ZealouslyStriving Posted September 20, 2025 Posted September 20, 2025 Can't find it this second, but I'm pretty sure Church leaders have counseled parents not to pressure or bribe their lukewarm kids into serving missions hoping they will gain a testimony. If your parents did that, it was your family and/or community culture, not Church counsel. 1
Notatbm Posted September 21, 2025 Author Posted September 21, 2025 (edited) 2 hours ago, ZealouslyStriving said: Can't find it this second, but I'm pretty sure Church leaders have counseled parents not to pressure or bribe their lukewarm kids into serving missions hoping they will gain a testimony. If your parents did that, it was your family and/or community culture, not Church counsel. You need to go back to the 1980s to find anything that would have applied to me. That said we still have church leaders teaching over the pulpit that it is mandatory (Nelson/ Pierson) I had to add this as I just remembered seeing it. Sounds like the church actually endorses pressuring the young men, but in the same article says young men shouldn’t serve because they felt pressured. If that makes any sense. Yea we pressure you, but you shouldn’t use that as a reason for serving. Find another reason while we pressure you… lol can’t make it up https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/2012/01/to-the-point/why-is-there-so-much-pressure-on-young-men-to-go-on-a-mission-isnt-it-a-personal-decision?lang=eng Edited September 21, 2025 by Notatbm
Calm Posted September 21, 2025 Posted September 21, 2025 2 hours ago, Stargazer said: As a convert in my teen years, I sometimes feel at a disadvantage when it comes to interacting with life-long members. Perhaps but you get to know that you chose the gospel when it was offered to you. BIC members often wonder from what I have seen if they would have recognized the truth if they hadn’t grown up with it. And if one has been a member since 8, it can put us at a disadvantage when discussing the difference between having the Gift of the Holy Ghost and not and what that means since we haven’t lived without the Gift (unless we have rejected the companionship for a time). That doesn’t mean we are clueless or don’t have anything worthwhile to say, but being able to contrast before and after helps in explaining something’s value, I have found. 2
Calm Posted September 21, 2025 Posted September 21, 2025 (edited) 2 hours ago, ZealouslyStriving said: Can't find it this second, but I'm pretty sure Church leaders have counseled parents not to pressure or bribe their lukewarm kids into serving missions hoping they will gain a testimony. If your parents did that, it was your family and/or community culture, not Church counsel. Between Pres Kimball’s “every able, worthy young man” serving a mission and Elder Boyd K Packer’s Candle of the Lord talk (see quote below) that has been shared quite a bit by other leaders as well as similar expressions, that some parents thought it would be a good idea to nudge their sons strongly towards missions is quite understandable though. The bribing didn’t make sense to me because it can too easily cause the kid to focus on the wrong thing, which would lead them to be less likely to experience the Spirit. Quote "It is not unusual," Elder Boyd K. Packer observed, to have a missionary say, ‘How can I bear testimony until I get one? How can I testify that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ and that the gospel is true? If I do not have such a testimony would that not be dishonest?’ Oh, if I could teach you this one principle! A testimony is to be found in the bearing of it. Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that ‘leap of faith,’ as the philosophers call it. It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and step into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two. The spirit of man, as the scripture says, indeed is the candle of the Lord. It is one thing to receive a witness from what you have read or what another has said; and that is a necessary beginning. It is quite another to have the Spirit confirm to you in your bosom that what you have testified is true. Can you not see that it will be supplied as you share it? As you give that which you have, there is a replacement, with increase![2] https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-1-no-1-2000/bearing-pure-testimony Pres Oaks: Quote We gain or strengthen a testimony by bearing it. Someone even suggested that some testimonies are better gained on the feet bearing them than on the knees praying for them. https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/answers/Question%3A_Did_Elder_Boyd_K._Packer_suggest_that_we_should_"lie_our_way"_into_obtaining_a_testimony Edited September 21, 2025 by Calm 1
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