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Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind. We grow old only by deserting our ideals. . . . You are as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair. 

Samuel Ullman 

That we are living in a time of dynamic social, economic, and technological change, the results of which have had and will continue to have a profound and lasting impact, is readily apparent to all of us. 

There appears to be an almost inexorable trend towards complexity and enormity in the size of organizations, both private and public. This tends to increase the distance between the individual, whether employee, customer, or taxpayer, and the top echelons in any organization to which he might belong. In addition, there has been a steady increase in urbanization, resulting in large aggregations of people living and working in megalopolies of awesome proportions. The introduction of automation and cybernetics into ever greater spheres of our working lives has also threatened the security and feeling of self-worth of many people. More and more of us are subject to replacement and redundancy. Finally, there has been a phenomenal increase in the availability and use of sophisticated communication and transportation facilities, the result of which is to bring the rest of the world and its problems literally into our living rooms. 

The above trends are also having considerable impact on the family as an institution. There has been a steady erosion into the traditional province of family functions and sphere of influence. The education and training of youth, for example, is now largely performed by agencies external to the family. Children today also look outside the family for most of their social and recreational activities and work experiences. 

How are we as Latter-day Saints faring under the impact of these changes? More specifically, what is the impact of the modern trends enumerated above on the principle of “Zion-building” or the building of the “Kingdom of God on earth”? 

The literal establishment of “the city Zion, the New Jerusalem,” and “the gathering” of the Saints thereto in preparation for Christ’s Second Coming, were doctrines of paramount importance and central to the faith of early Latter-day Saints.[1] Much of their behavior, particularly their steadfastness and determination in the face of extraordinary persecution and affliction, cannot be understood without knowledge of these doctrines. Certainly the fulfillment of these goals was uppermost in their minds throughout the Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and pioneer Utah periods of Church history. 

An examination of the Mormon family and its relationship to the principle of Zion-building is an appropriate point of departure for this discussion. A Mormon child in the mid-19th century was reared in a home where all the members were engaged in the common cause of making a livelihood and literally building the kingdom of God on earth. The family in rural Utah probably had received a direct call from President Brigham Young to settle in Sanpete County, Bear Lake County, or whatever; consequently, all the family members knew the purpose and importance of their being in a particular location. They were engaged daily in cooperative endeavors with many of their neighbors, similarly “called,” in order to make the desert “blossom as a rose.” Irrigation projects, land clearing, the establishment of grist mills and procurement of lumber for homes and buildings all required the utmost cooperation among the pioneer settlers. Since there was little money, an individual often labored for no reward other than the knowledge that he was improving the community and that his children, if not he, would reap the benefit of his toil.[2]

The call to preach the Gospel for an extended period also served as a direct outlet for the idealism of young Latter-day Saints. Those who heard and accepted the message of the Restored Gospel were encouraged to participate in the gathering by emigrating to Zion where they could help build the Kingdom under the direction of the Prophet of the Lord. After completing a proselyting mission the young men returned home to resume the temporal work of building Zion. 

Reading the diaries of the pioneer Saints and the history of their era impresses one that they had a deep and abiding conviction of being engaged in a cause greater than themselves—one which provided a focal point for their idealism and all-encompassing channels for its expression. Young people reared in that period appear to have had little difficulty in making the transition through adolescence into adulthood. They were not considered as a separate group with special problems, i.e., “teenagers,” but as an integral part of an important and dynamic enterprise. As they matured their ideal ism was fully engaged in “The Cause” and their transition smoothly made into adulthood and its accompanying responsibilities. Every member of the family was inducted into the labor force when he was old enough to help with the work of the family enterprise. Throughout the entire period young people were constantly made aware of their roles and responsibilities in the primary and continuing task of building the Kingdom of God on earth.

What, we might ask, is the pattern of life experienced by Latter-day Saint youth today? First of all, the Church remains firmly committed to the importance and centrality of the family. Our renewed emphasis on Home Teaching and Family Home Evening attests to this fact. This renewed emphasis also indicates a growing concern over the deterioration and assault on the family by many forces in urban society. 

Unlike their 19th-century forebears, the 20th-century Mormon family probably lives in a city or its metropolitan suburbs. Even Utah, which was once mainly a rural society dominated by agricultural activity, has been largely transformed. The present situation is one of high urbanization and increasing industrialization. Over 75 percent of Utah’s 1,000,000 population now lives along a 100-mile strip called the Wasatch Front, which consists primarily of the adjacent metropolitan areas of Ogden, Salt Lake City, and Provo. Of even greater significance is the fact that less than one-third of the Church membership now resides in Utah. The remainder are scattered throughout America and the entire Free World. Most of these members also reside in urban areas. Many of them are recent converts to the Church and, consequently, without the benefit of a “pioneer heritage,” which at its very least includes a spiritual legacy of the Zion-building concept. Furthermore, unlike most present-day American Mormons with middle-class values and standards of living, large numbers of these newly-converted, non-American Mormons live in restrictive or less well-developed societies—many of them lack the educational, economic, and cultural opportunities most of us take for granted. 

Today’s typical Latter-day Saint will have a hard time maintaining the Zion-building zeal of yesteryear. He probably works in an office or factory located in an urban setting; his wife may work as well. Their children are no longer needed for farm work, unless you can call a quarter-acre of lawn in back of a suburban Salt Lake City home a farm. The family members will most likely belong to several clubs and organizations in their community in addition to the Church and its auxiliaries. Because of the availability and pervasiveness of modern communication and transportation facilities, today’s Mormon family should be knowledgeable (though in fact, few are) about what is happening in their own neighborhood and community and in the rest of the nation and world as well. 

Even though some present-day LDS youth may work on newspaper routes, as baggers at the local supermarket, tending children, or on construction crews during summers while at college, such activity is seldom seen as part of a family enterprise—much less Zion-building activity. Furthermore, the out-of-school activity of these young people ranges across the whole gamut of Church-school-and-community-sponsored events, each with different purposes and publics—and with different types of influences on their lives. 

The exhortations and sermons which the Mormon family receives through out their church attendance and the additional contact which they have with the Church and its members are now a much smaller part of the totality of their range of information, experience, and activity. 

Young members today still have the “iron rod” of the Gospel as an anchor which provides meaning and purpose to their lives in these times of change. And like their 19th-century counterparts they still have the opportunity to render missionary service in a variety of locations throughout the world for specified periods of time. But on their return home it is much more difficult for them to become integrated into adult roles which encompass the same degree of literal Zion-building experience and zeal than it was for their great-grandparents. Even those few who may follow their fathers into the family firm or farming operation can no longer view their work as a kingdom-building activity which is as compelling and all-absorbing as was possible in an earlier era. 

The majority of today’s LDS youth faces a lifetime of employment in one or more large, secular, impersonal, bureaucratic enterprises, whose primary purposes are the maximization of profits, organizational maintenance, and efficiency of operations. While this is undoubtedly not as bleak as it sounds, and for some this type of employment offers adequate opportunity and rewards, it is difficult to visualize anyone receiving the same degree of inspiration and spiritual uplift—or feeling the compelling sense of mission and purpose—from working in huge modern enterprises as did those pioneers who colonized St. George, Manti, Colonia Dublan, and Cardston. Most employment today taps little religious and social idealism and provides even less identification with Zion-building. (The participation of Jews in the building of the modern state of Israel is a notable exception.)

We cannot and should not attempt to return to a romantic Arcadia of yesteryear—to the pattern of rural life experienced by the 19th-century Mormon pioneers. We all enjoy—and rightly so—the comforts and conveniences which are the fruits of industrialization, urbanization, and “progress.” But the entire lifelong energies of the pioneer Saints were, of necessity or design, directly focused on their religious goals. There was little distinction between their temporal and spiritual activities; their temporal activities were very much a part of and supportive of their spiritual activities, and were directly focused on building Zion preparatory to the Second Coming of Christ. 

One of the most striking changes in the pattern of life experienced by 20th-century Latter-day Saints, as compared with our 19th-century predecessors, is the transformation of our concept of Zion. Whereas it was once thought of as encompassing all temporal (i.e., economic and social) and spiritual elements in a unified whole and was expressed in terms of concrete programs of colonization and community building in the relative seclusion of the valleys of the mountains, this is no longer the case. It is now thought of by many church members (or at least appears to be) as being strictly a religious or spiritual principle. While our concept of Zion may still be the same today as when first espoused by the Prophet Joseph Smith, the world in which we live has undergone vast and fundamental changes from that which existed in his day. We now live in a pluralistic society which has undergone a dramatic process of secularization. Yesterday’s Zion is now merely one of fifty American States. Consequently, the immediacy and importance of Zion-building to individual Latter-day Saints has become increasingly re mote; and our opportunity and ability as a Church to carry it out has become correspondingly more difficult. 

The fascinating story of the decline of the “Great Basin Kingdom” and the assimilation of the Mormon Commonwealth into the larger American society has been brilliantly told by Leonard J. Arrington.[3] One of the con sequences of this transformation, according to President Joseph Fielding Smith, has been the decline of the principle of cooperation among our membership. 

Today it is largely the case, that a man who gives his time even though it be in some labor from which he is bound to receive his portion of the reward, feels that he must receive some monetary remuneration for the time he spends. And thus, due to the modern labor conditions and the closer contact with the outside world, with all its customs, theories and established institutions, this excellent and neighborly custom of co-operation, which existed in the days of President Brigham Young, has almost entirely passed away.[4]

Today we seem to have to work at creating a pale shadow of this former substance; and we do so in the face of an increasing number of obstacles and handicaps. Our proliferation of activities and creation of numerous auxiliaries appear to be, in part, an attempt to artificially recreate the cli mate and conditions which were once experienced more directly by our progenitors. This response is perhaps necessary and inevitable, given changed circumstances, including loss of the isolation, homogeneity, and rural char acter of Zion. Nevertheless, one wonders whether our present efforts and programs are adequate and suitable in meeting today’s challenges. One observes the rising indices of delinquency and deviant behavior exhibited by our own youth as well as by their non-member peers, and by the burgeoning catalog of social ills clearly evident around us, both at home and abroad.[5]

Should we limit ourselves to preaching against the all too visible effects of today’s serious problems, or do we also need to work at eliminating the underlying causes? If our ideals and divinely inspired precepts for living in these latter days are in danger of being blunted and weakened through our absorption into secular, pluralistic societies undergoing momentous change, perhaps it is time to take stock of our position. Do our present patterns of social and economic life in affluent America enable us to maintain our vitality and dynamism—and identity as a “peculiar people”—and at the same time effectively contribute to the achievement of our ultimate goals as Latter-day Saints? Could we improve our performance in achieving these goals, both individually and collectively, by modifying in any way our exist ing social, economic, or other relationships? 

For example, are there any alternative approaches or paths open to Latter-day Saints which might be used to harmonize our secular lives more closely with the religious concept of Zion-building than is now possible through a short period of missionary service followed by “millions of meetings”? Are there activities which could offer our youth more productive and challenging alternatives through which they might develop and express their idealism and enthusiasm than through civil disobedience, “pot,” and spynets? Are there activities more substantial than “make-work projects” and “supervised recreation” available to our youth? Are there suitable alternatives through which young Latter-day Saints can make meaningful contributions to the solution of some of the pressing economic and social problems of our day? And could not the underlying foundation for such endeavors be of sufficient breadth and scope so as to offer comparable experiences to LDS youth, whether they live in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris or Melbourne? 

Of course, the possibilities for Kingdom-building in the physical sense, i.e., the ability of Latter-day Saints to build communities and create a society in Western America which encompasses more humane, social and economic relationships than exist in the larger secular society, may well have ended with the “closing of the frontier.” It is entirely possible that our goals today are meant to be those of conserving individual morality and the maintenance of spiritual testimonies in a declining society, and not meant to include those of remaking society on a more Utopian model of Zion. If this is the case, then the primary emphasis on our own internal group affairs and withdrawal from the larger society and its problems (other than for such activity as is necessary to earn a livelihood) in anticipation of the events long foretold by the prophets, is the proper course. If, on the other hand, there is still good reason for us to continue the temporal work of Zion-building as we once did in our heroic period, then the search for opportunities of service for our youth is both necessary and desirable. 

Latter-day Saints do, of course, have many opportunities to serve in common experiences of inestimable value. One of the most unique features of the Church is the opportunity it affords the members to continually work together in many different capacities and by so doing to foster a strong sense of community and solidarity. Much of this activity today, however, is limited to the spiritual realm, and within the parameters of a member’s relationship to his ward or branch as an ecclesiastical and social unit. There is concern for the temporal welfare of the individual member within a ward, but there is little extension of this to the larger community, e.g., the secular pursuits of members and their relationship to the concept of Zion-building. 

Missionary work offers to those who participate a tremendous opportunity to serve and to grow, in addition to the direct benefits of proselytizing new members. The building-missionary program is another form of activity open to a limited number of young people. Although less publicized, it has been quite successful in tapping the idealism of youth as well as fostering in a direct sense the notion of Zion-building. This program has been particularly effective in offering young men, some unable to fulfill a proselyting mission, an opportunity to serve at a time when they needed a healthy outlet for their energy and enthusiasm. It has been especially successful in foreign areas such as the South Pacific and Europe.[6] In both proselyting and build ing-missionary activity the young people are engaged in activities which can be directly ascribed as Zion-building; their idealism and enthusiasm are focused and channeled into action programs of considerable importance and lasting value. 

Unfortunately, the return or release of these youth leads them many times back into secular activities and pursuits which no longer elicit any idealism or selflessness. For many returned missionaries the decompression to life at home is a traumatic experience. Some are let down and thoroughly disillusioned when they compare the example of the Savior—whose precepts they have been attempting to live and expound for several years—with the seeming inconsistencies and hypocrisy which they encounter in the lives of their co-religionists as well as the “Gentiles.” There appears to be an aura of purposelessness and materialism which penetrates even the lives of their families and friends. (It is rather incongruous for the returned missionary to contrast the picture of the suburban middle-class American Mormon—with his beautiful home, two-car garage, color TV, boat, swimming pool, and mountain cabin—with that of an impoverished Indian member in Central or South America or with the young British or European Saint who lacks an opportunity for higher education because of the restrictive nature of his country’s educational system.) 

A considerable number, perhaps the majority, of returned missionaries soon lose their idealism and sense of immediacy and closeness to “the work of the ministry.” Their senses are dulled by the mesmerizing tempo and enticing attractions of affluent suburban living—and the accompanying struggle necessary to keep up with or ahead of the Joneses. In either case their firsthand experience with Zion-building soon fades into the memories of missionary reunions and Treasures of Truth books. The idealistic nurture they receive henceforth accrues only from routine church activity. It is usually nominal and must be balanced against the increasing weight of corrosive forces pressing in upon them in their secular affluent communities. (For some, more direct calls to church service as mission presidents, building missionaries, etc., may follow in later life, and for a limited number seminary and institute teaching offers an outlet for their continued full-time service.) 

At present, there are no Church-sponsored organizations or outlets on the campuses of institutions of higher education attended by LDS youth (including BYU) to help our young people focus their idealism and desire to serve on meaningful, constructive Zion-building activities. While the nascent LDS Student Association is attempting to meet the needs of LDS college students in the social and cultural realm, there has not been an indication thus far that these functions will be expanded to include Zion-building action programs in the socio-economic realm. There is, unfortunately, no LDS analogue (domestic or foreign) to the Cornell-Brazil Project in which LDS students can participate.[7]

The fading of what was once a graphic vision of the New Jerusalem (Utopia) on this earth and the demise of specific economic development programs to bring it into existence may not appear to be too great a loss to some Latter-day Saints in affluent, sophisticated 20th-century America. But without such vision clearly before our youth in these times of international crisis, pervasive moral decline, and social indifference—and without constructive ways for them to exercise their faith and to engage their idealism and enthusiasm in remaking the existing world in that image—they and the rest of their generation are in danger of becoming frustrated, disenchanted, and rebellious. Or, at the other extreme, they may become very materialistic, self-seeking and apathetic. Examples of both types can be found in the Church today. Preachment of moral purity unless followed by individual morality and programs of social betterment smacks of hypocrisy. And young people today are quick to compare the lives and social deeds of their elders with their high-sounding moral rhetoric. 

Zion-Building in the 20^th Century

Some of the LDS youth who have had their horizons broadened and latent idealism awakened through missionary service (plus those who are similarly motivated through other experiences or circumstances) gravitate to professions which are oriented toward progress, development, and improvement. This is true of many returned missionaries who are especially aware of and concerned about the problems and needs of members of the Church in those areas in which they have labored. These missionaries have seen first hand how new members of the Church, including large numbers of youth, accept the exhilarating ideas of progress and a better way of life as set forth in the Gospel plan and try to implement their new-found hopes and desires in the society in which they live. They see also how these new members are often faced with hardships, frustrations, and bitter disappointment which may seem insurmountable, since they, without help, cannot resolve the problems which confront them. The society in which they live usually does not share their vision; it does not provide them with opportunities for self-improvement. Quite often it may treat them as an unpopular minority with all the handicaps which this implies. 

Many missionaries feel a love and concern for these people, and this often impels them to choose occupations which will prepare them to help resolve such problems. While their initial concern may be for the members of the Church in the mission in which they served, they soon become aware that many of these same problems are faced by members of the Church all around the world; that the problems of Mexico and South America have much in common with the problems in England and New Zealand (and even in America). 

As these young Latter-day Saints, many of them specializing in those fields which will prepare them to help people in underdeveloped areas of the world, work and prepare in their chosen fields, and as they consider the implementation of the things which they are learning, an increased desire emerges to be of assistance to our own members in less-developed areas. All of this presents them with a problem: They would like to be helpful but they do not know how to go about it. Practically speaking, there appears to be no place within the Church for them to utilize their professional skills, talents, and dedication in providing assistance to our own members in less well-developed areas. The only avenues presently open to them appear to be government-sponsored assistance programs (e.g., AID, Peace Corps, VISTA, Job Corps, etc), private or (non-LDS) church-related organizations (e.g., International Voluntary Service, American Friends Service Committee, World Education Incorporated, etc.) and college- or university-related programs. The work of many of these organizations may benefit Church members in their particular areas as part of the larger or specific groups for whom the programs are designed to assist, but there is no comparable program or agency which offers similar opportunities for service among Latter-day Saints. 

The question raised is whether the Church can or should play any significant role today in tapping and helping to channel the idealism, energy, and expertise of our youth in tackling the problems faced by our own members (not to speak of their neighbors) in the realm of educational, economic, and social development, wherever they happen to live, as was done extensively by our 19th-century progenitors in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Utah? In asking this question I am not in any way implying that the Church is not already doing a great deal to help our less fortunate members. We have the Indian Student Placement Plan, the Welfare Plan, and the extensive educational programs in several areas of the world. The point is that most of the existing programs do not reach the hundreds of thousands of new Church members who have joined the Church outside of America in the last decade. Few of these new members in foreign lands are in a position to take advantage of BYU or the benefits of Welfare Square. Emigration to America, once a natural and inevitable step in missionary work, is no longer the solution either, due to changes in Church policy and U. S. immigration laws. Zion now encompasses the whole world and Church members abroad are being encouraged to remain at home and help build up the Church in their native lands. Recent changes in U. S. immigration policy have removed the national quotas of former years and in their stead placed educational and skill qualifications designed to attract the most desirable emigrants regardless of their country of origin. 

Foreign Church members possessing low educational and skill levels can no longer look to America as an unqualified “land of opportunity” combining both social and economic advancement to all comers. Regardless of their personal desires they must now remain at home until such time as their own nations or the Church provide them with sufficient educational facilities and opportunities to enable them to surmount these new immigration barriers. Without such assistance they may constitute a growing body of second-class members of the Church when compared to North American members with our middle-class values, standard of living, and educational opportunities. 

The existence of thousands of Latter-day Saints who are not middle class Americans, having access to the educational and other benefits which we enjoy, would seem to call for new programs to meet their needs based on bold thinking. What are some of the possibilities? A program or programs might be designed: 

1. To foster the principles of cooperation as practiced by the Saints in the 19th century and to help recreate and amplify the Zion-building concept in the minds and hearts of our membership—and particularly our youth—through meaningful firsthand development experience among our own members. 

2. To provide a healthy, socially desirable and very useful outlet for the energy and idealism of our youth, exercised through their direct participation in worthwhile projects. 

3. To make a substantial contribution toward helping our less fortunate members to obtain the blessings and benefits of progress and self-improvement in their lives—and in their own societies—so that they too might enjoy a better life in the present as well as eternally.

As an example, it might be feasible to create a Mormon Peace Corps or LDS Development Teams, composed of teachers, doctors and nurses, economists, agronomists, businessmen, cooperative specialists, community developers, etc., which could work with the Indian Saints in Peru and Guatemala, or the members in Brazil and the Philippines for an extended period of time, helping them to improve their economic and social conditions. Perhaps we could even help some of our members colonize the virgin lands now being opened by the governments of several Latin American nations by utilizing principles of cooperation developed in Pioneer Utah. 

LDS schools might be designed and operated as part of a comprehensive and integrated Church program encompassing missionary work, educational uplift, and economic and social development. Perhaps an “Agricultural Institute” could be established in Latin America to provide education and vocational training for young members living in rural areas.[8]

In many of these same countries there are large numbers of Latter-day Saints living in urban areas. There is also considerable on-going migration from the rural areas into the cities. Secondary-vocational schools coupled with a program of small business development assistance, could make a real contribution toward improving the economic opportunities of young urban Latter-day Saints. 

Even in Great Britain and Western Europe there are thousands of young Latter-day Saints lacking opportunities for higher education and technical training due to the restrictive nature of their national systems of education. The establishment of several LDS colleges or educational and vocational guidance centers in strategic locations could help these young people immeasurably to improve their economic and social opportunities.[9]

The development of substantive education-social action programs for LDS college students under the auspices of the LDS Student Association or other groups, on the model of the Cornell-Brazil Project, also offers a means of involving our youth in a cause greater than themselves. Such programs, if tied into an international LDS development scheme, could provide LDS youth with constructive and desirable outlets for their energy and enthusiasm. They would also help our youth overcome their ethnocentric tendencies and give them a world view and better understanding of the Restored Gospel as it transcends national and cultural boundaries. 

The above examples are, of course, only a few of many possible approaches to the educational, economic, and social problems faced by Latter day Saints in underdeveloped countries. The development of creative solutions to each of them could also include opportunities for service to Church members with requisite skills. With a little thought many more ways of assisting members in these countries could be devised, ways which could at the same time enable greater numbers of young Latter-day Saints than is presently possible to energize their idealism through participation in a variety of programs of Zion-building. 

What better way could there be to demonstrate that the Gospel of Christ, as represented through His Restored Church, is a Gospel of hope and a way of life; that we are striving to fulfill the commandment of the Savior to love our neighbors as ourselves by going beyond mere preachment and platitude? What better way to demonstrate a constructive and viable alternative to the revolutionary “isms” being propounded as the panacea to the peoples of the underdeveloped nations of the world? What better way to enlist the support and channel the idealism of a generation of young people reared in an age of uncertainty, affluence, and materialism; an age where one’s identity is lost among the numbers of an IBM card or in a multiversity, and for which the only recourse for many seems to be protest marches and LSD. LDS youth are indeed fortunate to have their testimonies of the Gospel as an anchor in these troubled times. But they too are subject to the same dehumanizing forces as their non-member peers and are in equal need of additional constructive outlets for their idealism. A renewed emphasis on Zion-building could offer one such outlet.

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[1] The location of the City of Zion was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith in July 1831. The event is recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 57. 

[2] Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 13th Edition, 1953), pp. 566-567, 569.

[3] Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter day Saints, 1830-1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958). 

[4] Smith, pp. 569-570.

[5] “Youth Arrests Soar 60% in Decade,” Salt Lake Tribune, July 28, 1963. Also documented on KUTV’s special report on the use of drugs in Utah, aired during the summer and fall of 1967.

[6] [Editor’s Note: This footnote in the PDF is an asterisk. Every footnote after this is numbered differently than in the PDF.]The building missionary program has been terminated since this paper was written—in a complete reorganization of the church building program.

[7] The Cornell-Brazil Project is a program of education and social action developed for students attending Cornell University by the Cornell United Religious Work (CURW). Each year a selected group of students undertake language and other relevant studies during the academic year in preparation for a summer project of social action and field experience in a community located in the northeast of Brazil. They spend the entire summer gaining insight into the problems of the indigenous people and engaging in a specific development or research project. Alter they return to Cornell they have an additional seminar to evaluate the summer’s experience. Many of these students, upon the completion of their college training, accept full-time employment and undertake careers which will enable them to utilize their skills in additional Zion-type building activities.

[8] For a fuller exposition of the educational needs of LDS youth abroad and some possible solutions see Gary B. Hansen, “Vocational Guidance: A New Role for the Church Educational System,” unpublished manuscript, January 1967, 18 pp. 

[9] Ibid.