Mormon missionary Tinney values intangible rewards of service

“Gen-Z,” those young adults born between 1990 and the first few years of the 21st century, get a pretty bad rap these days.

Words like “self-indulgent,” “self-involved,” and “lazy” get thrown around a lot.

Older generations may have used the same adjectives to describe younger people since the days of Aristotle, but Andrew Tinney defies the stereotypes.

Tinney, who lives in Hertford, returned two weeks ago from a two-year mission to the Arkansas Little Rock Mission representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. His mission field covered Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.

He’d saved money for a mission since he decided to go at age 8, paying all his expenses other than airfare during his two-year mission.

Tinney’s faith embraces the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and includes the Book of Mormon and other scriptures. The Church sends missionaries to various communities within the mission, working the area with an assigned companion.

It was a rigorous life. Tinney said his days began at 6:30 a.m. and ended at 9 p.m., with his time spent in morning scripture study, door-to-door proselyting, and teaching potential converts six days a week.

He said he started his one weekly day “off,” waking up at an indulgent 8 a.m. During his “preparation day,” he allowed time for laundry, housecleaning, grocery shopping, and an hour or two of relaxation.

Then, it was back to work from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. that evening.

Tinney said keeping those admittedly stringent hours was strictly voluntary. Missionaries live in pairs, working unsupervised with only their convictions to keep them on the straight and narrow.

So, what was the payoff? Tinney said it was intangible but real enough for him.

“I increased my relationship with God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, more than I could have done doing anything else,” he said. “I served a mission so I could have that opportunity to grow closer to God.”

Tinney’s church has 65,000 missionaries serving two-year missions worldwide, the majority ages 19-25. Tinney said his greatest joy was watching people accept the gospel and make changes in their life. He recalled a woman he taught who was going through a devastating marital breakup.

“When she started learning about the gospel, it was like the snap of a finger,” Tinney said. “During a difficult time in her life… she found a peace that she had never felt before.”

Tinney said as much as he treasures the time spent on his mission, it’s time to start building his own life. He plans to attend Brigham Young University, where he will work on a degree in religious studies.

His church does not have a paid ministry, so he plans to teach high school and college students in one of the many Latter-day Saint seminaries and institutes.

After his two-year journey, Tinney said he would recommend making the kinds of sacrifices he did for the intangible benefits he received.

“I wanted people to experience the blessing of having all that God has in store for us on the Earth today,” he said. “We can know what we have to do to return to his presence. We can experience the blessings he has in store for us.”