Whether or not you’re a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you’ve seen its missionaries in the wild. They serve two by two, usually in white shirts, ties, name tags, colorful skirts — or, increasingly, slacks for many of the young women. They’ve walked your neighborhood and pedaled bikes down your street in the summer heat.
A recent church milestone suggests you might be seeing a lot more of them.
If you’re not a member of the church, you might have missed the news. Leaders announced that a record 88,500 missionaries are now serving worldwide, its largest force in history. That means more of them in your community, your grocery store parking lot, your street after the storm.
Think of it not as an intrusion but as a generational opportunity.
More opportunities for everyone
More missionaries nearby means more chances to ask an honest question and get an honest answer. What do these people actually believe? Why does a young man from Minnesota or a young woman from Wyoming (or another country entirely) put life on hold to teach, stock a food pantry or help clear a downed tree?
You’re not just allowed to ask; they want you to. They’d love to tell you where they’re from, why they serve, and how much they’ve grown to love the community they now call home.
Instead of relying on social media for information — and all too often misinformation — about the Church of Jesus Christ, why not ask a better source? Rather than scrolling, try strolling alongside the missionaries as they make their way across the park or down the parkway. You don’t need Facebook to find answers. You can speak face to face with the missionaries themselves.
No questions? No problem. Offer a cold bottle of water when you see missionaries melting on the sidewalk. Provide a place on your porch when the sky opens without warning.
You don’t have to share theology to share kindness.
More missionaries to go around
There’s also service coming in ways you might not expect. Yes, missionaries are called to teach and preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. But they’re also called to meet needs. They might teach free English classes, fill sandbags when the river rises, clear branches after a tornado or stock shelves in a Baptist food pantry.
But the milestone means something else for those of us inside the faith.
Wards or branches that have long shared one set of missionaries may soon have their own. That small, far-flung congregation that has gone years without its own missionaries — because the map and the person power never lined up — may find them back in the flock. Of course, those decisions belong to mission leaders, but the arithmetic points in only one direction.
More missionaries also means more willing hearts and hands in ward and branch councils. They won’t sit there as junior members waiting for an assignment. They’ll sit next to you as full partners in the work.
Look for them at the stake service project on Saturday. At your dining room table, telling you where they’re from and sharing silly stories about Mom, Dad and life at home.
No matter how you look at the new numbers, they mean more good, more godliness and more chances to be part of the work.
See their faces
And these historic numbers have faces. Like Elder Preston Barb and Sister Mallory Barb, twins from Michigan on their way to Uruguay and Brazil. Or Elder Glyn Lystrup, off to Thailand, Elder Levi McKendrick, en route to Washington, and Sister Bailey Butler, my niece heading to California.
Multiply that handful by tens of thousands and you begin to see what the record is really made of.
Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and chair of the Missionary Executive Council said as much when making the announcement on social media. The all-time high reflects “the faith and devotion of a rising generation of disciples of Jesus Christ.”
See what he did there?
Elder Rasband named the number, then walked right past it to the people behind it. The Lord numbers his sheep, sure. But He numbers them because He knows each one, not because He keeps a tally he’s proud of.
So let’s all celebrate the number. Then let’s set it aside and look at what it’s made of.
More missionaries. More opportunities. More good.