Will young adults soon set new Latter-day Saint missionary record?
Story submitted by: Don McAreavy
June 22, 2026
By Tad Walch,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will soon have more missionaries than ever before.
Over 87,000 church members are serving full-time missions, including young service missionaries and full-time senior teaching missionaries, President Dallin H. Oaks reported Saturday.
The previous record of 88,000 was set during 2014.
“In coming weeks, we will have the largest number of full-time missionaries in the church’s history,” President Oaks said during the annual seminar for new mission leaders at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.
In 2014, the church reached 85,147 full-time teaching missionaries alone when a surge of new young adults responded after leaders lowered the age of mission eligibility to 18 for men and 19 for women.
The church’s missionary success already has reached historic new heights after being upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. The church announced in April that it had 385,490 converts in 2025, shattering the previous record set in 1990.
'They are missionaries for the LDS Church - too bad they are not missionaries for Jesus.'
