Mission age limits men vs. women

[acmeist]

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/ ... vEaLOyTiKM

According to the mormon newsroom link, men serve from ages 18-25 and women from 19-39. Does anyone know more about the women age cap at 39? Is that for all missions or just local service missions? I had never heard that before. I assume the men are limited to 25 due to needing to get married in the church’s eyes.

[Thoughtful]

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/ ... vEaLOyTiKM

According to the mormon newsroom link, men serve from ages 18-25 and women from 19-39. Does anyone know more about the women age cap at 39? Is that for all missions or just local service missions? I had never heard that before. I assume the men are limited to 25 due to needing to get married in the church’s eyes.

I know women of all ages who have served, did not know there was a limit.

[Just This Guy]

This is a guess, but I think that at least part of the reason for the higher upper age limit for women is something to do if they can't get married. Men need to get married as soon as possible. Not all women will be able to get married due to demographics. So until they bring back polygamy, there will always be more women than men. To keep them in the church, they send them out on missions.

[Corsair]

According to the mormon newsroom link, men serve from ages 18-25 and women from 19-39. Does anyone know more about the women age cap at 39? Is that for all missions or just local service missions? I had never heard that before. I assume the men are limited to 25 due to needing to get married in the church’s eyes.

I think you have the right idea in general. However, I did have a District Leader who celebrated his 28th birthday on his mission in Canada. My district did hold a birthday party for him. He finished his 24 months soon after that and then came back on his honeymoon about nine months later and I actually got to meet his wife. I certainly had to congratulate him on this type of LDS success.

But, I don't know if he had to get special permission to go on a mission. He could have put in his papers at age 25 and 9 months then entered the MTC at 26 years and 2 months. I was unaware of the upper age limit on missionaries at that point in my life.

[deacon blues]

When I was on my mission in the 1970's it was men 19-30. We had some darned good 28 year old missionaries, including a couple of AP's. When did they cut it back to 25 for men?

[Just This Guy]

What I remember when I went 2000-2002 is that then it was 19-25 for me. There was one guy who came out at 26. He was a convert in his 20's and had to get special permission to go.

[Random]

Maybe it has changed since I went, decades ago, but I seem to remember there being a sister who was in her forties (she was going home as I was coming out) - and several older sisters (sixties and above). In fact, I trained an older sister. But older men were never seen unless they were married and both (men and their wives) were there. I think the oldest single man I saw was an elder who came out when I did. He was 26 I think.

[larecherche]

Yes, the rules are different for men and women. Women have a minimum age, the same as men, but they don't have a maximum age. They are also able to serve as many times as they want.

The church doesn't trust men.

[Corsair]

Yes, the rules are different for men and women. Women have a minimum age, the same as men, but they don't have a maximum age. They are also able to serve as many times as they want.

The church doesn't trust men.

If your grandfather dies, your grandmother is welcome to go on a mission and get another elderly woman assigned as her companion. If you grandmother dies, grandpa has to get remarried to go on a mission. I find this imbalance quite telling. Liberals want to extend priesthood privileges to women and equalize the ages for young missionaries. But nobody wants to fix that mission widower imabalance nor does anyone worry that the upper age limit might be a problem for a late blooming young man.

[Thoughtful]

I know of women serving in their 80s.

[2bizE]

I had a companion who was 17.

[nibbler]

I had a companion who was 17.

They can be flexible with the rules for boundary cases. When I was WML (after the age change) there were several Elders that would come out several months before their 18th birthday. It had a lot to do with lining up with the start of semesters when they were expected to be home from their mission.

There was one guy who came out at 26. He was a convert in his 20's and had to get special permission to go.

I had a companion like that too. Same age, convert, and everything.

The most extreme thing I saw on my mission was a missionary having a 14 year old kid as a companion for a whole transfer because the mission was short one missionary. They got a local to be a mini missionary for 4 straight weeks.

[Random]

The most extreme thing I saw on my mission was a missionary having a 14 year old kid as a companion for a whole transfer because the mission was short one missionary. They got a local to be a mini missionary for 4 straight weeks.

That's strange. When we were short a missionary, we had "threesomes" which meant, of course, that there were three elders or three sisters in a companionship (I was in one for a few months).