This week in Church history
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50 years ago
The First Presidency released a statement dated July 21, 1960, that 19-year-old young men could be called as full-time missionaries, according to the Deseret News 2010 Church Almanac.
Previously, missionaries had to meet certain educational and military requirements prior to receiving their call.
According to the Almanac, the number of missionaries called jumped from 2,847 in 1959 to 4,706 in 1960. The sudden influx of missionaries helped prompt several changes to the missionary program. First, a uniform missionary teaching plan consisting of six lessons was officially presented at the first mission presidents' seminar in the summer of 1961. Later that year, the Language Training Institute, the forerunner to the Missionary Training Center, was established at BYU for missionaries called to foreign countries. Church members also sought to heed President David O. McKay's slogan, "Every member a missionary."
In the April 2010 general conference, the Church's Statistical Report stated that there were 51,376 full-time missionaries serving throughout the world as of Dec. 31, 2009.
