10-23-2011, 05:41 AM
Black wrote:
My understanding is that community service is required-- there are other options for your "service year" than missionary work, and to take that path is a choice.
Only qualified young men go on missions (most 19-20 year olds from active LDS families go on them) , and the type of mission is assigned by the President of the Church. They have to take whatever they are assigned, and leaving early brings shame on the family, so they tend to stick it out no matter how much they dislike it (and I have heard major stories of disliked missions) Most missions are about proselytizing. Community service is really incidental to that. They also can't come home if a close family member dies or is ill. It's a major rite of passage for a Mormon man, an initiation into manhood if you will.
Young women and elderly couples can do missions with permission, but they rarely do them.