In a recent article about the current political race with 2 Mormon business leaders (Romney and Huntsman), a Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christenson stated “I don’t think there’s any more demanding profession than being a Mormon missionary…” The article goes on to state that the Missionary Training Center (MTC), which is the place where Mormon missionaries are trained, has graduated nearly 1 million missionaries, most of which are highly sought after and successful in the business world.
From personal experience with going through the MTC and serving a 2 year mission in Germany, I whole heartedly agree with these statements. One of the most difficult things I’ve done so far has been serving as a Mormon missionary. The whole time I was out there (2 years), I knocked on thousands of doors, talked with thousands of people, and had one baptism. Not very good odds.
However, while I was out there something happened within me. First, I realized that I loved working with people and helping them improve their lives. Even though only one person “bought” what I was “selling” completely, I was able to bring many, many people to have a relationship with God through prayer and other ways. Next, I learned how to network and market, which is what I do in my current profession. In fact, upon being hired to my first job in the industry I’m in, when my first hiring manager found out I had been a Mormon missionary he put down the papers and hired me immediately on the spot.
For those of you who have gone on missions, have you seen benefits in your life such as the ones I’ve outlined? If so, please share!
Well this is the first time I have written on your blog, but I had to say “Amen” to what you said about the value of a mission in the way that it helps and trains you to be able to work with people from many, many different backgrounds. I served in Holland which is a lot like Germany; meaning that the “conversion” rate is pretty low, but the value that I gained as a person was unmeasureable. I was a pretty shy, naive and backwords kid growing up on the dairy in rural Idaho. Serving an LDS mission, and associating with thousands of people during the two years I spent there helped me in ways that I am still amazed by. When I returned I was able to teach Dutch to missionaries and ended up spening the next 33 years teaching school. I have had the opportunity of mentoring thousands of young people during those thirty-three years. So to make a long story short, as I have now (this year) retired from teaching, I attribute the majority of my success in teaching to the fact that I learned so many skills on my mission. Are there benefits to serving a mission? The answer for me is a resounding “Yes!” Did I have success on my mission? I think that success is relative. In the amount of baptisms, perhaps not, but the benefits it gave me as a person can not be measured.