Return Missionaries Not Married With In Six Months

RM IF YOU ARE NOT MARRIED WITH-IN 6 MONTHS YOU ARE NOT FAILURE

President Harold B. Lee “I am not trying to urge you younger men to marry too early.

I think therein is one of the hazards of today’s living.

We don’t want a young man to think of marriage until he is able to take care of a family, to have an institution of his own, to be independent.

He must make sure that he has found the girl of his choice, they have gone together long enough that they know each other, and that they know each other’s faults and they still love each other.

I have said to the mission presidents (some of whom have been reported to us as saying to missionaries, ‘Now, if you are not married in six months, you are a failure as a missionary’), ‘Don’t you ever say that to one of your missionaries.

Maybe in six months they will not have found a wife; and if they take you seriously, they may rush into a marriage that will be wrong for them.’ “Please don’t misunderstand what we are saying; but, brethren, think more seriously about the obligations of marriage for those who bear the holy priesthood at a time when marriage should be the expectation of every man who understands the responsibility; for remember, brethren, that only those who enter into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage in the temple for time and eternity, only those will have the exaltation in the celestial kingdom.

That is what the Lord tells us” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1973, 120; or Ensign, Jan. 1974, 100).

Church Bulletin “When full-time missionaries return home, they should be counseled concerning such matters as continuing their education or employment, strengthening family relationships, participating actively in the Church, paying tithes and offerings, and preparing for temple marriage.

It is unwise, however, to ‘recommend that missionaries be married within a specific time. The decision to marry is so important that it should be made only after the most prayerful and careful consideration by the individual.’

(Mission President’s Handbook [31153], 1990, p. 23)” (Bulletin, 1993, no. 1, 2).

- President Harold B. Lee