Labor Missionary Program

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Labor missionaries in New Zealand circa 1956. Credit: Church History Library

From 1955 on, Wendell B. Mendenhall institutionalized labor missionaries (also known as building missionaries) on a larger scale with skilled tradesmen called as supervisors of the missionaries. Most of the supervisors were Americans, while most of the workers were young men indigenous to the areas of the South Pacific and Latin America where the work was carried out. Often, trainee or assistant building supervisors would work under the leadership of an experienced supervisor in preparation for an assignment as a fully-fledged supervisor of some project or group of missionaries.

Most building missionaries had had little or no building experience prior to their call. This, however, rarely prevented them from gaining experience and learning in every aspect of the building work involved within the project. The only exceptions were with regard to laws that required that in certain aspects, such as with electricity and plumbing, for instance, the work had to be carried out by registered tradesmen.

Although there were many specific rules that proselyting missionaries were expected to live that building missionaries were not, and some building missionaries were called as young as 17 years of age, many expectations—such as the expectation for a commitment of 2 years of service, for instance—and requirements for worthiness, as well, were the same, and prospective building missionaries were interviewed with regard to such matters prior to their call. Formal letters from the First Presidency regarding such respects were also eventually sent out to building supervisors for missionary reference and compliance. The prime differences regarding the conditions for building missionary service were that such missionaries were to reside for short time periods at the homes of different members from the congregation of the building upon which they were working. During the early 1970s, in Australia, such host families deemed it an honour and were offered just $5 per week to assist. As the missionary's role was one of service, a building missionary was offered $3 per week for basal living expenses. Thus most missionaries needed to use personal savings to cover any of the rest needed, or to receive from their parents or friends any extra needed. Fundamentally, however, the host family looked after the missionary and it was his part to blend in with and help the family during off-work hours.

Building missionaries were also assumed as part of the wards and stakes in which they resided, and were expected to be examples of support for local leaders, programmes, and Church involvement. They were to live all the standards that were set out by Church leaders for young members of the Church, and as service missionaries, were not expected to be involved in 'free-lancing' after hours, or going to parties or non-Church dances and activities. As their call was one of a full-time missionary, they were not generally called to other positions in the Church while on their missions, although they could quite readily accept interim assignments from time to time. There was also ready opportunity, depending on precise circumstances, for building and proselyting missionaries to work together on one another's programmes, which very often occurred. The responsibility for, or prime authority over, any proselyting missionary was vested in the mission president of the mission to which he/she was called. However, with regards to the building missionary, such was vested in the stake president of the stake within which the missionary resided at the time in question. When it came to the actual work of the site itself, the set-apart authority was the building supervisor, who worked under the instructions of regional or general building authorities of the Church.

Although building missionaries were expected not to date, nor engage with intimacy or familiarity, they were, nevertheless, encouraged to "build meaningful relationships" with members of the opposite sex, but were expected to do so only in group settings and within the propriety of their calling.

Many such Church missionaries, unlike proselyting missionaries—who generally remained within the one mission—were moved around a country or over a large area to wherever their work was required or the next project commenced. This could also mean that they worked under multiple supervisors and multiple stake or district presidents over the period of their mission call.

Over most of the course of the building missionary program, opportunities were also made available for the general membership of the Church to also provide service to or be directly involved in the actual building work itself on the chapels and Church structures being erected, by putting in personal "service hours", which were also recorded. Many of the local women also involved themselves in assistance by providing food and drinks during breaks. Others assisted in various other at-hand labors at the site.

The Labor Missionary Program was phased out in the 1970s.

Percy TeHira is a wiry, upbeat New Zealander who came to Hawaii in 1960, a missionary called to build the kingdom, literally, by laboring on construction projects. . . . TeHira was one of those who stayed in Laie, working to maintain the park he helped build and performing there as a musician and Maori dancer. . . .
The world became a much more structured place in the span of time between the labor missions and TeHira's recent retirement from the PCC. Now he sees remodeling at the Laie Temple being done by private contractors in a 21st-century environment corralled by concerns about liability. "We live right in the shadows of the temple and we can't go there and do something," he said with great emotion. "We want to go help."[1]

See also

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