Mission: Possible

A Latter-day Saints official urges
young people to volunteer as
missionaries all around the globe

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By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com

Despite concerns about travel restraints and the threat of terrorism, young Americans are heading into mission fields around the globe as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continues to expand beyond its American roots.

A top Latter-day Saints official from Salt Lake City underscored the church's never- ending missionary recruitment in a talk Sunday to the Honolulu Stake Conference. About 800 people attended the semiannual conference at the Honolulu Tabernacle.

"Forget about the truck with the big wheels," said Dieter Uchtdorf, president of the North America West area of the church. "There is life beyond sports. Fitness is good, but don't let it become our god," he said, in an address often geared to youths in the crowd.

"Go on a mission, you will be different. You will stand up for something, giving 10 percent of your life to the church, to God."

Uchtdorf repeated his message "Being a missionary is cool" at "youth firesides" as he traveled around the islands on a two-week Hawaii visit.

Young men are being sent into hardship, but "we don't want to put them in harm's way," Uchtdorf said. "We pulled out missionaries from Pakistan before Sept. 11.

"We don't send missionaries into dangerous areas. We are very sensitive to that. But some go to areas that are quite challenging. They are in Eastern Europe, where they have to learn the language -- Russian, Czech. This isn't easy; here comes a lot of challenge.

"They are serving in inner cities of New York and Los Angeles, parts of the world where it is not always simple to get along," said Uchtdorf, whose son did his stint in Washington, D.C.

"The living circumstances can be a challenge if you have some spoiled 18-year-old and here he has to live in simple quarters, mother is not doing the laundry.

"Just to approach and try to talk to someone is big deal for a 19-year-old," Uchtdorf said "There is a lot of rejection. Sometimes there is some stigma.

"We do what we can to strengthen them to be good ambassadors."

Evangelizing is a major thrust of the church founded by Joseph Smith in New York in 1830. His followers, driven out of other locations, finally settled in Utah in 1847. Just three years later, the first Mormon missionaries found their way to Hawaii.

There are now 60,000 missionaries around the world. Besides the young men who volunteer after high school, many mature adults volunteer for a two-year stint away from home.

Thomas Kay, a retired Honolulu corporate attorney, and his wife, Diane, returned earlier this year from a mission in Jordan, another Muslim country from which missionaries have been withdrawn -- for the time being.

German citizens Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet, are on a foreign mission of sorts themselves.

He retired as a chief pilot of Lufthansa Airlines seven years ago. Now in a second career as an administrator with the LDS Church, he has been stationed in Salt Lake City for two years. He is a member of the First Council of 70, the third level in the church's hierarchy, beneath the 12 apostles, which are below the president and his two counselors.

"In the islands we need to focus very much on the idea that our young people aim for a good education. It's especially important here," said the church elder. "Too often, a young person is distracted by that big truck, gives up on education then drifts off into helpless jobs.

"When they decide to go on missions, they come back with great desire for good education. When they serve on missions, they learn to be focused on important things. They develop values. They have to be self-disciplined and overcome challenges. When they come back, we see education has a greater meaning to them."

Besides meetings with top Mormon officials in Hawaii, the Uchtdorfs are trying to meet with most of the 185 missionaries who came from elsewhere to serve in Hawaii. "We try to see them ... to help with what their questions in life are at this age," he said. "We try to motivate them to know that there are no limits but the sky."

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