Expectations for men and women in the Mormon Church and its growth in the Southeast
Cole discusses the role of mission trips for young men and women in the Mormon Church. According to Cole, the Mormon Church encourages, but does not require, voluntary service and she describes the difference in mission trips for men and women. Women, as Cole explains, are asked to go on mission trips at a later age than are men because many women may become married, which the Church sees as a more important mission for women. Moreover, she describes the rapid growth of the Mormon Church in the Southeast, and specifically in North Carolina, during the 1970s and 1980s.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Louise Cole, March 16, 1995. Interview G-0157. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- PRISCILLA C. MURPHY:
-
So, you've been in the Mormon Church your adult life. Have you been
- and you say they, Mormons demand service - have
you.
- LOUISE COLE:
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No, they don't demand it.
- PRISCILLA C. MURPHY:
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Well, they put an emphasis on it.
- LOUISE COLE:
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They put an emphasis on it and they ask you, it's totally voluntary. And
you can do it or chose not to do it, it's up to you.
- PRISCILLA C. MURPHY:
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Right. Right. And in your life, what, I mean, did you do, I think it's a
two-year, there's a missionary requirement?
- LOUISE COLE:
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Oh, the mission? No, uh uh. No, they usually want young men to do it when
they turn 19, and again it's voluntary. But my, they ask young girls
when they turn 21 if they would like to go on a mission, and usually the
women go for 18 months instead of 2 years, and they don't go until
they're 21. But when I turned 21 I was already married, so-
you know -
They feel that your mission as a wife and mother is more important than
going on a mission for the Church. That's why they don't have girls go
unless they reach the age of 21 and they're not married yet. Then they
ask them if they'd like to go on a mission. But young men, they feel
that it's really important and part of their priesthood calling, if you
will, to go on a mission for two years. And so they're asked when they
turn, you know, 18 if they're planning to go, and - um, I
think then the Bishop, you know, if they want to go, then they start
filling out their paper work about six months before they turned 19 to
get all of their physical exam, dental work, optometry work done before
they go, because many of them go to foreign countries where there's
- you know - not very much medical help.
- LOUISE COLE:
-
And it's also a growing experience for these young men. A lot of them,
they go to college for one year, they don't know what they're going to
do with the rest of their life, but they do know they're going to go on
a mission. They go on a mission for two years, and most of them, um,
come back and say - well, all of them come back and say it's
the best experience they've ever had, their whole life. Of course,
they're twenty-one at this time, but they also - it has been
such a growing experience with them, because they have to be with
another missionary twenty-four hours a day. They have to stay with
another missionary, and - or another member of the Church. And they
work, they go out tracting, they teach the missionary lessons.
- PRISCILLA C. MURPHY:
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Do the girls do the same thing?
- LOUISE COLE:
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Yes, absolutely, they have to stay together. And there's safety in
numbers, and there's the safety factor, that's the reason that the
Church wants them to stay together, at least in pairs, and so they
- for that 2 years for the young men and a year-and-a-half for
the girls, they have to stay together with their companion and they get
transferred, you know - they'll go 2 months in one place and
maybe 6 months in another place while they're on their mission, but
they'll be assigned to mission. For instance, the state of North
Carolina, years ago, the whole state was a mission. Actually before
that, it was - Mid-Atlantic States Mission - that
was actually centered in Washington, DC. And now there are, I think, 4
missions in the State of North Carolina. There's a Raleigh Mission, a
Greensboro Mission, Charlotte Mission and a Goldsboro Mission. So I
think there's actually 4 missions in the State of North Carolina, now.
So it's, it's really - the Church is really growing extremely
fast right now.