Voices: Lowering the age for LDS sister missionaries will lead to more faith crises. That’s a good thing.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ recent announcement dropping to 18 the minimum age for female missionaries brought up a lot of memories from my own full-time proselytizing service.

My life was profoundly impacted because I served a Latter-day Saint mission. Not only did I eventually marry my zone leader, but also several mission experiences led me first into deeper commitment to the church — then, ironically, gave me the courage to confront the outer limits of what Mormon orthodoxy could offer me as an expanding spiritual being.

Let’s jump back 30 years, and I’ll show you how it happened.

The setting: California Oakland Mission, 1995-1996.

The leadership: Alpha-male centric, number-crunching, extremely disciplined and performance-oriented.

Not one to beat around the bush, my mission president sized up new missionaries with one telling question: “What is your father’s current church calling?” Having answered that in a way that seemed to solidify my place in the hierarchy of “greenies,” I walked out of his office and cheerfully determined that this mission was between me and God and had nothing to do with what the mission president thought of me.

And just like that, true self-epiphany No. 1: No one determines my value and dictates my worth by external factors.

I served in the California Oakland Mission in a historically fraught moment in time — we’re talking Oakland less than 20 years post- priesthood/temple ban and San Francisco near the peak of the AIDS crisis. While public opinion might have been quite low in many ways, there was one superhero around whom we could (and did) all rally — San Francisco 49er quarterback Steve Young. I kept a photo of him in my scriptures and popped it out at convenient moments while talking to people on the streets and knocking doors.

During this era, Steve graciously found the time to be the keynote speaker at a number of large firesides, and my mission president invited many of the consul generals and other dignitaries from around the world who worked at the embassy in San Francisco to attend as special guests. Since many dignitaries spoke foreign languages, it was necessary to provide them with translators who accompanied them to the event and the meet-and-greet open house afterward at the mission home. This responsibility fell on none other than some of the full-time missionaries. And guess who was chosen to do this?

When it came right down to it, my raw spunk, personality and relative maturity (exceeding most 19 to 20-year-old male missionaries, at least) outweighed my lack of male priesthood and lack of family pedigree. I enjoyed getting to know these ambassadors and met them as equals.

True self-epiphany No. 2: All humans are essentially equal and, when I believe this to my core, I can show up with grace and confidence in any setting.

The third experience emerged while serving as a visitors center tour guide adjacent to the Oakland Temple. During this time, once a year, the temple grounds were flooded with thousands of people to see their version of a Mormon pageant, and the usually-sparsely-visited Oakland Visitors Center became Grand Central Station at rush hour. I gave numerous tours to huge groups of people and was startled by the magic that I felt in these moments.

True self-epiphany No. 3: My thoughts and ideas impact others when I speak publicly.

These little epiphanies planted seeds that took years to blossom. And I did indeed integrate them into church family life and service for a time. But the seeds planted were significant, and they ultimately directed me to who and where I am today.

You see, our true selves are like divine inner compasses. As we each awaken, we begin to discern our spiritual path on our own terms rather than handing that over to external authority figures. We can know this process is well underway when external authorities tell us to always defer to them indiscriminately and something inside of us feels off. It may take years to find the courage, but eventually we begin to trust ourselves and follow this inner knowing.

Will increased numbers of Latter-day Saint women serve missions because the eligibility age has dropped? I think so. Will this guarantee lifelong commitment to orthodoxy within the church, complete with more temple marriage, more babies and more missionaries in future generations? Maybe.

But not necessarily.

For some, the mission does not ultimately entrench people in early-stage faith orthodoxy forever. Rather, it provides early true self-epiphanies — as in my case. These early epiphanies lead to an increase in personal authority, ultimately leading to discomfort with authoritative patriarchal structures. Why? Because these very structures tend to discourage the sacred development of personal authority.

I support young Latter-day Saint women who want to serve missions earlier if they choose to do so, and I am not particularly worried that this policy change will stifle their long-term spiritual growth. As a matter or fact, my “Latter Day Struggles” podcast audience is consistently women and men who were the most devout Latter-day Saints, whose very service and deference to the church catalyzed their awakening to their true selves and a realization that they are expressions of God in human form and can govern their spiritual lives in ways that no outsider could or should.

In my opinion, what church officials continue to miss is that the most successful evidence of spiritual growth following years of commitment to the church (through missions, callings, etc.) is the Latter-day Saint faith crisis. This means that people are awakening to their own true selves, complete with their own internal compasses.

If that growth were ever acknowledged for what it truly is, Mormonism could become a place where all truly feel welcome wherever they are on their faith journeys — transcending earlier paradigms that no longer serve, while including the value of the foundation upon which they have built their current spiritual selves.

Valerie Hamaker is a professional mental health counselor and the host of the “Latter Day Struggles” podcast, focused on helping people navigate their faith journeys in psychologically healthy ways. She and Nathan (husband and podcast co-host) chose to resign their church membership in March 2025 instead of endorsing a membership council evoked by Valerie’s public work inviting psychological health, sound theology and institutional integrity within the church.

The Salt Lake Tribune is committed to creating a space where Utahns can share ideas, perspectives and solutions that move our state forward. We rely on your insight to do this. Find out how to share your opinion here, and email us at voices@sltrib.com.