Church Begins Rolling Out Young Adult Service Missions
The mission age change brought with it an increase in righteous young men and young women ready and willing to serve. Unfortunately, for a number of worthy members issues of physical and psychological health occasionally impede their ability to serve. To give these individuals the chance to serve, the Church has slowly begun introducing the Young Church-Service Missionary (YCSM) program into a select few locations.
YCSM missionaries are given the opportunity to live at home while volunteering in their community at Church locations. Service missions were previously only available to older missionary couples, are now options for young men and women, aged 18-25 and 19-25 respectively.
Robert McKinley, The San Diego/Southwest Riverside County Stake’s assistant mission leader offered his remarks on the program to The San Diego Union-Tribune:
“For many of them, this is their first opportunity to be appreciated and loved and be able to have done something,” he said. “Their special needs have put them on the sidelines. But now they have this opportunity to do something and feel rewarded, and they just light up like a light bulb.”
Read more at The San Diego Union-Tribune.
LDS Teen First Runner-up in Distinguished Young Women Program
Every year around 3,000 high school aged girls gather to compete to win up to $60,000 in scholarship money. Girls must prepare and present in five categories: scholastics (25 percent); a 10-minute interview (25 percent); an onstage fitness routine during the competition (15 percent); a talent performed during the competition (20 percent); and self-expression by answering a question onstage (15 percent).
Utah teen and Latter-day Saint Madeleine Arnold was named first runner-up at the competition this past weekend, receiving $30,000 in scholarship money. The program encourages young women “to be their best selves,” rather than strive for perfection, a fact which Arnold appreciates.
“You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to give the most perfect answers, the most perfect performance, but it’s about progress,” she told Deseret News.
As Arnold progressed through the competition, she relied on the Lord to quell her fears of public speaking.
“Having the gospel in my life gives my perspective and purpose. That gave me a lot of confidence and peace going in.”
Arnold began studying biology at Brigham Young University this fall in preparation for medical school and plans on serving an LDS mission.
Read more at Deseret News.
More Vikings, More Mormons, More Happy?
Recently, WalletHub published statistics from a survey analyzing physical, emotional, and community well-being in order to determine which state is the happiest. The results? Utah came out on top, ranking #1 in happiness overall, #1 in workplace happiness, and #2 in community happiness.
While this may come as no surprise to those who have visited Utah, James A. Bacon of public policy blog, Bacon’s Rebellion, set out to figure out just what makes “Happy Valley” so happy.
“The happiest states are Utah (loaded with Mormons) and Minnesota and North Dakota (chock full of Scandinavian-Americans),” Bacon writes. “Is it coincidence that the happiest countries in the world… are Scandinavian while two of the three happiest states are inhabited mainly by Americans of Scandinavian descent?”
He goes on to make the connection between the homogeny of prominently Scandinavian communities and the homogeny of Mormon communities. It makes sense that places where the people are blanketed by a sense of unity, shared values, and common goals would mean lower conflict possess a generally happier atmosphere.
To read the full article, visit Bacon’s Rebellion.
Could You Date a Mormon?
Five percent of U.S. couples, married or in committed relationships, met online — and this number appears to be increasing as more and more Americans turn to the internet for love. It’s really no wonder, considering the efficiency of the online dating experience: easy to read profiles, instant messages, and compatibility tests galore.
Prominent dating website, OkCupid, seems to have a compatibility test for every possibility. There are compatibility tests for everything from determining whether or not you’re gay to discovering who you would be in 1400 AD. Fortunately for those wondering about their compatibility with a member of the LDS Church, they published The Could You Date a Mormon Test, just for you.
That’s right, up there next to quizzes on sexual preference and relationship advice is a quiz for determining your LDS compatibility. Whether answering the questions will actually give you an accurate estimation on your compatibility with a Mormon is unclear (although, I’d wager against it).
Take the test (or don’t) at OkCupid.
