A number of missions will NOT require suit coats, so all the boys will have to buy are a bunch of nice dark colored Docker slacks! Que cool !!

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/mormon-missionaries-hot-climates-no-longer-suits-article-1.2280315

That's not new for a lot of tropical missions. Other than in the MTC, I think I wore a suit jacket twice on my mission, both times to mission conferences.

We wore short-sleeved white shirts, dark slacks and ties.

I took 2 suits with me to Brasil, but like East Coast Exmo, seldom wore the jacket even to church meetings. We did take them to conferences but since there was no A/C in Brasil in those days, we weren't required to wear them in the conference.

Our mission president never ever was seen without his coat on, but I'm not sure why he didn't insist that we wear suit jackets. He was really fussy about other rules.

why couldnt they officially do this 20 years ago? I had to get a suit for MTC and it took it with me to Venezuela and only wore it once or twice. what a waste....

Yeah and when you die you can't even be buried in your suit.

Oh no!!! My stock shares in Mr. Mac are falling. Sell ! sell!

I recall walking down the road from Mexican Hat to Monument Valley with our coats draped over our arms in mid summer. We had to carry them even in the heat, on the res. We would snag our pants crossing barb wire fences. Tried to wear small hats to keep the sun off but nope ! That got shot down from on high. The generation before us had got to wear levi pants and a white shirt.

Kerry Davis, from my Las Vegas 2nd ward cohort got called to the SW Indian mission, and had not only Levis on his list, but a saddle and a sleeping bag.

I never heard another word from Kerry after he left, in early 1965...

Grew up in the 2nd ward about a decade later. Know quite a few Davis kids. Not Kerry though.

Those would have been Sam & Marva's kids, kitty corner across from chaple. Who was your bishop?

That chapel was torn down for the freeway when I was in the ward. Lofgren was the bishop.

Sam and Marva's son Bob was bishop after that.

Samuel Davis was my bishop. We moved next door to him in 1953, on 11th St., just north of Bonanza. Then they moved to the 9th St. house. There oldest (living) son was Robert, a few years younger than me.

When they moved out, the Olenslagers bought their house. Their son, Brent, was Robert Davis's age. I think their daughter was Marla...

The bishop who sent me off on my mission was bishop Worthen. The young lady who dear John'd me was one of Peter Stewart's daughters.

My mom sent me word about the "decommissioning" of the old 2nd ward chapel, with the added frill that the church was selling off the interior contents to those who wanted a souvenir. I have a lot of fond memories of that building.

And you doubted that this wonderful church was led by a living prophet?

FWIW & IIRC--the elders who visited me in 1979 wore dark slacks, short-sleeve white shirts, and ties, but no coats. They were on bicycles in Memphis, TN, in the warmer season. Don't remember the exact month.

Same goes for the couple I saw in Duarte (or maybe Covina), CA in 2001 and the few I've spotted in the NW Phoenix AZ area in the last year or two. All were on bikes.

Seeing the ones in CA reminded me of the ones in Memphis years before, and next thing I was googling "Mormon Missionaries" and found this board! Thanks, guys....

I was supposed to wear stockings on my mission but in the warm south of France I just wore long skirts and knee highs. Nobody knew the difference and I was a heck of a lot more comfortable than if I'd worn pantyhose. The locals, by the way, thought we were nuts for wearing stockings in summer.

Oh my heck! New revelation!!!! The prophets speak !!!

Leading and guiding the crutch with such.... hindsight !!

"conservative hairstyle... relatively short and evenly tapered on the top, back and sides."

Every Elder serving in my west coast location is rocking the Robin Thicke and Justin Beiber style haircuts - heavily gelled long on the top with short (nearly shaved) sides and back. I think 90's bowl cuts are coming back.

I have hair that's curly and near-impossible to part (it's like a half-white 'fro if you can envision such a thing).

My solution, since I was in my teens, was to just shave it with clippers to the 1 or 2 markings on the clipper guards.

My MTC bish was deeply unpleased about it, as was my first mission president. They suggested I grow it out, gel/pomade it into compliance, adn part it. I told them both that that wasn't going to happen (I have little fashion sense, and what little I have does not make itself available to hair styling).

Maybe to make you the "Napoleon Dynamite" for your mission. Whoooo, that was close. http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/napoleon-dynamite/images/17848959/title/napoleon-dynamite-screencap

Elderolddog,
What do you suppose happened to Kerry? Is he one of those missionaries who disappeared and the church was mum about it? Or did he take his saddle and sleeping bag and say adios?