From campus to mission field: Missionary age impacts wards and young people

"I have to clear all mission papers with home wards; I've been on the phone all evening with bishops, and they've said they (those girls) are not the only ones they've talked to," Wasden said.

President Monson's announcement clearly sparked a sense of excitement and made the work of missionaries even more urgent, Wasden said. He also believes it will help young people, young men especially, carry their momentum from high school seminary classes out into the mission field.

"It's going to be interesting for college," Wasden said. "From campuses to mission fields, it's going to change the patterns of who's in school and who is not."

Jenessa Nielsen, 19, attended the conference session where President Monson made the announcement with her best friends. Afterwards the friends looked at each other and knew they would be going on missions soon.

"I feel like my whole life has been changed, this has changed everything," Nielsen said. "I'm hoping to go out in May or June, right after school gets out, I just want to get out there."

The feeling was contagious. So was the feeling of being part of something so many are considering special, which Moore related to his family.

"He made the comment a little while into the meeting," his mother Melissa said. "'I'm so grateful as a family we got to watch conference and that we got to hear that. We actually heard the prophet announce it. For him he knew that it was an exciting moment … to actually be in the group to benefit from it."