It would take 70 years of normal Church service to equal the number of hours rendered in a two-year mission, said Elder Craig Frogley from Utah, who is serving as a CES missionary. He said he was in charge of the missionary preparation program of BYUH for several years, preparing a curriculum and teaching classes.
He explained, “There is no quality time without quantity. God seems to change us better by working through us than by working on us. When we let him work through us, he changes us grace for grace. As we give grace, it flows through us and it changes us.”
Making the final step toward deciding to serve or not a mission still remains a major challenge in the lives of most young Church members, as shown in the example of Immanuel Susi, a freshmen from Oregon and recent convert to the Church who will leave on his mission in January to the Philippines Cebu East Mission.
He said, “After my baptism, my life started to change a lot. Once I felt this kind of joy, I wanted to share it with everybody else.” Although originally hesitant about serving, he said, “What really helped me going on my mission was listening to the experiences of others on their missions.
"Every single one of them always had a positive outcome. Going on a mission is a decision you will never regret in life. Pray about it. Fast about it.”
Frogley said, “Some decisions shouldn’t even be made. They need to be premade. If I want to follow the master, I know I need to serve Him in order to know Him. So the question of going on a mission or not going, from my angle is: Do I want to know Him now, or do I want to know when I am 70? If I want to know Him now, then serving a mission will be the most concentrated, powerful, nutritious, spiritual thing there can be.”
He continued, “Elder Bednar said you can only learn to be a missionary by being a missionary. You can experience this change grace by grace better under His hands than by trying to get yourself ready. That comes by serving Him.”
Karli Newey, a senior majoring in graphic design from Utah, said, “For women, it is a lot harder to make the decision because it is not a commandment for us. I have never really thought about a mission until the age change happened, but I thought it to be best to graduate first.”
Newey turned 19 when the age changed was announced, and said she felt peer pressured because all her friends went on missions.
“A mission would be great because I would be done with school, I could focus completely on the Lord, and I‘d love to get to know the people from all the different backgrounds and to learn to love them and bring them unto Christ.”
Focusing on and strengthening her relationship with the Lord are also factors that make serving a mission appealing, said Newey.
Upon reflecting on the challenge for women, Frogley said, “My personal observations have been, speaking of young women, ... the benefit for a young women is that she moves her focus from whatever incomplete experience she has to the scriptures, where we can, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, window shop other people’s experiences.”
Confronting doubts about missions, Susi said, “Even when you are not the best before you go, everyone will be able to change. Everyone wants to progress in life. On your mission you will be surrounded by people who help you progress and challenge you [to do so]. It will all be for the better.”
Susi said he is very aware of the demands of a mission. “Those two years are very crucial years of my life, where everything I do will be towards the Lord. Every single thing I do will be significant and should build up the house of the Lord.”