WASHINGTON (RNS)—At age 19, Mitt Romney was a typical college student, schmoozing about politics, pulling pranks and sneaking away to see his girlfriend. Then he went on a 30-month Mormon mission in France.
He returned to the United States in 1968 ready to start a family, steeped in his faith and eager for more responsibility in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“On a mission, your faith in Jesus Christ either evaporates or it becomes much deeper,” Romney later said. “For me, it became much deeper.”
Like most young Mormons, Mitt Romney spent a period ot time as a missionary.
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Romney’s political rise—he is the first Mormon presidential nominee from a major political party—excels that of other Latter-day Saints. But the hard knocks and homesickness, the mishaps and spiritual maturation that characterized his mission are shared by many in his church.
Today, about 57,000 Mormon missionaries march across the globe, proselytizing in public squares, knocking on doors and handing out religious tracts, often for nine or 10 hours a day, in fair weather and foul.
More than a million Mormons have served missions since Joseph Smith founded the church in 1830, LDS leaders report.
Most Mormon missionaries endure a grueling regimen of prayer, study and proselytizing. They put careers and college on hold and move to mission fields where rejection is the norm. Some have been beaten, mocked, caught in gang crossfire, even killed. Romney himself was in a serious car accident and roughed up by a team of soused rugby players.
Many returned missionaries admit their time was not very valuable for gaining converts, according to a survey of American Mormons released this year by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. And separate studies suggest that many of those converts later leave the church.
Still, 90 percent of returned missionaries say their service strengthened their own faith, according to the Pew study. Eighty percent say it helped prepare them for career success.
“In a lot of ways, the missionaries’ first converts are themselves,” Stephen B. Allen, managing director of the LDS church’s missionary department. “And that’s life changing.”
Pew’s study does not include ex-Mormons who quit the church during or after their mission. But fewer American Mormons stray from the fold than do evangelicals, Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and Jews. That exodus often begins during the college-age years—precisely when most Mormons start their missions.
Mormons consider missionary work a priesthood duty, and all able-bodied and morally worthy men are encouraged to serve a two-year stint when they turn 19. Mormon women are eligible to serve for 18 months at age 21, but they cannot baptize converts, and just 11 percent become missionaries, according to the Pew study.
If their application is accepted, the Mormons report to one of 16 missionary training centers stationed across the world, without any input about where they will serve. They contribute about $400 per month for living expenses, with many taking summer jobs and saving funds for years.
Described as “the Lord's boot camp,” the missionary training center prepares Mormons for missionary life, enforcing a strict regimen that begins at 6 a.m. and leaves little time for anything but prayer, scripture study and language and cultural lessons.
A little white handbook instructs the missionaries never to leave their companion’s side (except in the bathroom), not to call home except for Christmas and Mother's Day, and to refrain from secular music, books and other media.
Dating—much less embracing—any member of the opposite sex in or near the mission field is grounds for dismissal.
Instead, the missionaries don their formal proselytizing clothes—the black name tag, dark suits and crisp white shirts—and spend six days a week reading Mormon scriptures, praying or pounding the pavement for converts. Some also lead congregations and organize fellow missionaries.
Daniel Burke writes for Religion News Service.