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Today my nephew checks into the MTC for a day then will ship out to Russia to begin his mission. He received his call the same day he graduated from High School. As he read the letter out loud he paused when he got to mission name, Kazakhstan, Istanbul. Over the past months we have watched the events of his mission change. Initially it would be a part time proselyting mission, the other half service. Midway through the summer that changed. He will never proselyte. This past Saturday, the day before he gave his farewell talk, the church reported moving missionaries from Turkey (which was one of the areas he was assigned to) to Germany. He hadn’t received word what that meant for him. In his farewell address he explained that he knew he would have no baptisms, but that he was at peace with that, he said he was looking forward to living as Christ did, and working to share charity.
Everyone holds a bit of worry as a missionary leaves. 2 years is a long time. The million miles with limited contact is painful. Yet sending someone directly to harms way adds an extra tug.
This kid/now Elder, is cool. The next 2 years will be interesting for all of us.
It sounds like it will be a great experience for him. The church should have more Service Missions. When I told my parents that I was joining the LDS church, they were happy for me.
They didn’t know much about the church but my Dad remembered when he worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs that
there were Mormon line riders who worked for the Navajo tribe. They were the only people outside the tribe that were invited to
tribal council meetings. He attributed it to the fact that they provided service to the tribe without compensation.
I think that is a excellent way to do missionary work.
1) Congrats. 2) Now that the mission has been diverted to Germany do you know whether the no proselyting restriction has been lifted? Some countries might place restrictions on proselyting so that rule may go away with the change in venue.
I love the idea of a pure service mission.
mom3 wrote:In his farewell address he explained that he knew he would have no baptisms, but that he was at peace with that, he said he was looking forward to living as Christ did, and working to share charity.
That’s a blessing IMO. It’s much easier to live like Christ when there aren’t any quotas or expectations serving as distractions.
I agree with MM that there should be more service missions. In fact, I think all missions should be primarily service. If they really do see our good works then the baptisms will come. That does not seem to be the majority opinion nor does it seem to be the objective of the missionary department. 
I told both my boys that I was not the least bit interested in how many people they baptized. I told them to focus on service, even small acts of service. My hope for them was/is that they go out there and do their best to learn and live the gospel of Jesus Christ and the rest will fall into place however it’s supposed to be.
We have a RM (sister) in our stake that my son knows pretty well from youth activities. She served in an area similar to your nephew’s, no proselyting and almost all service. She came from a somewhat privileged life and grew tremendously.
It is hard to let go, I secretly wished with both my sons that they got stateside calls although they both wanted and got overseas calls. They both served in South America, and that is admittedly hard – but they were/are also in stable South American places. I too have watched the happenings in Turkey, and we have friends with a son in Russia where there also have been some recent changes in the way missionary work is done. I’m liking South America. Your nephew will be fine, I think the church really does look out for the missionaries serving in the more dangerous areas.
So is he not learning a language? Why only a day in the MTC? The girl I spoke of earlier spent 9 weeks in the MTC learning the language and culture before going.
DJ – I do think he will be protected. I do believe the church does an exemplary job or watching out for missionaries. I guess it’s that lack of phone call ability that tugs at me. His older brother returned this past spring from Argentina. It was tough mission of it’s own, serious poverty and life struggles. I kept wishing when his letters came in, that the mission would stop proselytizing and spend more days in service. P-day was their big service day. I really think all missions should move out of door knocking and head to service. But Argentina wasn’t war torn. If the reverse had happened I would feel the same for the war torn kid. On the MTC thing, last we heard they were trying to process the eastern European missionaries through the western European MTC’s or mission homes, but over the weekend they got notice that it may change. So who knows.
I think the reason he spoke to his ward about the baptisms was for their sake. I think he had come to peace with it, or maybe was relieved by it, but I got the sense that he wanted others to stop expecting him to be Helaman. I also think of the two brothers, he will have more cultural experience through service than the standard missionary.
I will keep everyone posted.
mom3 wrote:DJ – I do think he will be protected. I do believe the church does an exemplary job or watching out for missionaries.
I’m not going to answer for DJ. In the enthusiasm to do missionary work & get the baptisms or activations, Missionaries don’t always listen to
their Mission Presidents or Zone Leaders. Encourage him to listen & follow the leaders in his Mission. They have the experience & knowledge
of that mission. There are times when the spirit tells you to get out of a certain area or situation. My wife & I were Stake Missionaries back
in the “Olden times”. This was before children came along. There were a number of times when we felt promptings to get out of a certain
area of town.
Quote:I’m not going to answer for DJ. In the enthusiasm to do missionary work & get the baptisms or activations, Missionaries don’t always listen to
their Mission Presidents or Zone Leaders. Encourage him to listen & follow the leaders in his Mission.
I agree Minyan Man. I wasn’t there when his call arrived. My parents were and they said it was a sobering call night. The location hadn’t even experienced the coup attempt but just the list of the cities names set the tone for a somber evening. At dinner there was a lot of talk about safety. Even the clothing list for these missionaries is different. Partly because they will help them shop over there. Nothing in America works for the winter months there. Partly because they are trying to keep them from standing out in a crowd. He walked into the MTC today with a single suit case.
He is also not a kid prone to mischief. He has worked the past 6 years on a local farm and the rules for safety have been drilled into him. But two years is a long time, so even a good kid can go stir crazy or think they are clever. Hopefully his parents will keep reminding me and his leaders.
Mom3, congratulations to your nephew for in service mission call. I also agree with MM, that there should be more service missions in the church. What’s interesting is in the mission here in Illinois instead of accepting referrals from members to go teach those people, instead there is more service going on now. That’s what mom was told by the missionaries. He will probably be able to email weekly, but there might be restrictions from the government. Even before the recent changes in Russia our friend’s son couldn’t talk about people he was teaching or baptisms, for instance. His emails and letters can only contain general information or personal stuff about him. But what I really wanted to talk about is “live” emailing. It may or may not be possible because of infrastructure there and because of time differences, but were it not for live emailing it would have been lots tougher for me and my sons. Essentially they shoot us a quick email when they first get on (usually it just says “I’m on”) and we can then email back and forth. Of course, it’s usually around the same time on p-days when they’re on so we know when to start looking for a message. It is against the mission specific rules in some missions, including the mission my current son is in – he breaks it, it’s stupid. Speaking of those rules, it is commonly thought that missionaries are limited in time they can email (like an hour a week). That rule is also mission specific (in other words set my the MP), the handbook has no such restriction. And except when one of them was in the MTC at one of the Skype times, they have never gone by any rule about a half hour (yes some missions stipulate a half hour, the mission we live in does) or an hour. We average much closer to two hours and have gone over three.
To give credit where credit is due, I didn’t come up with the live email idea. We were at the airport with the first son going to a foreign MTC, and I was quite frankly a mess. Interestingly even at our small airport there were a couple people we encountered who weren’t from here but recognized what was happening. One of them had a son serving in Cambodia and told us about live emailing and how it had been such a great comfort to them, especially because snail mail was wholly unreliable (enough so that they didn’t bother trying to send him anything because he didn’t get most of what was sent, even letters). Anyway, he said how he looked forward to live emailing and we have been doing it ever since.
Can Missionaries use Skype? That IMO would sooo much better in terms of communication. Minyan Man wrote:Can Missionaries use Skype? That IMO would sooo much better in terms of communication.
Hopefully one day they will but for the moment I think it (and probably live e-mailing/chatting as well) is viewed as being too close to the twice yearly phone home experience. I honestly believe some of those rules will be relaxed soon.
Minyan Man wrote:In the enthusiasm to do missionary work & get the baptisms or activations, Missionaries don’t always listen to
their Mission Presidents or Zone Leaders. Encourage him to listen & follow the leaders in his Mission. They have the experience & knowledge
of that mission.
I’m not saying be disobedient to a mission president but I will say that a MP often sets the tone for what later becomes important to the missionary. If numbers are important to the MP, numbers will be important for the missionaries.
Minyan Man wrote:Can Missionaries use Skype? That IMO would sooo much better in terms of communication.
My missionary can only use it on Christmas and mothers day and they have a hard 1 hour limit. If you get on to a computer and can’t get Skype to work – you lose. No permission is given as a “makeup” on p-day or anything like that.This is one of his family’s concerns. When he first got the call everyone figured he could do like his brother and do the email thing. Then as notices kept coming during the summer that access appeared questionable. I believe it’s a combination of Russia’s new laws, area tech-ability, and now Turkey’s state of affairs. No one has said it yet, but I think his parents are hoping he gets to be one of the missionaries restationed to Germany. But I think it is the lack of contact that makes this farewell so tough. Snail mail takes forever, can get lost, etc. But no emails, etc. won’t help. Quote:…it was a sobering call night. The location hadn’t even experienced the coup attempt but just the list of the cities names set the tone for a somber evening. At dinner there was a lot of talk about safety. Even the clothing list for these missionaries is different. Partly because they will help them shop over there. Nothing in America works for the winter months there. Partly because they are trying to keep them from standing out in a crowd. He walked into the MTC today with a single suit case.
Their mood is really coming through in your retelling. I hope all goes well.He sounds like a young man with an excellent mind and heart. God bless him.
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