By RB Mac
I rarely play with predicting what is coming down the pipe
from SLC. Except for general conference predictions, which are practically required
in the Bloggernacle. But in this case, with the whispers in the crisp Salt Lake
City air that has reached into Texas, and the fact that I have thought this was coming for a while now, I am going to make a prediction:
Missionary calls are
about to change, and the majority of Kids are not going to be serving proselyting
missions, but service missions.
When I say service missions, I am talking about a whole new
type of service mission. I am talking digging
water wells in Africa, Building schools in Asia and teaching in downtown Chicago. Proselyting
mission spaces will shrink for about 65k to about 20k, (I predict we will see
no decrease in convert baptisms) I also predict you will not choose what kind
of mission you go on. Your stake
president will write a recommendation as to what kind of service he feels you
are best for, and the twelve will make the final decision. Terms of service
will go from six months to a few years, but you will be able to select the maximum
amount of time you can serve for. Now
the Big change, you will be able to go on more than one mission. For example, you
could serve a six-month mission serving in Africa on college break, and another
teaching for a year in Chicago after you finish college. And best of all I
predict the cost of serving a mission will NOT go up.
That is my prediction, and I think we will see this announced
before the end of the summer.
Why the change? I
think there are three reasons: