Pressured to go on a mission?
Do you think members nag teenagers about going on a mission rather than encourage them to do so on their own free will? What are your thoughts on how we can encourage our youth and children to serve a mission.
Here is a good quote about serving from the Prophet:
The Blessings of Missionary Service - President Gordon B. Hinckley
Here is another good quote on the blessings of serving a full-time mission;
This is what it takes to serve a full-time mission and that is simply: "Love":
You got to love Pres. Kimball's straight forward approach to topics, it makes you think so much. Here is such a quote that I find often true with young men who deliberate going on a mission:
I was teaching a group of young men recently and I asked what their main goal was, most said that they want to go on a mission, however when I asked what they were really doing to prepare as far as finances, work, etc, most were silent.
I can only speak from experience. I know of several Missionaries in my Mission field, who were forced by their parents to go on missions. One Elder didn't even make it to his own farewell, because he was drunk! Another threw away his Cigarettes the night before he went into the missionhome, he later bacame my companion. Another was promised a new car when he returned. In fact his father wrote to him half way through his mission and told him that he had just bought the Catholic Church in their town, for him to do with as he pleased when he returned home. I do not know how much of this is going on today, but I really hope it has stopped. But I doubt it!
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One Elder didn't even make it to his own farewell, because he was drunk! |
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bought the Catholic Church |
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Another was promised a new car when he returned. |