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johnh, I agree that’s what has happened in too many units, but it’s not the way “The Church” organized it. It actually is directly contrary to the way “Preach My Gospel” and the handbook says it should be done. Personally, it’s important to me to make that distinction, since (the collective) we complain too much about too many things being the fault of “The Church” when, in reality, they are the fault of local culture and actually not in accordance with what “The Church” is trying to do.
Earl Parsons wrote:I think the main reason our retention rates are so low is the huge disconnect between the missionaries and the local members.
Well, it’s a bit difficult to get to know them when they’re constantly being changed around and moved… it’s like a sea of faces… I lose track!
I’ve been thinking more about this announcement in General Conference about the changes for Missionary Service. Especially as it impacts the Sister Missionaries.
A good friend of mine is from South Africa. He has daughters who are preparing for missions. The oldest daughter just got
her missionary call before Christmas. I asked him if she hoped that her assignment would be to South Africa.
He said that South Africa is closed to Sister Missionaries. I said why & he explained that recently two Sister Missionaries were
raped there. This opened up a whole different dimention that I’ve never considered before.
I hope the new missionary assignments are given out with alot of care.
Statistically speaking, if there are more Sister Missionaries in the field, there is a greater chance that more could be raped too.
I hope the Church learned from the experience in South Africa.
Interesting Mike. There were certain areas in New York that sisters were not allowed to serve. I’m sure it is like that in many missions, BUT, Sister Missionaries could get raped in suburbia Provo to…there is no guarantee regardless of where they serve.
It is always dangerous to have young females in homes of complete strangers. But that is the mission field.
cwald is correct; it can happen anywhere. However, there are areas where female missionaries are not allowed to serve, since things like mugging, kidnapping and rape would be more of a probability than just a possibility.
My sense of fear comes when you take the enthusiasm & idealism of youth, who want to participate in missionary work, with the reality of the world as we know it. I don’t know if I would necessarily encourage my daughter to participate. For me, it is not enough to say that it’s the nature of the work. Youth does not often consider the dangers of this world while surrounded by the protection & safety offered by most LDS homes. Mike wrote:My sense of fear comes when you take the enthusiasm & idealism of youth, who want to participate in missionary work, with the reality of the world as we know it. I don’t know if I would necessarily encourage my daughter to participate. For me, it is not enough to say that it’s the nature of the work. Youth does not often consider the dangers of this world while surrounded by the protection & safety offered by most LDS homes.
Yep.
I spent a year in a small area in Brooklyn, called Bedford-Stuy and Brownsville. It is the neighborhood where Mike Tyson grew up. It was referred to as the “Dead Zone” in the mission. It was a hell of ghetto…just terrible. Why did I spend 12 months in this one area?
True story: The Elders who were there before me, got mugged, and one Elder had his face slashed with a razor blade…from his ear to mouth.
They closed down the area for a month…than the mission President called me in. Told me he was looking for a fearless missionary who was the least imposing, least threatening and wise as a serpent with nothing to lose and a “don’t give a damn” attitude…”and cwald, you’re it.”
I spent a year in that area…about 20 square blocks. I loved it. I didn’t care. I would have been a martyr in a new york second…free ride to the CK and all that stuff. Plus, I hated “ministering” so much I just wanted to die and get it over with. I was in hell.
They mid-nighted me into the area…with a brand new greenie from California.
We got the crapped kicked out of us. Got mugged. Got robbed. Had bottle broke over my head…and I loved it.
We spent most of our time working with other churches and working with AIDS, rape, domestic abuse victims and crack addicts.
I saw four murdered bodies. The worse was we came upon a teenage kid, who had got killed for his gold choker and Air Jordans. His feet were lying off the sidewalk into the street. The cop threw a barrier up in front of us…maybe six feet away, and threw a white sheet down on the body. It took about 5 seconds…and the then the sheet just turned red before our eyes…soaked.
Anyway…
I was cocky, arrogant, and had no problem living in the dead zone…within the mission, I was a proud and renown member of the Brooklyn Bad Boys Club…transfers/companions came and went…I stayed…I figured god would protect me and I would finish the mission from hell, and then go home. Or I would get killed and put myself out of my misery and spend the eternities in the celestial kingdom.
Kids are stupid…and they have “faith.” Perhaps a scary combination when you think about it.
By the way…I did write a book about my year in Brooklyn. It’s good. I had several non member friends read it and they LOVED it. Very fascinating, honest and “universal” story of faith and humanity. My family read it and were disgusted and asked me not to publish it.
The manuscript is still sitting on my computer. Someday perhaps.
cwald, that’s very interesting. I would love to read your story. Now put your daughter in the same situation or worse. How would you feel?
Mike wrote:Now put your daughter in the same situation or worse.
How would you feel?
I don’t think there is worse. And they do prohibit sisters from “these” type of areas… But I get your point.
My daughter is leaving for the MTC next month to go to the Berlin, Germany mission. She will serve in the safest areas possible, but she will be in danger just like every other female in a world that doesn’t treat women very well. I know that, and she knows that – but she wants to serve, so she has my blessing – and my prayers. I don’t want her to be hurt, but I also want her to learn to love those who suffer in ways she hasn’t had to suffer in her life. She can’t do that in a truly safe, sheltered environment. As I just described cwald in another thread before reading his comment in this one, she has a tough skin and a soft heart – and I hope she will be OK. If not, she will be doing what she wants and has chosen to do with her eyes wide open (maximizing what she can control and praying for what she can’t) – and that’s about all I can desire as her father.
I have the same concern. We currently have Sister Missionaries in our ward and they came over for dinner this week. They told us about the first experience that missionaries in this mission have, they have a name for it, Fear or Faith or something similar. First the missionaries are paired with their new Sr. companions and they all sing a hymn, while they are singing the Sr. companions hide and the greenies are expected to go find them. The sister we were talking to hated it because she didn’t remember her companion.
Then the missionaries are all sent out to street contact and tract, in the same area every time, an area in central Newark, an area where otherwise only Elders are allowed to serve.
To me it seem like less of a spiritual experience and more like an initiation.
There are areas that sisters aren’t sent to, but sisters and elders can be blinded by faith and get over zealous to the point of leaving common sense behind.
Lowering the age requirement makes this worse, as does the fact that with a huge new group of missionaries coming in, every person currently in the field will be a senior companion, even if they only have a few months of experience. (this was also related to us by the Sisters)
I will be very interested in how the infrastructure holds up with this huge influx of greenies. I know that when my company has done “mass hirings” there is almost always a loss of culture due to an inability to indoctrinate such a large number of people with company philosophy. I believe the Toyota company is another example of this…they grew rapidly due to an overzealous CEO and the result was a large drop in world re-known quality. I would not be shocked to see a few more Elder/Sister relationship issues as these kids who have been hussled off in enthusiastic exuberance fall pray to hormones and homesickness. Hopefully mission presidents are prepared to be a bit more understanding than mine was.
johnh wrote:I would not be shocked to see a few more Elder/Sister relationship issues as these kids who have been hussled off in enthusiastic exuberance fall pray to hormones and homesickness.
Hopefully, the companions prevent this. I know in my mission we wouldn’t even flirt with the sisters. But the sisters also generally looked at us as being immature jocks. Maybe some of that will go away with the age change.Mike wrote:Now put your daughter in the same situation or worse. How would you feel?
I was told at one time that being on a mission was statistically safer than not being on a mission as a young man – of course those statistics (if accurate) probably also include drunk driving and other activities that our LDS young people hopefully don’t participate in.cwald wrote:Kids are stupid…and they have “faith.” Perhaps a scary combination when you think about it.
Young people make great soldiers…and missionaries.
I would guess that the Mission President’s wife will take a bigger role in the Missionary effort as well. This is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.
GBSmith wrote:It’s my understanding that it takes 1-2 years to become a Jehovah’s Witness. The period of instruction for Catholicism is about a year. What I wonder when I see people baptised and then never show up or at best show up 1-2 times in church, is what’s the hurry.
you are right.
D&C 20:37 states all the things a potential member should be manifesting before being baptized.
And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism—All those who(1)humble themselves before God, (2)and desire to be baptized, (3)and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, (4)and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, (5)and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, (6)having a determination to serve him to the end, (7)and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, (
shall be received by baptism into his church. D&C 20:68 states all the things that should happen before someone is even confirmed.
The duty of the members after they are received by baptism.—The elders or priests are to have a sufficient time to expound all things concerning the church of Christ to their understanding,previous to their partaking of the sacrament and being confirmed by the laying on of the hands of the elders, so that all things may be done in order. Apparently that means, pass the baptism interview and show up on Sunday to be confirmed.
But it shouldn’t mean that. It’s pretty clear that it is intended to be a process, not an event. People should be baptized because they want to be, not because we want them to be. I think it has been lost in translation somewhere, where 2 weeks at church plus a baptism commitment = winning in ward council meeting.
If someone works at it willingly for a few months at least, keeps coming back, doesn’t need to be dragged out to church every Sunday, they are probably committed. Active investigators lead to retention.
The first time I was called to be a Ward Mission Leader was in the YSA ward many moons ago. I was told after being set apart that I was to make arrangements for the baptism of a young Filipino woman that the Missionaries had committed. So, a few days later we picked her up at her house, she clearly had no idea what was going on, but she had passed the interview, thought the Elders were hot, and wore her best miniskirt and heels. She never turned up at Church, wouldn’t return any calls or invites, didn’t accept offers to drive her to church, and a year later when the RS finally was able to get in the house, she had a raging case of pregnancy, was unwed, and happily oblivious to the shock the RS sisters were experiencing.
She had no clue what she was doing, but there was a notch in the belt of another convert baptism. I still feel bad about it because I knew full well she wasn’t ready and had no clue, and that was very apparent to me, meeting her for the first time in the 10 minutes it took to drive from her house to the Stake Center.
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