It's standard for boys growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) to receive certain priesthood offices at defined age milestones.
How does ordination to priesthood offices work for male converts who are already above the "standard" ages for ordination?
- Do they just not receive the offices that they "missed"? In other words, a 25-year-old convert will never receive any priesthood office but an 18-year-old one will become an Elder since 18 is the age of ordination to Elder. Similarly, a 17-year-old will receive no ordination upon conversion (since he missed the window to become a Priest at 16) but will become an Elder at 18.
- Do they receive the offices immediately (e.g. a convert over 18 would receive Deacon, Teacher, Priest, and Elder all in one marathon ordination session on the day he converts)?
- Do they receive the offices gradually over a period of months or years as they mature in the faith, earning promotions? If so, are these promotions based on a standard time-in-grade (e.g. a newly converted adult Deacon will become a Teacher after six weeks of being a good Deacon and staying out of trouble), or is advancement based on personal/individualized spiritual progression (so one convert might blast up the ranks in a few weeks while another might still be working toward Teacher years after he converted).
I'm mostly interested in how it is actually done in practice, either official guidelines or informal "this is how we do it" standards. I can't imagine that a 50-year-old former Catholic would be ordained to the bottom-most office (Deacon) and then spend the next two years hanging out with 12 and 13 year old boys in the Deacons' Quorum (or would he?).
If there are formal rules or commandments on exactly when converts receive each office that are generally followed closely, I will accept that as an answer.
