Stokes Sounds Off: BREAKING NEWS: Women Can Now Serve Missions at the Age of 18

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Friday, November 21, 2025

BREAKING NEWS: Women Can Now Serve Missions at the Age of 18

The First Presidency just announced that, effective immediately, women can now serve missions at the age of 18. This puts the minimum age at which women can serve as equal to that of men. The announcement reiterates that for men, missionary service is a priesthood responsibility, and for women, it is an optional opportunity. The First Presidency writes: "We recognize that for those young women who desire to serve a full-time mission, the choice of age to begin service will not be the same for everyone. We extend our love to the youth of the Church and commend them for their faithfulness."

I am grateful for this update, which allows women and men to serve at the same age. It follows the change mentioned previously that young people can receive their own endowment once they have graduated from high school. This is the next step in an evolving missionary program. And I believe it will have a widespread effect worldwide as far as missions are concerned. Others more qualified than I am can speak more to the perspective on the effect this could potentially have for the worldwide missionary program, so I will leave that to them to do so.

I invite you all to stay tuned here for my coverage of the latest updates from the Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples sites. I’ll be sure to pass word of those along to you all as soon as I learn about them. In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as all such feedback is made per the established guidelines. 

I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. If you liked what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added posts and comments, please subscribe to receive the applicable updates. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

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1 comment:

  1. James G. StokesNovember 21, 2025 at 10:38 AM

    The Church News has also covered this announcement. My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete

In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.

At the same time, however, I recognize that we live in a time when incivility, discourtesy, unkindness, and even cyber-bullying has regrettably become part of online interactions. With that in mind, while anyone who wishes can comment on anything if they choose to do so, I hereby reserve the right to immediately delete any comments which are critical, unkind, lack civility, or promote prodcuts, services, and values contrary to either the Church, or to the rules of online etiquette.

I'd also like to remind all who comment here that I try to respond personally to each individual comment as I feel is appropriate. Such replies are not meant to end the conversation, but to acknowledge earnest feedback as it is submitted.

And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.

Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.

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