The most important time of a Mormon kid's life is his mission.

A chance to go out and help heal the world.

That's my mission. soon I'll be off in a different place helping

the whole human race I know my mission will be something incredible.

This is Matt from Infants on Thrones.

And in that one lyric from the Book of Mormon musical,

Matt and Trey Parker,

summed up the feelings most Mormons have about

missions.

It's described as the two best years when they'll be called to serve to be part of God's

army in the hollow of his hand.

Recently, the Mormon Church made an announcement that for Mormons was probably the biggest news since caffeine-free Dr. Pepper.

The Church decided to change the age of male missionaries from 19 to 18 and the female missionaries from 21 to 19.

The reason for this change is kind of like the reason for doing genealogy.

It's not very clear to me.

Regardless of the reason, the change in age will reportedly dramatically increase the number of clear-eyed

white-shirted door knockers around the world.

Back in 2007, I started a different Mormon-themed podcast, Mormon Mission Stories.

I started it because I was struggling with my faith, and I saw Mission Stories as a way to keep me positively tied to a religion I was feeling distant from.

A good friend and a faithful member was my partner.

After just a handful of interviews, it became clear that we had what could be called

Creative Differences.

...