- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I have noticed a pattern over the years. If a member of the Church served their mission in a low-baptizing mission, I find when they return to America/Canada, they tend not to have much interest in missionary work. While there are exceptions, I’ve noticed this to be particularly true for people who served missions in areas where Mormonism is really considered an EXTREMELY fringe religion (even moreso than in America). Also in areas where Christianity is NOT mainstream, and Mormonism is even less so; as a result, missionaries come home with zero or maybe one person who converted during their entire two years of service. Is this consistent with your observations in general? Does serving these foreign missions where there is low-receptivity to the gospel “beat the life-long enthusiasm for missionary work” out of our missionaries by the time they return home?
I served in Germany. It was an overall great experience. We baptized very few Germans, but had some success with refugees from Soviet East Block countries, Africa and the Middle East (Turkey, etc.). On some level now looking back, I see in a way it was a little ridiculous as a 19 year old American from an upstart Christian group to go tell Germans what Christianity was all about…
🙂 I mean, these people pretty much invented Protestant Christianity (Martin Luther), and are the source of some of the most important movements in Christian theology since that time. They’ve fought wars over this stuff for hundreds of years, in addition to being one of the principle antagonists of the Romans (the “original” mass of “Christians”).I’m not sure I make a good example of what you are looking for because of my personality and history, but I was not really big into missionary work when I got home. I was VERY VERY VERY comfortable and used to arguing with people about religion though
😈 It definitely set me on a path of deeply researching everything and wanting to be able to talk intelligently about religion. I didn’t really give it all much thought until after I had my arse handed to me several times by debaters who knew their stuff inside and out. Maybe that part of the cultural experience backfired on the Church a little?😆 There are some bonuses to serving in non-English missions. Foreign language skills are highly transferable and desirable. After I joined, I was pressurized into going on a mission. I said no, and refused, and eventually left because of it. I have enough trouble in social situations without having to change my entire social circle every two months, and talk to complete strangers.
I don’t think it beats it out of them, necessarily, but I do think it either teaches them the stupidity of judging success based on numbers or makes them feel so guilty and/or ineffective that they avoid it in the future. The first is a GREAT lesson, imo; the second, obviously not. I learned the first lesson – but I actually started with that understanding, so maybe I’m not the best example to use.
Oh, and “Preach My Gospel” now makes it crystal clear that missionary success cannot be measured by baptisms. I really like that it is mentioned multiple times.
Wanted to add that I don’t perceive that a lot of my peers felt their mission was not successful just because they didn’t regularly baptize scores of people every month. In fact … I think we might have had more realistic expectations. When someone joined the Church, it was usually a very solid and thoughtful conversion.
To contrast that, I think of the many mission stories I hear from people who served during the same 1980’s – 1990’s boom years in South America. Many of them later came to see their “great success” as largely shallow and meaningless due to the real lack of conversion. I’m talking about the “Baseball Baptism” style of proselyting. This was a major life experience that John Dehlin talks about leading him into early doubt about the Church.
Hi SD, Thanks for your post. I served in Austria 69-71. Austria was 89% Catholic and the state religion. Even if you belonged to another religion you had to pay the church tax and it was not easy to get a job if you were not Catholic. We tracted 80 hours a week with hardly anyone letting us in the door. It was very discouraging and hard on missionaries. You really start doing that thing of questioning your faith because ‘if this is not true, I don’t want to be here.” Our mission goal was 1 baptism per year per missionary and you were lucky if you got that. By the time, I got home I had pretty much lost my faith in God. A large portion of my fellow missionaries left the church after their missions. The few I stay in touch with, either still believe everything blindly, or struggle with many doubts about the church. So, it is difficult to feel inspired to do missionary work when you struggle with your own faith. There is a internet site I went to once on horrific Eureopean mission stories. Missions do have a huge impact on you. Even though my mission was extremely hard with a horrible mission president and some difficult companions, I also learned to not be so judgmental of people outside the church. When I saw that movie, “Errand of Angels” about sister missionaries in Austria last year, I could really relate and felt it portrayed mission life there pretty accurately. It really humbles you. bridget_night wrote:Hi SD, Thanks for your post. I served in Austria 69-71. Austria was 89% Catholic and the state religion. Even if you belonged to another religion you had to pay the church tax and it was not easy to get a job if you were not Catholic. We tracted 80 hours a week with hardly anyone letting us in the door. It was very discouraging and hard on missionaries. You really start doing that thing of questioning your faith because ‘if this is not true, I don’t want to be here.” Our mission goal was 1 baptism per year per missionary and you were lucky if you got that. By the time, I got home I had pretty much lost my faith in God. A large portion of my fellow missionaries left the church after their missions. The few I stay in touch with, either still believe everything blindly, or struggle with many doubts about the church. So, it is difficult to feel inspired to do missionary work when you struggle with your own faith. There is a internet site I went to once on horrific Eureopean mission stories. Missions do have a huge impact on you. Even though my mission was extremely hard with a horrible mission president and some difficult companions, I also learned to not be so judgmental of people outside the church. When I saw that movie, “Errand of Angels” about sister missionaries in Austria last year, I could really relate and felt it portrayed mission life there pretty accurately. It really humbles you.
This is what I expected to hear. I’ve often felt that for the benefit of the missionaries AND the growth of the Church, really intensifying missionary efforts in those areas where people are soft-hearted would be better. I’m glad I served in California where the people were soft-hearted. You could baptize every month if you tried.
Quote:I’ve often felt that for the benefit of the missionaries AND the growth of the Church, really intensifying missionary efforts in those areas where people are soft-hearted would be better.
The Church has been realigning the mission and the allocation of missionaries for the past few years, specifically to shift missionaries to countries being opened and areas that are experiencing numerical success – in both baptisms AND retention. Many missions in the Eastern and Midwestern US, for example are being consolidated, while new missionaries are being sent more often to Western and Southwestern states.
I served in Switzerland. It is similar in many ways to Austria, in fact, I served in Austria for several months. Loved the cultural experience. Loved the language. Loved the members. Despise missionary work to this day. I would never be willing to tract again. Hated the power-grabbing and the salesmanship. Hated the application of guilt to get results. On the other hand, my problems with missionary work stem from the fact that we don’t really just love people as they are. We love them for whoever they are, as long as they promise to be like in 8-12 weeks. I hate the ‘member/non-member’ divide here in Utah. I hate always having people wanting to know membership status first thing. I hate the labels. I hate us/them. I would rather just have an ‘us’; mankind. Naive I know.
I served in Portugal, and no, I didn’t have much interest in missionary work when I got back, but I’m not sure how much that had to to with where I served. I’m not sure if this is true, but my impression was that Portugal was the best mission in Europe, as far as numbers go. I loved where I served, by the way … loved the people, the language, the culture, the history. All of it. But I put so much effort into being outgoing, wholly contrary to my nature, that when I was done I wanted nothing more to do with that. They made me a stake missionary when I returned and I’m sure they were wondering what in the heck I was and where I came from, because I just couldn’t put anything into it. And of course now I have additional reasons to be ambivalent about missionary work. silentstruggle wrote:I served in Switzerland. It is similar in many ways to Austria, in fact, I served in Austria for several months. Loved the cultural experience. Loved the language. Loved the members. Despise missionary work to this day. I would never be willing to tract again. Hated the power-grabbing and the salesmanship. Hated the application of guilt to get results.
On the other hand, my problems with missionary work stem from the fact that we don’t really just love people as they are. We love them for whoever they are, as long as they promise to be like in 8-12 weeks. I hate the ‘member/non-member’ divide here in Utah. I hate always having people wanting to know membership status first thing. I hate the labels. I hate us/them. I would rather just have an ‘us’; mankind. Naive I know.
Thank you for sharing that. I did not realize we have so much in common. I so agree with you. District and zone meetings felt like Amway Pep rallies, yelling, ‘baptize, baptize, baptize.’ Comparing who taught the most discussions, was like Jesus apostles comparing which apostle was the greatest in the kingdom. Some of us became creative with surveys on what makes people happy in Austria, and service projects. I would do peoples hair for free and make them American hamburgers. I loved the people and culture too and grew up alot so am glad I served, but I got real depressed at times.
I will say that my foreign mission deeply impacted me for the positive in many ways. The cultural exposure let a genie out of the bottle that has never quite let me go back to my Utah ways. It gave me a deep reverence for different cultures and a deep richness to my life that has gone on to affect my family and the way we have raised our children. It’s a simple example, but we love the foods of the world and really enjoy trying and adopting new things. In so many ways, I view the world differently now than people who have not been abroad. There are many good things that came out of my mission. I was fortunate to be able to serve in three countries, Germany, Switzerland and Austria and to observe the cultural similarities and differences.
I LOVED German and still enjoy speaking it when I can.
Now if I just had the money I would like to have to do my world traveling!!
My only regret of my mission was that I allowed low-vision companions to get their way and not make use of every p-day minute to absorb European culture. I worked in Zurich for five months and NEVER visited the Swiss National Museum, for example. It’s a crying shame! And I never saw the Matterhorn or went to Interlaken!
I was fortunate. Neither of my Mission Presidents were numbers freaks, and I arrived shortly after a scandalous baptism frenzy got multiple Mission Presidents and AP’s sent home early. I really liked my Mission Presidents, overall – and was sad to see a notice that my first MP passed away recently. He truly was a wonderful, humble man. Ray, Where did you serve your mission? Sapporo, Japan Mission – The northern island of Hokkaido We jokingly referred to ourselves as the “frozen chosen”. I’ve never been so cold in my life – and that’s saying something, because I don’t get cold very easily.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.