Vetting / Interviewing Missionaries for full time service???

[nuclearfuels]

I understand - from conversations in the halls of chapels - that some potential missinoaries aren't called to certain places - such as countries where they or their parents were born whose national governments require mandatory military service from people around the average age of missinoaries. Also when certain military or intelligence careers of potential missinoaries or thier parents influence or remove the possibility of missinoaries serving in some countries, how do you process that as a local leader?

For you current and former bishopric and stake presidency and other missinoary-related callings, how do you evaluate if a missionary should serve if they've had prior run=ins with law enforcement?

Are there certain crimes other than the obvious (rape, murder) that disqualify a person from serving as a missionary?

If a person was indicted but never convicted of something like involuntary manslaughter (I'm writing a short fictional story about this), how would local leaders process that person's missionary application?

Also, for local leaders specify/suggest/disagree with some potential missionaries' request deployments? For example say a high functioning person with mild autims wants to serve prosyltizing mission but you feel a service / Temple / Family History mission would be better. What do you do?

[Kenngo1969]

Ahem ... I have a question: What are missinoaries?   (FFS, Fat Finger Syndrome, strikes again? )

[blackstrap]

vaccination status can also determine where one does not go. 

[bluebell]

2 hours ago, nuclearfuels said:

I understand - from conversations in the halls of chapels - that some potential missinoaries aren't called to certain places - such as countries where they or their parents were born whose national governments require mandatory military service from people around the average age of missinoaries. Also when certain military or intelligence careers of potential missinoaries or thier parents influence or remove the possibility of missinoaries serving in some countries, how do you process that as a local leader?

For you current and former bishopric and stake presidency and other missinoary-related callings, how do you evaluate if a missionary should serve if they've had prior run=ins with law enforcement?

Are there certain crimes other than the obvious (rape, murder) that disqualify a person from serving as a missionary?

If a person was indicted but never convicted of something like involuntary manslaughter (I'm writing a short fictional story about this), how would local leaders process that person's missionary application?

Also, for local leaders specify/suggest/disagree with some potential missionaries' request deployments? For example say a high functioning person with mild autims wants to serve prosyltizing mission but you feel a service / Temple / Family History mission would be better. What do you do?

From my understanding, a bishop or stake president can recommend a service mission, but it's the missionary department that makes the call.  We had an elder from our ward who was called to a service mission and it wasn't even on his radar. He put in his regular missionary paperwork to do a proselytizing mission just like most boys do.  But the missionary department had other plans. 

Also, in regards to potential missionaries who have come up against the law, I think it depends on what the charges were and the age.

I have a friend who's other friend's son was charged with felony trespassing as an adult (the missionary department would normally not even know what charges a juvenile dealt with since those records are not typically public and often go away once they hit 18).

It was kind of a bad rap as I understand it because the trespassing was accidental, but whatever.  Anyway, he was still able to serve a mission but because it was a felony conviction the First Presidency had to ok him going. So it took months and months for him to hear back.

Other crimes would probably keep an elder from being able to serve at all.  At least a proselytizing mission.

[Dario_M]

The church always determine wich country you need to go when you are a missionaris. 

Edited February 2 by Dario_M

[rpn]

They also consider in the US their immigration status when they don't have the correct legal residency.   (And they don't travel by plane to get there, because that would require the kind of identification they can't get.)

[LoudmouthMormon]

On 2/2/2023 at 8:26 AM, nuclearfuels said:

Are there certain crimes other than the obvious (rape, murder) that disqualify a person from serving as a missionary?

If a person was indicted but never convicted of something like involuntary manslaughter (I'm writing a short fictional story about this), how would local leaders process that person's missionary application?

Also, for local leaders specify/suggest/disagree with some potential missionaries' request deployments? For example say a high functioning person with mild autims wants to serve prosyltizing mission but you feel a service / Temple / Family History mission would be better. What do you do?

This is for a short story?  Excellent - I can opine with the best of 'em!

Several editions of the handbook ago, there was a "things to think about when considering someone for a leadership calling" section.  It had criteria similar to these.  When considering a calling, does it satisfy all three of these?
- Protect the flock from harm
- Provide the person called with positive opportunities and/or challenges, with little to no risk of injury or harm (physically, emotionally, and spiritually)
- Protect the good name of the church  (Thinking along the lines of what reaction would a victim of the person's misdeeds think/feel, if they walked into a church to discover the person who hurt them X years ago is now a bishop/primary teacher/missionary?)

An interesting thing that might help your creative story writing: These guidelines (and many others in the handbook) are couched with "do as the spirit directs".  Meaning the spirit had veto authority which would allow, for example, someone who everyone thought dunnit to become bishop.  Or a bishop recommending someone with even severe low functioning autism to serve a prosylitizing mission.

[rpn]

On 2/3/2023 at 5:20 PM, LoudmouthMormon said:

Also, for local leaders specify/suggest/disagree with some potential missionaries' request deployments? For example say a high functioning person with mild autims wants to serve prosyltizing mission but you feel a service / Temple / Family History mission would be better. What do you do?

Well unless they had personally lived with this young adult and was an autism expert, I'd really hope a  bishop would support the choice of the prospective missioinary, at the same time describing issues that they had themselves personally observed and how the young person handled them, and making sure that the missionary had fully disclosed any and all concerns and why they still thought they should go.   (You might be surprised at how often those on the spectrum, and those with other disabilities are discounted and not allowed to become everything they can become because well meaning but uninformed leaders, teachers, and family refuse to let the soar as far as they could go.