You've probably seen pairs of nicely dressed young men or young women with black name tags walking around your neighborhood or city. They may have even knocked on your front door and asked to share a message about Jesus Christ. Those young men and young women want to share messages of Jesus Christ because they are serving as representatives of Him, as His missionaries. So what do missionaries do, and why do they do it? Mormons--properly referred to as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--have sent missionaries to teach about Jesus Christ since the Church was organized in 1830. But they weren't the first ones to come up with the idea. Missionaries have been teaching about Jesus Christ for about as long as people have lived on the earth and long before Christ Himself was born. More than 2,000 years before Jesus was born to Mary, the prophet Noah taught people about Christ, inviting them to be baptized in His name and follow His teachings. Unfortunately, it didn't go very well. The people didn't listen to Noah, and God flooded the earth because of their wickedness. That didn't stop missionaries from testifying, though. Isaiah taught all about the coming of the Redeemer 700 years before He would actually come. And then after Jesus came--ministering, teaching, and atoning for the sins of the world--His Apostles continued to remind and invite people to follow His teachings. So it's really no wonder we continue the practice of missionary work today. The first missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was Samuel Smith. He was called to be a missionary by his brother, the Prophet Joseph Smith, just after the Church was organized. In the almost 200 years since Samuel served as a missionary, the Lord has called and assigned over one million men and women in the Church to teach and help people all over the world. Missionaries are regular members of the Church. They don't have formal ministry training, just a few weeks in missionary training centers, commonly referred to as MTCs. Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ are unpaid, full-time volunteers. Most missionaries are single people under the age of 25. Older, typically retired married couples can also serve missions, as can single women. Missionaries are sent only to countries where governments allow the Church to operate. There are about 400 missions around the world, with a dedicated mature couple serving as mission leaders in each one. Missionaries do not request their area of assignment and do not know in advance if they will be required to learn a new language. Missionaries for the Church serve because they love God and their fellowman. They sincerely believe God loves His children and wants them to learn about Him. They want to help people find meaning, purpose, and direction for their lives. They also want to help people feel the joy that comes from keeping God's commandments. Whether they serve in the country they are from or go to a faraway place completely unfamiliar to them, missionaries have the same basic responsibilities to love, serve, teach, and baptize. In the New Testament, Jesus Himself commanded, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The intent is for all people everywhere to have an opportunity to learn about Christ and follow His example of faith and baptism. Because God loves all His children, He sent His Son to die for all mankind. God wants everyone to know that. People deserve to know that. And they deserve to know that because He did that, everyone can live with God and Jesus again if they follow His commandments. Missionaries have been teaching those things to people, from thousands of years before Christ was born, all the way to today. Missionary work and why we do it. Now you know.