My Mission:
All 19 year old males are expected to go on a mission while women can go when they are 21 if they wish.
The missionary doesn't pick where he wants to go and has to pay for the mission for the two years. It took me a year to save up about $10,000. I sent in my papers and was picked to go to the Cuyo region ( Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis Providences) of Argentina. My brother is in Peru right now. The attire is white shirt and tie with a suit without exception ( well except Samoa where they were grass skirts). The women were long dresses and conservative clothing like so...
Just for kicks here is an sister LDS missionary from Israel.
The term is for 2 years for males 1 year 1/2 for women. The missionary isn't allowed to watch TV, listen to the radio, watch movies, or do general entertainment activities. Flirting with the opposite sex is forbidden, and 24 hours a day is dedicated to missionary effort. The missionary is paired with another missionary ( of the same sex) and usually work an geographical area tied to the local church.
First I went to the training center located in Provo Utah to learn theology and do language study. I got 3 years work of uni language work condensed in 2 months and 6 hours of theology a day for two months. I then flew to Argentina and found out that 3 years of language study in 2 months means absolutely nothing. I was teamed up with a Puerto Rican and went to a small suburb of San Juan Argentina.
The day starts at 6:00 in the morning, usually it is 30 minutes to eat and shower then 30 minutes of personal study, then an hour of partner study, then planning the day out. Then from 9:30 to 9:30 at night it is out in the streets. The methods are pretty open. Sometimes I knocked doors ( or clap in front of the door as that is the custom in Argentina) other times I tried to get interviews for radio or television, other times I would visit member's houses to see if they had neighbors, friends ect. who were interested. We were required to do 4 - 8 hours of community service that did not relate to proselytizing. That was pretty strictly announced. We were not in any way suppose to tie anything into doing the community service, just help out then leave.
The experiences are varied. I was shot at, held up, had TV interviews, had a debate with a pair of Catholic priests infront of their local parish, hiked along some seriously deserted roads in the Andes to find people, set up a church in a small town including setting up land ect. got chased with a knife, possibly met an ex Nazi, saw a lot of heart breaking things, saw alot of people messed up on drugs, met some amazing people, made some life long friends, among the few things that happened.
Topic: Context!!!!!