Latter-day Saint missionaries are entering a new age of equality.
It’s 18.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Friday that it is lowering the minimum age for female missionaries from 19 to 18, making it the same as for men.
“The First Presidency is pleased to announce that, effective immediately, young women who choose to serve a full-time mission may begin their service at age 18 following graduation from high school or its equivalent,” the governing First Presidency said in a news release. “While the Lord asks every worthy, able young man as part of his priesthood responsibility to prepare for and serve a mission, we reiterate that missionary service remains an optional [emphasis in the release] opportunity for young women.”
Many young women at church-owned Brigham Young University, which provides a prolific pool of Latter-day Saint missionaries, seemed especially thrilled by the change.
“I don’t turn 19 until July, and so I’ve been thinking a lot about a mission, but now I can actually make this decision now. I can put my papers in now instead of in February,” BYU student Kate Behrmann said. “It definitely affects a lot of girls, especially girls who are about to turn 19 because instead of having to wait they can go on a mission now.”
Emma Olsen, who graduated early from high school, was “a little iffy” on serving a mission.
At 17, Olsen worried that she would “have to wait a year and a half because my birthday is in December,” she said. “So I was like, ‘I probably won’t serve,’ but now that it’s after this year, I am thinking that I will.”
‘A revelatory experience’
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Amy Wright, first counselor in the Primary General Presidency, says the church has been considering this age change for female missionaries for a number of years.
For Latter-day Saint leaders, deciding to lower the age for young women “truly was a revelatory experience,” Amy A. Wright, first counselor in the worldwide presidency of the children’s Primary, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
Wright has been on the church’s Missionary Executive Council for five years, she said, and its members “have been praying and counseling about it all during my tenure of service,” she explained. “In addition to that, we have consistently reached out throughout the world to young women … inviting them to be a part of this revelatory experience.”
And they resoundingly approved, Wright said. “It gives them more options and more flexibility as they plan their lives. It puts them where they have the opportunity at 18, once they’ve graduated from high school, or the equivalent, to be on the exact same trajectory as the young men. When young men and young women are united in the cause of Jesus Christ, we are going to see even mighty miracles.”
The time is right, said President Emily Belle Freeman, global leader of the faith’s Young Women organization, because God “is hastening” the work of converting the world.
“We feel this hastening in Europe, in Africa, in Papua, New Guinea, and even here in the United States,” Freeman told The Tribune. “There is great excitement to be part of the work, [especially] among this rising generation [who want] to serve the Lord and to share his gospel and to invite as many as they can to come unto Christ. …This just seems fitting for the season that we are in.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman says the age change is another indication of the church "hastening" its missionary efforts.
Mission length isn’t changing
This change, however, will not alter the length of service, the leaders said. “Sister” missionaries (as female proselytizers are called) will continue to serve for 18 months, while “elders” (as the male missionaries are known) will still go for two years.
That is what the young women want, Wright said. “Overwhelmingly, they prefer to continue their service at 18 months and not 24 months.”
Will the church get a big bump in missionaries with this move?
“I don’t know exactly what will happen because it’s up to them,” said general authority Seventy W. Mark Bassett, executive director of the Missionary Department. “Initially, there could be a rise in numbers just because 18-year-olds will serve now, and they would have had to wait another year.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) General authority Seventy W. Mark Bassett says there could be an immediate rise in the number of missionaries.
Currently, Bassett said, women make up not quite 30% of the missionary force.
In October 2012, when the church dropped the age for male missionaries from 19 to 18 and for women from 21 to 19, the move had a dramatic impact on the Utah-based faith and culture.
Young women flocked to sign up, swelling the ranks of the missionary corps to a record high.
A year later, their numbers had jumped, said independent researcher Matt Martinich, to between 20% and 25%.
It could get a “substantial bump” this time, too, said Martinich, who tracks church growth at ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com. “Maybe 5,000 to 10,000 — but not like 13 years ago.”
The earlier age revisions changed marriage, educational and career patterns and plans as tens of thousands of young Latter-day Saints put dating, schooling and working on hold to do volunteer service for their faith — just as “elders” had done for decades.
It also had an impact on college admissions, sports recruiting and family finances as well as missionary preparation and training.
Social impacts
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) The age change for "sister missionaries" and the addition of 55 new missions around the world comes amid a steady rise in missionaries and congregations in certain parts of the world.
This shift may have similar impacts, possibly even on Utah’s birthrate, which, as it has across the nation and globe, has declined among Latter-day Saints in recent years and has been a concern of church leaders.
New church President Dallin Oaks addressed that in a 2023 worldwide devotional for young single Latter-day Saints.
Delaying childbearing, he said then, “means fewer children born to grow up with the blessings of the gospel.”
Marriage “is a gift,” added his wife, Kristen Oaks. “Not only does marriage give us the opportunity for children, it gives us the opportunity and incentive to begin a journey of growing with one another.”
Last month, in one of the first major moves of Oaks’ fledgling presidency, the church announced that 55 new missions would come on line next year. The tally of full-time missionaries, meanwhile, has topped 84,000.
“I’m actually so psyched. I’m 19, and I am going to go on a mission, but it’s so cool to see that there’s going to be people who are 18 who might go with me,” BYU student Josie Tanner said. “... I’m kind of surprised. If anything, I actually thought that they would push men back to 19 as well just because I feel like it’s probably good sometimes to leave your house but not have such a strict schedule when you’re figuring things out.”
Though the minimum ages now line up, that difference in length of missionary service for “elders” and “sisters” endures.
When asked in 2012 why that is, apostle Jeffrey R. Holland said, “one miracle at a time.”
The sisters, it seems, will have to wait a little longer for that second miracle.