During the General Conference last month, Elder Rasband spoke about a “Bucket List”. After discussing the parable of the Ten Virgins and the oil needed to fill their lamps, he said:
If some of you are looking to fill what some call “a bucket list,” this is it: fill your bucket with oil in the form of the living water of Jesus Christ, which is a representation of His life and teachings. In contrast, checking off a far-off place or a spectacular event will never leave your soul feeling whole or satisfied; living the doctrine taught by Jesus Christ will. I mentioned examples earlier: embrace prophecy and prophetic teachings, act on promptings of the Holy Ghost, become a true disciple, and seek the healing power of our Lord’s Atonement. That bucket list will take you somewhere you want to go—back to your Father in Heaven.
Rasband, April 2023 General Conference
At first, I wondered about his use of a very English language colloquialism, “bucket list”, in a church that is becoming less and less English-speaking. The Spanish and Italian translation of the talk mentioned something like a “list of things to do before you die” which is essentially the same , but lacks whimsical and “fun things that are really not important but I always wanted to do” vibe associated with “bucket list”. For instance, something like making amends with an estranged child might be something you want to do before you die but wouldn’t necessarily be labeled a “bucket list” item.
Getting back on topic (I hijacked my own post!), with all the emphasis of encouraging older people to go on a mission (or even two), I could not help but think this was a thinly vailed attempt to dissuade more individuals from pursuing their around-the-world vacations, RV trip to Alaska, or visits to see the Northern Lights. Instead, the message was to “embrace prophecy and prophetic teachings” and go on a mission!
Some of you may have “visit Paris one day” on your bucket list. According to Elder Rasband, you should not be “checking off a far off place”. Considering this, I found it ironic that the very next week after he delivered this talk, he was in Paris on official duties with his wife. They subsequently traveled to Germany, Armenia and South Africa. (While I’ve been to Paris and Germany, I have not been to South Africa, which is on my bucket list).
I’m sure this trip was scheduled way before he began writing his talk, but the optics of telling people to not visit far off places and then within days boarding a plane to do exactly that is not favorable. Yes, Elder Rasband was on an official “ministry trip” so he was filling his lamp with oil by fulfilling his calling.
What do you think of Elder Rasband’s admonition to not be “checking off a far off place” from your bucket list?
Do you think this part of his talk is related to recruiting more senior missionaries, or is he simply urging people to relinquish worldly pursuits and devote themselves to Christ?
What is on your bucket list?
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood
Wheat & Tares 
This. This is something that happens far too frequently in the church that really needs to stop. Things that are said by those in positions of power that the general faithful membership not only jump to obey, but in their zeal to be “righteous”, will take to extremes. I truly doubt there is a coincidence between the push for senior missionaries and this counsel.
I haven’t had the opportunity to travel as much as I would like, but traveling allows one to expand one’s horizons, learn about other cultures, learn new points of view, and see “others” as children of God. If anything, he should be encouraging us to travel so we can become more understanding and less in the mindset of us vs them. It can allow us to become MORE Christlike. The contrast between staffing all the understaffed temples that keep the members in their closed member-only cocoons and expanding one’s world are stark. Finally, the hypocrisy between the counsel and the behavior of leadership is difficult for me to swallow. The church needs to stop dictating the minutiae of member’s lives – give them good principles and let them govern themselves.
The church is the organization that taught us about making bucket lists. In my youth they were called goals. We were taught to gain a hobby, a skill, to make your self better. However, now the only goal the church has for individuals is the church itself and its’ self imposed goals. Maybe this was 20 years ago, but how many times have you heard a response of:
“What is your favorite book?,—, The Book of Mormon.” (Like of all the literature in the world and that is the favorite?).
“Who is someone that your admire most?, –, The current prophet”.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?, –, A Bishop, SP, General Authority.”
“What do you want to do when you are retired?–Serve a mission with the spouse.”
“Where are you going on vacation?– Palmyra, Kirtland, Adam-ondi-Ahman” (Non-member response, To where?)
The church is really trying to eliminate diversity and well rounded individuals, when everyone has the same bucket/goal list.
Gen Conf April 2006 – Rasband shared a sob story about going to the temple with his kids instead of movies or football games.
My bucket list:
-Tokyo
-Graceland RIP Elvis in Memphis, TN
-South of France
-walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain
-Australia
-non-Mormon tour of Jerusalem
Right-on BB & Faith! NO THANKS to sunny Greek islands in the Aegean; I’m going to Cleveland on a mission!
I’m not interested in being re-made or re-purposed into a religious zombie. There’s a big, beautiful world out there!
I think he’s framing it in a way where if questioned, he can say it’s not about missions and more about following leaders because they are prophets. The fact that this following leads them to give up retirement for missions is not his responsibility, because hey, he also follows his dear President Neltsen. It drives me nuts how he both slavishly adores nelson during his talks and that he always inserts a distinct T into the word Nelson.
My takeaway from this talk is that he’s tactitly acknowledging that the majority of people who did hear his talk or will listen to it are in their later years. The age-driven demographic cliff of the church’s active membership is the biggest problem that the leaders have and they can do nothing about it.
A conflict of interest that’s related but more important to me is between traveling the world and giving money to those in need. How can I justify traveling to Paris when other people don’t have enough to eat? I do think that travel and other expensive activities can increase my interest and understanding in other people. So maybe if I were a better person, I wouldn’t travel for fun.
*But maybe if I were a better person, I wouldn’t travel for fun.
*But maybe if I were a better person, I wouldn’t travel for fun.
Instead of telling members what to do in retirement, why don’t the Church assist members with their humanitarian dreams? If a doctor wants to retire to Cambodia and open a clinic, why not assist him? If a water engineer wants to work in Africa, why not assist him? In addition to supporting the UN and Catholic Charities, why can’t the Church invest more in it’s members.
Too often we hear that things must be done the Lord’s way. Leader’s talk about the Covenant Path. But the Lord has multiple ways of solving problems, and there are multiple paths. The Church needs to help members with the charitable activities on their bucket. One size doesn’t fit all.
Does anybody remember or has heard about John Goddard? He was a noted adventurer/explorer from the 1950’s and on. He was LDS and when I was a child in the 1950’’s my ward in Ohio had him do a fireside. He had written a book called “Kayaks Down the Nile”. When he was 15 years old he made a list of 127 goals he wanted to accomplish in his life. He only had a few left to go when he passed away in the late 80’s. He started his “bucket list” early. In my family he became a household name synonymous with goal setting. Although he served a mission, he didn’t let church service impact his adventurous spirit. It is said that he stated that he didn’t want to tiptoe through life. This post reminded me of him. At my age, it is goal setting that gives me daily motivation and since my husband and I stepped away from the church, that motivation is even more vibrant. It is sad to me to see the Church double down on itself to the point that it has become lost as the vibrant community it once was.
I’m in Paris as I write this and do not care one iota what Rasband thinks of my bucket list.
Thank you for the insight on John Goddard !! I was not aware of his story. Those adventure stories would liven up any high councilman talk and even a General Conference sermon. For those who attend, get the same recycled conference talks, instead about living a life of adventure.
The talk strikes me as hypocritical as others point out. It may address others in addition to potential senior missionaries; those spending valuable time and resources on any number of things other than church. Think of the staffing needs of all those new temples, etc, etc. My ward doesn’t have an organist or pianist at all for the summer. That’s usually me. Even the little callings may be vacant.
I left the church in January and that very month booked a trip to one of my bucket list places: Alaska. Taking the wife and the kids to a memorable trip instead of planning around girls camp, FSY, and various other church activities. I could be considered selfish (in Rasband’s eyes at least) but I hope it’s much more than a frivolous trip – perhaps a treasure trove of positive memories and even life lessons for the family after I’m gone.
There’s so many places to see before I become worm meat. It’s one of the main reasons I left; I wanted more time to live. An objectively selfish bucket list item I have is to run a 100 mile ultra marathon, which requires significant training, including back to back long runs on Sat and Sun. I now have time for that!
@Old Woman. Goddard was upheld as a positive role model when I was growing up in the Kimball era. I remember dozens of talks and lessons about goals, lengthening your stride, and journaling. Thanks for the reminder and trip down memory lane. 🙂
@Tygan – I understand your point about using financial resources to help others, but perhaps one can do both: enjoy this life and help others. While I want to be aware and help others as I’m able, I also don’t want to live a barren life in hopes of a grand eternal one. It doesn’t have to be one or the other at all times – perhaps moderation in both is possible. It is okay to have fun.
I remember reading a snippet years ago about 2 neighbor families. Both had several children and lived in 1 bath homes. One family saved their money and added a second bathroom. The other saved their money took a big family ski vacation every year. Family one had less stress with teenage daughters getting ready for school every morning. The other built family memories and bonds. I always thought the family that took vacations were the lucky ones. They had family stories to tell for decades. For a church that stresses families, sometimes it forgets to stress that you need to build those family bonds NOW. Certainly serving others as a family can also help in that goal, but having fun together is also important.
That said, for many areas tourism is their lifeblood. When you travel, you’re providing employment for airline, hotel, restaurant, shop, and other employees. While not what one would normally consider helping those in “need”, you are supporting and helping people to be self sustaining.
I believe a person can do both, go to Paris as a tourist and be a faithful Latter-day Saint. I encourage both.
familywomen – your comment made me chuckle. I would have taken the second bathroom over the ski vacation with the family any day of the week. The overcrowding in my childhood home is part of the reason I left home the day after I finished high school and only went back for occasional holidays. It all depends on the kid and the family dynamics. I hated vacationing with my family as a teen.
The fact that travel expands your horizons and mindsets is so important. Being a senior missionary, where you get to pick which country you go to, could do that as well, but if you have to choose, don’t give up a fun bucket list item to serve a mission. I had a great-aunt who spent her elderly years traveling extensively with her husband. I heard a couple of judgmental comments about how they could have spent some of their money serving missions rather than cruising all over the world. I joined in that judgmentalism as a youth, but now that I’m older, I’m glad she had those experiences.
As I’ve gotten older, traveling has gotten harder. I get a migraine about the half the time I fly anywhere. It’s the pressure changes on the plane, I believe. I’ve got to plan trips that (1) I’m there long enough that a two-day migraine still leaves time for a vacation; and (2) I’m with someone who can take care of me. Traveling with kids as a single mom just isn’t something I can manage very well. If I find a travel companion when my nest is empty, traveling would be a lot of fun.
One apostle, speaking for himself and for other members of his company, once complained when a woman made use of her property for some reason that those apostles didn’t like. They said that the property, worth a working man’s wages for a year, could have been sold and given to the poor. This is what they thought the woman should have done with what was hers. The leader of their company told his colleagues to leave the woman alone, and he asked them why they troubled her. He then told them, the murmuring and fault-finding apostles (not all of them, but some of them) that they could give to the poor of their own possessions whenever they wanted to. That isn’t the end of the story: their leader continued: “Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.”
This is a powerful and under-told story, practically forgotten. Yes, there was strong counsel, and maybe even a commandment to give to the poor. But this woman, according to the leader of the company, was free to choose both how and when she would live that commandment, and the apostles were to leave the woman alone, and they could give to the poor whenever they wanted to, presumably from their own resources, but they were not empowered to tell this woman what she should do with her own resources. No doubt that she expended considerable resources feeding the company when they came to Bethany and would stay for days at the time. She may have done other good works unseen by the apostles.
One can spend one’s retirement on missions until one is too sick, but one can also travel, read, scuba dive, water ski, or talk long walks in the country, and one can live the gospel all the while. And travelling, and buying local arts and crafts, employs people in poor areas, people who want to work and who don’t want welfare. Tourism helps poor economies, and rich ones, by providing lots of jobs, and taxes for local governments.
In the age of the internet and extraordinary global connectedness was it really important for Rasband to be in Paris to accomplish his “official duties”? Did he, like all the other Senior Missionaries in the church, pay his own way?
I’m well into my 7th decade. I’ve seen a lot of change in the church. Perhaps the healthiest is the opportunity we now have to see the top of the organization with unjaundiced eyes. I’ve had experiences. My bucket list is modest but it makes my blood boil to think of people deprived of their opportunity to indulge their own at the end of their lives by the generous application of guilt.
Do see South Africa, Bishop Bill. It’s a complicated beautiful place and those Southern Hemisphere sunsets will be with me always.
Here is John Goddard’s bucket list
http://www.johngoddard.info/life_list.htm
I don’t think prioritizing the oil of anointing means that we will never travel or pursue a hobby. But it does mean (IMO) that we will put the Kingdom first — as per Jacob — and then allow that priority to inform us on how everything else fits into our lives.
In a fun bit of irony Elder Rasband contrasts “checking off a far-off place or a spectacular event” with how the anointing “will take you somewhere you want to go—back to your Father in Heaven.” What could be more fulfilling and spectacular than that?
Jack, the parable that Elder Rasband cited refers to oil, but that oil is for burning in a lamp to produce light in the darkness, and is not for anointing. What do you mean by prioritizing the oil of anointing? You write that this anointing will take us back to where we want to go, but Elder Rasband said that a bucket list of embracing prophecy and prophetic teachings, acting on promptings of the Holy Ghost, becoming a true disciple, and seeking the healing power of our Lord’s Atonement is the bucket list will take us somewhere we want to go—back to our Father in Heaven. You bring up prioritizing the oil of anointing, and I respectfully don’t know what that means, and am confused because there’s a different oil in Elder Rasband’s sermon. Do you mean oil of anointing as a metaphor for the covenant path?
Jack, I recommend that you go to Paris for a week — you’ll enjoy it! You won’t lose your salvation (well, not if you stick to the historical and cultural parts of Paris).
This post reminded me of a story I read in Guideposts magazine. Guideposts is a non-denominational Christian magazine that mostly publishes peoples’ experiences with God and religion. It’s faith-affirming. Anyway, a woman talked about her career as a dancer. She tried to retire to raise a family, but felt God calling her to fulfill her purpose as a dancer. She said God had blessed her with this talent and she found joy as she danced professionally long after she passed the age that most dancers retire.
The story puzzled me, because dancing isn’t useful for building the kingdom of God. The LDS Church teaches that the only things that matter are building the kingdom. I was surprised to read a woman saying that God wanted her to dance, with a professional dancing troupe. She got paid; the performances weren’t Bible-based; she had to find childcare. Yet she felt that God had blessed her with a talent to dance and she needed to use it.
It made me rethink Church teachings about talents and service. God wants us to have a wide range of experiences, and gives us a wide range of talents. We don’t have to spend our time and money to serve endlessly in the temple. Go ahead and tour Paris.
Nobody can live your life for you. You should not let anyone else make your decisions for you. If you want to serve a mission upon retirement, great–there is a lot of good that is accomplished by senior missionaries, to be sure. If you want to travel the world, great–serving a mission (either as a young adult or a retiree) IS NOT A SAVING ORDINANCE.
The reason why there have been so many comments from Church authorities with regard to senior missions is two-fold. First, with the retention problems among young adults and the declining number of young missionaries that has resulted, there is a need for more bodies to fill out the 400+ missions around the world. Second, the cohorts that are most connected with the Church (numerically and in terms of TBMs) are the Boomers and Generation X; the leadership wants to take full advantage of their willingness to serve/be “obedient” while they are still around and able to be deployed.
And, unless I am mistaken, the Book of Mormon teaches us in 2 Nephi 2:25 that “men are, that they might have joy.” Not sure about everyone else, but I found much more joy on my first cruise to Alaska and when I cruised through the Panama Canal (two bucket list items) than I did during the vast majority of my mission at age 19. That has not stopped me from doing other things to help out my fellow humans. The key to happiness in life is balance–something that we focus on far too infrequently in the Church.
If you are going to Paris make sure you also have Rome with the vatican incredible architecture and artwork and the colosseum, and then Ejypt on your list.
In Africa as well as a game safari, if you are fit enough white water rafting on the Zambizi river is exciting. It is level 5. They only use the largest rafts and these usually capcize at least once. The rafting trip starts at the bottom of victoria falls but on the Zambia side. So you need your passport to get into Zambia but they then take you passport because you could loose everything in the river. They then give you a talk where they explain that if you come out of the boat in the rapids you should face down river and put your feet out in front so if you hit a rock you will break your ankles rather than your spine. You are then told to get back in the raft before you get to the still water because there are crocks, and hippoes there. The rafting is exciting too.
We flew Zimbabwe airlines into Vic falls. They had to circle the airport while they chased elephants off the airstrip. When we left Vic falls after 15 minutes the pilot announced one of the engines had stopped, but not to worry the other one was still going.
Our youngest daughter is a federal police officer but in her spare time she is a volunteer rural fire fighter. 10 days ago she got a phone call from the Queensland fire and rescue service asking if she could arrange her life so she could go to Canada to fight the forest fires there. Australian remote area fire fighters are trained to international standards, the same as the professional smoke jumpers in North America. She is now near Rainbow lake Alberta fighting forest fires, 14 hour shifts, 14 days on 2 days off. An overseas deployment was on her bucket list.
If you come to Australia, and go to Tasmania you can see the southern lights. I would also recommend Sydney harbour, the beaches of the Gold Coast (a great example of big government for right wingers), the great barrier reef, and Uluru. If you like extreme excitement you could go to Western Aus and see the stromatolites.
Georgis,
I might be carrying the analogy too far–but even so, whenever oil is mentioned in a gospel context I can’t help but think of it in terms of anointing. In my opinion when oil is poured *on* it is a symbol of being poured *in*. It’s the same when it is rubbed on–it is a symbol of being rubbed in. And so, we, like lamps (or buckets), are vessels designed to receive the holy oil of anointing –which is the Holy Spirit. And so when I spoke of prioritizing the anointing–that’s all I’m really saying: taking the Holy Spirit as our guide as did the five wise virgins.
While I don’t disagree with what anyone has said about living one’s life as one sees fit (bucket list or not), I see Rasband’s comments as a really bad metaphor,if anything, that GA’s like to use from time to time make a point. You know, like staying on course while flying a plane, the good ship Zion, spiritual crocodiles, and who could forget becoming “a true millennial” (even if you’re really a boomer!), to prepare the world for the second coming…. (Sigh). Anyway, happy and safe travels to any of you who are traveling right now. And if you happen to be in France on Memorial Day, I hear there’s a beach there somewhere where something kind of important happened nearly 80 years ago. Just sayin’.
“… fill your bucket with oil in the form of the living water …”
Makes no sense. Oil or water? And is confusion the actual goal of speaking so often in metaphors, parables and bad analogies?
I hiked the Alta Via through northern Italy in 2021 and would recommend it enthusiastically to anyone who enjoys getting from A to B under their own power.
Geoff-Aus, thanks for sharing that story about your daughter. And because it’s a small Mormon world, our connection is that I’ve been to Rainbow Lake. At the time I visited it was part of the High Level branch, an hour and a half drive away. Half the branch lived in High Level, the other half in Rainbow Lake. Because of the distances, every Fast Sunday the members had a potluck and broke their fast together. There was a remarkable unity in that little unit – the members really loved each other.
Memories like that are one of the reasons I stay. Good people trying their best to be Christ-like.
I appreciated recalling a memory I haven’t thought of in a while. Thank you for that. And thanks to your daughter for her service.
It might interest you to know Australia is on my bucket list, as it’s where my MIL is from. My husband says “The Man from Snowy River” was required viewing in his house when it came out, as my MIL went to boarding school in the area.
It’s interesting that someone mentioned a water engineer serving a mission in Africa, which made me smile, because that’s my husband’s job. I’ve joked for years that we’ll likely be building wells for our mission, it’s important work. But I see nothing wrong with a bucket list that includes wells in Africa AND visiting Australia.
The push for senior missionary service over world-travel is nothing new; Spencer W. Kimball finger-wagged those who bought an RV for retirement rather than serve a mission clear back in his 1976 bicentennial address. I bet money that was what Renlund was low-key referencing when he wrote his talk. (I can definitely remember my Dad quoting Kimball to me when I told him of *my* teenage bucket-list). Yet Kimball actually spends the majority of his address condemning the exploitation of the environment, militarism, and wreckless wealth-accumulation–would that THOSE were the parts of Kimball’s talk we focused most on!
As for the question of world travel itself, I can only do what the Book of Mormon tells me to do and bare down in pure testimony: the times in my life when I have felt the Holy Spirit the absolute closest in my life–guiding me, consoling me, assuring me, fulfilling me–is when I have been someplace utterly unfamiliar, foreign, distant, and new. I intend to continue following the Spirit, and experience the full glory of God’s creations.
As I read through the posts I am struck that I am living a different life than the people posting here. As parents of special needs children who have grown into adults but still require support, our lives are different than other people’s.
One way to describe this is, it’s like you and all your friends are planning a trip to France. You plan a week to meet everyone their and you all get tickets. You get in the plane, but when it lands you get out and you are in Holland instead of France, and you have to stay there.
Holland isn’t a bad place and you enjoy it, but all your friends keep posting pics of France and contacting you about it. When you try to share about Holland, they are expecting to hear about France and it confuses them.
That’s our life as parents of special needs kids. Travel is much harder for us because it’s more challenging to provide for medical and psychological needs away from home and while traveling. Traveling is more expensive for us, and because one of us is a caregiver instead of working, we have less money for travel. So we do not do it often.
Meanwhile all our friends are traveling almost every other weekend to see the grandkids we never had or to visit exotic places. We stay home and take care of our special needs children that are mostly adults now.
While they need less support, independence is a long way off, if it ever comes at all.
There are deep satisfactions, joy and love with raising special needs children. I have no regrets. But often family doesn’t understand why I have no interest in hearing about all their trips to Europe. I chose to be happy with the life I have rather than pining for a life I don’t have.
I don’t need another mission either to prove my worth. I know my worth and the worth of my life every day. I already have a mission, right in my own home. I pray and ask for help with it and I receive that help. Absolutely, I know my accomplishments are great in God’s eyes.
Sometimes it has been very jarring to listen
Oops, pushed the wrong button and posted too early. It was hard at first to accept that conference talks and talks at church, really just aren’t about people like me. Over time, I have accepted that those talks just aren’t for me.
However, I wish more leaders would add exceptions according to individual circumstances into every talk. I don’t need to hear it now, but it would have really helped me when I was a less flexible black and white thinker.
I wish more people, especially leaders of the church realized how different other peoples lives and experiences are. Instead often people judge others based on their own experiences and imagine that when others struggle it’s due to poor decisions. Meanwhile they are just clueless to the complicated reality faced by other people.
Janey’s comment links to what I think is the great unexplored question of the LDS church; What is building the kingdom of God in the 21st century?
The 19th century church built the kingdom by literally building new communities and attracting many thousands of converts from Canada and Europe to join those communities.
The 20th century church built the kingdom by growing stakes throughout the world and especially in the Americas. The 20th century church also built the kingdom by fully embracing middle class suburban living where LDS couples married and raised larger than average families, with mom able to stay home and tend to home, family and church responsibilities.
Things are a lot different in the 21st century. The church is no longer growing globally – church growth is limited to certain countries and localities. Political and economic forces are not as friendly to affordable family formation. Variously factors have led the church to become much more top-down managed and for the church program to be wholly scripted and correlated for efficiency. The ability for local congregations to pursue meaningful independent initiatives is pretty much non existent.
President Nelson has been tweaking the church program in response to these cultural changes. And yet at the same time the objective seems to have gotten more narrow. Building the kingdom of God has been reduced to (1) Stay on the covenant path and (2) The church will build temples.
This mission statement works great from the perspective of church leaders. If members stay active and pay tithing so they can go to the temple then the church will build temples and all is good.
What this plan doesn’t address are:
(1) Most people have greater interests and talents then simply going to church and teaching and being taught scripted lessons. Do church leaders recognize the chasm that exists between what the 21st century church offers and what people need and want to have fulfilled lives?
(2) The focus on the temple leaves out many good people who for various legitimate reasons do not care for the temple ritual and/or the eligibility requirements. And seriously, how frequently can one enjoy doing the same scripted ritual over and over again?
A hint that massive temple building is a head scratcher is the explanation TBMs give for it. They say, we don’t know why but we need to trust the Lord. Now I’m all for trusting the Lord. But LDS leadership ought to give us the why, and not just the cookie cutter answer that members need to be going to the temple.
I am reminded of the ending of Field of Dreams where Ray Kinsella, the man who built the baseball field, sees his field providing benefits to others, but none directly to him. And he asks, “What’s in it for me?” Ray then learns what is in it for him.
For the LDS church to thrive it needs to tackle the question: What’s in it for people? What does the program provide for members and potential members? Why would people be attracted to what the church is doing and will do, such that they will give of their time and money to be part of it?
About 20 years ago, I was consulting with a newly retired petroleum engineer on his estate plan. He had just been called as a missionary to work at church headquarters as – a petroleum engineer. The church has financial interests in many things (ranching, farms, orchards, oil fields, etc.) and “calls” retired members with specific skills to provide professional/skilled services for which it would otherwise have to pay.
“All that you have and all that the Lord may bless you with” . . .
We probably won’t serve a senior mission, mainly because we can’t leave the house empty and don’t want to rent for 12 or 24 months, and no, I’m not going to sell the house and take my chances in the housing market after we complete our mission. It isn’t a matter of a lack of faith: the Lord taught us, in parable, that a man wanting to build a tower should ensure that he has enough money and equipment before he begins the building project, and a king wanting to fight a war with a neighbor king should ensure that his army is big enough to win before he starts hostilities. We are commanded to be prudent and thinking in our financial matters, and not rash and unthinking. General authorities are on the payroll, so it is a little disingenuous for Elder Rasband to encourage others to serve missions at their own expense while he is financially protected for life. A neighbor or colleague telling me about how wonderful he and his wife’s senior mission was will be more inviting and more likely to change my mind than directions from those who will never serve as a full-time missionary, and for whom all financial stress (housing, medical care, university for children, travel, etc.) is fully covered by the Church. How many full-time and area seventies have served as full-time senior missionaries? I think the number is fairly small. And how many full-time and area seventies will serve as full-time senior missionaries after their releases? I don’t think that very many do. I am grateful for those who have the health and the financial capability to serve, and someone they trust to live in their houses. All of the senior missionaries that I know are from Utah and the Corridor, and all that I have asked have told me that they have a child or grandchild or someone trustworthy living in their house. My children have moved out-of-state for college and work, so I don’t see a mission in my future, and I don’t think that makes me a bad person.