boys and girls. The same standards apply to both.

The prom helped the teens to improve their social skills, since they were given guidance on how to plan and prepare for the date. They also learned they could have fun in an inexpensive and completely moral environment. There is no need for teens to compromise their values, even on prom night.

Read more about Mormon dating standards.

In California, some teens are fighting the trend of overly expensive proms. Mormon teenagers and their guests held a prom at the Santa Margarita Bell Tower that cost just fifteen dollars. The boys wore suits (most Mormon boys already own suits that they wear to church) and the girls wore lovely dresses that were modest and did not appear to cost the many hundreds of dollars some traditional prom dresses cost.

You can see how the teens dressed in the media coverage of this Mormon prom at Deseret News.

The music was carefully chosen to be morally appropriate while still modern and popular. The teens were not allowed to engage in sexualized dancing. Everyone had to be at least sixteen, since Mormons believe dating should be reserved for those sixteen and older. Eighty percent had dates, but those who preferred not to date yet were welcome.

Mormons believe that dating in high school is a chance for young people to get to know each other and to develop friendships with and understanding of those of the opposite gender. However, they teach their young people to date in groups and to date a wide range of people rather than to become exclusive at such a young age. Studies have shown that teens who pair off too young are more likely to become pregnant or to marry too soon.

Mormon boys are taught to wait until they return from their volunteer missionary service to begin courting (dating one person exclusively with the thought of possible future marriage in mind). Girls are encouraged to wait until they finish high school or return from their own missions. This allows them to avoid serious relationships until they are old enough and mature enough to marry.

Mormons also teach their young people to remain morally pure before marriage. This is one reason to avoid early serious relationships. They are taught that they are responsible for the moral well-being of their dates. This holds true for both boys and girls. The same standards apply to both.

The prom helped the teens to improve their social skills, since they were given guidance on how to plan and prepare for the date. They also learned they could have fun in an inexpensive and completely moral environment. There is no need for teens to compromise their values, even on prom night.

Read more about Mormon dating standards.

Stand in Holy Places

Ann M. Dibb, the second counselor to the president, spoke on the 2013 theme for the Young Women’s program. The theme is “Stand ye in holy places” and is taken from a verse of Mormon scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants Section 87 and the portion referred to includes the admonition to not be moved.

Sister Dibb suggests that while holy places can include temples, churches, and even homes, it can also include moments in time. This would refer to those times when we are receiving inspiration from the Holy Ghost, getting answers to prayers, or feeling God’s love in our lives. She encouraged girls to create their own sacred spaces, even in the hardest places or moments in their lives.

Our Choices Affect Others

Mary N. Cook, the first counselor, also spoke on standing in holy places. She suggested that our righteous choices will impact our families, past and present, and will also influence the world around us. She referenced a girl she knew whose father died when she was just fourteen. The girl was determined to hold on to her relationship with God and so she created holy places all around her as she read scriptures, attended church, and made good choices. In time, she was able to marry a good man and go on to raise a righteous family. Each decision she made along the path impacted her future options and led to the sacred place she made out of her life. These decisions can impact her family for generations to come and that gives importance to every seemingly small choice she makes.

Stand Firm

In her final talk as president, Elaine S. Dalton referenced a statue that can be found on a pier in Copenhagen. She has the replica on her desk. It is of a girl named Katrina, who became a Mormon and then came to America. The original statue faces the water and Sister Dalton noticed that she is facing into the wind, representing that she is doing something very difficult, but very right.

She likened this to the girls listening to her. They also stood poised on the brink of challenging changes in their lives and would need to stand strong against the winds that tried to blow them off-course. She encouraged them to “be not moved” regardless of worldly pressures.

Sister Dalton asked the girls to stand firm in four ways. First, she requested that they be not moved in choosing right.

Elaine S. Dalton told the girls she had recently revisited the high school she had attended. She was there for a religious conference, but in the audience were many people she had gone to high school with and even men she had dated as a teenager. She encouraged the girls to look ahead and to vow that they would never, as adults, be embarrassed by the choices they made as teenagers, particularly those choices they make in their relationships with others. The choices they make often impact other people, too. If they refuse to lower their standards on a date, it becomes easier for a boy to hold his standards high. When the two meet again at a reunion or somewhere else, they will not need to be embarrassed by the relationship they had.

This led to her second request, that they be not moved in their desire and commitment to remain virtuous and sexually pure. Satan was not allowed to have a body and in his fierce jealousy, he tries to convince us to abuse our bodies and to treat them disrespectfully. When we allow ourselves to practice addictions, moral sins, tattoos, and other poor choices related to the body God gave us we dishonor the gift God gave us and we also limit our own choices for the future.

Mormons are often taught that their bodies are temples. This is a comparison to the sacred temples in which Mormons go to make sacred covenants with God. Sister Dalton taught that our bodies house our own spirits, but they also have the potential to house the spirits of other children of God through motherhood. We have a sacred responsibility to keep that housing pure and ready to receive a precious child of God.

Third, Sister Dalton asked the girls to be not moved in being worthy to make and keep sacred covenants. A covenant is a two-way promise between God and ourselves. Mormons make their first covenants at baptism when they are eight years old (or older if they are converts). At this time, they promise to take on themselves the name of Jesus Christ and to keep His commandments. When they keep their promises, God vows to keep His own. Each week when they take the sacrament (communion) they renew those covenants. Covenants are made again in the Mormon temples in adulthood. They commit themselves to following the Savior and honoring and respecting their family relationships. However, they must have already achieved a fairly high level of faith and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ before entering the temple and so they need to demonstrate their faith by actually living like a follower of Jesus Christ, rather than just saying the words. The teen years are critical to that process, since they often set the pattern for adult behavior.

“As you keep your baptismal covenant, you will look different, dress different, and act different from the world. Keeping this covenant will enable you to be guided by the Holy Ghost. Stand in holy places, and do not even go near those environments or music, media, or associations that might cause you to lose the companionship of the Holy Ghost.”

Finally, she asked them to be not moved in their acceptance of the Savior’s Atonement. Although girls should try to live a virtuous life at all times, everyone falls short. She advised them to accept the power of the atonement to bring about forgiveness when that happens. She invited them, should they be not feeling worthy to stand in holy places that day, to not live another day with that feeling. They can repent, something Satan does not want them to know. He doesn’t want them to believe they can ever change, but they can, with the help of God and Jesus Christ.

Love the Journey of Life

Dieter F. Uchtdorf was the final speaker. He is the second counselor to the president of the church. His theme was journeys. Our life is a journey that began in Heaven and ends with a return to Heaven. In between, we are here on earth. Our map for this journey is the gospel of Jesus Christ and can be found in the scriptures, in the teachings of God’s prophets (both ancient and modern) and in personal revelation we receive directly from God for our own lives. He reminded the girls that a map is useless if it isn’t read and followed.

He asked the girls to look around and to remember that every person in the room, every person they will ever meet, was valiant in the pre-mortal life, where Mormons teach we had to choose whether to follow God or Satan. Some people may have forgotten they were once valiant and might have lost their way, but they started out on the right path and so that potential for success is inside them. He reminded them that it is the Holy Ghost that converts, but it is their responsibility to be a good example, to share their faith, and to be kind to those who feel alone or lost.

To that end, he asked them to focus not always on what they want, but on the needs of others, to spend their mortality showing love to God’s other children. Finally, he also asked them to make this a joyful journey. Even though life is sometimes not ideal, and sometimes is even very painful, they can choose to be joyful.

This video was shown to the girls at the conference. It is about a teenager going to the temple and remembering all the things in her life that made her able to go.

When the game ends, they aren’t laughing anymore.

They are winning by an average of 26 points each game. They play more like inner-city teams than suburban teams. Even more importantly, they all really do live within the boundaries of their school. No outside recruiting to make the team look better for this high school.

Oh, and one more thing—they’re all Mormons. All five seniors are planning Mormon missions, four as soon as they graduate, and the other one in a year or so. They even drew the attention of their church, which used them to demonstrate how the new mission rules play out in real life. Mormons just lowered the ages missionaries can serve and boys can now go when they turn eighteen if they’ve graduated from high school. They don’t have to, however. They can leave at any time until they are twenty-six. The previous age was nineteen and a lot of boys still want to leave then, when they’re a little older and have a little college behind them.

They had all planned to leave when they were nineteen. Eric Mica had intended to get in a year at Brigham Young University first and he decided to stick with the plan he’d set up. That schedule had always felt just right to him. When the opportunity came to leave sooner, he prayed again and still felt it would be best for him to serve when he is nineteen.

Nick Emery, on the other hand, had always wanted to leave straight out of high school.  As soon as he learned that was possible, he altered his plans to leave as soon as he was eighteen. He has already been called to serve in Germany.

Talon Shumway is headed for Texas at graduation and Braden Miles for Washington, DC. Connor Toolson is leaving later in the summer.

Their area isn’t really known for basketball, but some of them have impressive basketball heritages. Nick Emery’s older brother Jackson was co-captain with Jimmer Fredette at Brigham Young University. Tyler Haws’ older brother, who also played with Fredette, recently returned from a mission and, as a sophomore, has already broken the one thousand career points record and is on track to break the school record for the most points if he continues his current path.

The coach, Quincy Lewis, has known many of the players since they were children. He coaches youth basketball and many of his team players were on his youth teams. He has had the unique opportunity to train his team long before they reached high school.

The boys are very open about their religion. They often list the Book of Mormon as their last book read and include missions and Mormon temple marriages in their list of goals on the team program. They accept teasing about their heritage, explaining to people that they are not from polygamist families.

While people might expect young, highly moral Mormon boys to be wimps on the court, they are quickly cured of that stereotype. They are winning against teams bigger and stronger than they are and the world is starting to take notice. Check out this article at the New York Times on the Lone Peak Team.

Most Mormon classes are taught from a printed manual written many years ago. The new program is online, which means it can be updated as often as necessary. If a new talk or even occurs the week before the lesson is supposed to be taught, that can be included in the resources.

The new curriculum includes music, videos, and pictures, and many teachers are using their tablets or laptop computers to assist them in presenting the lesson. Teens can find those resources online, which means they can re-watch the videos or download the music at home. It brings in tools that are familiar and comfortable to teenagers and help visual learners process the material better.

The new lessons are not really teacher-taught. The teacher is more like a mentor or guide. Each month has a theme and the themes are listed with smaller topics, different ones for Sunday School and the class that follows, which is Young Men or Young Women. The students will study the same topic all month, but from different perspectives. The teachers select from a list that has more topics than can be covered, so she (or he) can choose the ones her class most needs. Students can even request a focus from the list.

The teacher studies all the materials and looks over all the suggested resources. Then she chooses the ones she feels will best help her own class. However, she won’t be standing in front of the class giving a lecture. Instead, she will guide the students to find answers to questions. For instance, she might ask why we have trials in life. She might show a video and play some music and then divide the class into groups. Each group will be given a reference material and a list of places the answers might be found. They study the materials, figure out the answers to the questions—and then teach it to their own classmates. In this way, a range of materials can be explored in a short time, with each group sharing the results of its research.

Students are free to ask questions that can be answered by the teacher or by the other students. Students, in fact, are encouraged to be the ones to give the answers. By asking and answering their own questions, a discussion begins and the lesson takes on a life of its own. It travels in the direction that meets the needs of the students. If they are particularly worried about something, or something is in the news that week related to the topic, they are able to explore it. At the end of the lesson, they decide if they understand that day’s topic well enough or if they’d like to continue it the following week.

During the week, students are expected to study the topic on their own in their own way, to have real-world experiences with the topic, and to come to class ready to share what they learned and to ask about what they didn’t understand. They take responsibility for their own spiritual growth—a method that is very different from the way they are used to learning. Many teens are finding it a challenge to learn this way at first, since it isn’t usually done that way in school and wasn’t done that way in church. However, once they get used to it, they love it. They love being able to participate, to have a variety of teaching methods, and to have more control over their learning experience.

Check it out for yourself:

Come Follow Me

This isn’t an easy decision and many Mormons choose college instead. However, Simms has a track record of putting God first. Despite the demands of high school and football, the Southe Point, South Carolina teenager got up early every morning to attend a before-school off-campus class about religion. The class, called Seminary, trains high school students in the scriptures canonized by Mormons. Two years are spent on the Bible, one on the Doctrine and Covenants, and one on the Book of Mormon. He has been preparing for this mission all his life by choosing to live a morally clean life despite the usual challenges of peer pressure and by studying his faith.

Initially, he intended to leave on his mission when he was nineteen, the minimum age for male missionary service. However, recently, Mormons lowered the ages of missionary service for both men and women. Men can now leave on their missions as soon as they are eighteen if they have graduated from high school. While they can also choose to leave later, Alex Simms decided to take advantage of the earlier date. His parents left the decision to him. Missionary service is encouraged, but not required. When he returns from his mission, he will choose a college and return to football.

Read about Alex Simms’ Mormon mission

Mormon missions are an important coming-of-age experience for young Mormons. At a time when most young people are focused on parties and dates, at an age when some are making choices that ruin or end their lives, young Mormons agree to spend a few years focused on nothing but serving Jesus Christ.  They live by very strict rules—no dating, no secular music or television, no internet except for church-approved online missionary work and weekly emails to their parents, and no video games. They rise early and work hard all day. They live on a tight budget and when not teaching the gospel or studying it, they are expected to serve others. They have one day a week off in which to do laundry, chores, and perhaps a game of basketball to stay in shape.

This time develops self-discipline, independence, and a sense of accomplishment that pays off in their adult lives. It helps to explain why Mormons do so well in business. (See Mormons in Business.) It also explains why young adult Mormons are more likely to remain active in their faith than are other young adults. They had the opportunity to spend a few years focused entirely on Jesus Christ and the teachings of their faith. Because they are never alone—they share an apartment with another missionary of the same gender and the two stay together at all times—and partnerships are rotated regularly, they learn to live with others who have different personalities and preferences. This enhances their relationship skills and prepares them for marriage, which requires the ability to share your life with someone who is not just like you. Mormons who marry in the Mormon temple have a lower rate of divorce than other segments of the American population. Living in a new country or state helps them to be more flexible and accepting of others.

However, the primary purpose of the mission is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Young Mormons are expected to learn about their faith and to pray to God for a testimony of it. Then they take that God-given testimony to the world and help others to discover what they know. It is a unique opportunity for young people to escape the self-centered life of young adulthood and focus on the greater good of the world.

Learn more about Mormon missionaries.