75,000 missionaries in the field

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an active missionary church. We are one of the fastest growing Christian churches worldwide. We now have approximately 15 million members.

One of the reasons that contributes to this is that we call young men and women to serve a mission at the ages of 18 and 19, respectively. For boys it is a duty on behalf of God to serve a mission, for girls it is more optional (although no one forces boys, but it is expected of them to magnify their vocation in the priesthood).

Men usually serve 24 months and women 18 months. Missionaries may be called in their own country, but they often also go abroad. Every new missionary first receives training and, if necessary, language training at the Mission Training Center (MTC).

In October 2012, our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, declared that the age at which youth can serve a mission was lowered to 18 for boys and 19 for girls. Previously, the age for boys was 19 and girls 21. That age was a “handicap”, especially for girls. Usually that's when they started dating with returned missionaries aged 21.

The result of this reduction was soon noticeable. Before the announcement, an average of 58,500 missionaries were serving worldwide at the same time. The 75,000 mark was reached last week.

The effect is also palpable in our mission (officially The Belgium/Netherlands mission; includes the Netherlands and Flanders). On average, there used to be 80 missionaries active in our mission, but by the end of the year this will be 185.

We also see the blessings in our church in Ghent: we used to have two  Elsewhere (elders; men, that is), three more sister missionaries have now been added.

These full-time missionaries (because ultimately every member is a missionary) visit people who want to know more about our faith, about Jesus Christ and about the Restoration of the gospel. If people are really interested, they can receive further lessons on all these topics without any obligation. Those who then feel through prayer that our Church is the true Church can be baptized and confirmed as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As a mission leader in our church, I am closely involved in this. I meet with our missionaries every week. Together we look at who they have met, what questions the people they visit have and see how we can help each other spread our message together with all our members. We don't believe in aggressive hailing or going door to door; we work in an inviting manner.

As a mission leader, the saddest news is always like one  researcher decides to call it quits. We of course fully respect that. We do not continue to insist, but of course we feel that as a loss because we believe that we receive an incredible number of blessings from our Heavenly Father and we would like to share that happiness with as many people as possible.

I have great admiration for our missionaries. Devoting two years of your life to God is a fantastic experience. They build a foundation for the rest of their lives. I miss that experience, but I will make up for it in 15 years. Then I also want to spend some of my best years at the service of our church before I get too old and help out in missionary work somewhere. Hopefully by then I will be one of the 100,000.