Sisters who Serve

I wish you could have seen my face the first weekend in October when President Thomas S. Monson announced that the age requirement of missionaries had changed. WHOA! For years young men have been preparing to serve God as full time missionaries at the age of 19. In one simple historical announcement from a Prophet of the Lord the age of acceptable service was lowered to 18! Young Women, like myself, have no obligation to serve missions but the Prophets have repeatedly told us that we are a valuable assest to missionry work and they welcome our service. The age requirement from young women was lowered from 21 to 19!

 

Me & Sister Franson 

Sister Anderson & Sister Bishop

This announcement wouldn't have made a difference in my choice to serve because I didn't leave until I was 22, but it makes a HUGE difference for the missionary program! Did you hear the follow up news of the increase in mission applications? The number of applications started each week increased by 471% !!!! 471!!!!!! There was an average of 7,000 out of 58,000 full time missionaries who are sisters. More than half of the new applicants are going to be sister missionaries! That is more than 4,000 new sisters!!! (Can you tell that I'm just a LITTLE excited?)

The pictures above are the 4 of us sisters who began our missions together in May of last year and will sadly be finishing up our full time service next month. We have each had incredible experiences in the Nashville Tennessee area and over the next short while we'll each be sharing some highlights of our service. I hope that what we share will not only inspire other sisters to prayerfully consider service as a missionary, but that it will also intrigue those who may not know much about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Before we take off on this adventure I want to share one of my ABSOLUTE favorite quotes on Sister Missionaries:

"Many young women are serving missions. Many are preparing to serve. Not because they aren't married or have nothing to do, but because they have a desire to serve and are therefore called to the work. The reason so many are going is because in the next generation Heavenly Father will be sending his Priesthood Army to Earth and wants to send them to mothers who have been properly trained and taught in the Gospel. What better training can a Young Woman have than a mission?"--President Gordon B. Hinckley