Monson urges Mormons to serve missions
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Oct 2, 2010 11:01PM
Updated Oct 3, 2010 11:59AM
Despite an impressive number of men and women preaching the Mormon gospel across the globe, the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needs even more missionaries, several speakers said on the first day of the 180th LDS General Conference.
A two-year mission is a universal expectation for every “worthy, able young man,”President Thomas S. Monson said Saturday morning, speaking to more than 20,000 Mormons in the LDS Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City and millions more watching around the globe via satellite.
Young women don’t have the same obligation to serve full-time, but can make “a valuable contribution as missionaries,” Monson said. “We welcome your service.”
And to retired couples, the LDS leader said, “we need many, many more senior couples.”
Continuing the emphasis on missionary work during the evening’s all-male priesthood session, Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles asked all full-time missionaries and mission presidents to stand up wherever they were, while a choir from the LDS Missionary Training Center in Provo provided the session’s music.
Nelson then repeated Monson’s message, saying, “We need more missionaries.” He mentioned that his large Mormon family had so far produced 49 such missionaries and encouraged every member to share the faith with his neighbors, friends and Internet connections.
The push for more missionaries may reflect an awareness of the church’s shrinking proselytizing force, which is down to about 52,000 from a high of 62,000 in the mid-1990s. The decline is due in part to the LDS Church “raising the bar” on missionary qualifications in 2002, LDS spokesman Scott Trotter said in February.
But, Trotter said, “the primary reason for changes in missionary numbers is the fluctuating population of available missionary-age members.”
Other speakers Saturday discussed the need for integrity, importance of choice and responsibility, the value of faith, seeking the Holy Spirit, spiritual healing and simplicity.
In a speech about the dangers of pride, Dieter F. Uchtdorf called the lack of civility in sports “embarrassing.”
“I have watched sports fans vilify and demonize their rivals,” said Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency during the priesthood session. “They look for any flaw and magnify it. They justify their hatred with broad generalizations and apply them to everyone associated with the other team. When ill-fortune afflicts their rival, they rejoice.”
Unfortunately, he said, too often “the same kind of attitude and behavior spill over into the public discourse of politics, ethnicity, and religion.”
Apostle Quentin L. Cook defended the LDS Church’s political involvement in what it considers “moral” issues.
“All voices need to be heard in the public square. Neither religious nor secular voices should be silenced,” Cook said. “Furthermore, we should not expect that because some of our views emanate from religious principles, they will automatically be accepted or given preferential treatment. But it is also clear that such views and values are entitled to be considered on their merits.”
The moral foundation of the LDS Church’s teachings on the family can be a “light to the world and a unifying force for both morality and faith in Jesus Christ,” he said.
Cook urged the assembled Saints to protect families by joining with all people of good will in and out of the church “to preserve light, hope and morality in our communities.”
Maclovia Perez
801-833-2793
Coordinadora Red de Peruanos en Utah
E-mail:redperuenutah@gmail.com
http://redperuenutah.blogspot.com/
Corresponsal Red Democratica del Peru
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