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I am member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and when I was a young man I served as a Church missionary.  I'd like to explain a little about what that means, especially since in the future I'll be sharing some of the experiences I had as a missionary.

In the Church, every young man is expected to answer the call to serve as a full-time missionary, as a representative of Jesus Christ, for two-years.  Young women may answer the call as well, but aren't expected to, and serve for 18 months.  When I was younger men could serve starting at age 19 and women at age 21, but those numbers have since been lowered to 18 and 19.  Retired couples may also choose to serve as “senior missionaries,” regardless of whether they served previously, and may even choose to serve multiple “couples missions.”

Serving a mission is begun by entering the Missionary Training Center (“MTC”) and briefly receiving training on how to effectively teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The main training center is in Provo, Utah, but there are a few others around the world as it's not practical to fly all missionaries into the United States.  After training is completed, missionaries are sent throughout the world into most countries, states, and territories.

When turning in his or her mission application papers, the applicant can indicate any foreign language experience, whether it be fluency or a single year of class in high school.  While doing so may increase the likeliness of being sent to a country that speaks that language, it is no guarantee; rather, it helps to show an aptitude for language learning.  One of my classmates whom I thought had learned German well in school ended up serving in Brazil.

While foreign language experience is no guarantee of being sent abroad, a lack of language skills is likewise no guarantee of not serving in a foreign-speaking mission; plenty of people with zero foreign language experence have been called to go abroad and had to learn a second language.  If going to serve in a foreign-language-speaking mission, a missionary will receive a crash-course in that language.

When I got my call, I had had six years of German in school, from Seventh to Twelth Grade, and I got called to serve in the Germany, Düsseldorf mission.  At the time, I think normal time in the MTC was two weeks, but because I was going foreign-speaking I was in for two months.  (The program has changed a bit in the years since, so now the time spent at the MTC is a bit different.)

Foreign-speaking missionaries typically return home after their missions fluent in their new languages.  How well or how crappy they actually speak it depends on what kind of effort they put into it; missionaries are encouraged to speak their new language at all times, even when alone with colleagues from the same originating country.  I was once stationed in an area where the missionaries were seven Americans and an Englishman, so it was almost comical when the eight of us conducated our weekly district meetings wholly in German, but it was nonetheless very beneficial for improving our language skills.

Governments and other entities have tried to duplicate the Church's efforts in foreign language learning, but none have come close.  The Lord provides the means to accomplish what is asked^[1], and that includes blessing His missionaries with “loosed tongues.”  Even though I had had six years of German in public school, it didn't amount to much in terms of real-world experience.  I understood very little my first month in Germany, but by the time I had been in the country for a year I felt confident enough in my ability to speak German that I decided to learn a third language, through my second, as I'd heard that doing so strengthens the second.  I also had a mission colleague whose high school teacher had in frustration told him, “You will never learn to speak German!” but by the time I met him he was very fluent in the language.

Missionaries are paired up in “companionships” (“Let them go two by two,”^[2]), a partner being called a “missionary companion.”  On the rare occasion there's an odd number of missionaries in the area, missionaries will be put into trios.  (I was in a trio once.)  They are periodically reassigned between cities, as the mission president decides which is the best way to distribute his personnel.  This is called a “transfer” and typically one companion remains while the other moves to his new assignment.  The vacated position is filled the same day.  At the beginning of my mission transfers were monthly, but later they where done every six weeks which I think may still be the norm.  My shortest stay in one city was one month while my longest was seven months.

So, what do missionaries do?  They teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and invite people to take Christ's name upon themselves by being baptized by someone with the authority to act in His name.  When I was a missionary, we had “the discussions” which were a series of six themed lessons.  The program has since changed and now lessons are taught out of a manual called Preach My Gospel.

Ideally missionaries will find people to teach by following up on referals from church members or by visiting people who have directly requested the missionaries, but a lot of finding is done by going door-to-door or chatting up people on the street.  In my mission each district also had a weekly street display that we'd set up in the pedestrian zone^[3].

Missionaries are also encouraged to engage in weekly service projects.  Services I participated in included teaching English, afterschool tutoring, donating blood (not weekly!), and picking up litter in the park.

Serving a full-time mission is a sacred calling, and for many missionaries may be the time in their lives they feel closest to Christ.  To foster this relationship with Christ, missionaries are for the duration of their missions encouraged to only listen to music that is Gospel-oriented and to refrain from watching television.

Serving as clergy in the Church of Jesus Christ is voluntary and unpaid.  In fact, missionaries pay their own way.  Not all missions cost the same however, i.e. missions in South America tend to be less costly while missions in Europe tend to be more expensive, but the missionary program is now set up so that each missionary or his family contributes the same monthly amount into a general missionary support fund which is allocated as needed.  If a missionary cannot afford to pay his own way the Church will make up the difference.

My mission ran from 1999 July to 2001 July, and I served in Solingen, Remscheid, Essen, Köln, Paderborn, and Aachen.