The number of missionaries serving right now in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has reached a high mark of around 80,000.
Why a missionary serves is contained in the missionary purpose: to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost.
“When it gets into a person’s heart, it changes what they do and how they look at other people, that every individual out there in the world is a child of God, and we can bring them back home through making covenants,” said Elder W. Mark Bassett, a General Authority Seventy and executive director of the Church’s Missionary Department.
And people are responding to that invitation, said David N. Weidman, managing director of the Missionary Department.
“Every region of the world is seeing an acceleration in the growth of convert baptisms,” Weidman said.
Not only are people accepting the invitation to enter into the covenant of baptism, they are also continuing to progress along the covenant path, Elder Bassett said.
This good news comes at a time when people may feel like they only see bad news—particularly on social media.
“But the reality is more people are coming to the Church of Jesus Christ than we’ve seen in decades,” Elder Bassett said.
Learn more about expanding missionary efforts, including a new Churchwide missionary preparation course coming in 2025, at Church News.
For more resources on missionary work, check out the articles below.
▶ 3 scriptures to bolster a missionary (that they might’ve not heard before)
▶ 18 great Christmas gift ideas for missionaries
▶ 3 encouraging reminders every missionary needs in the MTC