Mormon college students deserve a round of applause

No matter what school they go to, mormon college students are pretty great. 

You thought you were poor as a college student? well mormons are just as poor, but they give 10% of all their earnings as a tithe. Mormons fast 2 meals a month and donate the money they would have spent on those meals to the poor and needy around the world. 

you thought you were swamped and busy as a college student,

but imagine throwing in 3 hours of church every sunday, not including meetings beforehand and afterward if you're in a leadership position. And in the mormons have 'callings' in church, which are basically just jobs. for example we have groups called 'Elders Quorum' and 'Relief Society' for men and women respectively. these groups hold activities and meetings outside of church, and everyone in the group has specific duties to perform. each member of the group has a'calling' president, their counselors, activity committee, teachers, etc etc. It's a lot of work. 

now let's explore the obligations of college mormons outside of their weekly Sunday church meetings:

mormons are also asked to give a few hours each month 'visiting teaching' which means they go to the home of someone else in the congregation and share a spiritual thought, and then help the family or individual out in any way that they can. sometimes in college just a plate of brownies is the perfect thing for the month, but other times it's volunteering your time and car to take your friend to the store or to her storage unit. It takes a lot of time and effort. 

most mormon college congregations have a sunday night activity where everyone comes together to socialize, eat treats and then hear a spiritual message, there's another hour. and all mormons are encouraged to have periods of daily reflection and scripture study. there is no recommended time limit, but prayer, reading scriptures, and writing in your journal are common activities and none of those have an average time.

mormons in college are expected to take religion classes if they are offered by the school, and if your college doesn't offer religion classes, you are encouraged to participate in the Institute program, which is a religion class once a week at a local church building so that there is always an opportunity for spiritual learning in your education. 

mormons take turns speaking in their services, sometimes it's your specific responsibilty to teach in sunday school or in other meetings weekly, but other times the Bishop (He's like a Priest, he leads the local congregations) specifically asks you to speak in front of the entire congregation during our Sacrament Meeting. these congregations can be anywhere from 10-500 people, and usually take at least 2 hours to plan ahead of time. nerve-wracking is right.

one night a week (usually mondays), mormons gather with the families for a 'Family Night' which includes some sort of spiritual thought and a wholesome activity. college students are not exempt from this because they live away from home. the college congregations are separated into groups which become your pseudo family for the semester, and every monday night you spend an hour or more with them, talking and sharing and becoming better friends so you can have people to count on - like a family. 

some mormons participate in congregational choirs, and if they go to a church school, there is a 90 minute devotional every week.

twice a year the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a general conference for its members, so mormons spend an entire weekend listening to their leaders speak. that's 2-12 hours, depending on how many sessions you watch. 

many mormons serve missions, which means they (as 18-25 year olds, the prime college age) forgo 18-24 months of schooling and give 100% of their time to missionary work. when they get home, they're 2 years behind in school, and they're fine with it. talk about sacrifice!

If a mormon college student was keeping up with all of their church responsibilities, they would be contributing about 13 hours a week solely to church activities and obligations, and that's not counting any irregular things like planning over-night trips or activities with other members of committees, or serving missions during college years. 

add 25-30 hours of school, 10-20 hours of work, studying, and a social life to that schedule? there's no time to sleep or eat! 

so the next time you are exhausted and think your life is busy or that you ave too many obligations, find your mormon friend and give 'em a pat on the back, because they are probably super busy, and they love it just because they voluntarily, with no awards or payment.