On the nature of prestige

So i think most members of the church would, if asked, initially say that all of the missions of the church are of equal prestige, but if pressed (“No, really?”), they’d cave and admit that there’s a hierarchy, at least for those missionaries being assigned from the United States and Canada. F’rex, Europe is more prestigious than North America, with maybe carve-outs for Québec (foreign language!) or the United Kingdom (maybe especially England). And within the United States, even, there’s probably a difference between, say, New England (higher prestige) and California (lower prestige, even if only because there are just so many missions in California), assigned language, and so on—and the the jello belt is particularly, um, let us just say looked askance at.

TL;DR: It’s a little complicated, but actually mostly straightforward.

Except.

So my oldest child recently received a mission call, which included an assignment to a Utah mission. The reaction from most of the Mormons who have heard this assignment have been what Mormons might well expect—just that barest little decisecond catch before offering congratulations.

However: I’m in a private social media group made up of parents of kids who graduated high school the same year as my oldest. Among them—non-Mormons all, it’s important to note for the story—as well as among all the other non-Mormons who’ve heard about her assignment, it’s been rather different: No hesitation at all, just straight-up congratulations, often with a ”It’s a beautiful area, she’ll love it!” or “That’s on my bucket list!” or, in one interesting case, someone saying that her (non-Mormon) in-laws live nearby, and that she’s always been jealous of them for living there.

Footnote: The Utah missions are often the highest-baptizing in the world, so we get into a prestige vs. success argument. Note to self: There’s probably some fruitful thinking about othering and exoticism related to this…