Our ward mission leader said Elder Ballard spoke recently at a mission conference and said the day will shortly come when all full time missionaries from the U.S. will be called to foreign countries. Each ward and or branch in the U.S. will be responsible for their own missionary labors. I already see this happening. Just a couple of years ago, we had a pair of missionaries assigned to each ward in our area. Later, they reduced it to 2 missionaries per building which covered 3 wards. Today, we have 2 missionaries who cover our entire Stake and part of another.
Any more, our missionary focus is not on finding people for the missionaries to teach, but more in fellowshipping our neighbors and doing the work ourselves. I can see the church pulling missionaries completely from our area. It makes sense. We have enough members here to do the work. Why assign full time missionaries to come and do our job? Especially when so much of the world is in need of the Gospel where we have little or no organization.
Has anyone heard this? It will be interesting to see what happens.
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I can see the church pulling missionaries completely from our area. It makes sense. We have enough members here to do the work. Why assign full time missionaries to come and do our job? Especially when so much of the world is in need of the Gospel where we have little or no organization. |
Ward missionaries are also set apart specifically for this calling. Maybe in the future, everyone will be set apart as a missionary in the same way almost everyone is a home or visiting teacher today. I don't think you need full time missionaries in areas where the church is strong. We are all under obligation to share the Gospel with non members. Lets send full time missionaries to countries where the church needs them.
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Ward missionaries are also set apart specifically for this calling. |