I have sisters and quite a few lady friends who have all addressed this same concern of guys at BYU who are only interested in marrying a girl who has served a mission. I agree completely with their thoughts about this, that this is absolutely and completely ridiculous. Laying aside all the words spoken by prophets that their first responsibility is to be a mother, over that of the mission, does it really matter in the long run whether a girl has served a mission?
Since I’ve been back from my mission I have been quite amazed at all of the non-RM girls at church who have a “church journal,” as opposed to the guy RMs who seem to have difficulty even staying awake in sacrament meeting, myself included, haha. There are also numerous non-RM girls in my ward who promote the Church through Facebook and other media. I am also quite amazed at many of the numerous non-RM women who wake up early in their day to do baptisms for the dead. Honestly, baptisms in the Provo temple are very uncomfortable, crowded and stressful for me, yet these non-RM sisters attend to that duty more regularly than I and most other guys attend the temple.
So what’s in the title RM for a sister? For sure it is a great accomplishment and spiritual experience for them, but does it really make a difference? I actually find most RM girls to be very critical and slightly judgmental, because that is also primarily how I and many other RMs are.
Does there really need to be this huge social chasm soon created by all of the sister missionaries returning home, where it is the guys who now ask, “So which mission did you serve?” That annoys me when I’m asked that and will most certainly annoy any girl (whether having served a mission or not) who has any sense in her head at all.
Jet Michaels
Anchorage, Alaska
