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We had the missionaries visit a friend of ours in the ward. They wanted to show the missionaries a gun they had, since the missionary was a big hunter. The missionaries said there are 2 things they can’t hold while on their mission:
1) Guns
2) Babies
😯 Maybe that is just our mission here, but we were surprised they can’t hold babies.
Any guesses why that might be?
Are there other fun missionary rules you know about you want to share?
The utter terror that crosses their face when they realize that your husband isn’t home and you’ve just invited them in. The guns thing has been around for a long time. The babies thing is codified in the white bible (missionary rule book). Debbie Downer time:
Quote:The following guidelines apply to all missionaries, regardless of age or sex.
Because of increasing legal complexities, be extremely careful around children. If charges of inappropriate behavior are made, you may find yourself involved in a lengthy court case. If you are found guilty, you could face a substantial jail sentence and Church disciplinary action.
As in all other relationships, never be alone with a child. Avoid any behavior that could be misunderstood or could appear to be inappropriate, including tickling, changing diapers, holding children, and allowing children to sit on your lap. Never babysit children of any age.
This isn’t a worldwide rule but it’s a rule in some missions (and I don’t want to derail the thread with a discussion on this, there are older threads that go there) eating dinner at 4:00 PM… presumably so the missionaries can knock doors during prime proselyting hours, bothering people while they’re trying to eat dinner.
This wasn’t funny but it was a rule. No Uno. The card game Uno. Missionaries alleviated too much stress on p-day eve by staying up late (eleven, ooooooooo
😮 ) and playing a little Uno. They weren’t even coed games, just companionships that shared the same apartment. Plop down a Draw Four and you’d need a Reverse to escape the road to perdition.Sorry none of these were funny.
The rule against holding babies was a surprise to our daughter, too, but everyone was careful to follow it. Maybe it was a good thing for her because it ran so completely counter to her nature. Might have helped her maintain a more “professional” (what’s the better word) demeanor. I gathered that it was to just draw a clean line – no physical contact with kids of
any age.I think it’s to avoid charges of abuse, or incidents involving actual damage to a baby – have to be careful… there might also be an ulterior motive tostop missionaries ending up as free baby sitters. I guess nobody told my son about the gun rule. He sent home a picture of himself with a sawed off shotgun from an investigator that had been a drug dealer for years until the drugs damaged his brain too much to keep up in that profession (my son’s words, not mine). And my mom had to feed the elders out on the back patio when it was cold because she was by herself. She is pushing 80!!!! The optics of the elders (and my mom) freezing on the porch for all the neighbors to see was worse than if they would have gone in the house.
The missionary handbook (“white bible”) is available in Gospel Library and here: https://www.lds.org/manual/missionary-handbook?lang=enghttps://www.lds.org/manual/missionary-handbook?lang=eng” class=”bbcode_url”> In addition, most missions have some of their own rules. My older son’s mission had few, the other son’s mission has many.
Maybe an interesting note: The handbook does not prohibit hugging those of the opposite sex. I think it may have at one time, but it does not now and that is a common misconception.
DarkJedi wrote:In addition, most missions have some of their own rules. My older son’s mission had few, the other son’s mission has many.
And which son’s mission experienced the most baptisms, the one with fewer rules or the one with more rules?
😈 nibbler wrote:
DarkJedi wrote:In addition, most missions have some of their own rules. My older son’s mission had few, the other son’s mission has many.
And which son’s mission experienced the most baptisms, the one with fewer rules or the one with more rules?
😈
I’m going to decline to answer that question because I don’t think there’s a correlation. So many other factors play a role. It’s like the BYU devotional speaker this week pointed out. He showed a graph of number of Nick Nolte movies per year compared to number of swimming pool drownings. Turns out in the years Nolte was in more movies there were generally also more swimming pool drownings and when there were fewer Nolte movies there were fewer drownings. That does not mean there is a correlation between Nolte movies and drownings. Who says there’s no such thing as coincidences?
👿 if only more missionaries understood the difference between correlation and causation! Heber13 wrote:
if only more missionaries understood the difference between correlation and causation!
The was actually the BYU speaker’s point (not specifically to missionaries). He was pointing out misunderstanding correlation and causation is a tool of Satan. His talk actually bugged me because it was much more about Satan than Christ, but that’s another topic.
I was only poking fun at the common correlations that we sometimes draw. DarkJedi wrote:
He was pointing out misunderstanding correlation and causation is a tool of Satan.
Ha. What isn’t? I’d hate to see that guy’s toolbox.
At some point you have to wonder whether the quantity of tools at Satan’s disposal begins to be a problem. Like Satan is looking for his auger with the 1/8th bit (P.S. I don’t know if that’s a thing) but he can’t find it because there’s too many tools to dig though.
Keep it simple. When all you have is a hammer everything becomes a nail.
If you’re in the right mood you could go check out his devotional Nibbler. He went on for a solid 10 minutes about the tools of Satan. One of the tools of MPs is making the correlation between strict obedience and the blessings of baptisms. I do recognize that MPs have a much smaller toolbox with which to coax obedience, however. And of course Satan is the quintessential villain, so he’s easy to vilify.
he is constantly updating his toolset with ingenuity. You gotta give it to the guy…he is relentless! Heber13 wrote:if only more missionaries understood the difference between correlation and causation!
How about a Statistics and Research Methods quick course at the MTC! [emoji1]
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